Aquaponics - Venturi adjustment

I thought I'd make a little adjustment to my venturi as suggested by Mike Creuzer in a comment on this post on my Venturi air thing.

He thought I should have some extra bubbles breaking the surface, and it turns out it's a bit of a hot topic in great debate all over the place, but I noticed a very slight oil slick on the surface of the water. I guess lots of things case very slight oil slicks. Eucalyptus leaves for one. Uneaten fish food probably would. I suspect an oil slick - and I'm talking an almost invisible one - would have some effect on gaseous exchange between the atmosphere, and my fish tank's water.

I have no idea if that's true, but I figure it couldn't hurt to stir the surface a little.

So I trimmed the pipe carrying water and bubbles down to the bottom by an inch or so and now lots more bubbles exit.










A 1/4 second exposure shows how much extra water movement on the surface is actually going on.










After only a few seconds there was no more sign of the oil slick.






1 comment:

  1. UnknownApril 8, 2014 at 1:07 PM

    Doing some digging around. It looks like zinc-air hearing aid batteries can be used as a poor-mans O2 sensor. I think it would go something like measure the current coming off the battery when it sits in an inverted air container in the water.

    I don't currently have the space, fish, and containers to do a test, but I will at some point if I get a chance.

    Knocking down that sheen seems like a good idea to me.

    ReplyDelete