Help with building a tea brewer

[humble1]

I have a 750 gallon tank w/ gas pump. I wanted to use this to brew, i am trying to determine the best way to do this.
Are there any books, or articles where i might get some help?
How do i determine the size of aerator I need.

Can you let it brew longer say a week do you get ultra high levels of good bacteria?

[tadhussey]

If you already have a tank and want some help building a brewer, I would contact Tim Wilson. He's got good experience in this area and may be able to assist you in the process. He'd be well worth any consulting cost on something like this.

~Tad

[DUSTYCEDAR]

great thread i am also going to build a brewer.
lets do it together:)

[ICT Bill]

I appreciate the enthusiasm of diving in and getting your hands dirty and also wanting to save a little money.

BUT..........

Having a tiny little bit of experience with this, with 400 trips to the plumbing store and 700 fittings still laying around, take some advise (or don't) and buy a tried and true brewer with a little history and a lot of testing behind it. It sounds simple but there are about 2 quintillion ways to do it wrong

Call Tad and write him a check, he and his family have jumped through every hoop imaginable and have a very solid product that is well respected in the industry. They also provide a quality product to brew with

[phasthound]

I have a 750 gallon tank w/ gas pump. I wanted to use this to brew, i am trying to determine the best way to do this.
Are there any books, or articles where i might get some help?
How do i determine the size of aerator I need.

Can you let it brew longer say a week do you get ultra high levels of good bacteria?

Is your goal to have an end product that has succesully improved soil biology in order to provide your clients with a healthier landscape this season?

Or is it to tinker around for countless hour with an unknown budget until you finally come up with something that may or may not provide the results you want?

Your honest answer will tell you which way to go.

[Tim Wilson]

I have a 750 gallon tank w/ gas pump. I wanted to use this to brew, i am trying to determine the best way to do this.
Are there any books, or articles where i might get some help?
How do i determine the size of aerator I need.

Can you let it brew longer say a week do you get ultra high levels of good bacteria?

If you mean a gas operated water pump, the only feasible brewer to build is a venturi charged system. Or are you going to additionally use an air pump?. This is similar to the system used by Earth Tea brewers and is very very easy to build. I will give you instructions to build this for free. Drop me an email if you like.

Tim

[humble1]

Is your goal to have an end product that has succesully improved soil biology in order to provide your clients with a healthier landscape this season?

Or is it to tinker around for countless hour with an unknown budget until you finally come up with something that may or may not provide the results you want?

Your honest answer will tell you which way to go.


Well i thought that i would be able to offload the finished product into my 200 gallon spray tank. I do applications by trade so, yes i want a good product. But i also have alot of the stuff needed to build a unit, so i am trying to cut my costs

[tadhussey]

If you're going to build your own....definitely talk with Tim. Feel free to give me a call, but I don't have a lot of experience with fabricating using existing parts. Tim's better at that than us. Let me know if I can help though!

~Tad

[humble1]

I appreciate the enthusiasm of diving in and getting your hands dirty and also wanting to save a little money.

BUT..........

Having a tiny little bit of experience with this, with 400 trips to the plumbing store and 700 fittings still laying around, take some advise (or don't) and buy a tried and true brewer with a little history and a lot of testing behind it. It sounds simple but there are about 2 quintillion ways to do it wrong

Call Tad and write him a check, he and his family have jumped through every hoop imaginable and have a very solid product that is well respected in the industry. They also provide a quality product to brew with

My thought was that having owned an irrigation company, i have every fitting and pipe adapter and boster pumps and pressure tanks kicking around, i would bet dollars to donuts i probable have almost everything, thats why i thought i could do it. Plus i have a good knowledge of pumps, psi regulators, etc.

[humble1]

If you mean a gas operated water pump, the only feasible brewer to build is a venturi charged system. Or are you going to additionally use an air pump?. This is similar to the system used by Earth Tea brewers and is very very easy to build. I will give you instructions to build this for free. Drop me an email if you like.

Tim

Check your PM

[Newby08]

how do you do a PM?

[tadhussey]

Top right, under your name it says private messages. Click on that and then go from there. Or click on the person you want to send it to and then there should be a link.

[Newby08]

sorry, I'm not seeing anything at the top right or when I click on your name... is there a setting that I need to change?

[tadhussey]

I take it back, you have to do it by clicking under your name when you login. I just tried sending you one, but it said that you had chosen not to receive PMs. Check your settings, that may be the problem.

[tadhussey]

Welcome, tadhussey.
You last visited: Today at 10:56 AM
Private Messages: Unread 0, Total 31.

Then I click on private messages to get to the email section....

[Newby08]

Welcome, Newby08.
You last visited: Today at 04:14 PM

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, I can't even find a place to let me turn it on. That is all it says under my name in the corner.

[tadhussey]

Okay, I figured it out. Go to User CP, it's about 4 inches down on the page after you've logged in. (left hand side).

Click on User options and then scroll down to enable email. You should be good to go from there!

~Tad

[NattyLawn]

Tad,

He may not be a member long enough to get PM's. It's one month or 25 posts, but sometimes the 25 posts doesn't work.

[tadhussey]

Thanks....didn't know that!

[DUSTYCEDAR]

SO is anyone making any progress with there brewer?
i have looked on line at so many brewers i dont know what i would buy.
everyone is saying theres is the best and the price range is all over the board also so i am so con fussed.

[phasthound]

SO is anyone making any progress with there brewer?
i have looked on line at so many brewers i dont know what i would buy.
everyone is saying theres is the best and the price range is all over the board also so i am so con fussed.

Simplest thing to do is get a KIS brewer & use their kits for good results.
Bobalator works good, is versatile with different tanks but you should test after brewing with your own compost & inputs, Geo Brewer works well for larger tanks but test your tea.

JMHO.

[NattyLawn]

SO is anyone making any progress with there brewer?
i have looked on line at so many brewers i dont know what i would buy.
everyone is saying theres is the best and the price range is all over the board also so i am so con fussed.

How much tea do you need to brew? 5 gallons? 30, 50, 100? That should be your first step. Then figure out what's going to be the source of your compost? Home mad compost? Castings? Pre-made kits? Then take a look at the brewers and view how their systems work.

If you're just starting out and don't need a lot of tea, why not buy the KIS 5 gallon brewer and play around? The brewers and kits are tested by SFI and some of us on here use them. I"ve looked at the tea under the scope and from my very limited knowledge everything looks good. You could try Tim Wilson's "Ugly but Cheap and Efficient" brewer. For 440 bucks (without the drum) it's hard to beat, and that would crank out 50 gallons. Go to Tim's site and take a look at the vids. Tim seems to be a standup guy, so I don't think there's any BS there. The Bobolator from Willamette Organics gets good reviews as well.

Don't rush out and buy something you don't need. If you have time to play around with AACT, please do it.

[NattyLawn]

Or you can apply ICT organics products for a year before you start to brew and apply your own.....

[treegal1]

I say be brave, build your own.We have built 2 tea brewers,one 550 gallon and one 1550 gallon both with air and pumps W/venturi jets and both work just fine,
700 spare parts is about rite and experience does help a lot, we have even seen a rose grower that makes good tea in an inflatable hot tub / spa that he got used. The compost tea brewing manual is a great start. my feelings are that the compost you start with is the most important thing. try http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/ for parts like regenerative blowers and venturi jets pumps and air diffusers. tea brewers are in many ways similar to fish tanks, filters, air, etc. one other thing I feel about the tea biz is that good organic practices should not be super costly and time intense, I have even herd a rumor of a guy who built a 5000 gallon tea brewer for Ag use, i.e. to make a living with.

[Kiril]

one other thing I feel about the tea biz is that good organic practices should not be super costly and time intense

And the most logical, down to earth, statement of the day goes to.... gals who like trees. :clapping:

[treegal1]

just one other thing to think on,, my tea has to date cost about 25 cents a gallon, and has some of the best stuff in it, free sea weed, home grown yuka, orange molasses and cane molasses. we stared with 10 pounds of worms and now have 4000000! but it all is done with hard work and the rite spirit, mind set. not a load of green backs.

save the earth grow algae for bio-diesel and ethanol

[DUSTYCEDAR]

save the earth grow algae for bio-diesel and ethanol
TELL ME HOW i have lots of it in my pond
can i make my truck run on worm power?
its time to go back to steam

[Newby08]

lol that sounds like a good idea

[treegal1]

just Utube growing algae. the video says it all,pond scum is mostly oil.

[Tim Wilson]

I say be brave, build your own.We have built 2 tea brewers,one 550 gallon and one 1550 gallon both with air and pumps W/venturi jets and both work just fine,
700 spare parts is about rite and experience does help a lot, we have even seen a rose grower that makes good tea in an inflatable hot tub / spa that he got used. The compost tea brewing manual is a great start. my feelings are that the compost you start with is the most important thing. try http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/ for parts like regenerative blowers and venturi jets pumps and air diffusers. tea brewers are in many ways similar to fish tanks, filters, air, etc. one other thing I feel about the tea biz is that good organic practices should not be super costly and time intense, I have even herd a rumor of a guy who built a 5000 gallon tea brewer for Ag use, i.e. to make a living with.

The guy who built the 5000 gallon brewer is my buddy. I think I wrote about him in another thread. Of course that's 5000 Canadian gallons so 6000+ American?. He uses 2 1hp irrigation pumps with homemade venturis. I just got home from the show in Seattle. I'll try really hard to post a sketch here tomorrow on building a venturi. No need to buy one from aky eco, they are very simple and you can adjust the amount of air injected by using different sized parts.

[Newby08]

i thought you were joking about the algae in the pond

[DUSTYCEDAR]

The guy who built the 5000 gallon brewer is my buddy. I think I wrote about him in another thread. Of course that's 5000 Canadian gallons so 6000+ American?. He uses 2 1hp irrigation pumps with homemade venturis. I just got home from the show in Seattle. I'll try really hard to post a sketch here tomorrow on building a venturi. No need to buy one from aky eco, they are very simple and you can adjust the amount of air injected by using different sized parts.

that would be great

[treegal1]

super cool, one of our first venturi was home made. the cost of buyin one off the shelf is so low that time and parts to make a home made unit just did not seem worth it. some things are worth it to DIY some things are not.

[Kiril]

super cool, one of our first venturi was home made. the cost of buyin one off the shelf is so low that time and parts to make a home made unit just did not seem worth it. some things are worth it to DIY some things are not.

I would agree. You can get a pvc type venturi assembly for dirt cheap from just about any aquatic supplier (http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/listings.categories/ssid/396). Irrigation suppliers is where I get mine.

Now if you want a Mazzei type injector, that will be a bit more costly. :)

http://www.mazzei.net/products/injector_info.htm

[Kiril]

Some of you also might find this an interesting read.

A Pilot Study on the Impact of Air Injected into Water Delivered through Subsurface Drip Irrigation Tape on the Growth and Yield of Bell Peppers (http://directory.agwatercouncil.org/_docs/010201.pdf)

[Tim Wilson]

I would agree. You can get a pvc type venturi assembly for dirt cheap from just about any aquatic supplier (http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/listings.categories/ssid/396). Irrigation suppliers is where I get mine.

Now if you want a Mazzei type injector, that will be a bit more costly. :)

http://www.mazzei.net/products/injector_info.htm


Only advantage to building a homemade venturi is if you wish to gulp more air than the 3/4 inch maximum provided by the ones from aquatic eco plus you learn something about engineering.

[Kiril]

Only advantage to building a homemade venturi is if you wish to gulp more air than the 3/4 inch maximum provided by the ones from aquatic eco plus you learn something about engineering.

True. :) The cost shouldn't be too much I guess. Some couplings, a tee, handful of various sized reducing bushings and pipe should just about do the trick. Guess you could throw in a metering value if you wanted to get fancy.

You can get those Mazzei injectors at just about any size you need, if you got money to burn.

Curious -> have you tested the effect various venturi designs have on CT biology?

Here's the link to the different types of Mazzei installs for people who are interested. You can get a rough idea of how you might build your own from these designs.

http://www.mazzei.net/products/typ_install.htm

[Kiril]

Tim,

While we are on the subject of DIY, have you done any experiments using a hydraulic ram pump?

[Tim Wilson]

The guy who built the 5000 gallon brewer is my buddy. I think I wrote about him in another thread. Of course that's 5000 Canadian gallons so 6000+ American?. He uses 2 1hp irrigation pumps with homemade venturis. I just got home from the show in Seattle. I'll try really hard to post a sketch here tomorrow on building a venturi. No need to buy one from aky eco, they are very simple and you can adjust the amount of air injected by using different sized parts.

As promised, here are some instructions and a sketch for making a venturi to be used for injecting air/O2 into a body of water or compost tea brewer. This is my first attempt at attaching anything so hope it pans out.

The attached sketch shows the design and principle behind the construction of a venturi for injecting air into water. The same principle applies for injecting a liquid into a liquid or I suppose a liquid into a gas.

I apologize for my very poor artistic talent and please be aware that the pipe reducer in the sketch is not drawn to scale. The parts I used for my 1200 gallon brewer need not be the parts you use but it demonstrates the basic principle which you can apply to what have you.

In the sketch; (A) the PVC Tee is a 1.5 inch regular plumbing Tee into which is shoved (B) 1.5 inch black poly pipe on the upstream (water pump side) of the Tee with duct tape wrapped around it to make it stay in. This just happened to fit and the pressure I’m using with my 1.5 hp irrigation pump is so low it only pops off once in a while. When you are satisfied with your air injection you can use something more permanent like glued or screwed fittings. Into the upstream black poly is shoved a 1.5 x ¾ inch poly insert reducer which is positioned so it is just at the entry point of the (C) downstream pipe which is also 1.5 inch black poly wrapped with duct tape shoved into the outlet end of the PVC Tee, which you can also make more permanent or beautiful.
(D) The PVC Tee outlet without a pipe is pointing vertically, making it easy to observe the positioning of the end of the reducer. (E) After assembling you can shove a short length of pipe (1 to 3 feet, illustrated by dotted lines in sketch) into the vertical of the PVC Tee to serve as an air stack and it prevents splash out. Note that we have a 1.5 inch air input as opposed to the ¾ inch commercial venturis.

Now that you know the basics you can fine tune your air suction/injection by trying different sized reducers. As you decrease your reduction pipe size (aperture) you increase the pressure which in turn increases the air flow/vacuum/suction to a point. Once you restrict the flow too much you reduce the vacuum effect. For example you could try a ½ inch reducer instead of ¾ inch. {{For the adventurous; you can introduce an adjustable valve to regulate the flow. If you turn the unit upside down you have a mazzei ( injector for liquids)}} Alternatively you can try positioning the reducer output closer to or further away from the downstream pipe input.

HOW DO I TELL IF THERE IS MORE AIR FLOW? Just like you do with your vacuum cleaner hose. Put your hand over the end and feel the difference. Or you can use a plastic film or bag and see how much becomes indented into the air stack, how quickly. Oh and I use a lady’s nylon half stocking as a filter over the end of the air stack to keep out chunks and stuff.

Now your downstream pipe is spewing oxygenated air into your brewer/water tank. I recommend teeing this line one or more times (depending on your pump and brewer size) with one line or more going into your mesh extractor container(s) and one line or more emptying into the tank preferably suspended above the water surface so it is splashing into the water. This breaks the surface tension facilitating the gas exchange (CO2 is released & O2 is absorbed). You will need one or more regulatory valves to adjust the flow to each outlet. A simple way to have mesh extractor bags is to sew up landscape cloth, place your compost in there and your pipe end and tie the bag(s) off tight around the pipe. You may come up with other more suitable mesh extractors.

This system is fine for producing a compost tea which has plentiful bacteria and protozoa but you may have less success with production of fungal hyphae. Have fun!

Salutations,
Tim

[Tim Wilson]

Tim,

While we are on the subject of DIY, have you done any experiments using a hydraulic ram pump?

No I have not.

Tim

[Kiril]

Right on Tim. :clapping:

Here is another design I found.

http://www.whom.co.uk/pond/venturi.htm

[treegal1]

no hydraulic rams here , but don't use a rotary lobe pump!

the only consideration in venturi design was velocity and pressure