AeroVoir watering

I've tried it, but it really accelerates algae growth.  Even if you're just putting water in the jug, you'll get some serious green buildup in the plumbing, and to fight that, you have to put some peroxide in the water.

My recommendation is if you want to try it, put a black, opaque hood over the jug.

And when tomato plants really get going, you might find yourself refilling it twice a week (or more).

I have four or five of these. I haven't used them for a long time because of the algae.

I am considering a vacation this summer to Alaska to go fishing. If I can arrange that, I will dig these out and replace all of the tubing with black tubing. I hadn't thought of putting a hood over the bottle, that's a great idea!

If you own these, I wouldn't even use the supplied tubing. Get black tubing to replace it. The supplied tubing gets nasty. I love that hood idea, Dawn. I'll have to find someone to make some of these out of black vinyl. Does anyone know how to sew vinyl? I'm willing to pay to have them made.

I've already retrofitted the black tubing to a few of mine.

I believe 3/8" OD, 1/4" ID, but this is what I've been using

I thought that I would update this ancient thread with useful information relative to the new AeroVoir design.  The new design’s shape is covered perfectly by a 10Lx5Wx13H black paper bag.  I used this Black bag and cut off the handles. 

I have attached a photo of my garden utilizing the bags on 4 AeroVoirs.  I took the bag off of the fifth top front one to reveal the 7 inch (unstreatched) by 5/8 inch rubber band that I put on the top of each one to manage the end of the siphon tube when I remove it from it’s associated Bounty during maintenance.  I replaced the blue silicon tubes that needed to be lengthened for my setup, after removing the leaky squeeze bulbs, with black silicon air hose and will get to the rest before they start growing algae.  I covered my AeroVoir tanks because I use reverse-osmosis filtered water that still has 7ppm of Total Dissolved Solids after filtering and thought it might be enough to grow algae in the tank.

Another observation that I have made regarding the potential for algae to grow in the blue silicone siphon tube is that it does NOT only contain pure water from the AeroVoir tank.  When the Bounty’s circulation pump comes on, the water level in the Bounty’s basin drops slightly lower than the level in the AeroVoir basin as the grow deck fills with water, so the siphon tube pulls some water from the AeroVoir basin.  When the pump turns off, the water level drains from the grow deck so the Bounty basin’s water level raises slightly higher than the water level in the AeroVoir basin and the water levels will equalize by flowing nutrient infused water back through the siphon tube towards the AeroVoir basin.  The inner diameter of the blue silicone tube is small enough that the total volume of water that drains from the grow deck when the pump is turned off may fill most, if not all, of the silicone tube. If you observe the design of the AeroVoir base you will see that there is space there to accommodate this ebb and flow of the small amount of water that resides in the grow deck during these pump cycles.  Due to the “bubbler” method used to fill the AeroVoir basin with fresh water, there is no way for this water to flow up into the fresh water tank so it stays in the AeroVoir basin until pulled back out by dropping water levels in the Bounty basin.

Nice set up fldave.  A good use of the black bags. 

DO you play guitar?  If so what type of guitar do you have?  My husband plays and collects.

Hey, that is cool!  I have been looking for a way to do a higher capacity system but never saw a plastic dispenser like the ones you show.  Where do you get them?  Amazon has that type in porcelain and stainless steel but not an easy-to-drill plastic version.

Also, in addition to black tubing, I covered the rigid end of the tube with 1/4 inch heat-shrink tubing (but didn’t shrink it) but not the part that goes below the hole in the AeroGarden.  It keeps algae from growing in that part as well.  I still lift my AeroVoirs a foot or so above normal for about 10 to 20 seconds before I refill them to flush out the lines because crud still grows inside from the backwashing of nutrients into the tubing.  Some of mine are quite long (6+ feet).

Thanks maskedsonnet!  I just finished ordering one.

I had that happen and kept an eye on it...and then it stopped.  I have no idea why it started or stopped.