Mini Hydroponics Bubble Pump in Jar/Pot

thingiverse

Update 8/18: Added Trellis part for my cherry tomatoes. Use bamboo skewers. Mine were 4mm. I tried using the mini hydroponics tower from turboprint3D and I had a few issues that I addressed in my own take on the idea using his parts as reference. The lid and baskets were unchanged from turboprint3D design so they are direct copies of his STLs and are not in the FreeCAD files. Also huge thanks to turboprint3D for releasing his design. Issues and Resolutions: 1.) The pipe joints were reversed than required for water tight. The lower pipe internal and upper pipe external this meant that you had to glue the parts together or the water would leak out. I flipped the direction lower pipe is external and upper is internal and added a bit of an elephants foot to the bottom so they snap in place no glue required and no leaking. 2.) The bubble pump would get stuck in “priming” at the start sometimes and the air would escape out of the bell without pumping anything. I switched it up to a venturi system with a check valve and have much more consistent flow and it will always “prime” or push out the saturated water at the start. If you want it to be very robust you should bond the two parts together. I just dry fit it and the check valves were good enough but if i cover the exhaust tube i will get air leakage. 3.) It was also hard to keep the pump part down since it was effectively a diving bell. I wanted the pump insert into the water to be stiff so that it cant move around so i designed the bubble pump as a tower. (If you want a different depth just change the dimension in Revolution013, my onggi is 125mm deep so i am using a 120mm depth) 4.) The top sprinkler was hard to print so i broke it into two parts this also allows you to remove the cap and see how much flow you are getting for air pump intensity. The tube is just trimmed flush at the sprinkler body should snugly fit and since its not a fitting the flow is better. The check valve requires two Airsoft pellets/balls. Just stick them into the holes from the top. If the pump over-pressures the balls will push down blocking the hole. If the air is flowing quickly it sucks the water up and the balls will lift up allowing water to flow. I buy the cheap ones for my 3D print projects so pure PLA or ABS and don't break down. Don't buy biodegradable or they will eventually stop being a check valve. The fish pumps are the best. I tried using a cheapo piston pump and while it worked it sounded like an old school tractor that was noisy. The fish pump balanced right is nice and quite and all i can hear is the gurgling of the bubbles. As always my models are haphazard and lazy because I am doing it for funzies over a weekend but at least it is provided. ^^