Tea Article

It's Tea Time!

Compost tea has become increasingly popular in the last few years as part of a grower's program. In fact, current world record holder was grown using this technology. I'd like to take this opportunity to discuss different types of compost teas and share some of the knowledge we've gained in the industry over the past 5 years.
Let's start by looking at some of the different types of teas you can make for your plants:

Plant Tea - This is where plants are soaked directly in water for an extended period of time. Compost is not involved, and any bacteria or fungi on the surface of the plant will be extracted. May contain some soluble nutrients.

Manure Tea - Typically manure is placed in a permeable bag (burlap) into a bucket or barrel and left to soak for an (# of days) extended period of time. Compost is not involved, and will be dominated by anaerobic organisms (bacteria and ciliates). Pathogens will be present in most instances, and may burn the leaf surfaces of plants. These teas will contain some soluble nutrients, but may also contain antibiotics and growth hormones such as tetracycline, that are not broken down during the composting process.

"Put To Sleep" Tea - These teas are typically advertised as "instant" compost teas. Specific organisms are cultured or extracted from compost and then put into a dormant state. Even with hundreds of different species, it won't contain even 1% of the diversity or quantities you would find in properly made aerated compost tea. These teas may be helpful in certain instances when you wish to combat certain diseases and know the proper microbe that has been documented to prevent or suppress it (eg. trichoderma).

Compost Leachate - These teas is sometimes referred as "worm tea" as it is the liquid that leaches out of the base of worm bins or compost piles during the composting process. Leachates will consist primarily of soluble nutrients, but will contain some small amount of biology. This can serve as a good food substrate for the biology in your soil.

Compost Extract - Compost extract is where the microorganisms are stripped from the soil aggregates using water and extracted into a liquid form. This process will contain good biology for soil drenches, and can be made very quickly, as it does not require a brewing process. It does however require a large amount of compost relative to the final liquid product, and is primarily used in large commercial productions.

Non-Aerated Compost Tea - This is where compost is put into a container with water and foods are added for the microbes. The tea is then stirred occasionally or left to sit for a period of time. These teas may or may not produce beneficial results and could potentially harm your plants depending on the anaerobic organisms in your starting compost.

Aerated Compost Tea (AACT or ACT) - Similar to the tea above, this process involves adding oxygen to the tea and a food source for the biology in the compost. By creating optimal conditions for aerobic microbes, AACT allows you to multiply the biology in the starting compost by over 10,000 times. Many plant pathogens are anaerobic and prefer low to no oxygen conditions. By making sure the tea and the compost itself are well oxygenated and highly aerobic, you can potentially eliminate 75 percent of the potential plant-disease-causing bacteria and plant-toxic products.
For the past 5 years, AACT has become the standard within the organic industry in regards to compost teas. It's currently being used by golf courses, vineyards, farmers, and homeowners as a means of growing healthier plants. Here's a list of some of the benefits:

Compost tea has been shown to help in disease-suppression (pythium, phytopthera, powdery mildew, fusarium, etc.) when applied as a foliar spray and soil drench.

Helps extend root systems

Increases water and nutrient retention

Is 100% safe and natural

Creates healthier plants

Helps breakdown of toxins in the soil and on the plants

Enhances the taste of fruits and vegetables

Reduces or eliminates the need for chemical pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers

Occupies the space around the infection sites so disease-causing organisms cannot penetrate into the tissues of the plant

Cannot be over-applied because it is completely natural and organic

These benefits are all attributed to well-made AACT. If the tea is not made properly, you will not see all of the benefits listed above. Let's take a closer look at what goes into making quality aerated compost tea.

1. Good compost is very important! Without good biology in the compost, you really have no chance of getting high-quality tea. You can only multiply what you put into your brewer, therefore good compost that has been tested to have high numbers and a diversity of beneficial organisms is essential. A lot of science goes into making good compost, and unless you test your compost you really have no idea if what you are putting into your brewer is truly beneficial. By adjusting the type of compost you put in the brewer you can control whether your tea is going to be bacterial or fungal dominated. We use a mix of 3 different composts (Alaska humus, vermicompost, and a fungal compost comprised of woody materials) to increase the biological diversity in our teas.

2. Food is critical for the microorganisms so that they can reproduce and grow in numbers. The goal is to maximize your output of beneficial biology without giving the bacteria and fungi too much food that they over-replicate and cause the tea to go anaerobic. It's important that dissolved oxygen levels stay above 6 mg/l during the entire brewing cycle. There are many different recipes out there, each of which will give you different biology in the end and some are much better than others. It is important to see the lab results of the recipe you use to make sure that you are indeed maximizing your final product.

3. Oxygen! If you're not getting enough oxygen in your brew, then your tea will go anaerobic and you will start brewing the "bad" organisms (pathogens such as e.coli or root feeding nematodes) that may have existed in your original compost. If your tea has enough oxygen and stays aerobic for the entire brew cycle, what you'll have at the end will be the good biology that you want for your plants.

In addition to these variables, other things to consider are elevation, temperature, brewing time, and water quality. All of these variables can have a significant impact on your final tea. With significant elevation, you may need to increase the brewing time, due to the lower oxygen content in the air. With high temperatures, where the water temps are 90 degrees or above, you'll want to shorten the brewing cycle and possibly cut back on the foods you're using. In cold temps., you'll want to increase the brewing cycle to give the organisms time to reproduce. In regards to water quality, different sources will have different mineral or chemical content, which will affect your final tea. In the case of chlorine or chloramines, these chemicals will need to be removed prior to adding the compost to the brewer.

CT Guy

Fantastic article. Hopefully the moderators will make it a 'stickie'

One thing that would prove helpful perhaps is a guideline for the proper amount of air for a 1 gallon brewer and a 5 gallon brewer. Like what ratings one should look for (liters of air per minute, etc.) and the best aeration devices for those looking to put their own systems together.

Thanks for the great article and information.

BTW - any experience with the Japanese 'bokashi composting' methods?

CC

No experience with Bokashi, but it sounds interesting. I'll post the second part to the article here in a little bit.

I think Microbeman has posted the proper cfm/liter amounts already, but I can check.

Tea Article part 2

Tea Article part 2

In the last newsletter we discussed the many different types of teas that farmers and gardeners use in their garden. We then focused on AACT or Actively Aerated Compost Tea, which is an aerobic water solution that has extracted the microbe population from compost along with the nutrients. In simple terms, it is a concentrated liquid created by a process to increase the numbers of beneficial organisms as an organic approach to plant/soil care.
When building your own brewer, here are a few pointers:

1. You can't have too much air! Most homemade brewers aren't pushing enough oxygen to maintain good levels during the brewing process. One or even two aquarium pumps, typically isn't sufficient. Our extended life motor pushes 51 liters/min at 1.5 psi. I would consider this a minimum for the inputs that we use, as our original system provides even more aeration (though the motor has a shorter life span and is also noisier). If you decide to use aquarium pumps, I would send one or two directly into the bottom of the bucket, using glass bonded air stones or a coil system. Then, another aquarium pump should be pushing air directly into the mesh bag containing the compost.

2. According to Dr. Ingham, nylon stockings don't allow for all the fungi and protozoa to escape into the brewer, or may become trapped in the stocking if used for filtering. If it is possible to avoid filtering, you're less likely to damage or be removing any organisms, though sometimes clogging can be a problem. We've discovered through testing, the optimum size for filtering compost tea is 400 microns. This will trap a majority of the particulate, while still allowing the microbes to escape.

3. Make sure there's no dead spots in your bucket. You'll want to avoid a square bucket for this very reason, unless you design an apparatus that will fit in to all 4 corners of your brewer. We use a coil method in our brewer, where the coil fits snugly in the bottom of the bucket and then spirals around towards the center of the bucket, with holes every 1.5" to aerate the entire bucket evenly.

4. Avoid using small parts or pieces that will be difficult to clean. Airstones can be problematic for this reason, and you will need to be diligent in cleaning them if you use them in your brewer. Cheap airstones are very difficult to keep clean, and you will find the quality of your tea decline rapidly with each brew as bio-film builds up on the inside of the air stone. If you do decide you use air stones, invest in some higher quality glass bonded ones, and be sure to soak and clean them after brewing.

5. Always clean your brewer right away. If you wait to clean it, it will grow anaerobic bacteria and begin to stink. I had a brew going in my garage, and ended up hurting my knee so I was unable to clean it out after stopping the motor. When I got back to it in a few weeks, I had to throw the whole thing away because it had so much bio-film built up that I could barely get within a few feet of it due to the odor! You can use hydrogen peroxide, bleach, or any other anti-microbial cleaner.

Recipes:

There are many recipes available for making AACT. All involve the use of high quality compost. I'll focus on the 5 gallon size, though recipes are available in larger quantities. However, ingredients do not increase in direct proportion to the size of the tank, so please contact me directly if interested in recipes for larger brewers. Recipes are directly related to the amounts of dissolved oxygen in your brewer. As you add more food sources for the microbes, you need to add more air to ensure the tea stays aerobic (above 6 mg/liter dissolved oxygen).

Here's a recipe from Dr. Ingham of Soil Food Web Labs (www.soilfoodweb.com):

5 gal brewer
1 lb. compost
½ cup of humic acid
1 to 3 T. of kelp
1 tsp. of non-sulfured, blackstrap molasses

In our brewer, we use:

1 heaping cup of compost (approx. 1 ¼ cups)

½ cup of our foods (proprietary blend comprised of sulfate of potashmagnesia, feather meal, soymeal, cottonseed meal, mycorrhizal, kelp, and alfalfa meal)

1 T. of Tera Vita SP-85 Humic acid (optional for increased fungal growth)

We use volume instead of weight as a measure for our compost, as weights will fluctuate based on moisture content of the compost. We also don't use molasses because it is difficult to package and ship and also creates bacterial blooms, rather than slow growth of organisms, which may rapidly lower the dissolved oxygen levels in your brewer. However, it is a perfectly acceptable food substrate that tends to feed the bacteria in your tea. With all these ingredients, it is much better to start using less foods rather than more. If not looking at your tea through a microscope, I would use a recipe that has been tested and err on the side of too little foods, rather than too much.

Another thing to consider is that you want to maximize your biological diversity in your finished compost tea. We use 3 types of compost in our food kits:

Alaska Humus (brought down from Alaska, contains excellent biological activity and diversity, see www.alaskahumus.com or www.alaskamagic.com for more information)

Vermicompost (Woody materials, vegetable food scraps, cardboard, and newspaper that has been composted by worms.) I recommend this material over thermal compost for people who like to make their own compost, as vermicompost tends to be the most consistent material since the worms take care of the composting process for you)

Fungal compost that is mostly comprised of woody materials. We add food resources for the fungi and strive for the highest active and total fungal content we can achieve.

Brewing Temperatures:

There are a couple of schools of thought regarding brewing temperatures. One is that since the microbes in the tea will grow and reproduce most efficiently at 68-70˚F., this is the temperature at which you should brew your tea, regardless of the current soil or air temperature where you’ll be applying the tea. The theory is that since you are using the shotgun approach to growing microbes, whatever microbes are unable to adapt to the conditions will either die or go dormant, becoming food resources for the other microbes in the soil. Since soil and air temperatures will change throughout the seasons and even from day to night, these organisms are highly adaptable and you will get your best results with this approach.

Another theory, and one that Dr. Ingham subscribes to, is that you want to brew at the ambient temperature you will be applying the tea. Therefore, if you are applying your tea as a soil drench on 60 degree soil, you’ll want to brew at 60 degrees. You may need to extend your brewing cycle a bit for the colder temperatures, but this method will select for the organisms that will be most successful at the current temperatures in your soil and you won’t suffer as much organism loss.

I believe we need much more research to determine the most effective brewing temperatures for AACT. However, since I haven’t seen conclusive data either way, I tend to lean towards brewing at ambient temperatures, though this requires a bit more knowledge about your brewer and brewing cycle, as you will need to adjust your brewing time based on the temperature.

Application:

AACT can be applied in a variety of ways. One benefit of AACT is that it can't be over-applied, as it is comprised of beneficial biology and any biology that cannot survive will just go dormant or die and become food for other microbes.

Typical application rates are 20 gallons/acre for soil drenches and 5 gallons/acre for foliar applications up to 5 feet in height. Water is merely a carrier, so the tea can be mixed at ratios up to 5:1, water to tea, in order to get an even application across your property.

Depending on the size of the area you're spraying, you can use anything from a watering can to a backpack sprayer or larger. Make sure to avoid any pumps with an impellor or pump where the tea is being sent through something that could shred the fungi. Many people use the handheld pump sprayers or a pump backpack sprayer. These have been tested to not damage the biology, provided you don't over pump and hold the nozzle too close to the surface of the plant.

Make sure there is not a 90 degree angle in your nozzle tip. You can only use a hose-end sprayer if you don’t have chlorine in your water supply. Think about the passage that the organisms will take from the brewer to the leaf surface of your plant and be as gentle as possible.

Other resources for information on compost tea are:

Keep It Simple, Inc. – My company which produces compost tea brewers, composts, and other biological amendments (humic acids, seaweed, etc..) www.simplici-tea.com

Soil Food Web, Inc. – Soil Testing labs established by Dr. Elaine Ingham. Check out the “About Us” section and click on “Sustainable Approach” for more information on compost teas and the soil food web. You can also purchase “The Compost Tea Brewing Manual” by Dr. Ingham through this site. www.soilfoodweb.com

Microbe Organics – Tim Wilson in Canada has a site that is more focused on the microscopic aspects of compost teas. You can view his microscope work and also purchase his DVD if you plan on looking at your tea under a microscope. www.microbeorganics.com

Teaming with Microbes – Excellent book by Jeff Lowenfels on organic gardening using beneficial microbes. I highly recommend this book to everyone, you won’t be disappointed! We have it available at a very competitive price on our website, when ordering other products.

Since this is a relatively new technology, there is a constant stream of new research and information relating to aerated compost teas and biological gardening practices. It’s also important to test your soil and evaluate your garden or pumpkin patch to determine what deficiencies may exist. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to email me at [email protected].

Foam in ACT: It has come to my attention that there are some who still rely on lots of foam in tea as an indicator of microbial activity. This is not a reliable way to tell that your ACT has microbial life.

I conducted a search and listed below comments made on the subject by CT Guy and myself dating back to 2008. There are others from Jay, Coot, etc. which I did not include.


From CT Guy;

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post4167337
You're right about foaming not being a good indicator.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post3882391
Personally, I don't consider it a good or bad sign as to the quality of your tea. Smell is a much better indicator if you don't have a microscope. Some of my best teas under the microscope never foamed at all, and some of the worst (almost completely devoid of life) had HUGE foam!

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post3595800
Ignore the foam, it doesn't really tell you anything, other than that you'll have a mess to clean up after!

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...highlight=foam
Foam is not an indicator of a good tea, smell only tells you if it's gone bad, not if you have anything beneficial.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post1856040
Again, foam is not a good indicator of high microbial activity.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post1855698
I've posted this before, though I don't think anyone believes me, but from using the microscope and verifying with Tim (also does microscope work), foam is NOT an indicator of a good or bad tea.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post1776815
I've said this so many times on here, I just think people don't believe me.....Foam is not an indicator of a good or bad tea. I've seen both good and bad teas with foaming. I know whether they were good or bad because I was looking at them under a microscope. I think smell would be a much better casual indicator of quality.

From Microbeman;

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post5050097
On foam, it can be an indicator of proteins being generated in the water from bacterial division and this is how the whole concept that a brew is finished when there is foam got started. I and others, therefore checked this out carefully via microscopy and found that there could just as easily be microbial life, with or without foam.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post4925168
I already stated I got foam by simply using molasses mixed with plain water in a brewer. I have done hundreds of tests.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post4925168
In my research I have created much foam by simply bubbling molasses in plain water without any compost or other ingredients. Others have reported the same effect using only aloe vera and other substances.

You stated that "2 hrs. later we've got microbe activity"
Without a microscope, (or reagent or agar test kit) you have no way of determining this that I know of.

When I first tried brewing ACT many years ago, I also thought the foam was an indicator of microbial multiplication (like eveyone was saying) but once I began scoping it, I realized how false that indicator is.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post3861973
foam means nothing.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post3762342
Foam can be caused by the release of proteins from microbial activity or worms perishing or it can be caused by the 'type' of water or a substance used in the tea.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post3666731
Basically the foam tells you nothing

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post1772078
Before I got a microscope I used various recipes thinking I was getting certain types of brews (e.g. fungal, protozoa, etc.). I thought the thick foam on top always meant the brew was ready. Boy, were my eyes opened.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post1754175
I noticed that Elaine stated that the presence of foam is a way to determine that microbial multiplication is occurring. This is unfortunate and is probably old information which she would probably contradict now. Although, foam can be an indicator of microbial life in CT, it is not a reliable one, on its own. I have examined foamy CT, microscopically, which had very little microbial activity and I've had CT that foams up just from adding certain ingredients. Of course, if one does not have a microscope you must evaluate when your CT is finished somehow, so foam combined with the time of the brew and the lack of odors from the foodstock are what you need to use. However, to assume that a great amount of foam corelates to a great amount of microbial activity is likely an error.

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.p...am#post1690726
Foam is not always an indicator that your brew is done. I have looked at ACT with a big head of foam which had very little microbial life. If you have good extraction, sufficient aeration and good quality compost or vermicompost you should have a decent microbial consortia in 36 to 42 hours. Use you nose. Once you can no longer smell your foodstock (molasses, fish, etc) it is a good indication that the microbes have consumed them.
__________________

CT Guy

On the subject of fungai, in Jeff's book in the chapter about brewing ACTs is a short discussion on using grain meals to grow fungai to add to the tea brewer.

I picked up some organic grain meals at Bob's Red Mill and I chose rye because I know from my experience with artisan breads and cultivating wild yeast cultures (sourdoughs to most Americans) that rye flour is the most active so that's what I went with along with some pulverized organic rolled oats.

I weighed out 6 oz. of this mixture along with 2.4 oz. of water (40% hydration to use a baker's terminology) and placed in a bowl with a plastic cover and after several days there was definitely a lot of fungai growing on my grain meal culture.

What I was unsure of was the color of the fungai which included everything from grey to green to blue and every hue in between. Not much looked like the photos in Jeff's book.

I chose not to use it because I just didn't know and I certainly don't have $1,500.00 to invest in a microscope.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

CC

cool post, maybe people will stop calling plant extracts compost teas now.

CT Guy said:

Non-Aerated Compost Tea - This is where compost is put into a container with water and foods are added for the microbes. The tea is then stirred occasionally or left to sit for a period of time. These teas may or may not produce beneficial results and could potentially harm your plants depending on the anaerobic organisms in your starting compost.

Click to expand...

- should i let it brew longer or just for a day?
- foods? wouldn't they make everything even more anaerobic as it is?

Thanks on the article.

good work CT

marali said:

- should i let it brew longer or just for a day?
- foods? wouldn't they make everything even more anaerobic as it is?

Thanks on the article.

Click to expand...

Marali,

That's a bit of a loaded question because it depends on what you're trying to accomplish. I would probably just put in compost and stir it vigorously for a few minutes and spray that out if you don't want to aearate. You'll get some extraction this way, but your benefits will be greatly decreased when compared to aerated compost teas. In addition, the biology in the starting material will determine the quality of your tea and what organisms are present. If you start with a compost that contains pathogens and then add foods or let it sit in water, this is going to turn anaerobic and you will be selecting for organisms that you don't want.

So to sum it up, if you're doing non-aerated teas, be careful, don't add many foods, and don't let it sit for too long. Stir when you can to get some air in there, and finally you need to realize that you wont have near the quality, quantity or diversity that you would with aerated teas.

Oh, and if you decide to make an aerated compost tea, check out the 2nd part of my article down below on the threads for more info.

my conclusions are similar to what you've said. Just wanted to hear from you. My main goal is to create healthy diverse compost and just soak it for a bit. Mainly it's for foliars, making plants a bit stronger against diseases if possible. Not into feeding with teas here, that's what soil is for. thanks on the answer.

I still think it's worth looking into an extraction method or AACT for a foliar program if you have the time and money to setup a small 5 gal. unit.

Nice job bro! I'm making my tea real soon been saving up for my ingredients, can't wait to see part 2

Clackamas Coot said:

CT Guy

On the subject of fungai, in Jeff's book in the chapter about brewing ACTs is a short discussion on using grain meals to grow fungai to add to the tea brewer.

I picked up some organic grain meals at Bob's Red Mill and I chose rye because I know from my experience with artisan breads and cultivating wild yeast cultures (sourdoughs to most Americans) that rye flour is the most active so that's what I went with along with some pulverized organic rolled oats.

I weighed out 6 oz. of this mixture along with 2.4 oz. of water (40% hydration to use a baker's terminology) and placed in a bowl with a plastic cover and after several days there was definitely a lot of fungai growing on my grain meal culture.

What I was unsure of was the color of the fungai which included everything from grey to green to blue and every hue in between. Not much looked like the photos in Jeff's book.

I chose not to use it because I just didn't know and I certainly don't have $1,500.00 to invest in a microscope.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks!

CC

Click to expand...

CC,

To identify particular strains of fungi, you would need to send it to an expert. Apparently one of the foremost experts is located up in BC, Canada, not too far from us. The commonly used definition in regards to beneficial fungi has come from Dr. Ingham, with the understanding that fungal hyphae with a diameter greater than 3 micrometers are considered to be beneficial and helpful in the suppression of disease. This being said, I know that Tim and others have questions this belief, for lack of supporting data. Since I've seen nothing else to go off of in regards to looking at fungi, we still use this definition, but with a grain of salt I suppose. With the oat flour or baby oatmeal you do get the growth of wide-diameter fungal hyphae, however, I haven't seen any data on the specific species of fungi it supports (I think it's aspergillis?) and how it relates to the soil and soil food web. Dr. Ingham's statement is a generalization, therefore this whole idea of activating a specific species of fungi with oats, may or may not fall into the catagory of "beneficial." That being said, I don't think it's going to cause any damage, as many people have tried this method and no negative results have been reported.

I can tell you that you want to avoid any molds, which will grow on the top of the compost, similar to what you described. If you start to see this, just turn the compost over and mix it back into the pile.

Finally, Tim is working on developing some low cost microscopes specifically for looking at these organisms in tea and soil. Prices will range from 200-700 US dollars, depending on the features, but the quality should be at a minimum comparable to the Leica CME that Earth Fortifications sells for $1,695. That's actually the microscope we used to have before we upgraded significantly to a Meiji trinocular with phase contrast.

Anyway, long story short, I think a lot more research needs to be done into the specific types of fungi that are being cultivated using grains and their benefits within the soil food web. Selecting for a specific species or monocultures seems to go against the idea of diversity that we want in our teas and soils to a certain degree. However, some of this is just my opinion, as I think we still have a lot to learn!

Hey CT congrats on the article, it is definately sticky material.
Anyone having questions about compost teas should post them here, the organics gang will collaborate to bring all of our collective experience to the table.

CT Guy

Thanks so much for your input. I'll stick with your advice.

Again - thanks!

CC

Thank you so much for all this information !!!

You mention 3 types of compost sources. Hot compost, vermicastings and fungal compost - a brief rundown of your methodology on all of the above composting methods, what ingredients you'd throw in each type, what carbon/nitrogen ratios etc... with the aim being an AACT compost.....

Would be some kickass info to go with the article.

Along with a laymans guide to properly determining carbon/nitrogen ratios. The wet dry weight thing.

Brewer design, cfms, converting cfms to lph...

If sensible foods and amounts are followed, the compost source and brewer design is where potentially good AACT goes bad.

I'm aware the links have some of this information.

I think this article is very good. Easy to read and understand, doesn't leave me with too many questions, or numbers and facts to digest that I don't need.

Great article CT Guy! I was wondering what you use to make your coil system and if you had any suggestions? I just started making tea in a 5 gal. bucket and i don't really like using the airstones. I bought the biggest aquarium pump i could find, it runs 2 airstones and says it's for up to 150 gallons. After reading the article and how you can't have enough oxygen, i'm thinking of buying another though.

Ninja

Ninja

Here's an air pump you can consider. they run at 65 liters/min @ 3.9 P.S.I.

They're used by many in the saltwater reef system hobby to run wave devices, water purification products, etc. They're made to run 24/7 for years and years. For weekly teas they're definitely up to the job.

HTH

CC