10 min $10 DIY aerated compost tea ACT brewer

[Microbeman]

My microbulator 50 would have used a cone bottom tank except for the fact that I was trying to develop an affordable brewer to ship and that could be used with a standard size 55 gallon barrel. There is a 1000 gallon brewer using a cone bottom tank which I designed a couple of years ago operating on a 1200 acre Texas farm.

There are actually quite a number of cone bottom tanks being used for brewers on the market. I believe heady blunts(?) posted a link to one in the thread where he talked about his brewer.

 

[jaykush]

I almost bought a ball valve but didn't. I still might add one.

i highly recommend it, it just makes the brewer that much better. i put together a 55 gallon cone bottom brewer not long ago, the valve makes tea application a breeze. if you can have the brewer at a higher elevation to the watering surface, you can hook up a hose and have water pressure for watering. making for the easiest application possible. least damage to the microlife as well.

 

[Scrogerman]

V-Cool! I want one!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Stankie

These tanks are used in a wide variety of industries like food packaging. A company in Eugene ferments and brews soy sauce(s). Once the fermentation is finished the liquid is pumped through a filter system and then it's pumped into these huge cone bottom tanks that feed into the bottling system.

I've seen them used on small farms for water storage for livestock, watering systems (drip and other systems using inline fertilizer injectors), etc.

The shipping costs are bad enough for the actual tanks but when you add one of the pre-made stands the price is friggin' crazy!

CC

 

[CT Guy]

Looks good to me, nice job on the craftsmanship!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

Stankie

Let me know if you get the ball valve deal figured out. I may need to pick your brain for a project.

I ordered 24 gallons of organic neem oil and 24 gallons of organic karanja oil yesterday. The plan is to mix the 2 oils in equal parts and bottle it in 1 quart/liter bottles. The folks behind this are securing the licensing rights to sell this under a DBA and it's actually a pretty straight forward process as long as the words 'Parker Group India' appears on the label prominently. Parker Group is the company that controls the neem tree industry in India both domestically as well as export markets.

Using a 100 gallon tank like this would make the bottling process pretty easy without incurring a huge expense. Then again it's not my money so I really don't have a horse in the race. Spend away boys!

CC

 

[CT Guy]

Stankie

Let me know if you get the ball valve deal figured out. I may need to pick your brain for a project.

I ordered 24 gallons of organic neem oil and 24 gallons of organic karanja oil yesterday. The plan is to mix the 2 oils in equal parts and bottle it in 1 quart/liter bottles. The folks behind this are securing the licensing rights to sell this under a DBA and it's actually a pretty straight forward process as long as the words 'Parker Group India' appears on the label prominently. Parker Group is the company that controls the neem tree industry in India both domestically as well as export markets.

Using a 100 gallon tank like this would make the bottling process pretty easy without incurring a huge expense. Then again it's not my money so I really don't have a horse in the race. Spend away boys!

CC

You know we have a ton of different tanks in all sizes and shapes that already are fitted with valves. Give me a call if I can help! Ordered the sample pack #2 from neemresource.com. Seems like a great company!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

You know we have a ton of different tanks in all sizes and shapes that already are fitted with valves. Give me a call if I can help! Ordered the sample pack #2 from neemresource.com. Seems like a great company!

CT Guy

That sounds like a better plan!

Ms. Rau is a great individual and runs her company well. She's also a wealth of information about using neem tree products in several areas.

The sample packs are definitely the best value for one's dollar.

CC

 

[schwagg]

wow great job stankie!! i think i found another project.

cc, that neem BLOWS any other neem sold here in the states away! thanks for that!

 

[Clackamas Coot]

cc, that neem BLOWS any other neem sold here in the states away! thanks for that!

It is definitely head & shoulders above anything that I've found. I have a gallon of neem oil produced in Florida. Fair price and since it's a small farmer I am interested in seeing his products.

He's got the bark and leaves like NeemResource.com as well as some other interesting products like freeze-dried aloe vera.

CC

 

[Stankie]

My microbulator 50 would have used a cone bottom tank except for the fact that I was trying to develop an affordable brewer to ship and that could be used with a standard size 55 gallon barrel. There is a 1000 gallon brewer using a cone bottom tank which I designed a couple of years ago operating on a 1200 acre Texas farm.

There are actually quite a number of cone bottom tanks being used for brewers on the market. I believe heady blunts(?) posted a link to one in the thread where he talked about his brewer.

I think that may have been me rambling about cone bottoms in his thread. I'm not trying to say I originated the idea, cause I obviously didn't, I just personally had never seen a conical bottom set-up.

A microscope may be my next big purchase down the road! I guess that would be the next big step in my organic journey.

i highly recommend it, it just makes the brewer that much better. i put together a 55 gallon cone bottom brewer not long ago, the valve makes tea application a breeze. if you can have the brewer at a higher elevation to the watering surface, you can hook up a hose and have water pressure for watering. making for the easiest application possible. least damage to the microlife as well.

Well this morning at work I've been thinking about how to most easily extract the finished tea and I think a ball valve would be the easiest. I will probably fit one on tonight after work.

V-Cool! I want one!

Thanks Scrogerman!

The shipping costs are bad enough for the actual tanks but when you add one of the pre-made stands the price is friggin' crazy!

You can say that again. If memory serves me it's like $150 just for the frame! Plus shipping!

I can deal with my plywood design Also this tank fits pretty well just resting in a 5 gallon bucket.

Looks good to me, nice job on the craftsmanship!

Thanks CT Guy!

wow great job stankie!! i think i found another project.

cc, that neem BLOWS any other neem sold here in the states away! thanks for that!

Thanks schwagg! All this talk about neem makes me realize I'm getting a little low. Definitely will be trying neemresource next.

 

[Microbeman]

Here is what I meant from 'heady blunts' but the links did not carry so;
http://www.vortexbrewer.com

Heady Blunts; if you wanna learn about compost tea and/or compost tea brewing systems, i suggest you check out microbeorganics.com. after reading through that site and the sticky: tea article thread in the organic soil forum, i designed this simple system.

first, i decided the airlift style brewer had several advantages, most notably, breaking the water's surface tension. you can read the details on microbeorganics.com, but basically it increases the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, which is the aim in an ACT system. another good reason is that the vortex and the microbulator, two of the cooler commercially available systems, both use airlifts to drive their brewers.

Here are some brewers using cone bottom tanks
http://www.composttea.com/ETB-500.htm
http://www.greenprosolutions.com/compost_tea_brewers.htm

As far as vortex brewers go Steven Storch is the man
http://www.vortexbrewer.com/steve_storch.html

From my webpage if anyone wants to make a vortex brewer http://www.microbeorganics.com/#So_You_Wanna_Build_A_Compost_Tea_Brewer

The most efficient shape is a cone shape with a drain hole at the bottom.

 

[Glodenglow1]

That is a nice looking tank Stankie, looks like cleanup is a bit simpler without the aeration manifold piping

A valve looks like that would certainly make life easier, how are you getting the brew out of there currently? Disconnecting and having it come out of the bottom?

 

[schwagg]

thanks for the link on where you got it stankie. bookmarked that one! you'll be amazed on the neem. night and day difference over dynablow.

 

[heady blunts]

looking good stankie

 

[Clackamas Coot]

big ballin 88

I'm answering your PM on this thread because perhaps others can benefit from the information.

Dyna-Gro Neem Seed Oil is a very fine product and is easily sourced around the country. Unfortunately when discussing neem oils the discussion almost always revolves around a single compound in this oil - Azadirachtin

This is pretty stupid since Azadirachtin is only 1 of 320 compounds found in neem and karanja seed oils. Specifically this compound is a terpenoid - fair enough.

Having said that, Azadirachtin is only one of 20 terpenoids found in neem and karanja trees. It would be like discussing the benefit of eating citrus fruits and simply focusing on Vitamin C - pretty stupid.

The Dyna-Gro Neem Seed Oil is a very fine product and one that I've used for several years. The level of Azadirachtin specifically is 1500 ppm as per the Dyna-Gro company. And it's a cold-pressed oil which retains much of the beneficial compounds vs. the chemical extraction process used on garbage like Azatrol and Azamax.

The neem tree products from The Ahimsa Foundation (NeemResource.com) is organic. The product comes out of Southeast India in the ancient neem groves going back to the 16th Century. The Azadirachtin levels in this specific product is 4500 ppm - i.e. 3x the levels in the Dyna-Gro Neem Seed Oil

It's human food-grade, fair trade and cheap, cheap, cheap. If you hit their web site look at the horizontal menu bar across the page and hit 'Sample Packs' of which there are 3 deals available. All of them a killer pricing.

Here's the mix that I use with their products to completely, totally, absolutely prevent mites, PM, thrips, etc.

1/2 tablespoon of organic neem oil
1/2 tablespoon of organic karanja oil
1 tablespoon of Dyna-Gro Pro-TeKt (liquid silica and is the perfect emulsifier for these oils)

Mix in a 'rock glass' until you get an even solution. Add this in small amounts to 1 gallon of TEPID water (i.e. 65F - 75F) and slowly. Higher temps diminish the effectiveness of these oils. Once you get that done you now need to add a surfactant to make this mix 'stick' to the leaves and branches.

I recommend using liquid yucca extract (again you want to get organic human food-grade meaning no preservatives) - this is available at T & J Enterprises in Spokane, Washington.

Once you have the oils and liquid silica in the spray tank add 1 oz. (2 tablespoons) of the yucca extract. Close the tank and shake as hard as you can to activate the saponins in the yucca extract.

Hit each and every leaf on the top and bottom (especially) until it looks like you haven't watered your plants for a couple of weeks, i.e. leaves hanging down and generally looking pretty sh*tty. Shut down the lights and let them sit in the dark until the next 'on cycle'

Repeat every 4 or 5 days for at least 3 applications. This will break the adult-egg-larva cycle much like dealing with fleas on you dogs and cats perhaps.

If you want you can also use organic aloe vera juice and I add 1.5 ounces (3 tablespoons) to each gallon of the neem/karanja and water mix. George's is a good product and certainly inexpensive enough. It's organic and has NO preservatives. 90% of aloe vera products do use one of the following or all of them: sodium benzoate, citric acid and potassium sorbate. Cute, eh?

Both of these neem and karanja oils are the finest that I have been able to find. If there's anything better I would be happy to check it out, i.e. I'm not closed-minded on this deal.

I can't recommend these products enough and at the price in their sample packs vs. Dyna-Gro and ESPECIALLY the sh*t from a company called 'Einstein Oil' this product provides bottom-basement pricing. Einstein Oil is $65.00 for 1 pint or $520.00 per gallon.

The organic neem oil from The Ahimsa Foundation is around $75.00 per gallon. Heh.........

HTH

CC

 

[Stankie]

Thanks for the comments everyone! Also many thanks everyone for the depth of knowledge they share!!

I modified the inlet a bit. I added a ball valve and am glad I did. I got rid of the snorkel and a lot of unneeded PVC pipe.

Only things I may still do is to cement all the fittings and get a longer/braided air tube. I figure it is a straight shot and I can get a dedicated bottle brush to clean out the air inlet pipe if need be. The slip fittings above the valve leak very slightly when the air isn't blowing (couple of drops over an hour).

I'm uploading a video to demonstrate the agitation.

 

[Stankie]

Here is the vid. I placed in about 8 or 9 random PVC fittings to better show the agitation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAFIExTusgk

 

[Mizzafishkilla]

Stankie, looks like it works great.

 

[heady blunts]

wow that's serious.

the bubbles seem pretty big -- i think you mentioned a diffuser, are you still thinking about that?