DIY Airlift/Vortex Compost Tea Brewer (5-gal)

Make me one

Take my money

According the parts list, yes.

What pump are you going to use? I think I might rock two of the general hydroponics 20 LPM ones… they are much quieter than a commercial pump, even with both of them on. Instead of using the T splitter, I'll just give each one it's own airlift. According to Microbeman's website, that should be a sufficient amount of O2…

edit: Bro, it's so easy to make. I ordered my bottle off ebay from Venezuela for 12.50 and it was here in a matter of days. That'll solve the problem of coming up with a handless bottle (a feat which now seems near impossible). Everything else is available in 1 trip to any major home improvement center, and a stop by your local grow shop to get the pumps (or just order them online).

Nothing short of awesome... I FINALLY made the break from the 5 gal. bucket and 4 dual outlet aquarium air pumps & stones... of course thats 4 dual outlet pumps down from 6 and a single.... how ridiculous was I? But I finally picked up a big boy air pump and started to layout the same dumb style of brewer and was looking at it thinking "whats actually better about this?" Nada.... thats when I started searching for something between a $500+(?) commercial vortex brewer and the "newb brewer" as I am now dubbing anything that one uses a bucket & air stones of any sort...

Spicy... Thankfully I was lucky enough to stumble onto this thread as one of my first google searcg results... Thank you from one more of us on something that you did the leg work on... it couldnt be anymore effective AND cost effective unless someone gave it to me and even made the teas for me as well... Honestly I rarely was making teas anymore due to the level of mess id have to clean... I dont use them as much anymore in general but Im pretty sure ill be using them more.... Thanks again....

my diy brewer eccoplus 7 air pump

Hey spicey... I finally put a brewer together with an 5 gallon insulated drink dispenser (pics to come) but I just had a quick question... I see where your air hoses go into the rubber caps theres hose clamps like you have a barbed fitting there... I can probably come up with some kind of 1/2" OD barb x ? to fit in the rubber caps but I read your post like 10 times and if I'm not mistaken you said you just pushed them through x "'s until fine tuned. But I was just curious as I drilled them and pushed them through, I didn't fire it up yet but I'm pretty sure the connection was tight enough that they won't blow out, but I just wanted to ask you before I finish it...

Mine is a little different.
Not put together or in use at this time, but, i use a 60 gallon aquarium pump with a five gallon cooler.

Inside of the cooler i have three air lines. Two go in one direction and the other goes in the opposite.

No, i know those of you who have more experiance may have some constructive critcism, but i will say i have used this in this way off and on for years, and my beans, tamatoes and begonias love it, it works.
Perhapps not as well, but it was inexpensive to make.

I think i spent $20 on the whole thing...

My EcoPlus 7 came in the mail finally... I have a friend that builds salt water fish tanks. He was excited to help me build a 32gal system. I have a large yard and veggie garden, it will all be used lol. I will be building it over the weekend...

I have seen someone use a hot-tub jet? 2x $

anzohaze said:

View attachment 3286658 my diy brewer eccoplus 7 air pump

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Do you think the Eco7 could work on 32 gal?

MustangStudFarm said:

Do you think the Eco7 could work on 32 gal?

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I can't truly answer that. you can try it. If it does nit work buy another eco 7. It's pretty powerful

anzohaze said:

I can't truly answer that. you can try it. If it does nit work buy another eco 7. It's pretty powerful

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Is 1-1/2" pvc standard or is there a benifit from running larger/smaller pvc?

Can all of the fittings be bought at a hardware store? Tubing?

anzohaze said:

I can't truly answer that. you can try it. If it does nit work buy another eco 7. It's pretty powerful

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It works well!!! I only used one riser because I didnt have a T-split for the air. easy fix

I will post pics later

Sweet bro. If you can get a t fitting.and.it.will help.move the.water and produce a better water funnel or etc

I am happy with my set-up! My cam will not hold a charge and I would have to talk my wife into a pic with her phone...
Anyways, do you use a filter bag or put casting directly into the water? There are no moving parts or a pump that it has to pass through. I would GUESS that I put it directly in w/o a sock

MustangStudFarm said:

Do you think the Eco7 could work on 32 gal?

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hell yea, i use an eco commercial air #5 for a 55 gallon cone tank brewer works like a champ as long as its half full, once you take out 30 gallons it cant lift the water to the top of the pvc manifold.

Following

meangreengrowinmachine said:

Following

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This thread is about 5yrs old. I could post the brewer that I built shortly after this post and I'm still running it 5yrs later. I actually filled it up today... It is kind of messy and it will shoot the tea over the side, so I keep it on my back porch and wash with a power washer. I still have the lid for this, maybe I could come up with something...

Just giving this thread a little bump since I’m back at it after a hiatus and I’m about to build another brewer.

I couldn’t find a water bottle w/o handle this go around, so I stopped by a home brewing store and picked up a 6-gallon plastic carboy. Same deal.

Let the organic goodness commence!

Vortex Brewer Version 2.0 is up and running.

I had some redwood scrap left over from a project so I whipped up a sturdy brewer stand this time instead of cutting up a milk crate.