   Harry Buffalo (Big_dreams) New member Username: Big_dreams Post Number: 1 Registered: 05-2004 |
I have been visiting the website daily for about 2 months now, but this is my first post. Just want to thank you for Mycotopia and to everyone that helps out us newbies. I am at day 30 with my B+, 2 cakes are in terrarium with perlite, one cake will be birthed and dunked tonight. Made my own spore syringe with mexican #3 and those babies are ready to go in 15 days, will also dunk them tonight and case tomorrow. I will use the perlite for cakes and just fan, but I have an idea for the casing terrarium. I bought 2 fish tank air pumps 25' of fish tank air hose 1 air stone pickle jar fish tank heater Setting up a bubbler to humidify the tank, 4x1.5x1.5 I took the second air pump and put a filter on the intake. Then took about 8' of air hose and put pin size holes in it every 4". The air comes out of the hose very slow and with very low pressure. Hose will be set just above the casing as to move CO2 away from casing base as soon as the pump turns on. The lid doesn't seal so this will be the exhuast point. Hoping I can leave it on all day, but also have a timer, so thinking 15 on 45 off. Gonna set it up tonight and hopefully post some pics. One question -- should i put exhaust points on the bottom or will the exhaust point at the lid work?? Any suggestions or comments would be appreciative. I know this will prolly limit the life of my pump, but its $8, and if it works that would be great! I tried a humidifier, but had to much probs with keeping humidity at 90%. It always had a large amount of mist no matter what I did....hoping this will work!! | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Junior Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 14 Registered: 03-2004 |
Harry, I did pretty much the same thing with the airstone and it works fabulously. I haven't tried it with a heater or anything, but I run 2 fruting chambers off of 1 pump, 1 airstone and 1 jar. Here are some sh*tty pics... maybe they'll help you out. I used a cameraphone to take em. Also, if the lid on your chamber isn't airtight, then you don't have to worry about an exhaust point.  This is what you'll need. A bottle (preferably plastic), about 3 or 4 foot of aquatic air tubing (flimsy), about 6" of the hard air tubing (for the downtube) an airstone and I like to use some of the fibrous filter just to make the water foam a little more. Oh, and you'll need an aquarium air pump too...  This is a dual one and I use it to run 2 incubation chambers. The middle tube is the hard plastic tubing. The ones on the outside are flimsy and they hook directly into the fruiting chambers.  Here's the hard tubing with the airstone attached. I use about a half inch of flimsy tubing to connect the airstone. Plug the airstone in one end and the hard tubing in the other. Make sure you soak it for a couple hours before you hook up the airp pump... you'll get more bubbles.  I put about an inch of the fibrous aquatic filter in the jar. It makes the bubbles smaller and creates a foam that helps raise the humidity.  Here's the finished product. This is a single chamber one in action. It works wonderfully. I got the idea from the "tropic-aire" reptile humidifier. My mushies luv it. Good Luck! "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." | ||
Harry Buffalo (Big_dreams) New member Username: Big_dreams Post Number: 6 Registered: 05-2004 |
thx a bunch for your input, been delayed a bit due to work and other misfortunes, but hope to get it up and running tomorrow. One more question -- do you use it on cakes or casings, and do you have any trouble adjusting your humidity range??? (Message edited by Big Dreams on May 07, 2004) | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Junior Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 17 Registered: 03-2004 |
Harry, No Problem... I've been itching to post these pics and you gave me a great opportunity to do so. I use it on both BRFV cakes and crumpled cake casings with coco coir and it works like a chizzamp. I usually leave it running 24/7 when fruiting, but I use it on 2 chambers, so with 1 chamber, i'm sure you'd have to put it on a timer. I think you have the right idea though... 45 on and 15 off should work fine. The really great thing about this little setup is the air exchange. Before I started using this, I had NO luck with casings at all.. they always contamned just before visible pins began to show. Now, with the air exchange provided by this pump, my casings are fruiting wonderfullly and I haven't had a contam before the 2nd flush in prolly a year. Its funny how a little $15 contraption can affect productivity so much. Also, I tried to do the same thing with my pump too... rigging a filter to filter the air intake. Not only did the pump barely pump an air at all, but it burned out in a week. I dont recommend it at all. I just make sure I'm using distilled H20 and I put a capful of hydrogen peroxide in the bottle just to make sure. You can also just put the pump in a seperate, sealed box.... cut a hole in the side of the box and put your filter over that hole. That way, the pump isn't being overworked, but your still getting clean air. Good Luck with your setup. "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." | ||
Harry Buffalo (Big_dreams) New member Username: Big_dreams Post Number: 7 Registered: 05-2004 |
Think I am just going to go with one pump and see how everything works out for the time being. Experiment, experiment, experiment right??? What kind of pump are you running, or more importantly, what is the output of the pump?? | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 24 Registered: 03-2004 |
I think one pump will serve you well... how big is your tank? Is that 4ft wide by 1.5ft tall and 1.5 ft deep? If so, then you should be fine. I use mine to run 2 tanks that are prolly "about" the same size. As for the pump, I'll have to get back to you on that... I'm not around my setup at the moment... but, I can tell you that I paid about 10 bucks for it at petsmart... Its like a lower, middle level pump.... not the cheapest, but definantly not the most expensive either - somewhere in between. If I were you, I would get one of the mid-priced pumps around the 10-15 dollar range. Its better to have more air exchange than less. "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." | ||
Hippie3 (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 18388 Registered: 02-2001 |
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Hippie3 (Admin) Board Administrator Username: Admin Post Number: 18389 Registered: 02-2001 |
hey that's cool, first camera phone pix we've seen here, been seriously considering getting one, they are changing the world. nice illustration/explanation of your method too archive material | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 25 Registered: 03-2004 |
Thank Hippie. Although I've been doing this for a few years now, I've learned so much from you guys in the couple months that I've been visiting the site. Its wonderful to see the exchange of ideas and how people improve upon each others methods... reading a book can only get you so far. One thing about the cameraphone that I've discovered is that lighting is critical! If the lighting is too low or too high, things get really fuzzy... but I'ms sure some of the newer phones take better pictures, as the technology is continuing to improve. If it helps, i used a Sanyo SCP-3500 to take the pics. Its my wifes phone, she got it about 5 months ago for a couple hundred dollars. Here's a link to sprint's website: http://www.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/devices/phones/s anyoscp5300.html "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." | ||
Harry Buffalo (Big_dreams) New member Username: Big_dreams Post Number: 8 Registered: 05-2004 |
Awesome, thx Hippie. I have a kick ass digital, so as soon as I get it all set up you'll be seeing some sweet pics. Johnny - is the fibrous material charcoal?? If I added charcoal filter rocks would that damage the air stone or make the conditions bad for my mushies?? | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 28 Registered: 03-2004 |
Harry, no. it is not charcoal. It is more like one of those scrubbers that you use to wash dishes... the ones that are made of thin strands of plastic. The advantage is that it takes the bubbles that rise from the airstone and makes them much smaller. So, you have more bubbles and they start to foam... this increases the H20 in the air substantially. I don't think charcoal would hurt anything, but it wouldn't really serve much of a purpouse either(except filtering nasties out of your H20). The stuff I used is called "Coarse Fiber Media" and it is blue. I'll try and get a better pic of the stuff and post it. "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." | ||
Harry Buffalo (Big_dreams) New member Username: Big_dreams Post Number: 10 Registered: 05-2004 |
Thx so much for your help, I just set it up and guess what!?!?! Pinning on my first cake every...I'm soooooo excited. My hygrometer is reading about 85% so hopefully the bubbler will bring up the humidity. Don't know if you saw the other thread, but I plan to start popcorn with BRF cakes tomorrow or Monday -- hopefully this will transform into some of Vision's beatiful baskets of straw and mushies. Anyway, happy tripping and thx for all the help!! | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 29 Registered: 03-2004 |
NP Harry.... I'm glad that you are getting pins!!!! The bubbler will definantly bring that humidity up and also provide some sweet, sweet, oxygen to your pins. I don't know much about Visions teks (I pretty much stick to my brfv cakes and coir casings) but I've read some of his postings and he seems to know his stuff. Good luck with that and be sure to post some pics of your process and results! "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." | ||
Harry Buffalo (Big_dreams) Junior Member Username: Big_dreams Post Number: 11 Registered: 05-2004 |
Thank you for your input, pins have grown into 1 inch shrooms so far. I have the bubbler running and humidity is at 96% +or- 5% so GOOD!!!! Thx so much for your help, will be posting pics soon!!! | ||
saimon (Saimons_k) Senior Member Username: Saimons_k Post Number: 136 Registered: 03-2004 |
congrats! http://www.fsre.org - Free Spore Ring Europe. | ||
saimon (Saimons_k) Senior Member Username: Saimons_k Post Number: 142 Registered: 03-2004 |
UPD: I have maid my "tropic air" like Johnnydigital says. It works! I couldn`t find good aquarium filter that would work for me. But I got large glass bottle with wide lid, that was big enough to fit my fish tank heater in. Warm water makes air more humid, so i getting my ~95% Rh and that`s good enough for casings. I think if i get a proper fillter media on the top, to brake bubbles even more, Rh would get even higher. Johnnydigital, your humidifier kicks ass! It saves lots of space and makes terarium orerdly + looks cool. http://www.fsre.org - Free Spore Ring Europe. | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 36 Registered: 03-2004 |
hey saimon, i'm glad its working out for you. are you running that thing 24/7? your casings will LOVE all of the fresh, humid air; I get massive pinning on my casings ever since I built mine... its just TOO EASY!! Good Luck with everything. "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." | ||
Johnnydigital (Johnnydigital) Member Username: Johnnydigital Post Number: 41 Registered: 03-2004 |
here's a closeup pic of one of the fruiting chambers thats being humidified solely by this method; 97% humidity.  the big fatty there is a b+ (one of my absolute favs thats been with me since the get-go). I double end cased it with a "home brew" of manure, and coir. it LOVES that sh#t... weiged about 25 grams wet. anyway, have fun ya'll and be safe!  "We must find out what words are and how they function. They become images when written down, but images of words repeated in the mind and not of the image of the thing itself." |
