understood, and if i had an omega id do it too, im doing something totally different though and the sound of air pumps/bubbles would be a dead give away coming from that area of a room and thus why i posed the question about not really needing it
I don't know how much noise the motor that turns one of these things makes, or the fans in the light... But I'd guess they would be louder than a good oxygenation device.
If roots could ONLY get oxygen from water id agree with you, but since they get it from air i have to respectfully disagree. Again this is only even a question i posed because of the setup im working on and where it will be located.
"quiet aerators that are not air pump/bubblers" or "one of those over the edge fish tank aerators" interest me,.. ive never heard of either. Got any links to what you mean, or pics?
I'm on my daily downturn so I'm probably not understanding things well, or putting my thoughts into words very well either. But...
I am wondering how much oxygen the roots can actually take up aside from what is in the "water."
Don't the roots stay damp at all times? If so then you've got a gas/air interface thing kicking. And one thing I learned was that - regardless of how many bubbles are coming up through your reservoir - the only good place for a body of liquid to get oxygen is at the surface and that generally when the surface is disturbed.
In other words... All of the airstones' bubbles rising don't really contribute any O2 (to speak of) when they are actually rising. What little bit of transference that takes place happens at the surface when the bubble "breaks."
Of course with several good bubblers producing a LOT of bubbles, there is a lot of surface action. And those aquarium pumps that I never can remember the name of that suck up water and spit it at the surface, they work pretty good for the same reason.
Now it may seem like I'm wandering - and I may be, lol - but with it understood that a liquid really needs surface agitation to transfer a gas (in this case O2) into itself...
Well, those damp roots that are spinning through the air are able to extract O2 from the liquid that has "adhered" to them, but that same liquid isn't going to be able to get more O2 from the air just by being carried through it on a root.
So I would take pains to oxygenate the reservoir as much as possible.
I would be
especially concerned if my nitrogen source was ammonium-based because the roots are then doing extra work and using more O2. But (presumably) a good fertillizer's isn't. Either way, the more O2 available to the roots, the better.