To address what these are used for:
AACT is basically growing microbial colonies, that are found in compost, on a exponential level. The theory is adding healthy amount of the microbes to your existing soil will make more of the nutrients in your soil available for your plants. There is a lot of contradictory research on the pros/cons of the method, and as always, shady science on both sides. The main thing I am interested in is the water retention benefits, as I have sandy soil and I have been struggling with early season BER the last few years. There are some commercial AACT brewer systems out there, but they are in the $2000-3000 range for one this size.
The tea is brewed for 24-48 generally, then diluted (or not in some cases) and sprayed onto crops or run into irrigation systems. You brew one batch at a time, not constantly, and most people only apply it 1-2 times a month at most. I will also be looking into adding fresh fish puree as I have access to all the "trash fish" I want and the microbial colonies should break it down rather quickly, which sounds a heck of a lot better than leaving a bucket full of fish to ferment for a month at a time. Usually the "solids" (screened compost) are kept in some kind of strainer and not allowed to circulate through the system, however, most people use air pumps and venturi lifts to create the circulation which means they can allow free floating solids since they don't have to worry about ruining a water pump. I will be straining, plus I have a pretty fine mesh screen installed on the barrel drain.
Because of the overpowered pump, I will have to let it continue to circulate while pumping out to the fertigation system. I tried capping the outlets and discharging, and it was WAY too much pressure for me to feel comfortable with. With the circulation still open, the discharge pressure was roughly about the same as my water pressure from the tap. The only problem is that I won't be able to quite run it to empty, so some of the tea will get used for hand watering, which I am OK with.
The agitation might be overkill, that has been brought up before, but when I watch the videos of the commercial units, my system doesn't seem to be any more violent. Unfortunately the only way to tell is to go ahead and run a batch and see what happens.
My motor didn't come with any type of manual, it was just a cheap Chinese made motor my dad bought of eBay for next to nothing. It didn't cost me a dime so if I burn it out, I am not going to lose any sleep over it. I have noticed that most water pumps are fairly easy to repair/replace parts, which is part of the reason that I decided to go with a water pump over an air pump/venturi lift system.
Without further ado, here is the first video of it running, now leak-free
And now here it is running with a brick in the bottom per queequeg's advice
I honestly think I am getting more air with the disruption the brick causes. I am going to stick with the brick for now, mainly because I am letting the water dechlorinate right now and I don't want to go swimming to recover the brick! I start my first batch of tea tomorrow.