Yet another TAG challenge!!!

POST NUMBER 2 HAS BEEN EDITED TO SHOW UPDATE AND FURTHER DETAIL.

Hello IC community I am happy to present yet another TAG challenge is underway. I know that some folk will not agree with what I have to say, or my views regarding TAG and its followers (You know who I refer to). All I ask is for you to either back out now, or refrain from posting their opinions, I would rather everyone enjoy the show.

I have been building a TAG system for quite some time now and I am nearly ready to start growing. You can see from my pictures that I have already got everything that I need but ferts. All I have left in the build stage is to light proof the reservoir and aero chamber. I am ordering Dutch Master ONE fertilizers, and I was going to hold off on any supplement, and additives till I get the hang of this T rue A ero G rowing technique. You can see the the floor rolls out so that I have full access to the back of the cabinet with out actually having to brake my back. The res. can easily be emptied with the floor out but if I am feeling strong I can lift the res. and stay in an upright position avoiding any back strain. From the second picture you can see the pump and irrigation lines down to the reservoir, and the aero chamber. I was using PVC pipe but switched it out to just black 80psi hose from HD... worked out perfect. The PVC caused very loud vibrations and we all know why that is not wanted when growing in a closet in your apartment lol. You can see the black hose in the third picture if you care to see how it looks. You can also see the top self which is also removable, from the thord pic. That is the area where I keep the ballast, and the computer PSU that powers the fans.
I am using a CMH bulb so that I can use one bulb from start to finish, I know that my end yield may not be as high, but I really hate the orange HPS light anyway lol. I am only going to start with two seeds, and I now I will have space issues. I am already planning to top, and trim as needed until I can force flower. The plus side is that I am SCROGing so the space is manageable to some extent.

I am using a ten gallon reservoir with 8 gallons of nutes/water. I am in the process now of lightproofing the res., and aero chamber. after that I will order my nutes, and then germ my seeds. The aero chamber is something like 25 gallons, and I am using 6 misters for root zone H2O/O2 saturation. In the picture the mister are actually on full blast. That goes to show you how fine the mist is considering you cannot really even see the spray.

You can see the drainage system in the second picture of the aero chamber. The drain simples drains right down back into the reservoir for a very quick recycle time... you know what I mean? It gets sucked up and misted out and then quickly goes right back to the reservoir. I am putting an actual sink drain in when I get it lightproofed. The total dimentions of the aero chamber is about 27"long, 12"deep, and 17"wide. I wasn't sure if that will be enough root area for clones but I am sure to run into trouble starting from seed. As sad as it sounds if I have to once sex is determined I could alway take clones and start over. Of course that is if I even get a female considering I am starting out with only two seed lmao. (This is sounding a bit less thought out than I thought lol.) Actually I know it sound bad but once I have my hands on two female clones I know that I will be just fine I will post some more a bit later but this will give you a taste of what I have been working on.

Alright I guess I will get off my ass and finish filling in the details for us all. I want to start this post out with the ventilation system. You can see from the first picture that the fan is coming out from the top of the box. From the second picture you can see that on the inside I am using a toilet floor mount drain so that I had something to attach the 4" 90 degree PVC elbow to. Obviously that elbow is attached to the 4" Vortex fan, and that to a Goblin scrubber. After these pictures were taken I added in a fan controller... no big deal. The third picture is the intake vent. I used a regular 3"x12" register vent from HD/Lowes, once I screwed it in place I caulked the edge.



Now you can also see from the first and second picture how I power the cabinet. I just simple made my own wire and attached it to a regular wall outlet. All I need to do is plug the cabinet into an extension cord or right into the wall . The ground is connected too so I have at least some peace of mind, I mean that everything in the box is grounded. That contraption that you see in pic 2 is my power supply unit. It powers all my fans and my water pump. I don't really like having to use it on the pump because it is just another component that can fail at any given time.



These picture are really good I think. They give a good idea of how everything looks. You can get a really good idea of how everything will look while growing. This thing is light proof all around minus the intake vent. I have a few idea how to fix this but really it isn't a problem either way. That is what will be sitting in my closet every time I open it up lol. In the second picture you can see my ballast, PSU, and power strip. I have it all right below the exhaust so that heat is sucked right out right away. You can also see the black hoses that replaced the PVC in the irrigation lines. I am very glad I did this. It made a load of difference in sound vibration (reducing it).

There you have folks a pretty good run down of how the system works and is designed. It is really quite simple, but not very cheap... not by a long shot. If you have any questions (and I hope that you have many) then please ask me. I would be more than happy to answer to the best of my ability. I have a lot more picture so if you want I can always post another to help answer any questions.

very nice chamber you got there Villian.
Where did you get those misters from? HD? People always have these awesome misters in their tag setups but I can never ever find them myself.

What pump are you running?

Hey Gregor the pump that I am using is the is a Shurflo Smart Sensor 5.7. I am using the 12VDC version because it was 50.00 cheaper. Ebay has these pumps pretty cheap as well, and there is actually a website that sells it for 149.99 USD. This pump is really good for this little grow, and I am hoping that it never brakes. I don't have it like that, to just go and buy another. At the very worse I can switch to DWC if the pump blows out.

Hey fellas can you foresee any potential problems that I may have over looked? If you do please be sure to point it out, you know how forgetful us potheads can be.

What micron sized sprayers are you using?

The misters are 55 micron and the pressure is automatically set to 65PSI. The smart sensor pump allows the pump to shutdown at 65PSI.

Cool been looking for someone thats using true Aeroponics.

My system




needs some insulation and
hashberry MOM to give me some clones.

Grizzle did you build that bad boy. It looks pretty bad ass, I would also like to know about your pump, model and how it works. I don't see an accumulation tank so I assume it is a sensor controlled right. Is there any way to get a bigger picture and a few more would also be great.

I have the reservoir nearly lightproof. you would not believe mow many cans of plastic spray paint it take. I put on two coats of white prime and now like 4 coats of black. I can still see through it a little bit using a 150 watt CFL (actual watts). Once it is finally lightproof I will scuff it up a bit and lay on some flat white. I have concerns of the black causing to much heat in the Res/ aero chamber.

looking good have you done TAG before? whats the difference yield wise to say dwc?

No I have never done TAG before but I have read a lot of info. From what I have read, and I am not sure how it was measured but I read 45% increase from other forms of hydro. I try and take that with a grain of salt, because like I said who knows how that was measured.

The reservoir is done!! Light proofed and ready to grow. Once the aero pod is done (about 50% now) I think I am ready to grow for real. I have used three cans of flat white and three cans of flat black, to cover what I have done so far. I was initially think like 3 cans lol.

Uhg. I need ANOTHER can of white paint. I just finished off the 4th can of black but I am done with the black all together . I need to buy one last can of flat white and I am DONE with LIGHTPROOFING. So then it is just a matter of germing the seeds, and growing the plant. As soon as I get the aero pod all finished up I will post pictures of the cabinet in full operation minus the plants. I know I know lets get to the freaking plants already right. Well guys I have been patient for months and months while I was saving and building. The time for plants is upon us and I should have them germinating within a week or so. At that point I will start a grow journal and keep it as up to date as I can. Look out for it when it happens these things may grow so fast it will be over before you know it.

A few more pictures can't hurt either right...

All those layers of black paint are going to constitute a thermal ballast. Instead of using the paint to finish it off, you'd save more thermal transfer if you just wrapped the existing installation in aluminum foil. The foil has excellent heat rejection as well as complete light blocking. Just a thought to save you a little money, trouble, and heat.

Well I actually started out with Al foil and it proved to be very troublesome due to the shape and design of the totes. I used Al. foil and 2 rolls of duck tape. That was just for the res. unit, and the aero unit is twice the size. After all that wrapping and taping I was getting pinhole leaks from the fragile foil. So in the end I used paint.

Now just for the record I am using black and white Krylon Fusion spray paint. I started scuffing the totes up with a sanding sponge, then I used white plastic primer. I put two coats on each tote, making the first one very thin. The second was a very heavy layer but not enough to run. I then did two coats of flat black, then checked and it just wasn't light proofed enough. I did two more coats on the res. then a thick coat of white after the black dried. Still not goo enough to me so I did another two coats of black and another thick white coat. The res came out great IMO, and I am about done with the top tote (the aero chamber). I did all the layers of black and The girl is at the store now getting another can of white. some thinner, and some shop rags. She just got back GTG later guys.

Roger that.

Very nice and clean!

I'm sorry for the neglect on my thread, but it is a work week and I am waiting for my days off. I have gotten some work done at night after work however, but not much. I finished the light proofing on both the res. tote, and the aero tote. I washed them very good with regular dish soap, but I still have to sterilize them with Peroxide. I am starting the germination process as soon as I figure out the best way to do it. I have some rockwool cubes but I read that RW messes with the PH and what not. I would just use some vermiculite but no place around here sells it any more. The paper towel is not a good method and I wouldn't know how to make it work with this setup anyway. The plant are suppose to just kinda sit in a pool noodle with out any medium. How the hell do you start a seed with out a medium LOL. I wish I had some clones I can tell you that for sure. Maybe some one can help me out...

I decided to use the rockwool with a PH soak. I was not to sure about what I had to do to the RW till the other day, but I knew I had to do something. After all these years of gardening I just learned what I had to do to RW to stabilize the PH lol. Any way I have some dank bag seed germinating right now, and I plan to move the box into the closet from the garage tomorrow night. Once I have it in the closet I will prep and let it run for a few hours, or maybe days who knows.

Hey Villain!
Nice setup you have there! Small footprint but using each cm of space, very cool.
Im so glad somebody with a TAG system has appeared, its been a while since i post here and its perfect timing. I have a TAG too but its been on hold because of high res temps. I just got a chiller so I just started too!
Hope we can share info and contribute to TAG growing. My knowledge is based on icmags threads, especially pods posts but never completed a grow.
TAG is really cool but from reading it can be sensitive so fine tuning looks challenging. For me I built everything before reading the issues involved but who cares, already built so giving it all.
This is what I have..
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=63626&highlight=colombian+tag
Havent updated but currently I am on seedlings, they are about 2 cm tall in perlite and vermiculite. These I will keep in soil theyre nice milfs. Will update soon

This post has really good info, if you haven read it
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=10882&page=8&pp=15

Later talk to you soon

CG