Issues with DIY Aerocloner

I'm still new to this but I followed this dude's guide to build one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z27lzS1l9_8&t=325s

I keep the Eco370 Adjustable Water Pump running 24/7.

This is what I've been using
10 gal - RO water (replace water every 7 days)
25 ml - Dyna_Gro Pro-Tekt
25 ml - Dyna_Gro K-L-N
25 ml - Dyna_Gro Bloom
20 ml - Botanicare Hydroguard
5 ml - Flying Skull part 1 Z7 enzyme (every 3-4 days)
5 ml - Flying Skull part 2 Z7 enzyme (every 3-4 days)

23 days later and this is what we have:




I do not have a light "directly" above the clones, I have a 4' 8 bulb T5 that I have 4' above it and over about 1-2', this is the light I'm using for my mother plants.

I sterilize between each run with bleach water and ran it through 20 minutes on each side of the sprayer and rinsed it out well.

Temps of the water I have not been measuring, but it doesn't feel cold or warm. I measured the temp with my infrared thermometer and it seems like it is 4*F higher than ambient temps, highest I've seen is 84*F for an hour or two. Ambient temps dip down to about 63-65*F at night.

Not sure why its taking so long :/

Should I be using airstones to oxygenate my water??? I do have two 4" round airstones and a 45L/minute air pump.

nutes are too strong for rooting. i would also consider putting the pump on a timer.

cuts don't need nutes right away. i use a small amount of calmag and p-k to start. with a small amount of IBA & NAA. once they show that they are about to show nubs, i go to regular veg mix at about 1/4 strength and go up from there. i do this in rockwool and starter trays.

did they root faster before? how many runs have you used this cloner for? no ph info? are these originally grown from seed or clone?

yeah, what the last guy said nutrients are not needed. if the plant is receiving everything they need it removes the urgency for it to grow roots. it's kinda like drying out your pot causes the plant to sense an urgency to grow roots to search for water/food. a few big collectives and online videos recommend 200ppm of a bloom base and that's it. I've cloned many times with nothing in my areo but just plain water. The plants are still happy so that's a good thing. Putting the pump on a timer is usually a solution to the water getting too warm but these dry spells may help induce rooting also so it's worth a try.

If I were you I'd switch to 200ppm bloom in the water, clonex solution or just plain water and run the pump on a 5 min on 5 min off cycle timer. your amount of light is fine.

Yep feeding them is like what the florists do with cuttings so they stay prettier longer.. they put em in little stem cases filled with nutrients to preserve the flower , but it doesn't promote roots..

Plain water is the way to go.... Some folks put a drop or 2 of bleach in there to combat pathogens as well

Agreed (with all)

I go tap water + 1/2 strength Jacks @ ~320 ppm (no ph), 1 min on:5 min off. Dip the cuttings in clonex gel or a light hormex solution for 5 minutes before they enter the box. Lights low or off for the first day or so, 3-4' after that. 50% success at 8 days and 100% success at 12 days.

palmeezy said:

nutes are too strong for rooting. i would also consider putting the pump on a timer.

cuts don't need nutes right away. i use a small amount of calmag and p-k to start. with a small amount of IBA & NAA. once they show that they are about to show nubs, i go to regular veg mix at about 1/4 strength and go up from there. i do this in rockwool and starter trays.

did they root faster before? how many runs have you used this cloner for? no ph info? are these originally grown from seed or clone?

Click to expand...

I have had terrible luck with getting roots to happen in any method of cloning. I spoke with my friend and he says it takes him 2-3 weeks to make roots on these strains with hormex and clonex in rapid rooters.

The cuts in the box currently are cuts from clones from clones from seed, not sure how old but the mothers that my mothers were cut from were over 8 months old when cut. I've had those plants for roughly 3 months and its about time for them to be chopped down again.

I pH my water to 6.0 as close as I can after I've mixed everything.

This is pretty much a brand new build, I've only used it for 7 weeks so far, and I ran bleach water through it after I failed the first attempt after 3 weeks of no rooting.

The first time I ran it I did not use any bloom nutes and the cuttings looking like they were going to die, they completely yellowed out and had crispy leaves. For them being in there so long I'm not sure if they needed the nutes or not.

I took notes during the second week of these cuts
4/5/2018 - 7:20pm
pH - 6.15
EC - 0.338
temp - 73*F

I think when I used tap water with this same recipe the EC came out to 0.968 or something. My chlorine+fluoride filtered tap water here comes out to about 0.7 EC I believe.

Waaaaay too much light. Good luck. -granger

My clones will fester sometimes too... as long as that top is still alive the plant will recover... are you running the pump constantly or is it on a timer? do you cut the stem at a 45 degree angle? ( hard to tell with the callousing on the cuts...)

The reason folks suggest bloom nutes, is cause it is typically higher in P which will promote root growth

I have a damn near identical setup. I run a short cycle timer on mine. 15 seconds on and 5 to 10 minutes off. Water temps for rooting should be between 63 and 75°F. 75°F helps for getting roots to start, then lower to 65°F. I have almost 100% success rate. Roots usually show up in 7 to 14 days depending on which plant it came from. Some root much easier than others. I've rooted with plain water to 600ppm solution with cal mag and maxibloom or maxi veg. Water temps seem to be super critical. Cold rez temps make rooting take forever. Rooting hormones help but are not required, they will shave a day to a couple days. Here's how mine turn out. I believe this Is between weeks 3 and 4 from cutting clones. Oh and I run beneficials instead of sterile. I highly recommend using orca vs running sterile. No sir stone needed either. The spray bar is very effective in oxygenatating the water and keeping things stirred up.

MrBungle said:

My clones will fester sometimes too... as long as that top is still alive the plant will recover... are you running the pump constantly or is it on a timer? do you cut the stem at a 45 degree angle? ( hard to tell with the callousing on the cuts...)

The reason folks suggest bloom nutes, is cause it is typically higher in P which will promote root growth

Click to expand...

Yes, I cut with a sterile blade at a 45 degree angle, no stripping or shaving or other cuts just a simple 45 degree.

Yes, I run my pump on 24/7, it never shuts off.

...yeah, i retired my bubble cloner almost 8 years ago when a friend pointed me at the 'Walmart' cloner thread and it proved so simple, cheap and reliable it was easy to put the bubbler away.





...i use vermiculite, rooting powder and water and nothing but reflected light and 14 days later i have roots, if i get less than 90% rooted i call it a bad run.

...note that the PLL lights are mounted below the shelf with the cloners, this was done by design to provide warmth for the cloners above.



...anyway good luck, i personally prefer things simple rather than complicated so that there are fewer things to go wrong but if you don't mind the expense and all the maintenance then complicated can work really well.

peace, bozo

i'd try using some bottled water as a first step in eliminating your water as the issue. .7 is high and pathogens can make their way in on the dissolved solids, chlorinated or not.

as a test, i'd also stick some into the bottled water directly. take the cap off of a bottle and stick a nice big fat cut into it. i've rooted plenty of leftover, unneeded and forgotten cuts like this.

what % would you say that you root, even if it takes a while? similar each time or varying?

palmeezy said:

i'd try using some bottled water as a first step in eliminating your water as the issue. .7 is high and pathogens can make their way in on the dissolved solids, chlorinated or not.

as a test, i'd also stick some into the bottled water directly. take the cap off of a bottle and stick a nice big fat cut into it. i've rooted plenty of leftover, unneeded and forgotten cuts like this.

what % would you say that you root, even if it takes a while? similar each time or varying?

Click to expand...

I haven't had a successful run in the cloner yet.

In regular cloning, I've had maybe 10% success rate if that.

BUT 2 days ago I added 0.5ml Chlorox Bleach to the tank and I moved my 100w 2' 4 bulb T5 about 18" over the box on 18/6, and root hairs started popping out and the clones are standing up straight. One looks like it bit the dust and didn't have enough light though, we'll see what happens with it.

I'm truly interested in getting at least 90% success.

With how hot it gets in my room during the summer I can see myself putting a frozen bottle of water in there once a day or so.

I may be a minority here, but I've been through the gambit with all sorts of techniques and I'm actually a fan of running nutes in my bubble cloner... It does indeed work, but you need other variables to be correct as well... like consistent temps.... For me it HAS to be in the 72-75 range - I run a heating mat under my bubbler with a thermo controller so I can lock the temp at 73-74. Once they root the heating pad gets turned off so the temp can go back down in the water and I bump the nutes up to 1100ppm and off they go. I know it sounds high, but that is what works the best for me/my plants/setup... I get nice rich colored waxy clones ready to roll!

Here's a detailed breakdown of what to do. It may be helpful to you or someone else in the future.

Preparing the cloner:

1. First I clean every part the cloner in the sink with regular dish soap and rinse well. Then I clean again with 99% iso alcohol - The airstone(plastic parts) - the lid - the res - the tubing - the inserts - All of it.
2. Place heating mat with temp controller (you MUST have a temp controller for it) in your desired location and place your cloner on top of it - Set the temp to 73 on the controller and leave it alone. (Turn off the heating pad once clones are rooted.)
3. Fill with RO water to desired level - In my case its exactly a gallon.
4. I add about 600ppm of FloraDuo (which is basically their "seedling" feeding dosage) and about 5 or 6 drops of Rapid Start to my water. pH to 5.8-6.0 - It will probably drift up a little, but I just let it because we will have clones in about 7-10 days.
5. Set our lighting schedule to 18 hours on and 6 off. (18/6) (24 hours seems to take longer and I believe the dark period helps the cutting generate roots much easier)
6. Humidity - Hopefully you can get your humidity up into the 50's - This seems the best place with this technique. If not, it's not mission critical... You will still have success. You can try running your cloner in an enclosed area like I've shown in my pics. This will help keep humidity and temps more consistent.

Preparing the cuts:

1. Take cuts - 45 degree angle right below a node (it will work any place, but seems better here)
2. Put your cuttings in about a half inch of clonex solution. Dipping them too deep into clonex can cause weird malformed growth that can take awhile to grow out of. Let cutting tips sit in clonex for 2-3 minutes.
3. Put your cuttings in your cloner and feel confident! The plants need that confidence energy from you... Key factor! - The clonex will wash off pretty quickly, but this is ok as it will be in our water now splashing on the stems.

Some finer details and Variables that are important.

1. Temps have to be 72-75 - It's actually one of the most important variables. Otherwise it will either take forever - never at all - or you will have slow stunted growth.

2. Clones will start too droop as they are creating roots (the stems become thicker and get white bumps/nubs all down the lower stem - Above, mine also start to turn purple, which is another indicator they are putting energy into creating roots) - The droop is them not getting enough food in this stage, but we fed them 600ppm so they WILL stay pretty with no downtime while rooting. That's the whole point of running nutes while cloning... So they stay pretty!! Once I see some roots, I boost it up to 1100 and within hours they are perked back up and turning a nice rich color. I feed them plain nutes at this point.. No additives or anything. Find out what works for your nute line and genes. Dont start at 1100.. that's just what works for me. If I don't get it up that high the plants droop and the color isn't right.

That's all I can think of right now, If I remember any other specific detail, I will edit my post and add it in. This is what I do and it works for me 100% of the time.

Hope that helps!

Hey just wanted to post a few more pics with proof that this works FAST!

Took these clones on the 23rd, last Monday... And we have roots the following Monday (Today the 30th) - This was actually a batch on the faster side of things.. Had root nubs on day 5-6, but not quite established yet... And these clones were takin when the plants were 7 days into flower...

The two on the left are a few days slower... Just strain related but they are about to drop some roots too.. next day or two they will look just like those. No biggies for me.. But there you have it.. 3 different strains.. all rooted with the same variables. And theres the ppm and temp of my res showing that you can root with nutes, I will leave the heating mat running until those other two get established and then I will shut it off and bump up the ppms...

Too many nutrients brother. It’s like a hydro shop exploded in the cloner! Just use some bloom nutes with an EC of .6-.8 and PH 5.8-6. No bennies or seaweed. Use peroxide to keep pathogens at bay. Everything will stay nice and clean and you’ll get nice white roots.

You mean I'll get nice white roots like the ones I have right now??? C'mon man... Were just going to have to agree to disagree here... The nutes are there for a reason. A purpose. I explained that and I wouldn't do it any other way.

I agree with ya sport. I've got root growth in a week with 600ppm solution before. Nothing wrong here. Them clones will explode in veg shortly

Thought I'd throw an update of what's going on and what I did.

I exchanged my nute and additive water to

10 gallons Boogie Blue filtered tap water
30 ml horticultural hydrogen peroxide
50 ml Clonex Clone Solution

I didn't notice anything new for 3 days, so I switched my 2' 4 bulb T5 to half power at 24", and everything started to root.



3 days ago I bought a Mondi Dome haha, I was just about to give up completely on the Aerocloning and just give Aloe Vera Powder and FulPower with RootRiots a try, so I guess I'll test my luck with this method now too.

Would it be beneficial to be running Botanicare Hydroguard in the aerocloner before any callous or roots pop? Or would you put it in after the roots pop?

Reading this thread was interesting too, helped clarify a few things I was curious about too https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=219683