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Looking for Aeroponic user!!
- Thread starter belivitez
- Start date
FrozenFire
Member
Ha ha I've got a aeroponics vs dwc grow showdown running in this as section and another link in my signature for the last grow. I'm running a 4x4 flood and drain table i retrofitted to be a recirculating aeroponics table. Simple, reasonably cheap, and gives me very happy plants.
Here's the aero table now. Clones from last run.
Last grow, table wasn't full due to removing males and hermies from seed run.
Here's the aero table now. Clones from last run.
Last grow, table wasn't full due to removing males and hermies from seed run.
Palindrome
King of Schwag
Hello belivitez, a few questions
Are you thinking high or low pressure aeroponics, how large is your grow area and final is high plant numbers a problem?
I have worked with high pressure or true aeroponics (what ever you wanna call it) for years. So I might be able to give you a few pointers, if your looking into high pressure aeroponics.
Are you thinking high or low pressure aeroponics, how large is your grow area and final is high plant numbers a problem?
I have worked with high pressure or true aeroponics (what ever you wanna call it) for years. So I might be able to give you a few pointers, if your looking into high pressure aeroponics.
@petflora thanks i will check!
@frosenfire you are using diy aeroponic system?
@palindrome i start look at Aeroflo system, but i have no clue if this is hpa or lpa type? i have 1.2x1meter space and 2m high grow box... do you have any suggestion for me? For bow i dont have enought time to make diy, so i want to buy totally working product here in Europe. Are you still working with aeroponic?
@frosenfire you are using diy aeroponic system?
@palindrome i start look at Aeroflo system, but i have no clue if this is hpa or lpa type? i have 1.2x1meter space and 2m high grow box... do you have any suggestion for me? For bow i dont have enought time to make diy, so i want to buy totally working product here in Europe. Are you still working with aeroponic?
Palindrome
King of Schwag
Belivitez I like you mention you don't have time for DIY, and I'll be straight up with you.
Aeroflo is a NFT system, not Aeroponics for one, you can't buy real aeroponic systems in the shops. You can buy things called aeroponics, but it really isn't modern aeroponics as we know it today.
You can convert a aeroflo, but to be honest they are overpriced. But as you say, you have little time for DIY. But with aeroponics, your better of just building it yourself.
Aeroponics was developed in the 70's, but in the 90's NASA changed the aeroponic standards. As they re-developed it for growing in zero gravety, and thats what we today call Aeroponics or True aeroponics.
I no longer grow with aeroponics, I just got back after a 10 year break and im not going back to commercial growing. Aeroponica is the Formula 1 car of growing, fast, awesome and can give amasing results. The dark side is, when you crash with 350 mph. Shit go wrong, really really fast. High pressure systems take up space, as it's hard to get a pump small enough. High pressure pumps, also moves a lot of water. Aeroponic misters, don't allow a lot of water to go thru them. The once I used, sprayed 7 liter per hour at 5 bar. So when your pump moves 5000 liters per hour, you can feed about 700+ misters. You can go down on mister numbers, with a overflow valve but still you need at least a few hundred misters. Fitting it into a tent, is not possible.
So for the size of you grow area, not wanna go DIY. I would recommend that you go look at something else then Aeroponics, if you deside that a little DIY is okay. You can quite easy convert a aeroflo into a low pressure aeroponics, by adding a few extra feedlines, misters and a bigger pump. But IMO there is little difference, in low pressure aero and DWC in yeilds. Aeroponics is great for sea of green, with a lot of smaller plants. DWC id prefer for larger plants.
Or look at FrozenFires aeroponic table, I have grown in something simular. Works great and easy to build, but DIY.
Aeroflo is a NFT system, not Aeroponics for one, you can't buy real aeroponic systems in the shops. You can buy things called aeroponics, but it really isn't modern aeroponics as we know it today.
You can convert a aeroflo, but to be honest they are overpriced. But as you say, you have little time for DIY. But with aeroponics, your better of just building it yourself.
Aeroponics was developed in the 70's, but in the 90's NASA changed the aeroponic standards. As they re-developed it for growing in zero gravety, and thats what we today call Aeroponics or True aeroponics.
I no longer grow with aeroponics, I just got back after a 10 year break and im not going back to commercial growing. Aeroponica is the Formula 1 car of growing, fast, awesome and can give amasing results. The dark side is, when you crash with 350 mph. Shit go wrong, really really fast. High pressure systems take up space, as it's hard to get a pump small enough. High pressure pumps, also moves a lot of water. Aeroponic misters, don't allow a lot of water to go thru them. The once I used, sprayed 7 liter per hour at 5 bar. So when your pump moves 5000 liters per hour, you can feed about 700+ misters. You can go down on mister numbers, with a overflow valve but still you need at least a few hundred misters. Fitting it into a tent, is not possible.
So for the size of you grow area, not wanna go DIY. I would recommend that you go look at something else then Aeroponics, if you deside that a little DIY is okay. You can quite easy convert a aeroflo into a low pressure aeroponics, by adding a few extra feedlines, misters and a bigger pump. But IMO there is little difference, in low pressure aero and DWC in yeilds. Aeroponics is great for sea of green, with a lot of smaller plants. DWC id prefer for larger plants.
Or look at FrozenFires aeroponic table, I have grown in something simular. Works great and easy to build, but DIY.
Man thanks for your massive answer 
Ok i didnt know things about thrue aeroponic, and about aeroflo (if you looking on online shops they all promoted aeroflo like aeroponic system).
Maybe i must to find time to make diy system.... but like you say i need right parts and this would be a problem here in europe i think
Or maybe go with dwc, drip, nft...? I want simple system. Just check ph/ec, change water once a week, move lights up... What do you suggest to me?
I want formula 1, but i dont want to crash
Ok i didnt know things about thrue aeroponic, and about aeroflo (if you looking on online shops they all promoted aeroflo like aeroponic system).
Maybe i must to find time to make diy system.... but like you say i need right parts and this would be a problem here in europe i think
Or maybe go with dwc, drip, nft...? I want simple system. Just check ph/ec, change water once a week, move lights up... What do you suggest to me?
I want formula 1, but i dont want to crash
This is my twist on lpa from things I learned from hpa.
Primarily instead of running nutes 24/7 and basically drowning the roots, I am opting to use a deep cycle timer with hpa misters. I'm going to start at ~ 1 minute on/3-5 minutes off, and adjust as needed
4 of the seedlings already have the tap root exiting the bottom of thee coco pellets, so I made nutes and will be putting those 4, and maybe the other 2 as I last checked at 10am this morning, and their taps could be out now
View attachment 448228 View attachment 448229 View attachment 448230 View attachment 448231
Primarily instead of running nutes 24/7 and basically drowning the roots, I am opting to use a deep cycle timer with hpa misters. I'm going to start at ~ 1 minute on/3-5 minutes off, and adjust as needed
4 of the seedlings already have the tap root exiting the bottom of thee coco pellets, so I made nutes and will be putting those 4, and maybe the other 2 as I last checked at 10am this morning, and their taps could be out now
View attachment 448228 View attachment 448229 View attachment 448230 View attachment 448231
Palindrome
King of Schwag
Man thanks for your massive answer
Ok i didnt know things about thrue aeroponic, and about aeroflo (if you looking on online shops they all promoted aeroflo like aeroponic system).
Maybe i must to find time to make diy system.... but like you say i need right parts and this would be a problem here in europe i think
Or maybe go with dwc, drip, nft...? I want simple system. Just check ph/ec, change water once a week, move lights up... What do you suggest to me?
I want formula 1, but i dont want to crash
It's not a problem to get parts in Europe, im based in EU as well. The misters I used, was made in Israel and sold in europe. Just google micron sprinkler, but before that you have a ton of stuff to read. But you prolly won't find them in regular grow shops, for canna growers. But contact a company, that sell to the greenhouse industry.
Aeroponics can be really complicated, if your not a skilled grower. Everything have to be perfect, if not you won't get any bennefit. Just like if we where to drive a F1 car, we would be screwed without training and a whole team behind us.
If you look at growing like a old barrel (see the pic) everything have to be optimal, or you won't get the bennefit of high pressure aeroponics. And would be yealding about the same, with any other hydro system.
About the aeroflo, the shop's are not directly lying. They are just not telling you or they don't know, its a 70's aeroponics system. But it would be more honest to call it NFT, I've had a aeroflo 28 and it's easy to set up and use.
what bout the ultrasonic misters? can you not just put nutrients in the bottom of a bucket with one of those misters and then fill the root chamber with a nutrient mist?
Palindrome
King of Schwag
No
For one, they are made of metal. So over time your low pH nutrient mix, will eat your mister.
Second, they don't really mist anything but water. So the nutrients are not turned into fog, on the other hand they solidifies on the ultrasonic disc.
Palindrome
King of Schwag
Palindrome thanks man!!! Lots of knowdledge do you have here
All knowledge is in nutrition tank? or?
Why you stop growing with aeroponic system?
I used to know just about everything about true aeroponics, might forgot a bit over the years. But im sure most is still in there, but there is a lot to know.
It's not just about the nutrients and water chemestry, it's everything from room and water temp. Co2 lvls for the plants, oxygen for the roots and room humidity. That is the key elements, you have to be able to control. Then when you blast your mist round 80 micron, into the tube system. The plants can uptain about 25% more, but only if everything is running perfect.
The reason Im not building a aeroponic setup, but a flow table with drippers. Is mainly it's simpler, less hazzel and a much much cheaper. Check the link in my sig, there you can see what im working on now.
FrozenFire
Member
The system I built is a DIY low pressure aeroponics system that flows like a recirculating NFT table once the shallow table has some root mass to it. Reasoning behind it vs deep table with hanging roots is that the little bit of water that's retained in table acts as an emergency resivour in the case of a power outage. Performance wise it is smoking the dwc side of the tent. Maintenance wise aero table is much easier to deal with as the resivour (27g tote) is outside my tent and is plumbed into the tent via pvc and hose. I've got a blue lab guardian for a constant monitoring display. The spray bar is made of 1/2" pvc pipe and ez cloner style misting heads. You drill holes with the included drill bit and screw them in. Be sure to flush the pipes after drilling holes as the pvc shavings will clog sprayer heads.
For sheer simplicity of setup, Dwc with air stones in stand alone buckets/totes is king. Each bucket is isolated and easy to manage. I started with this setup and ran it for 2 years. Simple to manage but work increases with bucket count. This setup is great for growing massive indoor plants and scrogging smaller spaces.
Aeroponics table setup I built is a little more labor intensive up front, but it's a Cadillac to operate once built. I add 5 gallons of water to the resivour either every day or every other day when I in bloom, and usually every few days in veg. No plants to pick up and shuffle around like bucket dwc for res maintenance. Downside to aero is either buying a stupid expensive kit style system, or spending time building your own. Low pressure aeroponics is way less expensive than the high pressure aeroponics like palindrome used to run. Not near as complicated either. Oh and one other benefit of aero is the smaller total fluid volume means less nutes wasted with rez changes and res drain at end of grow. Every penny pinched is money earned in my book.
For sheer simplicity of setup, Dwc with air stones in stand alone buckets/totes is king. Each bucket is isolated and easy to manage. I started with this setup and ran it for 2 years. Simple to manage but work increases with bucket count. This setup is great for growing massive indoor plants and scrogging smaller spaces.
Aeroponics table setup I built is a little more labor intensive up front, but it's a Cadillac to operate once built. I add 5 gallons of water to the resivour either every day or every other day when I in bloom, and usually every few days in veg. No plants to pick up and shuffle around like bucket dwc for res maintenance. Downside to aero is either buying a stupid expensive kit style system, or spending time building your own. Low pressure aeroponics is way less expensive than the high pressure aeroponics like palindrome used to run. Not near as complicated either. Oh and one other benefit of aero is the smaller total fluid volume means less nutes wasted with rez changes and res drain at end of grow. Every penny pinched is money earned in my book.
Drop That Sound
Well-known member
If you drop your water level low enough to expose half the roots, and pump plenty of air to the stones in your DWC containers, the bubbles coming up to the surface that pop are essentially putting out a finer mist than any true aero system atomizer or mister could anyway. To some extent..
DWC is kind of a hybrid aero system already if you think about it that way. At least on the upper portion of the roots sometimes, unless you have a float valve keeping the level in check.
I can't help but wanna play with every type of hydro system too, so I like to build hybrid setups that can use more than one type and when I want it. My current setup i'm actually setting up to veg with aero/nft/dwc hybrid rails, then pluck them out and transfer to RDWC.
How does this sound for a rig?
You setup a decent RDWC with good sealing lids.. Then you install additional HP or LP spray bars in each container, under the normal water level. Their pump could be in the same RDWC control res, or even better, a separate top off res with automated dosers.
Now, you also setup a flood table (at least roughly half to 3/4 the volume of the total RDWC's capacity) off to the side in the same room, or even a different spot. Put the pump and return line for it in the RDWC res as well.
When the flood tables timer goes off and starts to drain the whole RDWC system down, the Aero spray bars become exposed, kick on and start misting the DWC roots at the same time as the F&D gets a feed.
If setup correctly, you could always be misting with fresh solution, and even add an over flow that runs to another additional DTW drip table, so that your constantly taking in new solution, and expelling old.
The overflow would be somewhere on the flood table of course, paired up with a skimmer, only open towards the end of the flood (when the water is more saturated with waste before it returns to the RDWC system).
DWC/AERO/F&D/DTW... all working together in the same little package
DWC is kind of a hybrid aero system already if you think about it that way. At least on the upper portion of the roots sometimes, unless you have a float valve keeping the level in check.
I can't help but wanna play with every type of hydro system too, so I like to build hybrid setups that can use more than one type and when I want it. My current setup i'm actually setting up to veg with aero/nft/dwc hybrid rails, then pluck them out and transfer to RDWC.
How does this sound for a rig?
You setup a decent RDWC with good sealing lids.. Then you install additional HP or LP spray bars in each container, under the normal water level. Their pump could be in the same RDWC control res, or even better, a separate top off res with automated dosers.
Now, you also setup a flood table (at least roughly half to 3/4 the volume of the total RDWC's capacity) off to the side in the same room, or even a different spot. Put the pump and return line for it in the RDWC res as well.
When the flood tables timer goes off and starts to drain the whole RDWC system down, the Aero spray bars become exposed, kick on and start misting the DWC roots at the same time as the F&D gets a feed.
If setup correctly, you could always be misting with fresh solution, and even add an over flow that runs to another additional DTW drip table, so that your constantly taking in new solution, and expelling old.
The overflow would be somewhere on the flood table of course, paired up with a skimmer, only open towards the end of the flood (when the water is more saturated with waste before it returns to the RDWC system).
DWC/AERO/F&D/DTW... all working together in the same little package
Palindrome
King of Schwag
Single bucket DWC is easy to control and maintain, once the plant get's large they can get a little unhandy. But it's not an issue IMO.
If your still wanna go with less DIY, then a Aeroflo is not a bad option.
You can easy convert it, to LP aero or add air stones and run it as a shallow DWC. By raising the drain pipes, you can raise the water lvl in the aeroflo.
I can see they have changed the design a little on the aeroflo, compared to back when I had one. The feeding system was external, with several smaller feed lines going into the plant chambers.
If your still wanna go with less DIY, then a Aeroflo is not a bad option.
You can easy convert it, to LP aero or add air stones and run it as a shallow DWC. By raising the drain pipes, you can raise the water lvl in the aeroflo.
I can see they have changed the design a little on the aeroflo, compared to back when I had one. The feeding system was external, with several smaller feed lines going into the plant chambers.
Right now i speaking with company here in my country.... 1500€ just for highpressure pump 80bars.... 3bars are lpa? price per nozzle 15€.
I dont like chinese product but im looking on alibaba highpressure pump sold for 40$?
Or just go with drain table like you dooing right nos?
I dont like chinese product but im looking on alibaba highpressure pump sold for 40$?
Or just go with drain table like you dooing right nos?
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