Low Pressure Aero build...it has begun!

thenasty1 said:

i would think 1/10 is fine full cycle. i run 1/5 to root cuttings, and 1.5/8 for my small vegging. do play around with it though, adjust as necessary and figure out what works in your setup. the 1/29 that @Airwalker16 is talking about interests me, i might try that out when i have some bigger specimens in my totes


when you dial it in its pretty efficient. aside from training and pruning mine need very little work, and ive ironed out the nute regimen to the point that i rarely need to fully dump a res
also i dig that bottle setup. excellent use of spare gaming dice

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Ill prob start out at 1/10 and keep a close eye on things. Make adjustments and tweak things as im going lol

Ill be back with pics tomorrow, i got the main manifold done and all holes drilled in totes, will start making the sprayer manifolds tomorrow and begin dry fitting

diggs99 said:

Ill prob start out at 1/10 and keep a close eye on things. Make adjustments and tweak things as im going lol

Ill be back with pics tomorrow, i got the main manifold done and all holes drilled in totes, will start making the sprayer manifolds tomorrow and begin dry fitting

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Guess there's no turning back for you now.
Best of luck to you.

Airwalker16 said:

Guess there's no turning back for you now.
Best of luck to you.

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Well ya lol.....Altho i could still change to RDWC and the totes would still be fine.

But yes, were on our way lol

diggs99 said:

Well ya lol.....Altho i could still change to RDWC and the totes would still be fine.

But yes, were on our way lol

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How's that?
Rdwc requires 2"-3" holes in the sides for bulkheads while Aero requires 1/2"-1" holes in the bottoms for drain fittings.


Maybe you haven't drilled those yet, but in the end, it's one or the other, bruv.

Airwalker16 said:

How's that?
Rdwc requires 2"-3" holes in the sides for bulkheads while Aero requires 1/2"-1" holes in the bottoms for drain fittings.


Maybe you haven't drilled those yet, but in the end, it's one or the other, bruv.

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You liked this comment LITERALLY the second I posted it it feels like... Whoa..

Airwalker16 said:

How's that?
Rdwc requires 2"-3" holes in the sides for bulkheads while Aero requires 1/2"-1" holes in the bottoms for drain fittings.

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i only have holes drilled at the top of my totes right now for 3/4 pvc manifold to fit through....If i want to switch to RDWC, i just need to drill the 2-3" holes in the bottom/sides, right? or am i missing something? lol its early and i wake n baked

I dont have the drains drilled yet, but even so, i should be able to cap/plug said drains if i wanted to right?

Airwalker16 said:

You liked this comment LITERALLY the second I posted it it feels like... Whoa..

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haha i was reading the thread when you posted

Well I’m watching this now.
I will give you some advice / warnings. I did an almost identical setup with my peppers and here’s what I found

Use some foam gasket like what they use in exterior doors to seal the tote lid. Otherwise she’s gonna leak like a bitch

you will find 3” netpot with hydroton the water from the spray will come right out the top of the netpot

Don’t use a rockwool cube to root clones and put it in the hydroton it will get soaked and rot the stem just from the spray wicking up the hydroton or getting “misted” through the tiny gaps in hydroton

Add to all this the pump timing as 24/7 the roots will get lazy and not really reach and grow roots.


Put it this way it was an experiment I would not do again. Did not like the system at all.

Rdwc for the win

But hey if you have the spare space, time and money go for it you may be more successful then me so I’ll keep watching

diggs99 said:

View attachment 4424829

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So why are you growing cacti in hydro?

diggs99 said:

i only have holes drilled at the top of my totes right now for 3/4 pvc manifold to fit through....If i want to switch to RDWC, i just need to drill the 2-3" holes in the bottom/sides, right? or am i missing something? lol its early and i wake n baked

I dont have the drains drilled yet, but even so, i should be able to cap/plug said drains if i wanted to right?




haha i was reading the thread when you posted

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Hope your reducing to 3/4 from 1". Manifolds are the main part, that you then reduce from going to each site, to keep pressure even.

diggs99 said:

i only have holes drilled at the top of my totes right now for 3/4 pvc manifold to fit through....If i want to switch to RDWC, i just need to drill the 2-3" holes in the bottom/sides, right? or am i missing something? lol its early and i wake n baked

I dont have the drains drilled yet, but even so, i should be able to cap/plug said drains if i wanted to right?




haha i was reading the thread when you posted

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With the totes being full of water 24/7 with rdwc I would highly Advise NOT capping or sealing any holes in the bottom where drains were. I'd use a brand new tote.

ToFarGone said:

Well I’m watching this now.
I will give you some advice / warnings. I did an almost identical setup with my peppers and here’s what I found

Use some foam gasket like what they use in exterior doors to seal the tote lid. Otherwise she’s gonna leak like a bitch

you will find 3” netpot with hydroton the water from the spray will come right out the top of the netpot

Don’t use a rockwool cube to root clones and put it in the hydroton it will get soaked and rot the stem just from the spray wicking up the hydroton or getting “misted” through the tiny gaps in hydroton

Add to all this the pump timing as 24/7 the roots will get lazy and not really reach and grow roots.


Put it this way it was an experiment I would not do again. Did not like the system at all.

Rdwc for the win

But hey if you have the spare space, time and money go for it you may be more successful then me so I’ll keep watching

Click to expand...

Ya i put brand new seedlings like literally just from the hull, into my Aero and I think they got drowned. That or the spray was too strong and just stopped growth. I guess I'll have to use rapid rioters wrapped up in llastic to stop outward root growth for the first 2 weeks, THEN put them into the 3" net pots with hydroton once the rooter is full of roots. That way they'll explode out.

Or..
I also had my timer on 1min on every 14mins. I have recently gone down to 1min every 29mins.

Do you in your experience think they really only need 1min every hour or even 2 hours?
1min is plenty to soak the Whooole root system.

ToFarGone said:

Well I’m watching this now.
I will give you some advice / warnings. I did an almost identical setup with my peppers and here’s what I found

Use some foam gasket like what they use in exterior doors to seal the tote lid. Otherwise she’s gonna leak like a bitch

you will find 3” netpot with hydroton the water from the spray will come right out the top of the netpot

Don’t use a rockwool cube to root clones and put it in the hydroton it will get soaked and rot the stem just from the spray wicking up the hydroton or getting “misted” through the tiny gaps in hydroton

Add to all this the pump timing as 24/7 the roots will get lazy and not really reach and grow roots.


Put it this way it was an experiment I would not do again. Did not like the system at all.

Rdwc for the win

But hey if you have the spare space, time and money go for it you may be more successful then me so I’ll keep watching

Click to expand...

so how r your peppers doing in rdwc?was going to try next spring.thxthx

myke said:

so how r your peppers doing in rdwc?was going to try next spring.thxthx

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My peppers did grow in the exact same LPA system the OP is building don’t get me wrong. Just not near the harvest I was hoping for at all. Actually got better in promix with less plants.

I just lost about 1/3rd to stem rot as the water shot up through the net cup and hydroton and the rockwool cube they were originally rooted it got way to wet. And there was no way to stop the water getting up to the cube

You and me both will be rdwc next year. Haven’t personally done peppers in rdwc yet wanted to give lpa a try

Airwalker16 said:

Ya i put brand new seedlings like literally just from the hull, into my Aero and I think they got drowned. That or the spray was too strong and just stopped growth. I guess I'll have to use rapid rioters wrapped up in llastic to stop outward root growth for the first 2 weeks, THEN put them into the 3" net pots with hydroton once the rooter is full of roots. That way they'll explode out.

Or..
I also had my timer on 1min on every 14mins. I have recently gone down to 1min every 29mins.

Do you in your experience think they really only need 1min every hour or even 2 hours?
1min is plenty to soak the Whooole root system.

Click to expand...

Honestly I ended at 1mim on 7min off. I have a few Arduino’s kicking around so it was easy to adjust timing. However I never could get secondary roots to “reach” they always just seemed lazy

Wish I had pics of the roots but it was nothing compared to any HPA system roots I’ve seen.

And I think between shitty roots and loosing plants to stem rot really affected my overall yield. Got more from my promix plants from the same number

Airwalker16 said:

Ya i put brand new seedlings like literally just from the hull, into my Aero and I think they got drowned. That or the spray was too strong and just stopped growth. I guess I'll have to use rapid rioters wrapped up in llastic to stop outward root growth for the first 2 weeks, THEN put them into the 3" net pots with hydroton once the rooter is full of roots. That way they'll explode out.

Or..
I also had my timer on 1min on every 14mins. I have recently gone down to 1min every 29mins.

Do you in your experience think they really only need 1min every hour or even 2 hours?
1min is plenty to soak the Whooole root system.

Click to expand...

I think timing is one of those things that’s so system specific. Personally I think the level of humidity in the root zone plays a lot into it as well as the root zone temp as the roots aren’t hanging in water (Dwc or rdwc) to hell moderate their temp.

Could also be my inexperience as well to be honest. That’s why I’m interested to see if anyone else comes up with something I didn’t think of or can really dial it in.

I just couldn’t justify the system maintenance, space and time to keep messing around with less then satisfactory results

Totally willing to admit I couldn’t get it to work the way I expected. Hope the OP can dial it in better then me as you don’t see much of any LPA systems running other then aero cloner

ToFarGone said:

I think timing is one of those things that’s so system specific. Personally I think the level of humidity in the root zone plays a lot into it as well as the root zone temp as the roots aren’t hanging in water (Dwc or rdwc) to hell moderate their temp.

Could also be my inexperience as well to be honest. That’s why I’m interested to see if anyone else comes up with something I didn’t think of or can really dial it in.

I just couldn’t justify the system maintenance, space and time to keep messing around with less then satisfactory results

Totally willing to admit I couldn’t get it to work the way I expected. Hope the OP can dial it in better then me as you don’t see much of any LPA systems running other then aero cloner

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Yeah, we're all pushing for Rdwc but he seems set-in his decision. more power to him if he can get it to work.

f series said:

So why are you growing cacti in hydro?

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LOL

Airwalker16 said:

Hope your reducing to 3/4 from 1". Manifolds are the main part, that you then reduce from going to each site, to keep pressure even.
With the totes being full of water 24/7 with rdwc I would highly Advise NOT capping or sealing any holes in the bottom where drains were. I'd use a brand new tote.

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Hey, im Not sure im following you bud, what do you mean reducing from 1" to 3/4"? I plan to run a 3/4" pvc manifold off the pump and to each tote, are you saying the main pvc line from pump should be 1"? then reduce it down in each tote to 3/4?

Thanks for heads up on no capping and just using another tote, ill def keep that in mind.

ToFarGone said:

Well I’m watching this now.
I will give you some advice / warnings. I did an almost identical setup with my peppers and here’s what I found

Use some foam gasket like what they use in exterior doors to seal the tote lid. Otherwise she’s gonna leak like a bitch

you will find 3” netpot with hydroton the water from the spray will come right out the top of the netpot

Don’t use a rockwool cube to root clones and put it in the hydroton it will get soaked and rot the stem just from the spray wicking up the hydroton or getting “misted” through the tiny gaps in hydroton

Add to all this the pump timing as 24/7 the roots will get lazy and not really reach and grow roots.


Put it this way it was an experiment I would not do again. Did not like the system at all.

Rdwc for the win

But hey if you have the spare space, time and money go for it you may be more successful then me so I’ll keep watching

Click to expand...

Hey thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with LPA, ill take any and all the help i can get lol. Im setting my sprayers up at the top of the tote, the couple other systems im going off have done similar without issues. Hopefully we dont get much water out the net cup with this method.

I def plan to seal the totes up real good with some gasket of some sort along with aquariam silicone wherever needed.
I wont be running pump 24/7, heat along in res would be problematic i think...Ill prob stick with others on the 1/10...and adjust accordingly.

It was a very close toss up between RDWC or Aero
No guarantees on success, but im going to give it a shot.

Airwalker16 said:

Yeah, we're all pushing for Rdwc but he seems set-in his decision. more power to him if he can get it to work.

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I was a bit trying to decide what i wanted to go with. I made the decision to go Aero, ive already had a few moments where i was like " fuck this, ima go rdwc" lol but im gonna stay true to my word and give this aero a shot. If it works cool, ill be happy, if it dont, whatever, ill be sad but ill just scrap it and build a RDWC or go back to DTW and call it a day.

Like as in this...


Also, if I were you, if you're doing 2 plants per site, why not run the piping right across the lid of the tote to the center, right angle thread to screw in the sprayer head build right from the inside?
Then(if these totes are similar to the HDX totes you've surely seen on here that many people use with the yellow, criss cross molded lids)
you could literally cut the lid into 2 places creating 3 pieces. Just maybe a 3-5" wide piece you'd cut right out of the center. Widthwise of course, not lengthwise.

That piece would be where the piping runs along and screws into it.

And I guess of course you could do the same thing with 1" grommets, and go in through the aide wall just RIGHT BELOW the lid keeping it as high as possible and wrap below it around the perimeter, sorta like the Aero I showed you is set up.
3/4" PVCs outer diameter just happens to fit nice and smug with the hydro flow 1" barbed fitting grommets. Not a permanent attachment to the actual tote, but is a really nice transition in to the tote than just a hole. Luckily. You need a bit bigger than 1" holes to fit them, so you could still make it happen. Just use a hole saw and drill the new hole in the tote so it's flat on a piece of wood. Get a pilot hole started by using the 1" Hole saw so you can get centered, then switch and drill that plastic off.
Because now that there's nothing in the center for the drill to stay on, you gotta sorta "bore it out" more so than drilling it out. Kinda just cutting a bigger hole on top of that hole.

The plan is to go in through just under the handles and then loop the manifold around the perimeter of the tote.

i would have considered running it across top if i never had holes already drilled.

Im Not sure im following you on the 1" grommets and the reducing to 3/4....why cant i just run 3/4 off the pump and then carry on with 3/4 for my tote manifolds? Ill have valves on each riser to control pressure

gonna check this out diggs! let's see what LPA can do.

diggs99 said:

The plan is to go in through just under the handles and then loop the manifold around the perimeter of the tote.

i would have considered running it across top if i never had holes already drilled.

Im Not sure im following you on the 1" grommets and the reducing to 3/4....why cant i just run 3/4 off the pump and then carry on with 3/4 for my tote manifolds? Ill have valves on each riser to control pressure

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You can use 3/4 but hes saying you should reduce to 1/2 just before you enter the totes so pressure can equalize throughout every tote.