Low Pressure Aero build...it has begun!

Axion42 said:

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.

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Ok i wasnt quite understanding what he meant,

Ya thats one way to do it, creating a loop in the manifold before the risers will also equalize pressure if im not mistaken, so all totes will be recieiving the same pressure no matter how far from the res.

Or do you guys think i need to go smaller to create more pressure? from 3/4 to 1/2 would def do just that.

That's how I did my rdwc, 3/4 from pump and 1/2 to each bucket waterfall. Another way you could do it is to put a shutoff valve before each tote so you can have more control over the spray volume.

Axion42 said:

That's how I did my rdwc, 3/4 from pump and 1/2 to each bucket waterfall. Another way you could do it is to put a shutoff valve before each tote so you can have more control over the spray volume.

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Ya i plan to put a valve / shutoff on each riser to help control pressure and so i can shut down each tote as they are finishing up.

what are we doing as far as plants go?

strain?

clones/seeds?

when are you projecting for a start date?

Well I have no idea what classification my creation is or would be, but I know the few short tests I've done shows it works...made a few adjustments to things slightly since I took these pics...and probably more to come...lol
Anyways I do 2 plants in a 2 x 4 foot area...tote is 44" x 20" (I think).
I use 1 pump (120 VAC @ 600 L/H) for sprayers and a small one to circulate the water (12 VDC @ 240 L/H)
I change the water every 1-2 weeks and I add about 4 L/day or 2 tops....I try to keep it between 12-16 liters,
Top panels get covered with 2 layers of plastic to block light out of the tote/water (1 black and 1 silver) then a frame around edges to block out the rest of the light.
The 2 PVC parts...1 is for pump & sprayers and the smaller center one is just for supporting the weight of the plants since the panels flex over time.

rkymtnman said:

what are we doing as far as plants go?

strain?

clones/seeds?

when are you projecting for a start date?

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My current crop is finishing up within the next week or two. I already popped the beans for this run ( Bag of oranges by @Useful Seeds )

Initially i planned to take clones from the same mother but my timing and preparation are way off, so im just gonna rip some seeds and see what we get. Seeds will be going in rapid rooters tomorrow, hopefully by next weekend or shortly after, they will be ready for the aero veg box.

So i guess you can say its already started, prob be another 3-4 weeks before they actually find themselves in this big tote system tho.
Im assuming the veg box will carry them for a couple weeks ? once they begin to outgrow that ill move them into the big totes.

Mak'er Grow said:

Well I have no idea what classification my creation is or would be, but I know the few short tests I've done shows it works...made a few adjustments to things slightly since I took these pics...and probably more to come...lol
Anyways I do 2 plants in a 2 x 4 foot area...tote is 44" x 20" (I think).
I use 1 pump (120 VAC @ 600 L/H) for sprayers and a small one to circulate the water (12 VDC @ 240 L/H)
I change the water every 1-2 weeks and I add about 4 L/day or 2 tops....I try to keep it between 12-16 liters,
Top panels get covered with 2 layers of plastic to block light out of the tote/water (1 black and 1 silver) then a frame around edges to block out the rest of the light.
The 2 PVC parts...1 is for pump & sprayers and the smaller center one is just for supporting the weight of the plants since the panels flex over time.

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Cool, nice job man, you got any pics of plants growing in it?

diggs99 said:

Cool, nice job man, you got any pics of plants growing in it?

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This plant had some problems, but I think this was GG#4 at 10 weeks...found some mites about a week prior...nasty little sh!tz
And I forgot to mention prior...I run my pump for sprayers for 10 seconds every minute...adjustable using Atmega and relays.

Mak'er Grow said:

This plant had some problems, but I think this was GG#4 at 10 weeks...found some mites about a week prior...nasty little sh!tz
And I forgot to mention prior...I run my pump for sprayers for 10 seconds every minute...adjustable using Atmega and relays.

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Oh ya, look at that chunky bitch. Nice

Ive def noticed one common theme among aero and rdwc grows, it seems to grow a very beefy/chunky plant. Big roots , big fruits ect...

ill be happy and call it a success to make it harvest lol

diggs99 said:

Oh ya, look at that chunky bitch. Nice

Ive def noticed one common theme among aero and rdwc grows, it seems to grow a very beefy/chunky plant. Big roots , big fruits ect...

ill be happy and call it a success to make it harvest lol

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Yes the roots grow to be half the size of the plant I find. Where I used totes to hold 2 plants meaning the size needed to be fairly large.
I calculated the size of DWC buckets volume to figure out the size I would need with it being only 7" in height and then added a little just in case and these "Under the bed totes" seem to work nicely and even have wheels to move them around easily if needed, but they DO need to be covered from light leaks or algae will grow...one of the first hurdles I had to figure out.
A new thing I've just tried is putting a "disc" (flat lid from plastic container) in bottom of the net pots.
I kept having problems with root rot etc when I first starting building and found mostly it was starting in the middle where not much air and or water was able to get into the bulk of roots, but the outsides were fine.
By putting the "disc" in the bottom it seems to force the roots to grow out the sides and bottom edges of the pots and not through the bottoms and it leaves a large hole at the bottom of the net pots so lots of air and water can get through just fine now. (Will try to take some pics and post later).
Only other thing I can think of at this time is try to keep pumps and roots away from each other the best you can...they like each other but don't play nice with each other.
Good luck on your grow

diggs99 said:

Hey Phat, thanks for the info...got a few questions about your LPA/HPA setup if you dont mind.

What was your spraying intervals when you got the rot?
What size of system were you running and how big was your pump?
Did you use anything in your res? Southern Ag or h2o2 or poolshock

Thanks man

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Will try, but there are no straight forward answers


It took several lost grows to RR before I figured out that the various starter cubes I tried were getting soaked from overfeeding cycles, and/or over spray. In the case of the LPA/HPA the spray was penetrating into the net pots thereby soaking the starter cubes. Over time this cause RR at the top of the roots. Deeper rez could have cure that, or smaller pump, or...

O/O times have to be monitored based on a number of factors; RH, power of pump, temperature of nutes, ambient air temp directly at the surface of the tote (light heat will penetrate into the rez). HD Al foil is a good idea

hth

PhatNuggz said:

Will try, but there are no straight forward answers


It took several lost grows to RR before I figured out that the various starter cubes I tried were getting soaked from overfeeding cycles, and/or over spray. In the case of the LPA/HPA the spray was penetrating into the net pots thereby soaking the starter cubes. Over time this cause RR at the top of the roots. Deeper rez could have cure that, or smaller pump, or...

O/O times have to be monitored based on a number of factors; RH, power of pump, temperature of nutes, ambient air temp directly at the surface of the tote (light heat will penetrate into the rez). HD Al foil is a good idea

hth

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Thanks for the response,

Were you using rockwool cubes or rapid rooters when you got rot ?

I plan to put my res below the table that the totes will be sitting on, so it should be protected from light/heat a little. Ill also wrap it in Foil if needed.
Should i also foil the individual totes the plants will be in? i was gonna spray the tops all black to help with light getting through.

diggs99 said:

Thanks for the response,

Were you using rockwool cubes or rapid rooters when you got rot ?

I plan to put my res below the table that the totes will be sitting on, so it should be protected from light/heat a little. Ill also wrap it in Foil if needed.
Should i also foil the individual totes the plants will be in? i was gonna spray the tops all black to help with light getting through.

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Be sure to use Rustoleum black spray paint. They have a line that's specifically made to bond to plastic.

Airwalker16 said:

Be sure to use Rustoleum black spray paint. They have a line that's specifically made to bond to plastic.

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Ya i have some Krylon here already, prob the best paint ive ever used for painting plastics or vinyl....
You know you really got me thinking about how to run the pvc manifolds into the totes, i kinda like your idea of running them across the top. Is that how you ran yours?


Heres the seeds that are going in the inaugural "Diggs does Aero " run

5/5 cracked and tails showing, they are going in Rapid rooters in a few minutes.

diggs99 said:

Ya i have some Krylon here already, prob the best paint ive ever used for painting plastics or vinyl....
You know you really got me thinking about how to run the pvc manifolds into the totes, i kinda like your idea of running them across the top. Is that how you ran yours?


Heres the seeds that are going in the inaugural "Diggs does Aero " run

5/5 cracked and tails showing, they are going in Rapid rooters in a few minutes.

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Nah, mine went in through a grommet.
But I figured in a 2 plant per tote setup. Across the top light not be a bad look.
But after thinking on it, it isn't really what you'd want.
You're gonna want to go in from the side and to a square manifold to wrap around the whole top perimeter of your tote so you're spraying down and from all angles

Airwalker16 said:

Nah, mine went in through a grommet.
But I figured in a 2 plant per tote setup. Across the top light not be a bad look.
But after thinking on it, it isn't really what you'd want.
You're gonna want to go in from the side and to a square manifold to wrap around the whole top perimeter of your tote so you're spraying down and from all angles

Click to expand...

Ya that was the original plan and it makes sense. What about also dropping pvc legs with sprayers? or you think the manifold ring up top will me more than enough?

diggs99 said:

Thanks for the response,

Were you using rockwool cubes or rapid rooters when you got rot ?

I plan to put my res below the table that the totes will be sitting on, so it should be protected from light/heat a little. Ill also wrap it in Foil if needed.
Should i also foil the individual totes the plants will be in? i was gonna spray the tops all black to help with light getting through.

Click to expand...

It doesn't matter which starter cubes you sue, if they stay wet too long root rot will follow

keeping both the roots and the rez cool is imperative

hth

PhatNuggz said:

It doesn't matter which starter cubes you sue, if they stay wet too long root rot will follow

keeping both the roots and the rez cool is imperative

hth

Click to expand...

Ya ive been doing some reading on root rot in aero , it seems a good practice is to fill a good portion of the net cup with hydroton before putting the RR or cube in the cup, then filling the remaining hydroton. Allows the rr or cube to stay up a bit further away from the constant spraying/soaking and its the roots work down into the cup and tote.

Not sure if i asked you or not but did you run a live or sterile res?

diggs99 said:

Ya ive been doing some reading on root rot in aero , it seems a good practice is to fill a good portion of the net cup with hydroton before putting the RR or cube in the cup, then filling the remaining hydroton. Allows the rr or cube to stay up a bit further away from the constant spraying/soaking and its the roots work down into the cup and tote.

Not sure if i asked you or not but did you run a live or sterile res?

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I now double net pot with ~ 1/2" marbles between

sterile

PhatNuggz said:

I now double net pot with ~ 1/2" marbles between

sterile

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Oh ingenious , I like it, seems it would help solving the root rot issues from cubes and rrs getting soaked.


What you using for sterile? H2o2 or pool shock or what?