Medium pressure drain to waste Aeroponic system?

I am putting one together right now. There was a poster named Fatman who outlined the sytem.

Basically it is a medium pressure (30-40 PSI) aeroponic spray system with a deep chamber (minimum 2' height from netpot to bottom of drain pan) that will drain to waste.

I really like the idea of the system as you can go higher temperatures without worrying about the resevoir problems. Drain to waste would allow alot more control of the nutrient feeding.

I plan on using a 3x3 botanicare flood and drain tray as the base, build a box about 2'high along the track of the flood tray and install a 3x3 top with 16 holes for 2" netpots. I plan on setting up 8 - 360 degree spray heads and feeding about 2 seconds every minute.

The pump I am going to use has a head pressure of 66' to be able to deliver the 30 PSI I will need. I am going to set it up on a recirculation system with solenoids to switch the pump over to spray for 2 seconds a minute.

Has anyone else tried anything like this?

NLXSK1 said:

Has anyone else tried anything like this?

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Yes, I have. My system is not drain to waste though. I used 275 gallon food-grade syrup containers for my grow chambers. I am 2 weeks from tying up my first grow in it and things are working out in spectacular fashion.

I built a 4" PVC system initially, but scrapped it after a week ($300 and 30 construction hours later). I had a major algae issue due to a number of things, not the least of which was light penetration into my root zone. While trying to decide how to address the issue, I decided that Fatman was right about the crowding of roots in a 4" system. Yes, people grow successfully in 4" systems, but I believe that they lose out on many of the benefits of aero in doing so. Not knocking the system, I just believe deep chamber makes more sense.

My root chambers are about 24" deep and wrapped in panda plastic to keep them light tight. The tops were constructed of shower paneling from Home Depot and use 2" netpots (which will likely be replaced with 3" after this round - the weight of the plants has pushed one of them through the top a couple of times, but it's manageable for now). My system is obviously recirculating and I use a chiller to keep temps ~67. My manifold is 2 tiered, as shown in 1 of the pics - the bottom tier has 4 330 degree sprayers. Both chambers are driven off the same pump, an 800 GPH - it's low pressure. I considered going MP / HP, but concerns about maintenance have kept me away so far. I have my feed pump and airstone connected to a APC 1000 battery backup, and it has saved me a couple of times (in 3 months) - definitely a must have.

My res. is now insulated, but will soon be replaced with a large Igloo cooler for the sake of increased chiller efficiency. I can't give any numbers yet, but this round is going to blow the last round (in rockwool, drip system) out of the water. I averaged 3.5 Z per plant last time, they finished about 4' tall with alot of training, and were under 2 600w HPS. I'm entering the final 2 weeks and things have surpassed my expectations, in spite of the root issues that started pre-chiller. The root ball from each 3' tall plant would easily fill a 1 gallon container, packed solid.

It's cool to see others doing the same thing...

+rep

I like the way those containers are designed. Very simple and easy to clean, I will have to look into some. I also appreciate the comments about the net pots. I would have had the same problem with the 2" ones.

The reason I am looking at medium pressure is that drain to waste gives me so much more control over the nutes and it is a more efficient system using about 2 gallons a day (hopefully). I am really sick of emptying and filling 40 gallon flood and drain tanks. Also, I cannot seem to keep the nutes stable without plant deficiencies for more than a week.

Definitely keep me posted.

NLXSK1 said:

+rep

I like the way those containers are designed. Very simple and easy to clean, I will have to look into some. I also appreciate the comments about the net pots. I would have had the same problem with the 2" ones.

The reason I am looking at medium pressure is that drain to waste gives me so much more control over the nutes and it is a more efficient system using about 2 gallons a day (hopefully). I am really sick of emptying and filling 40 gallon flood and drain tanks. Also, I cannot seem to keep the nutes stable without plant deficiencies for more than a week.

Definitely keep me posted.

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I hear you, I dread res changes. Your reasoning behind MP sounds solid. With my LP system, drain to waste would kill me as I'd go through 15 gallons an hour easily (I feed once every 6 min, and have no medium whatsoever to retain water).

I found my containers on Craigslist for $90 each. I chopped them immediately above one of the horizontal aluminum members visible in the pics. I then used one of the horizontal members that I removed from the top (the containers are about 4' tall when you get them and need to be shortened unless you have 15' of overhead and a pair of drywall stilts to wear while working with plants ) as a frame to which I anchored my shower paneling for the table. The initial cut left a 1' portion of the plastic container which I cut down to about 6" (picture a 6" tall cross section of the plastic only). I took this 6" piece and riveted it into the aluminum member to which I had secured my shower paneling in such a way that it serves as a spray skirt - keeping water from shooting out the gap between top and bottom. The 6" spray skirt flexes enough that I am able to slide it into the chamber itself when re-seating the top. I hope this makes some sense.

I meant to add that I came up with a great idea for redundancy in the event of a pump failure - instead of using 1 pump running for 1 minute out of every 6, I will (once this grow is finished) run 2 pumps. Each pump will run for 1 minute out of every 10, but they will be staggered by 5 minutes so that they are leap frogging each other - this way I don't need to worry about the pumps emptying my res. while running at the same time, or increasing my res temps. Each pump will have its own manifold, and the manifolds will be a different heights so that I get better spray coverage - and a safeguard against plant death should one pump fail while I'm at work / asleep.

any pics????????????

squarepush3r said:

any pics????????????

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Of the OP's proposed system?

squarepush3r said:

any pics????????????

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I could take a few but they wouldnt mean much. I have the solenoid assembly put together but havent hooked up any plumbing. I anticipate 4-8 weeks until I have it up and running.