VEGA's EARLesque VS. AEROFLO 2

gvega187

gvega187

Well-Known Member
Things r going well.

Aero

860ppm
ph - 5.6


DIY


850ppm
ph - 5.7

temp - High 81F low. 66F Humidity has been on the rise at 50-65%...moving the dehumidifier in for the kill tonight.


notes -
If using the GH expert feed chart and ONLY using the basic nutrients, the BLOOM stage will set you at a 1050ppm. After that, they suggest you add floralicious bloom, florablend, flora nectar, and o ther various addons. I can not imagine what ppm you might reach when using all of these.

Earl, or anyone, might I try this feed chart at 50-70% strength? I thought the feed charts were supposed to be 100% accurate.
 
gvega187

gvega187

Well-Known Member
Why the Aeroflo is fail and what to change:

1)stock grow chamber raisers keep the tubes level, which does not create an NFT effect in the tubes. You will need to stack at least 4-5" of crap under your tube stand or keep your system on all day to keep the water flowing through there.

2)There is no way to know your water level unless you add back 5gal. buckets and mark a level on the black interior of the panda res. (use not a piece of waterproof tape?)

3)extremely difficult to get working perfect every time, often involves a lot of plumbers tape around sprayer attachments.

4)Drain plumbing could have easily been incorporated into the inline pump assembly for a $1000 system. Instead there is a hose adapter at the bottom the res...I recommend flushing by putting a pump in your res with the hose, because this will not take all day.

5) the 7 foot long tubes are a bit to big for 1 XL reflector, but a bit to small for 2 smaller 600watters. I usually only use 7/10 of the sites in each tube. The last 3 sites I put cups in with foil over them.

the SUM

All in all the Aeroflo is an epic failure for the money they supposedly spent researching this piece. IF they even used it once before selling it they would have noticed there is no water level meter. When I emailed General Hydro about this they said "you are right, the top most ridge in the resevoir is ABOUT 35 gal."....ABOUT?!?! this is aeroponics...you can ABOUT cram that aeroflo right back up ur ass on some general guestimation bullcrap.

Anyways...im ordering new parts for another DIY system today. Thanks again Earl.
 
morrisgreenberg

morrisgreenberg

Well-Known Member
hey gvega, excellent grow, personally i think they built that like garbage and GH inspired to build my own, as for the nutes, i used that "expert" and yea you may want to 75%, all the other additives like floraliscous and flora nectar, if used too much wont burn your plants as if you used too much florabloom, i was actually suprised, my finished product tasted very good from the flora nectar
 
gvega187

gvega187

Well-Known Member
morrisgreenberg said:
hey gvega, excellent grow, personally i think they built that like garbage and GH inspired to build my own, as for the nutes, i used that "expert" and yea you may want to 75%, all the other additives like floraliscous and flora nectar, if used too much wont burn your plants as if you used too much florabloom, i was actually suprised, my finished product tasted very good from the flora nectar
Click to expand...
cool stuff, I am going to try not using any additives because I think its all a load of BS especially with the amount of h2o2 I use. The nectar sounds cool, but I want to see how good I can get it tasting with just a good clearex flush also.

Indeed the GH aeroflo needs serious updating. I imagine when they get it right it will probably look like Earl's space shuttle or a uncessarily oversized version of my DIY.

Thanks for replying greenburg I was beginning to think i was talking to myself again.

Should have posted my JOURNAL in the hydro/aero forum like everyone else I guess haha.
 
D

disposition84

Well-Known Member
I think you might be juding the AF2 a little hard. I use one myself and though I find myself cursing it sometimes, overall I think it's a great system if you're willing to work with it.

1. I typically leave my system on 24/7 and have had no adverse effects because of it.

2. Yeah it sucks not knowing how much water is in your res, but I feel that as long as the nutes ppm is ok it shouldn't matter how much is in the res. For nute load balancing I typically use a 35gallon rubbermaid tub which i've measured out ahead of time, and balance my nutes in there, then pump them to the system. It might take a bit longer, but it gives me time to go through and trim or multitask doing something else.

3. I couldn't agree more it's a leaky sob at times, especially the sprayer hose connections. I can't count the number of times i've overtightened those and the connection has come loose. But with a bit of patience and plumbers tape it should be fixed within the first few days.

4. I've actually never used their plumbing as I've alwas used a seperate pump that I use for putting nutes in to take them out. I just run it to the bathroom I have and let it go while i'm checking on other things. Takes a bit of time, but patience is definitely the name of the game when it comes to growing.

5. I use 4x 600w to cover my af2 and feel this is a really nice amount of light for the system. I use the coolstar plus reflectors which I've really grown fond of, they require basic assymbly but have all the benifits of a cooltube mixed with a reflector, provides for nice coverage and easy cooling in a sealed room.

I can't really say it's an epic failure for the money as I got my system for 500 bucks off a friend who was moving, pump and all. There are minor issues with it overall, but not having to build everything from scratch was nice. I've had 4 runs with WW in it now, and each one has gotten better as i've learned how things are supposed to run and built up more funds for upgrades such as water chiller which i've really seen improvements with.
 
morrisgreenberg

morrisgreenberg

Well-Known Member
i dont know about you guys, but most of the fun about hydro and aero for me comes from biulding my own units, solving some bumps in the road if i cant find parts, think about it, you manganed to slap together a plastic tube and grow a perfect plant, just yesterday(i have 4 x 50 site aero units) i picked up a 3x3 flood table, grabbed a pump and made my own drip rings to top feed my mothers in clay, the interchangability is just great, setting these things up are costly and hard work sometimes but this is my only hobby and its slowly becoming my life, this is all i think about all day, i dunno, im completly emmerced in this "thing of ours"
 
gvega187

gvega187

Well-Known Member
disposition84 said:
I think you might be juding the AF2 a little hard. I use one myself and though I find myself cursing it sometimes, overall I think it's a great system if you're willing to work with it.

1. I typically leave my system on 24/7 and have had no adverse effects because of it.

2. Yeah it sucks not knowing how much water is in your res, but I feel that as long as the nutes ppm is ok it shouldn't matter how much is in the res. For nute load balancing I typically use a 35gallon rubbermaid tub which i've measured out ahead of time, and balance my nutes in there, then pump them to the system. It might take a bit longer, but it gives me time to go through and trim or multitask doing something else.

3. I couldn't agree more it's a leaky sob at times, especially the sprayer hose connections. I can't count the number of times i've overtightened those and the connection has come loose. But with a bit of patience and plumbers tape it should be fixed within the first few days.

4. I've actually never used their plumbing as I've alwas used a seperate pump that I use for putting nutes in to take them out. I just run it to the bathroom I have and let it go while i'm checking on other things. Takes a bit of time, but patience is definitely the name of the game when it comes to growing.

5. I use 4x 600w to cover my af2 and feel this is a really nice amount of light for the system. I use the coolstar plus reflectors which I've really grown fond of, they require basic assymbly but have all the benifits of a cooltube mixed with a reflector, provides for nice coverage and easy cooling in a sealed room.

I can't really say it's an epic failure for the money as I got my system for 500 bucks off a friend who was moving, pump and all. There are minor issues with it overall, but not having to build everything from scratch was nice. I've had 4 runs with WW in it now, and each one has gotten better as i've learned how things are supposed to run and built up more funds for upgrades such as water chiller which i've really seen improvements with.
Click to expand...
k, good deals. Your right I am judging the Aeroflo hard. It currently is working and plants are growing in it...THAT'S FANTASTIC REALLY

I also use a coolstar sometimes...actually 1 is up in this grow because its so huge. I am sketched about the custom dimpling job on the actual reflector, but seems to distribute light evenly....I can test that later when the lights come on.

4x 600 is a lot.

A chiller will make your life easier, but improve little.

perhaps for you sir I will upgrade my epic failure rating to....a mere failure for the money...that is unless of course you have a friend who is moving and he sells it to you for a steal.
 
gvega187

gvega187

Well-Known Member
morrisgreenberg said:
i dont know about you guys, but most of the fun about hydro and aero for me comes from biulding my own units, solving some bumps in the road if i cant find parts, think about it, you manganed to slap together a plastic tube and grow a perfect plant, just yesterday(i have 4 x 50 site aero units) i picked up a 3x3 flood table, grabbed a pump and made my own drip rings to top feed my mothers in clay, the interchangability is just great, setting these things up are costly and hard work sometimes but this is my only hobby and its slowly becoming my life, this is all i think about all day, i dunno, im completly emmerced in this "thing of ours"
Click to expand...
u think about starting a journal? Seen u all over peoples DIY threads, but no journal...tis rare.

indeed making your own system has a certain satisfaction...especially when it works out much better than the competing professional version.

The saving $ part is also a +
 
morrisgreenberg

morrisgreenberg

Well-Known Member
i started getting comfortable posting pix a few months back, and i really really wanna show my shit off, but im a little nervous these days, especially since its not like a couple plants anymore
 
gvega187

gvega187

Well-Known Member
morrisgreenberg said:
i started getting comfortable posting pix a few months back, and i really really wanna show my shit off, but im a little nervous these days, especially since its not like a couple plants anymore
Click to expand...
haha I understand. I am just doing a lot of personal growing and experimenting now so I am not worried about it.

You must live in the USA...that's 2 bad.

anywho hopefully someday things will calm down. Then we will be doing ok growing for camel MJ cigs. division.

curious if you use any proxy servers or what not for logging in here. I have been messing around with some things like that for pirating music lol.
 
morrisgreenberg

morrisgreenberg

Well-Known Member
i used to use a prgram called TOR, and i know some people on here have issues with similar proxies, it moves painful slow, like watching paint dry, i been hearing a lot of buzzing about in june they are gonna pass the medical MJ laws, its outline like in cali, but i have read 12 plants per patient, which is double than cali's so we'll see, its alredy decriminilazed which means a small fine for possession
 
gvega187

gvega187

Well-Known Member
Things are looking well. Flowering is finally getting a good boost. Pics later.

Aero

ph - 6.1

DIY

ph - 5.8

ppm - 830

Flush tonight and add h2o2
 
morrisgreenberg

morrisgreenberg

Well-Known Member
did you say aero?!>?!?! you will see me posting in threads called "how do i screw in my ez clone sprayer" if aero's involved im up in that
 
morrisgreenberg

morrisgreenberg

Well-Known Member
how we lookin vega? i can only assume colas are getting thick and your head is in the room more than infront of the computer
 
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