Hello all, and thanks for stopping in. I've been on these forums for a while now, and I usually grow in coco/perlite. Well I've heard all the rage of aeroponics and want to take the next and hopefully final step in my indoor grow setup for personal medication. I've been doing a bit of learning this past couple weeks on LP and HP aeroponics and systems, and I am going with low pressure for starters, mostly because of availability and simplicity. Been watching vids on the tube and reading on many forums including here and think I have a final grasp on what type of system I want to build. Home Depot and Lowes are where im sourcing most of these parts. My first question is, what are the spray heads that give off the finest mist under low pressure (300-660gph pond pump) at first I was going to go with the little 360 blue heads with red tips from home depot for $3-10pk but have heard and seen they give off weak "streams" of water instead of a fine spray or mist. 360 heads next I saw these FOGGER heads: FOGGER heads cant find any vids anywhere of these in action, but does anyone have exp with these fogger heads? $5 5pk Home depot and then finally I was going to go with these as a failsafe decision if all else doesnt work properly. turboclone/cloner 360 red heads ezclone/turboclone heads 360 Need input on head types, and do I need a 660gph pump to push about 30 of these heads through about 4ft of 1/2" pvc or could I use as little as 300gph? Im looking for a good spray not a weak drizzle. thanks for lookin guys.
I would go with more than needed just to be sure on the pump. It will be a plus if you ever decide to add on to your system. I don't have any input on the sprayer heads though.
no one have much experience with LOWES or HOME DEPOT low pressure heads, fogger heads, sprinkler heads, misters? how much PSI does a 1/6hp pump from lowes/hd push out?
couldnt tell you bud, i always go to my local hydro store and shell out for good pumps, not saying the cheaper stuff doesn't work, and well at that, but the guys at the store know what you will need for your setup, build a relationship with them, it can be very rewarding. It is their business to know how to make you successful
-sigh- a few years back these forums where chock full of old school knowledge-heads. now everyones just shooting for post-counts..... i almost never get any help from gc forums anymore.....
Get some ez clone sprayers they seem to work very well for me. Remember the finer mist they produce the more pressure they need do you might wanna go with a bigger pump.
Hey Vicarious. I thought Id chime in with my 2 cents. Ive just finally completed building an aeroponics setup. Im not exactly sure if it would fall under HP or LP. But non the less, I hope I can help. I had a difficult time when researching on aeroponics since people with a solid knowledge are hard to come by. On top of most people not even knowing what a true areoponics system is. Most are more of a hybrid or outright film technique hydro setup that I came across, low pressure high volume. Technically Im not even 100% areo since Im using a planting medium, peat pellets. You want mister heads that will give you a starting point of 5 micro +/-. There is debate about how much or little it should be. I went with a 10-15 micro, .8gph fogger heads, pushing my solution from 50 - 120psi. Drip Irrigation Foggers & Misters | DIG: Irrigation DIY (bottom of page). Ive recently come across Mist King heads. Im not sure how they work. They sure did peak my interest tho. Far as the pump, if you going to end up spending around $100 do yourself the favor and splurge a little more. Aquatec (Made in USA!!!) makes phenomenal pumps, and ones specifically suited to our purposes. High pressure, low volume. They can handle on delivery mode, short run times (down to 5 sec on/off), and are built to handle nutrients/chemicals running through them. Their customer service is also great. I was actually able to talk to their engineer. But you will have to have done your own home work for them to help you narrow down exactly which model will suite your current/future needs.
So aeroponics is my first choice in grow methods I have a system I have a patent on and actually grow from seed to full growth unlike most who simply use it for just clones I must say the ez clone 360 spray heads are the best bang for your buck and considering you want to go with low pressure it's the way to go hp is way over raided and cost a lot more for such minor results I use a 400 gph active aqua pump with 1/2 inch NSF PVC pipe I use a Eco plus pump with a 4" disk bubbler works fantastic aeroponics is by far the most underrated and simply the best hands down any questions let me know
i use LP Aero tables and I like it. I do 1mn on 5mn off cycle General Hydro flora at 75% strength. I use ez clone 360* heads with Eco pumps and chiller. each 5 inch net pot has 3 heads spraying it on a pvc line so its sprayer pot w sprayer under it sprayer. and let my ph drift from 5.2-6.2. I use hydroton in my pots keeps the sprayers particle free. I'm tempted to switch to no medium but I have made the mistake of leaving my pumps off over night and thankfully didn't kill them all but w/o a medium they would of been toast. I hope this helps some.
I got away from water pumps in general. I tried several variations of LP and HP. Go with the larger pump. Essentially you will be creating higher pressure in the lines and the nozzles will perform better. Ultimately I designed an air cutter system that cuts water droplet size to 5 microns. It uses about a gallon of 300ppm solution each day with no drain back to the reservoir and no need for waste drain at all! Best of all...it doesn't clog like nozzles do with nutrient solution. Here are some root shots Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
If your using air atomising nozzles you need to adjust the air/liquid so the mist is slightly wetter to fatten up the roots at the bottom. If the nozzles are mounted low down, you may need to increase the misting duration in the early stages to ensure the larger (30-50um) wetter droplets are getting pushed to the top, not just the 5um fog like dry mist. The brown roots at the top of the netpot are usually the result of keeping them too dry.
I definitely need to get a better timer. I am running 4 min on 56 min off. This is due to a limited number of programmable settings on my timer...I think the roots could be muuuuch more developed if I were running 15 seconds every 5 minutes. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Are you running an aero grow system? If so, what is your setup? Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I have air atomising nozzles and high pressure nozzles in different setups. The AA runs on a silent air compressor and the hp`s` run on a large accumulator tank thats topped up with nutes every few days with a high pressure pump. . The longest misting duration i use is 2 seconds, if they need more moisture i cut the time down between mistings by 5-10 seconds until they have enough. If your misting for 4 minutes and the roots feel dry or sticky, i`d say the droplet size is probably too small. How are you generating the mist? I just reread your post and 56 minutes is way too long for the roots to be without mist, 10 minutes is about as long as i go on the HP at night, its much less on the AA but a lot depends on the kind of mist. A more versatile timer is the best way forward
Any thoughts on the sentinel M1 timer? I have done some observation and the fog hangs in my individual root chambers for about 5 minutes after fogging. I am using air cutters to cut water droplet size down to 5-20mu. I used air cutters because the nutrient line will hardly ever clog and the only moving parts are the high speed fan. Definitely going to order a new timer like...right now! Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Do you have any root pictures? What kind of root/stem growth are you getting? Obviously strain specific, but looking for a marker to measure against. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Is the air cutter something like a dynafog greenhouse humidifier? Its the only thing i can think of that delivers 5-20um droplets using high speed air. The ones i`ve seen all sound like jet engines, you must have some epic soundproofing If its a dynafog type fogger, the misting time will need to be long enough to get the fan upto speed. The 5 minutes hangtime of small droplets (<20um) maintains background humidity between mistings. The roots also need the larger, shorter lived, 30-50um droplets produced during the misting. Size is relative, individual 50um droplets are hard to see with the naked eye. 5-20um resembles smoke. Ultrasonic foggers generate 1-5um droplets which produce thin wispy roots. I`ve been playing around with an outdoor AA setup, full sun and huge day/night temp swings make it a real challenge. I`ll try to put some pics up later