Thought I'd post a little bit of info on my latest project. This is really an expansion/refinement of my smaller "cloner" system that I've posted about in another forum here. It's still an "
aeroponics hybrid" type setup, just on a slightly bigger scale and intended to hold fewer, larger plants.
They key find in this build for me was the tote itself. In my first build I had issues with leaking around lid when the pumps were on and I wanted to find a tote that was a little more resistant to that by design. The tote I ended up with I had actually seen online in a Youtube video. It took a little bit of digging around and some research to figure out what tote it was and where to find it...but I finally did. The nice thing about this particular tote is that the lid (when placed on "right side up") has a upwards hump to it. When flipped over and placed inside the tote upside down, this provides a very nice lip (almost) all the way around the tote that prevents any water from getting up to and over the top lip of the tote. Built in leak protection!
The only place I had to worry about leaking was on the very ends where the little curved part of the lid over the handle area doesn't provide this lip. Some weather stripping around the lip of the tote is proving enough to prevent any leaks here though.
As you can see in the picture of the lid, these will be 8 site systems. Probably not enough room for some of the plants at full maturity, but should be large enough for 8 plants to have plenty of grow room for a while. I'm using 3.75" net pots in the system. A 3.5" hole saw and a few minutes on each hole with some sand paper made for a perfect snug, flush fit for the pots.
Next couple of pics show the spray bar configuration. Took a little bit of tweaking to get the sprayers at just the right height, but I ended up with excellent coverage across all 8 pots. The sprayers are the ones used in the EZ-Clone system. The
pump is a 400 GPH pump. The pic showing the test fit of the spray assembly inside the tote also highlights one of my two gripes about this tote. You can clearly see the "vents" on the handle area inside the tote. Covering these somehow was obviously a necessity, yet proved somewhat of a challenge at the same time. I ended up using some clear silicon caulk to cover the slits and to fill in the handle recesses. It holds perfectly well so far...will have to see how it holds up in the long run.
The second gripe I have about the totes themselves is that they are rather thin and let light in. As you can see I decided to paint the totes to try and block any light from coming through. Took several coats on each to get a good light block. Also got a close up pic in there showing the hole I drilled for the power plug for the pump and the air hose. The hole for the air hose is a bit smaller than the diameter of the hose itself, so it's a very tight fit and doesn't leak at all. For the power plug hole, I have the cord fitted through a neoprene disc to prevent any water leaks.
The light I added uses a 400W MH/
hps switchable
ballast. I'm currently using the MH bulb in a very basic (and cheap
) "bat wing" reflector.
I've got some plants in the system now but don't have any pics of that yet. The last one shows both totes in their final resting place with net pots in place. You can also see the dual outlet airpump off to the side in the last pic that supplies the air to the 6" air stones placed in the bottom of each tote.