My 2nd "Aeroponic" Hybrid Setup

[txice]

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.

[GpsFrontier]

I really like this setup and your design, and these are good pictures of it all. I also see now how the upside down lid fits. It looks secure enough but if not it would be simple enough to drop some pins in the corners. I only have 2 possible suggestions. One painting it black works great to light proof it, but I would paint it white after to reflect light so it wont absorb heat as much. The second is I don't know if you glued P.V.C. tubing and if not that is fine but if you did it would be imposable to clean it out. I am thinking of the legs. If there was ever a time that some bacteria got into the solution you wouldn't be able to clean out the legs thoroughly. All you would be able to do is soak it in bleach. I would probably just fill them with something like 100% silicone or use a connector that was solid. Other than that I relay like this design.

I plan to build a couple of aeroponic systems and have a few questions about the pump you have. By the look of the box I assume you got it at a hydro store.

1. I am wondering if it gives you a psi rating and/or if it tells how many emitters/misters it was rated for?

2. Does it say it is for aeroponisc? Just wondering if it is designed for more pressure or just more volume that makes the biggest difference.

3. How much it costs?

4. Brand name or website if it has one?

5. I assume you tested it to see if all the emitters/misters were getting enough presser and if they were? Also if you would be abble to add more emitters without much presser loss?

The systems I am planning would be much bigger, but use the same type of P.V.C. tubing with the emitters/misters screwed into it for the delivery system . My issue is getting enough presser to feed all the emitters/misters I need without buying a lot of pumps. I have a plan to use a small inexpensive presser washer with a presser regulator, but will probably be a hassel to work out the bugs.

[txice]

Thanks .

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

I also see now how the upside down lid fits. It looks secure enough but if not it would be simple enough to drop some pins in the corners.

It is indeed quite secure and there have been no issues with leaking at all. The wife and I thought we might need to get some sort of clip of some kind to pinch down the ends, but just the weather striping and the weight of the lid itself is proving enough to prevent water from coming out. The odd thing about this model of the tote is that the larger size (the 54 gal one) is the only version of this tote where the lid actually fits inside the tote upside down. The smaller sizes of the same design don't work the same way (at least not the ones they had at the store there that I tested).

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

One painting it black works great to light proof it, but I would paint it white after to reflect light so it wont absorb heat as much.

You know I wanted to do that, but the wife thinks the black looks better ....what can ya do right?? In all honesty though, I can't necessarily disagree with her on that point alone, lol.

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

The second is I don't know if you glued P.V.C. tubing and if not that is fine but if you did it would be imposable to clean it out.

I actually did not for this exact reason. Since all the tubing remains inside the tub, I didn't care about small leaks and I wanted to be able to take it apart if need be for what ever reason. The one exception is that I did glue the "T" connection coming from the pump to the "+" connection it's flush with. I did that mainly for support because the pice of pipe that joined those two pieces together was so small it seemed unstable.

As for the pump itself, I indeed did purchase this from one of the local hydroponics stores. The box printing indicates the pump is "ideal for ebb and flow or drip hydroponic systems", but does not give any information relative to aeroponics such as PSI or number of emitters supported. The pump isn't designed to be used in a "true aeroponic" type system where high pressure is needed. The only tech detail I can find for it simply lists head feet and volume which is 8 ft and 400gph respectively. I used to have a PSI guage I could screw onto a faucet to read pressure coming out of it...I could maybe see if I could find it again and do a test hookup to the pump to get a PSI reading. I'm wager it would be fairly low though.

The pump itself is made by Hydrofarm and it's the ActiveAqua AAPW400 model pump. Here is a direct link to the manufacturers web page for this particular pump: Hydrofarm - Active Aqua AAPW400 ActiveAqua Pump 400 GPH.

They list the pump for $26.95 but the guy at my hydro store only charged me a flat $20 for them.

Yes, I ran several tests to ensure a nice even spray across all the emitters and that there was a fair amount of pressure coming out. It's not a "hard" spray per say, but it's coming out of the sprayers pretty good. Certainly not enough pressure to actually turn the water into a fine mist, but I get a nice fan spray out of all of them. I don't doubt I could easily add a handfull of sprayers without any noticable drop in performance, but how far could I actually expand before seeing a drop?? I don't know to be honest. As a comparison my first system has a 185gph pump with 8 of the same emitters inside a much smaller tote and, though I get good enough coverage for the application, it's a fairly weak spray and I honestly feel the pump should be a bit larger (or that I should at the least reduce the number of sprayers). Though I could also say that the new 400gph pump I have in the larger system would be waaaay to much for the smaller one.

[GpsFrontier]

It's not a "hard" spray per say, but it's coming out of the sprayers pretty good. Certainly not enough pressure to actually turn the water into a fine mist, but I get a nice fan spray out of all of them. I don't doubt I could easily add a handfull of sprayers without any noticable drop in performance, but how far could I actually expand before seeing a drop?? I don't know to be honest. As a comparison my first system has a 185gph pump with 8 of the same emitters inside a much smaller tote and, though I get good enough coverage for the application, it's a fairly weak spray and I honestly feel the pump should be a bit larger (or that I should at the least reduce the number of sprayers). Though I could also say that the new 400gph pump I have in the larger system would be waaaay to much for the smaller one.

Thanks, that helps. One system I have planed will have somewhere between 24 and 48 emitters/misters. The other will probably have something like 15 per growing chamber and I am not sure how many growing chambers but I am thinking 4 right now. The spray should not really be a mist anyway so that I am not concerned with, but rather a good constant flow for root saturation. The emitters/misters I will get from a hydro store and will take care of getting the right droplet size. But it's good to know that a regular pump can put out enough presser to run a descent amount of emitters/misters.

The presser washer and presser regulator that I had in mind would run around $100 for the presser washer and $80 for the regulator, plus miscellaneous fittings and hoses. So I was figuring around $200 to $225 to get it working. Thanks for the link to the pump. I see they also have larger pumps up to 1000 gallons per hr. Though I wont be able to get these pumps for these prices because we don't have a hydroponics store in our town, I would need to order online and add the shipping cost to the price.

I recently bought a pump (picture attached) to run my third hydro system and it is rated at 300-500 gallons per hr and up to 8.7 feet. I think the feet height is probably the import part because the higher it can go the more back presser it can take. This pump is too powerful for this system because it kept filling faster than it would drain. It was already built so I couldn't just add a second overflow, so I put a "T" inline with the tube and just ran it strait back into the reservoir to cut down the flow to the system. But that got me thinking this pump might be able to run the emitters/misters, how many was the question. I just got this pump at Lowe's for $44. Even if I needed 2 of these to run the 48 and/or 60 emitters/misters for each of the two systems it would still be cheaper, and I wouldn't need to figure out how to make it work.

Even though I still like the presser washer idea there are many unknowns and would be expensive to buy everything just to learn it wont work. It will put out 1500 psi and that can run hundreds of emitters/misters with that kind of presser (regulated to the system needs of coarse). Though that brings up the other major issue and that is volume, how many gallons per hour it could put out, how many gallons are needed for that many emitters/misters. I forget what it said on the box but it was probably wasn't high, but then again it is designed for presser not volume. I would be able to fit a larger/wider hose to it, but the size of the original opening/water outlet would dictate the ultimate volume it can put out. The last issue is filtration. I would need to make sure it had a non restrictive filtration system that will keep small particles out, or I am not sure what might happen to it.

I will probably build a similar design to yours sometime in the future. I especially like the idea of the upside down lids, and the use of weather stripping for waterproofing.

[txice]

Certainly sounds like an interesting concept. I'd enjoy seeing what you finally come up with.

As to any future builds you might do similar to mine, if you use the same tote I did (which is a Rubbermaid Roughneck Hi Top by the way), just keep in mind that, for what ever odd reason, the lids on the smaller versions don't fit in the tote upside down. Must just be a weird design thing but all the totes I played with at the store simply would not fit. No matter of pressing bending or forcing would get it to go in. On the 54 gal. version though....slides right in like butter. Weird. Oh...another note on the tote, at least here in my neck of the woods, Home Depot was the only place I found that carried them and for what ever reason you cannot order the 54 gal. version from Rubbermaids website.

Oh yeah and speaking of weather stripping. On my small cloner system, I ended up running a 2nd layer of stripping around the lid in hopes it would mash up against the first layer around the top of the tote enough to stop the leaks...and it seems to have worked. I've not seen a drop come out since the modification .

[GpsFrontier]

Certainly sounds like an interesting concept. I'd enjoy seeing what you finally come up with.

I don't know how long it will be before I get them built (cash you know). But I will do some drawings to give you some ideas of what I am planing. I am trying to get the cash to build enough systems so I grow enough produce to sell at the local farmers market. I want to start a hydroponics farm but I will need to start small. For my plans I need $1000-$2000 to get the first 6 systems running. I'm planing 11 different crops. That should be a good variety, and a good start.

Sounds like a lot of money for 6 systems, but not really. $100 just for the business license, $40 for the spot at the market, and I will be getting the 2.5 gallon jugs of General Hydroponic nutrient about $90 ea x3= $270 plus shipping. Also for that many systems plus what I am running now, I will get a pH pen instead of using the drops because it will be cost effective in the long run. That's about $500 and nothing even built yet. I will be on the lookout for those 54 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck Hi Top storage containers.

[andreamore]

Thanks, when I saw your aeroponic design with the pipes inside the container, it helped me with my design for my hydroponic setup.

[txice]

Glad it was of use to you . The system has certainly worked quite well for me. I got the building part down....now if I can just get a little more green in my thumb....