TAG (true aeroponics) Colombian Style...construction

Hello Everyone,
This is ColombianGold from the beautiful and crazy Bogotá. Colombia is the capital of the world in brickweed. This is why I decided to build my setup. I will do my best to be clear on my posts but understand english is not my main language.

Who said TAG was dead? Its not going anywhere but up.
I´m setting up a TAG (true aeroponics grow) due to is its efficiency and rapid growth. Its not a common way of growing but I think with some work and fine tuning its better than anything.
Its been a couple of years since my last grow and I am ready for the action. I only have experience on soil so this will be my first soiless All help will be highly appreciated. Like several of you I got bored of transplanting and due to my business I don´t have alot of time to work on the grow room.

When I mean Colombian Style it means work with ingenuity and simplification. There is no such thing as a local hydro shop so I´ve had to improvise a lot. Basically my main philosophy is ¨use what I got¨ so if you see unnecessary things on my setup, please tell me but its probably there because its what I got.
My grow room is probably the worst area you can find for growing healthy buds, its hot, low ventilated, small, uncomfortable, no odor control, loud, etc etc but its what I got! It is prefect for a sauna.
Not everything is bad, these are local specs.
Tap water
ph: 7.5
EC: 0, I thought my meter was DOA
temp out of sink: 68F
room temp: 72F
Bogota is famous for its clean and pure water supply.

Before I start I must thank Pod Racer, JustATry, whereisBrianV, GroNut. This is based on your wealth of information and inspired on your setups. Thank you and talk to you soon

This is my setup...
Flowering and vegging spaces, vegging side is currently storage.
1¨ PVC pipes with dual 1/2¨ tubing exits. Using PVC is major pain I DON NOT RECOMMEND IT, everything can be done with hoses, they are flexible and cheaper. I used PVC because I had already bought it.


My pump is a Pedrollo 1/2HP 1¨ outlet. Its ouput is 1.3gal/min @ 55 psi. Thats my reservoir, Its two of those plastic tubs stacked about 10 gallons (purple lid). The green tub is where the plants will be. I have space for 2 tubs, each one is connected to a blue hose with barbed fittings.


The lights: I have a 400 watt HPS for flowering and a 150 HPS for vegging. If you look closely at the lamps they are made out of 3cm thick mdf and galvanized sheet. I made this with my barehands and some carpentry tools. These are my second generation lamps, generation one were made out of bent galvanized sheet. If you look closely at the vegging side you can see the original lamp. I didn´t change it to the new one because the mdf one was too narrow and the light stayed in the lamp. I will use it to explain it. At one end there is a box that contains a fan that slides into the lamp. Everything on the lamp slides for easy maintenance, the glass, the box that contains the fan, and the box´s lid.





Generation 3 lamp is the simplest....too simple. I made it out of 12mm thick mdf which is too thin for high heat. If you are interested in building similar lamps be careful! Mdf is flammable! I tested mdf with 1000w heat emitting lights and they caught fire. HPS do not produce as much heat but still get hot, COOLING is a must so use common sense. For the 400 I used 30mm thick material and it works fine. After 2 years of growing it only has a ¨tanned¨ look.
I am using this one for my cloning machine. As soon as I get things going Iĺl build the mix of generation 2 and 3, I hope I can find an inline fan here, it will be difficult.


My cloning tub (completely temporal):
Its working with a maxijet pump using the aerator fitting. I know its not enough oxygen but its just temporal, I will soon get a stronger pump for sprinklers.


These are my practice babies: They are from bagseed and are taking a beating. My ph meter worked for one time and since then I´m taking educated guesses on the ph. Its some cheapo hanna. My EC meter is a truncheon and its worked fine.



Will continue on next post

Any diagnosis? Leaves are starting to curl down.

We´ll thats my setup, comments and feedback are welcome.

Now to business, this question is for aeroponic growers.
I havent glued my misters to pvc pipe because I don´t have many. Which do you recommend?

Current


Optional


The pvc rectangle size is 17¨x 13¨, how many plants do you think I can fit?
I was planning 4 per tub but it looks like 2 per tub. Any ideas?

Some wonderful DIY work going on here, I'm really interested in watching this grow. I don't know much at all about aeroponics, but I remember back on overgrow.com there were a few aeroponic grows where they had a single run of PVC pipe through a tub about the same size as yours and I remember one very nice grow where the guys said he preferred to just drill small holes in the sides of his PVC pipe instead of using misters.

I bet you have some lovely genetics in your bagseed, I'd love to be able to buy weed here that contained seeds of Colombian sativas!

You should PM redrider, he is also in Colombia and I'm sure you can share a lot of local info.

Awesome CG, just Awesome!

Hey Columbian ! Howya doin Buddy! REAL fukkin nice DIY. Much respect with them lights. Is that wood with sheetmetal on the inside? Theyr beautyfull. What are you a cabinet maker? That work is just beautyfull. Anyhow... Bout them foggers. You cant get a better fogger then a Netafim Quad fogger. Your not really set up forem with your pvc engineering but if you didnt mind just runnin one peice of pvc across the top of each chamber with a Quad fogger on it, it would take care of 2 plants easily. You could do 4 if ya wanted to. Get an Amiad 200 mesh filter to go along with your foggers too, you wont get along without it. Youl need a chiller to bring your root zone temps down below 68 F too. And a good nute formula. Il keep lookin in on your thread. Lemme know if ya need anything. I got a great aero formula if ya wanted to use it!

I am going to enjoy this greatly!

Thanks everyone for your kind words.
British_Hempire: Thanks for the tip on the pvc holes, Im running low on misters so iĺl give it a test. The misters Im using put out constant 50 microns dropplets which ghave a good fit on the roots ¨pores¨. On the strains there are very strong over here, sativas actually grow like weed!! There are huge fields grown in the jungle and in rural areas and not much effort is put on its care, the plant just grows easy. This is also a problem because there is focus on volume and not quality. Imagine if they used some logic and lowered the volume but took some care of the plants
My favorite is Santa Martha Colombian Gold, this is simply the best. It is grown in la Sierra Nevada which is an isolated mountain at the beach, it has the virgin beaches but its tall enough to have snow at the top, just overwhelming. You can get a pound of good genetics for 20 dollars.

Pod: Im glad you posted cause I´m going to need your lengthy research and great ideas!! Plus I have some ideas I wanna run for the TAE, I´ll post them soon. For now I must get things going and start gaining experience.

ThingFish: Talk about high tech misters!!! That company looks good, I is already bookmarked and its a definite try. How are the connected?? tubing? threaded? On the filter I bought a 200 mesh filter @ dripworksusa.com, I´ll teste out. Your advice is highly appreciated! On the formula this is probably my weakest point. I am still gathering information on it and will make decision soon, Please send my yours it will help me tons. Thanks for your words.
The lamps are made out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) and galvanized sheet. Mdf is great because it has some of woods good properties the only problem its a bit heavier. Yes im a cabinet maker, I worked in a carpentry till Dic 2006 for 4 years. I was able to get some skills and my dream is to open one of my own. Someday!! I started my business on Jan 2007 and it sells carpentry materials. The idea is too save up and gradually buy some machines. For now have sustained growth on everything especially my plants!!

Brian: I am going to enjoy it too, Thanks for dropping by

Please answer some questions...

Pod and everyone, What is you opinion on GH nutes and TAG?
To tell you the truth I was planning on a aero/nft tube, I went to the US bought everything and when I came back found TAG 101, so there is alot of stuff Im not using, including GH nutes.

I bought nitric and phosphoric acid to lower my ph, I read on a thread nitric for veg and phosphoric for flowering. The thing is that my nitric acid label says its used to wash buildings while the other says it can be used on foods.
Can there be problems with toxic chemicals, or are the solutions pretty toxic??

If I freeze ph corrected water and use it as ice cubes. Does its chemical structure change and makes it a different liquid when it melts?
My budget is over and a chiller is out of the question, for at least some crops. I was thinking in circulating ice water in a coil in the res from another res. Water would not mix with nutes. But Im not sure it would be very effective. The idea is to get hydroguard but no near plans in visiting the US. Any ideas?

Thanks Gold -

GH nutes are just fine, not a problem I don't think. Wouldn't sweat that one.
As for freezing the nutrient fluid, no I don't believe it effects the chemical composition, just the molecular. However just freezing a 2 liter cola bottle full of water and using it as a giant ice cube can work too.

You could, if you are very industrious, put a fan on your res along with a fogger nozzle so that every cycle the fogger emits in the res where a computer fan (or small fan like it) constantly runs causing evaporative cooling. If done correctly you can drop the water temps about 10°.

But if you can use a Hydroguard type product (any of them really) and you have healthy plants you wont really experience any issues.

Honestly I've been running TAG for about 3 years now and in temps well over 80° at times and I've never (repeat NEVER) had any root rot or issues with my roots and algae. I honestly believe there is just too much O2 infused into the vapor to allow anything bad to exist. It is just temps above 80 promote bad bacterial growth, but I've never seen any in my rigs. Good luck.

ColombianGold said:

ThingFish: Talk about high tech misters!!! That company looks good, I is already bookmarked and its a definite try. How are the connected?? tubing? threaded? On the filter I bought a 200 mesh filter @ dripworksusa.com, I´ll teste out. Your advice is highly appreciated! On the formula this is probably my weakest point. I am still gathering information on it and will make decision soon, Please send my yours it will help me tons. Thanks for your words.
The lamps are made out of MDF (medium density fiberboard) and galvanized sheet. Mdf is great because it has some of woods good properties the only problem its a bit heavier. Yes im a cabinet maker, I worked in a carpentry till Dic 2006 for 4 years. I was able to get some skills and my dream is to open one of my own. Someday!! I started my business on Jan 2007 and it sells carpentry materials. The idea is too save up and gradually buy some machines. For now have sustained growth on everything especially my plants!!

Click to expand...

Hey CG ! How ya doin buddy. Yea. The Netafim Quads really are little works of art. Easily switched out with one hand even. Real easy maintnance when needed. It was even easy to take a Quad assembly off its riser and take all four fog heads off it and cleanem and reasemble them in between pump cycles. They attach with a little conecter into a 1/2" threaded cap. You get a 1/2" pvc male threaded fitting to glue to your pvc and mount them wherever ya needem. Theyr easy. Sterdy too, and well worth the effort. When your equiptments sterdy like this it makes maintainance easy. -I shure do got a kikk ass nute formula too. Its a solid recipe that keeps the plants so healthy that you dont have any problems to deal with in the first place. Heres a li'l bit of bad news tho, your gonna have to get your root zone temps down to 68 degreez and bellow. A chillers one of the most important peices of equiptment your gonna get. Your gonna need something to keep the fog that comes out of your nozzles at 68 F and below. Theres no sense in skimping on any one factor when it comes to the specs you gotta keep your system set at. If you skimp on one thing it throws everything elce out of whakk and you might as well not have bothered with gettin everything elce just rite, when your only gonna get minimal results by only puttin in most of the effort and not all of it. Please dont think Im tryin to be hyper critical, its just that fog temp at the root zone is one of the main criteria you have to fallow in order to get good strong aeroponic results. Weak aeroponic results can be achieved threw tekneeks that require alot less regular maintainance and dont even use aeroponics. I guess what Im tryin to say is that if ya dont get it rite it aint gonna work and aint worth the effort. Its even kinda like walkin up the down side of an eskilator and it just gets faster and faster. Im not tryin to be depressin or nothin, I guess Im prety stoned and Im kinda ramblin but Im just tryin to express that if you get every other thing rite, if you have even just one other factor thats out of whakk, the aero benifits aint recognized. --That said, I do got a kick ass formula for you if you want it but you have to use it with a properly functioning aero system operating up to specs. This shitt works, you just gotta do it rite! PM me for details on the nutes but its a mix I made from Solar Greenhouse brand powder nutes. I mix it a bit stronger and I add a li'l Plant Life Yield Up 10-60-10 and a bit of Kool Bloom. This shitts the SHITT in the flower room. Im not tryin to make a comercial or nothin but this shitt is just easy to recomend to a serious aero head. -You could take a look at HairlessCaveApes gallery if ya wanted to see the Solar Greenhouse nutes being run. You could also get a look at the Netafim Quad Foggers in action. You could even see how they hook up to the pvc I think. -Im gonna be puttin another one of these together within about another 3 weeks or so tops. Il post a thread about it soon as I start. Damn. I shure am stoned! I been writing a long time now too. Anyhow. I use Solar Greenhouse nutes @ 1100 ppm 0-27-17. 400 ppm 15-0-0 along with 200 ppm's of Plant Lifes Yield Up 10-60-10 and Koolbloom @ 100 ppm's. I mix this with 8 oz. h2o2 per 5 gallon bukkit and I ph it to 6.4. This works for ALL stages of flower. Its fukkin incredible. Just keep it ph'ed to 6.4 and replace it when it looses better than 3/4 of its volume. Thats all the nute maintainance you gotta do with this formula. All the best. And blessins Brudda! Il be fallowin your thread! Im bout to get even more stoned now!

CG- I was re-reading over your post and thinking of problems that you might run into on your median voyage. First things first, Heat I see that you will have two things that will hurt you in this department. Your pump might put off a good bit of heat to the water, and it won't like being cycled but we can work around that. Your room is the other heat problem. The most power effective method to deal with that is to vent all of that hot air out and suck some cool air in.

Your are fine with the 4 misters per tub but more won't hurt. If you have seen your misters in action you will notice that it "rolls' quite allot it covers a wide area. I don't see a return line from the grow pods to the res. How will the water get back to the res?

Maybe Pod can show you how he ran a FAG pod with a pump like yours.

Peace and long live Colombia!

Speaking of which brianV., what did you end up doing for your rig? Have you designed your new ride or are you still thinking about it?

You know I need to find me some old Hawaiian Gold. Do they still grow that strain, I mean, it does have to be like 20 years old by now. Just used to have the nicest amber resin on the inside of my bong. Memories.

Some nutrients say that if it freezes, mix it with 50% water and then use twice as much, however, I am not sure what that would solve.

Very nice setup ColumbianGold you're quite the handyman.

interesting thread! I just started reading about TAG and I am getting lots of info from all you guys!!

How is the grow going CG??

Post some pictures!!