Home built hydro system

[Bob-Smith]

Building my aeroponics hydro system this week. Not an easy feat by the way. I had to rent a 20 ton plastic injection molding machine and get some dies made up. Dies are ridiculous expensive!

I fired it up tonight and made the 38 gallon holding tank for the water and moved it into the grow room, I then typed up the instruction booklet and began setting it up. I'll post more as I progress, but its a really good machine on paper. So far have the tank in, and the float valve I made, and the motor I made. I'm pretty tired so I'll finish it later.

 

[Bob-Smith]

Some far away views

 

[Bob-Smith]

Got the tank lid made up, just like this story. It fits really nicely and has holes for the return flow of the 6 units for the root zone. Each of the units will have ten spots to put a plant.

Then mounted my leak detector on the floor and started filling the tank with RO water, which should take about 12 hours.

I fished my meters through the holes drilled in the side of the tank. And no, the PPM meter isn't broken, the water is really zero PPM.

 

[testymctester]

Are you planning on marketing this system or did you just want to make one to your exact specifications?

 

[Shmavis]

Nice work!

I like how you have your pump outside of the reservoir. I once had two units, a nine site and a 15 site. Each had submergible pumps. I always thought it would've made more sense to be outside. And what an enjoyable experience aeroponics was!

And you're not kidding about the expense; I'm familiar with plastic injection molding.

 

[Bob-Smith]

Are you planning on marketing this system or did you just want to make one to your exact specifications?

I tried, but some company started sending me threatening letters. Some people just can't handle competition.

 

[AvidLerner]

nice setup. I used an outside pump as well. put it on a tier every three minutes. I used sprinkler heads for delivery. what is your delivery system going to be?

namaste

 

[Bob-Smith]

Delivery is very simplistic. I built some square tubes about 5 or 6 inches square and inside is another tube with holes drilled for water delivery. The smaller inside tube is held up at the top corner using clips and directs the spray at the roots. At the reservoir return end there is a downspout which can be adjusted so that a set level of water is always in the larger tube.

The pump will be connected to a manifold to deliver the water to all 6 tubes which will then come out of the small holes I drilled at about 10 inch intervals. Not sure how that will work but I won't have any problems with unclogging any sprayers.

 

[Bob-Smith]

Sad, but kind of happy part is, once its set up and tested I cant use it fully for a couple months since the growing space is already taken up by a soil grow. The happy part is, I will be able to put in just one root zone tube and cap off the other five outlets on the manifold, leaving room for the current crop to finish and get a head start on 10 Blackberry clones in the new system. Then when the other is harvested, I'll install the other 5 and plant the rest of the clones.

Everything I've read about this system says growth is phenomenal..

 

[Bob-Smith]

Adjustable downspout back to the reservoir below. Supposedly when plants are small you keep the level high to reach the net cups, but I won't be keeping it very high. That's a lot of water outside the tank with a fixed position float valve. I'll just make sure the clones have longer roots when I transfer them from the aero cloner.

 

[iTarzan]

What does the injection machine you rented look like and what did that cost?

 

[Bob-Smith]

What does the injection machine you rented look like and what did that cost?

Huge, on every front. Living room floor is permanently bowed. I forgot to calculate the weight of the machine, and the neighbors are really suspicious.

 

[stoned-trout]

doing hydro was fun ...all the pumps, timers,meters,ph,ec,,,I built quite a few setups...aero rocks .....yeehaw...nice setup....I went with the almost free setup once....I have redesigned or modified almost every design....now I do soil mostly...what parts did you have to make??????????...I been down the road your traveling ..from high pressure pumps to misters then spray lines..and the adjustable water level ....sure beats buying an aeroflow...you can do nft,swc,low pressure sprayers ,spray lines...very versatile system...

 

[St. Phatty]

[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=52956&pictureid=1235367&thumb=1]View Image[/URL] doing hydro was fun ...all the pumps, timers,meters,ph,ec,,,I built quite a few setups...aero rocks .....yeehaw...nice setup....I went with the almost free setup once....I have redesigned or modified almost every design....now I do soil mostly

Why did you switch ?

I switched in 2008 because I thought I had the best hydro system you could do in rockwool. 6 inch cubes etc.

Then I took a class in Hot composting & soil science, and bought some primo dirt. The results were better - buds looked bigger, plants looked more green ... the dispensary I was working with still liked the buds.

I was running a close to sealed system ventilation wise.


I do still think about doing some hydro. Got a bigger place now, and lots of Compost Tea from watering all the pot plants.

I hate throwing that away. I sometimes give it to garden vegetables and other plant critters.

Has anybody ever set up a second system just to recycle the run-off from the first system ?

I must say, Coco looks interesting as a hydro medium.


Anyway, welcome Bob Smith

 

[stoned-trout]

soil requires less fancy gear...I believe organic soil is superior end product..hydro did grow faster and yield higher....if you do organic soil it cant get much easier ...I am gonna do a hydro sink soon tho..was a temp sink from a remodel and a 35 gallon trough...but for fun...yeehaw...soil plants can take temp swings better too I think..as long as you can keep roots warm in most cases your fine even in so cal winter...I did dwc,waterfarms modified,nft,swc,aero,ebb flow...drip into cubes.....soil is just so much more simple...I hate rockwool, and geolite cleaning...I still find them all over my yard...I clone in perlite and most comes off of rootball then into organic soil...

 

[Bob-Smith]

I'm doing soil right now, and have for most of the grows I've done. Just switching it up after 2 years straight.

 

[OranguTrump]

Got the tank lid made up, just like this story.

I caught this - how many others did?

 

[iTarzan]

Huge, on every front. Living room floor is permanently bowed. I forgot to calculate the weight of the machine, and the neighbors are really suspicious.

That is why I asked. I already knew. I call BS. I'm out.

Why do people start BS threads?

 

[mojave green]

That is why I asked. I already knew. I call BS. I'm out.

Why do people start BS threads?

Cuz they get more action than real threads.

 

[Bob-Smith]

OK all jokes aside. Behold, the General Hydroponics Aero2 something. As complete as it can be at the moment. It's got a remote on switch so my lazy ass doesn't have to bend over and unplug it. Although I don't believe you ever turn it off.

The water comes out as a stream inside the tube at about 10 inch intervals. It must depend on splatter to provide the moisture. I'm pretty sure it's quiet as hell l since I can't hear it over my blaring 8 inch fan. Cost on Amazon was about 1100 dollars so I got it from somewhere else for about 200 less. Won't say where I got it for personal security reasons.

Comes with caps to shut down the other 5 ports on the manifold. Also comes with another manifold in case you want to stagger and have the tank in the center.

When my white rhino is done I'll fill this thing up. Will probably only do every other hole, so it'll be 30 blackberry clones.