lendee
Member
Hi all: I'm a new grower on my 5th grow. I started using aeroponics 18 gal totes 4ea, with spray heads 5ea in each tote this all ran to a 28 gal reservoir tote which had the circulating pump and all totes returned to this res. ( see pictures) First grow I put 6 plants in 4 totes worked but so much roots to a container plugged all the time, next grow I used 1 plant to a container and I used six containers, still had plugging and spry head clogging and spry heads enclosed in the root mass, but I successfully completed my 1st and 2nd grows in this system
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I was worked to death with aeroponics one thing after another would keep you jumping all the time. The system ran 24/7 and if it wasn't a clogged spray head, it was a plugged tote and sometimes I had to replace every spray head in the system. This was very difficult because I scrogged the plants due to no head room for normal light heights because of ceiling height and the fact your plant container must be higher than your reservoir add the reservoir height plus the tote height and I was over half the way to the ceiling before the plant height so scrogging was the only answer and it gave me the added benefit of monster cropping and much higher production per plant.
All in all the aeroponics did well for me but like I said it worked me too, also the system is dangerous to leave for any period of time a plugged container could drain the reservoir and leave the rest of the containers dry. Plus you have all the return tubes and totes to clean maintain on a weekly period and getting physically around the system was a challenge. Try crawling under the totes, squeeze between the totes and pull up a lid on a tote and get your hand and arm into it and replace a spray head or clean a root from the drain remember the plant is scrogged to a net and doesn't move up to allow you into the tote "not too much fun" but oh boy did the plants ever grow in the system.
I went from aeroponics system to my new one, a RDWC system,
see pictures” I use two 28 gal commercial totes with 10" net pods, a 13 gal reservoir a submersible 4000Lph/1025gph pump (a little overkill here but it's what I had), 2ea 570gph and 1ea 1157gph air pump, I have 4- 3” air stones in each 28gal container one 3” stone in the res. I use the 1157 gal pump on 2 stones in each 28 gal container and it also runs the res stone, 1-570gph pump runs the other 4 stones in both containers this way if one pump fails I still have air to both tanks. Cant have enough air, I‘ll explain later. This is all hooked together with 2" PVC and a in line Y filter "no clog's here". The system uses 47 gal total volume and I circulate it with the pump in the res. 10 times an hour (1800 liters in 27 minutes then pump is off for 33minutes) this goes on 24/7. Air runs 24/7. I again scrog both containers and put 2 plants each in the 10" net pods 4 plants to a 96" x 4' scrog. I use two 600 watt metal halide air tube cooled lamps I hope to average 2 lbs per grow. The nicest thing is I don't have to service this system but once a week and I change the reservoir every 10 days vice 7 days for aeroponics. Once I start using up 1/2 of the nuts in a 7 day period I will change reservoir on a 7 day bases. I use 1/2 the nuts I used in aeroponics which saves a lot but I also have a larger system and use more that way.
I had a serious problem when I left the bubble buckets to my RDWC containers and I noticed my 1st case brown slime “not a lot but it spreads very fast I understand” caused by too little air in bubble buckets I think. Anyway I transferred and started H2O2 (29% Not your household stuff)at 1ml gal for the 1st week then 2ml gal 2nd and 3rd weeks and by the end of week 3 the slime was gone. I noticed I had yellowing of the older dew leaves on the 3 sour diesel plants, 
“see photos”, my forth plant is a CAT strain and showed no problems at all (remember I have 2 plants to each 10” net pod). I’m thinking this yellowing is due to the heavy use of H2O2 but it continued. New growth just about stopped and the yellowing got worse, only on the 3 sour diesel plants the CAT plant was thriving . At this point I decided to add some helpers to the system and started Aquashield by Botanicare. I went to a lot of different forums in search of what may be going on here. Nothing seemed to address the problem until I learned about DO “dispersed oxygen” in a RDWC at ( http://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/showthread.php?106795-RDWC-(Recirculating-Deep-Water-Culture-Design-and-Help-Threadsystem) “ IF YOU GROW DWC OR RDWC don’t miss this thread”. Basically I was slowly drowning my sour diesel that’s when I added a 1157gph with my 570gph air pump to the two 28 gal containers and reservoir. All yellowing stopped and the growth is amazing now probably won’t get my expected harvest but should be good anyway. 
After this harvest I will put an elbow on both 2” feeds to the 28 gal containers and point the elbow up to cause a plume at the surface of each container to break water surface tension this I understand will cause more DO than the air stones and air pumps together. We’ll see . I’m also considering an in line outside pump from res to pressure a pvc line with multiple holes in it to spry down with res water unto the water surface from the top of each 28 gal container again for DO. I will also use a 570 gph air pump on my two bubble buckets and will start using Orca “Lig Mycorrhizae” Bennie’s from start to finish.
I was late posting this we harvested this grow on 5-20-14 and although it was a long grow due to the D.O. Problem, we got 23 ounces from these 4 plants.
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I was worked to death with aeroponics one thing after another would keep you jumping all the time. The system ran 24/7 and if it wasn't a clogged spray head, it was a plugged tote and sometimes I had to replace every spray head in the system. This was very difficult because I scrogged the plants due to no head room for normal light heights because of ceiling height and the fact your plant container must be higher than your reservoir add the reservoir height plus the tote height and I was over half the way to the ceiling before the plant height so scrogging was the only answer and it gave me the added benefit of monster cropping and much higher production per plant.
All in all the aeroponics did well for me but like I said it worked me too, also the system is dangerous to leave for any period of time a plugged container could drain the reservoir and leave the rest of the containers dry. Plus you have all the return tubes and totes to clean maintain on a weekly period and getting physically around the system was a challenge. Try crawling under the totes, squeeze between the totes and pull up a lid on a tote and get your hand and arm into it and replace a spray head or clean a root from the drain remember the plant is scrogged to a net and doesn't move up to allow you into the tote "not too much fun" but oh boy did the plants ever grow in the system.
I went from aeroponics system to my new one, a RDWC system,
see pictures” I use two 28 gal commercial totes with 10" net pods, a 13 gal reservoir a submersible 4000Lph/1025gph pump (a little overkill here but it's what I had), 2ea 570gph and 1ea 1157gph air pump, I have 4- 3” air stones in each 28gal container one 3” stone in the res. I use the 1157 gal pump on 2 stones in each 28 gal container and it also runs the res stone, 1-570gph pump runs the other 4 stones in both containers this way if one pump fails I still have air to both tanks. Cant have enough air, I‘ll explain later. This is all hooked together with 2" PVC and a in line Y filter "no clog's here". The system uses 47 gal total volume and I circulate it with the pump in the res. 10 times an hour (1800 liters in 27 minutes then pump is off for 33minutes) this goes on 24/7. Air runs 24/7. I again scrog both containers and put 2 plants each in the 10" net pods 4 plants to a 96" x 4' scrog. I use two 600 watt metal halide air tube cooled lamps I hope to average 2 lbs per grow. The nicest thing is I don't have to service this system but once a week and I change the reservoir every 10 days vice 7 days for aeroponics. Once I start using up 1/2 of the nuts in a 7 day period I will change reservoir on a 7 day bases. I use 1/2 the nuts I used in aeroponics which saves a lot but I also have a larger system and use more that way.
I had a serious problem when I left the bubble buckets to my RDWC containers and I noticed my 1st case brown slime “not a lot but it spreads very fast I understand” caused by too little air in bubble buckets I think. Anyway I transferred and started H2O2 (29% Not your household stuff)at 1ml gal for the 1st week then 2ml gal 2nd and 3rd weeks and by the end of week 3 the slime was gone. I noticed I had yellowing of the older dew leaves on the 3 sour diesel plants, 
“see photos”, my forth plant is a CAT strain and showed no problems at all (remember I have 2 plants to each 10” net pod). I’m thinking this yellowing is due to the heavy use of H2O2 but it continued. New growth just about stopped and the yellowing got worse, only on the 3 sour diesel plants the CAT plant was thriving . At this point I decided to add some helpers to the system and started Aquashield by Botanicare. I went to a lot of different forums in search of what may be going on here. Nothing seemed to address the problem until I learned about DO “dispersed oxygen” in a RDWC at ( http://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/showthread.php?106795-RDWC-(Recirculating-Deep-Water-Culture-Design-and-Help-Threadsystem) “ IF YOU GROW DWC OR RDWC don’t miss this thread”. Basically I was slowly drowning my sour diesel that’s when I added a 1157gph with my 570gph air pump to the two 28 gal containers and reservoir. All yellowing stopped and the growth is amazing now probably won’t get my expected harvest but should be good anyway. 
After this harvest I will put an elbow on both 2” feeds to the 28 gal containers and point the elbow up to cause a plume at the surface of each container to break water surface tension this I understand will cause more DO than the air stones and air pumps together. We’ll see . I’m also considering an in line outside pump from res to pressure a pvc line with multiple holes in it to spry down with res water unto the water surface from the top of each 28 gal container again for DO. I will also use a 570 gph air pump on my two bubble buckets and will start using Orca “Lig Mycorrhizae” Bennie’s from start to finish.
I was late posting this we harvested this grow on 5-20-14 and although it was a long grow due to the D.O. Problem, we got 23 ounces from these 4 plants.
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