help me build it

Brothers, I have set out to make an unusual system for my tent. The only thing is im completely backed up on the material and method to make it. I am a big fan of aero and i've been making small systems with rubbermaid totes. I have a pump inside nutrient solution. The pump then has a pvc manifold kinda like an ez clone, except with pvc. I have misters along the pipes. My only challenge is that now, i need a 4x4 system to fit inside my tent. What can i make it out of? It would be something like an ebb and flow table with one big lid, that will have holes for the pots. I am thinking about using sheet metal to make it,, but how could i seal it waterproof. give me your insights guys

if you don't have a limit on plants have you thought about building something like the aeroflow 60? you could take 4x4 pvc fence posts and build a manifold with a pump and have it drain out the bottom of the pvc fenceposts...

For more insight look up stinkbuds "harvest a pound every three weeks"

i have a system like that with 4 inch round pvc, but im looking to make one table and thats it

well you need to find a 4x4 tub 6" or bigger ( hydro store ) with a lid somecome with them some cost extra.. drill a hole in the center get a grommit and pipe to match the hole and have it drain to a 50 gallon tote thats underneath they are 40"x20"x20" high and then build yourself a manifold like a ez cloner and yourset.. they havea bunch of diy thread you could follow like a blueprint

also you would want 6x6 fencepost for the aero to be efficent if you went that way

Just build a plywood box and line it wih plastic film. Visqueen. Use a large piece and fold the excess in the corners so there are no cuts or holes. If using plastic film change it out every 4 to 6 months.

Or buy a sheet of FRP plastic paneling from Home Depot or Lowe's for $25 to line the box. It is glued to the wood with contact cement. It is basically PVC plastic reinforced with fibers. Turned it so the textured side is toward the wood and the smooth side towards the inside. Use the channels they sell to cover seams and use regular PVC cement when installing them and it will be water tight. If you cut sloppily just cut a sliver of the plastic to cover the gap and glue it with PVC cement. You can even cut small slivers of the plastic and put them in a tin cam n with some PVC cement and dissoolve the plastic in it to form a thick gel to fill cracks snd small gaps. PVC cement actually melts the two pieces into one piece.

For the top use a piece of 1/4 black plexiglass. Paint the top outside surface of the acrylic plastic (plexiglass) with Krylon Fushion flat white paint.

how would plexiglass hold up wudnt it collapse inside the tub?

Just glue on a few cross braces (ribs) of the same acrylic material a few inches wide on to either the top or the bottom side of the lid. I have 3 foot by 3 foot chambers with full lids that have two 2 inch cross braces for a SOG that support the weight of the mature plants just fine. You could use thinner sheet for the lid by using the ribs but that would mean gluing up ribs or buying two thicknesses of acrylic. The thinner acrylic used as ribs would twist (buckle) to easily. Just consider it like building floor joists or beams with thin flooring glued to them. The sheet would only need to be strong enough to support between the ribs. If your really worried or plan on growing say 4 foot tall plants then place the ribs every 6 inches.

From a national manafacturer of acrylic plastic:

A practical rule to follow in outdoor installations is that the frame depth should be 1/4" plus 1/8" per running foot of acrylic sheet in length and width to provide for contraction. (deflection induced shortening)

As a general rule, any horizontal outdoor glazing for skylights, etc., should be 1/4" thickness for minimum deflection with maximum unsupported span of 36".

http://www.rplastics.com/plexdesign.html

This means as use for a horizontal skylight (basically what you are building) that is 36" a square (maximum recommended without some form of support) the the plastic will deflect enough in the center so as to require the edge frame to be at least [1/4 + 4 x (1/8" )] = 3/4" . This means a 48" it will bending enough so as to draw down almost to 47-1/8". A few cross braces will allow for 1/4" to span 48" and minimize the deflection. I would just make the lid 48" square and the size of the outter edges of the box say 47" square and glue on an outter rim of 1/4" acrylic and three cross braces on a 48" square lid. I made my nominal 36" boxes 35-1/2 inches wide on the outside dimensions with 1/4" thick 2" deep lips and two 2" deep cross braces. With mature plants the lid is tight enough due to deflection that when done again I will make the boxes 1/4" smaller (35-1/4 inches), so I think 47" would work fine for a 48" lid.

If black acrylic is not readily available just use clera. Paint it first with black and the white over the black.

how did you cut the holes in the plexiglass? hole saw? wat size saw for wat sized pot?

A hole-saw will work best, and drilling some chip-relief holes prior to using the hole-saw will save you from having to lift and clean the blade repeatedly. It's been my experience that a 3.5" pot is gonna need a 3.5" hole.
Another note: If you don't want to add braces to the plexi lid just cut some chunks of 2" pcv tube and leave them standing up in the tray to act as pedastals.

Use a good pump such as an Iwaki medium pressure pump and use low flow 3/4 gph, high pressure misters. The Iwaki Pump on eBay is selling for about $60, it retails for about $300. The pump delivers enough pressure that its output can be run through a standard 10" cartridge prefilter housing http://www.thefilterguys.biz/housings.htm using a 1 micron sediment cartridge http://www.thefilterguys.biz/filters.htm. This nearly eliminates all clogged misters.

Iwaki medium pressure pump:http://cgi.ebay.com/Iwaki-Magnet-Pump-Model-MD-30RZT-115NL-Unused_W0QQitemZ370297528552QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Pumps?hash=item563773e0e8

The misters: http://www.dripirrigation.com/drip_irrigation_info.php?cPath=43&products_id=553 They work good with the Iwaki that deliver 24 psi, but not with the typical cheap pumps such as mag-drive, quiet one and fountain pumps as they typically deliver 5 psi or less.