PUMP sizing in AERO

The sprayers plug right into the black tubing. Pretty sure it's 1/4" OD, its like .11 cents a foot at lowes.

You dont NEED grommets but it makes for easier sprayer check/cleaning. They're 6mm and I had to order those online from bghydro.com.

However many sites you have per tube you add one and that's how many sprayers you need to cover front and back of each site. 15 sites per tube is 16 spray heads, 32 total.

Hey gvega, I've been working on the pump sizing challenge as well. I've had a little help from a member named SOG. His suggestion is 15-20GPH for each sprayer, so 10 sprayers = 150-200GPH pump. Also, have you considered using a bypass for the pump?

whats to stop me from just using brass male fittings with a 1/4" barb. Are the male tee quik disconnect things mad cool?

king, what is this bypass you speak of. Also, I am having an issue trying to figure out these external sprayer things. I really dont want to spend $100 on brass male branch tee quick disconnect fittings. How can I do good external sprayers without the expensive T branch. The whole point of DIY is to do the same or better for CHEAPER right? haha Any ideas king?

A pump bypass is just a Tee after the pump, one side goes to the manifold, the other uses a ballvalve to control excess flow and let's it dump back into the reservoir. Allows you to use an oversized pump without overheating or fucking up the spray pattern. What are you using for your rhizosphere? Fence post? DWV?

rhizoshere, I like that. Cant find the right fence posts so I will go for the 4" pvc round tubes that Earl uses.

what do these ball valves look like that control excess flow? It sounds like a good idea, but no I had not thought of that.

Currently I plan on using 2 on/off valves in the spray tube pvc plumbing just for flushing...similar to stinks systems.

I see. I hate external tubing in an aero system. There are better ways, but not for the DWV design. SOG has an awesome build using fence posts. He runs the spray lines up in the corners just like an aeroflo2, but uses the 180' sprayers instead of the "laser drilled" hole in the AF. You can use any ball valve for the bypass.

ohhh i c what you mean by the valve. Earl says with mag drives overpowering should be a problem. I have an aeroflo2 60 site and even though the sprayers run up through the top you can still remove the entire spray line with ease for cleaning if needed. SOG's designs look...slightly more complicated and unnecessary at least. I don't doubt it is a killer system thou. I love the aeroflo laser drilled tubes, but would rather try the earl method to compare results. Why do you fear the external tubings?

I tend to be rough on my systems. Tubing gets in the way. I also thought it would simplify your fitting challenge to use an internal spray line with sprayers fitted directly into it. Did you check out the SOG thread?

Indeed I feel the same way about simplification. His plans are most detailed and interesting, yet almost all pvc. I guess I have just been watching and learning earl for a while now so I know he is for real. I ended up ordering the expensive male tee branches last night when I realized I would only need 12 of them per system. Ill throw some pics up here later this week when I start putting it together.

I'm estimating i need about 480 gph for 24 sprayers from King's recommendation. Got a 500 gph mag drive pump...hope it is just enough. About 1.5 ft of pump height (head) is the goal...hopefully wont loose much powwahh.

Got the T44 clones in the aerocloner right now.

thanks for all the replies j00 guys.

Cool. I'm sure your system will work great. I hope SoGs calculations don't fail us. Did you check out my aero plan in my sig? I'd appreciate if you have any input!

AeroKing said:

Cool. I'm sure your system will work great. I hope SoGs calculations don't fail us. Did you check out my aero plan in my sig? I'd appreciate if you have any input!

Click to expand...

I made this Aero unit in hopes to eventually make 3 similar to it. I would like to run a setup similar to stinkbud's.

I run a aeroflo 2 right now with 40 sites and it has a 1200gph pump. (meant to run 60 sites)

This system currently has a 500 gph pump that is inadequate. I am fairly certain a 900 gph will work...so I am ordering.

Anything else you guys can think of? I am adding some legs to the tube supports somtime. Also the plumbing requires another tube & hose adapter, but I just turned the valve off for now.

Thanks!

pvc is 4.5" with 21 2" holes for net cups. I am having a little trouble keeping the net cups stable with the smaller diameter 4.5" tubes. Hoping some hot glue to the net cups will settle the score.

Looks good
fire that thing up and let's grow.

Earl said:

Looks good
fire that thing up and let's grow.

Click to expand...

word to big bird!!!

Can't wait to see it in action!

hazahh! The pump has arrived. Sadly my clones are not ready yet. My aeroclones FINALLY started rooting (first time aerocloner) 2 days ago. The clones are so yellowed and struggling now thou I am afraid they will not come back. What a scam...going to try 1 min on 4 mins off for the whole time next time... i guess.

There is a backup rapid rooter clone tray thou with about a week on it so far. Is it possible that I can just drop rooted plugs (1.9" diameter) into 2"net cups with no medium? I am afraid the cube will absorb 2 much without hydroton.

For those of you searching this thread for answers related to the title YOU ARE IN LUCK. My denial and error is finally complete and ye results are here.


current reaserach and gph estimates for my sprayers appeared to be a bit off. This is likely due to the massive plumbing system I constructed and the 1 ft. of head height. I would recommend at least 30-35 gph for each sprayer you use. That is... if you use external spray lines like me and have 1.-1 1/2' of height. Good luck and thanks for stopping by ye olde kings of aero.

Here are a couple of good read.
Give them time to load.


Engineering data

Pump Head Loss Calculator

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30 - 35 w/ 1 ft of head huh? Shit. Now I'm starting to doubt a 700gph pump for my system...

well maybe even 25gph king, apparently with the green sprayers (and most diy aero sprayers) full misting of the chamber is not even necessary.

Simply spraying the roots with this decently fine mist is supposedly enough. This is something I was not used to being an Aeroflo user in the past. Those things really mist out the whole grow chamber with realllly fine particles. I think this is why a cycle time is not really important at all in an aeroflo.

Your design definitely looks neat and innovative King. Your 6' of height will definitely reduce your pump's gph by a few hundred. Check out the calculator earl linked above. I have yet to use it, but i checked it out and looks really effective.