If you're where your screen name seems to indicate, I've got shitloads of PEX tubing that you can have (free of charge, I'm a giver).
True HP Aero For 2011
- Thread starter Trichy Bastard
- Start date
BflexNJshore
Well-Known Member
Haha, I made up that name after watching pauly D beatin’-up-the-beat in season 1 (hopefully you know what I am talking about).
What PSI is pex tubing rated to?
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Idealy, once dialed in and the roots are happy with hairs, very little. Perhaps only a few ounces per day waste it seemed in my 8 plant chamber. You can get rid of it how you want, although gravity is free and doesn't get turned off during a storm or when you don't pay the bill
.You'll want to use the waste effluent as a tool to compare the ec after the roots got what they needed out of it, the difference between what was in your res e/c tells you what the plants are utilizing and if your feeding levels need adjusting.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Congrats! welcome to the club many want to join, and few actually buy into... Even less have their anniversary... Anyway looking very nice, make sure to post pics of your final setup and we'll make sure it looks safely hooked up. You have really done well with the material and have alot to show for the few questions you've asked. Maybe I'm becoming jaded, but there is just so many more dreamers than doers in this sector that it's refreshing to have another aero buddy going for it.
DoktorD1313
Member
1/4" ID pex tubing is rated at 1100 psi at room temperature
BflexNJshore
Well-Known Member
Thank you TB. I always wanted to go full HPA from my intrest in plant biology two years ago. My first setup was a 6" drain tube with the sprayers drilled into the delivery tubing that was sitting ON THE BOTTOM of the chamber!
I graduated from there with fence post chambers, the sprayers were on the top for my last two expriments. 
All of this time I was scared of the noise from HPA and now it seems like it might be quiter than those 350-950 gph pumps that vibrate the floor. The GALLONS of water for changes are extremely time consuming and quite frankly, HPA is just more sanitary than recycle systems. Set the pH once and your done. It was a no brainer for me and I hope anyone who is following this jumps on board the HPA train.
I have mentioned my root chamber area (12 gallons each site), and I was told I might run into issues. Solution?
Someone mentioned that they like to use the typical cloning system to get a long tap root. I would like to train the roots over some sort of screen or net, I'm thinking a spriral. That way I can just spray from the top. Thoughts from the community are welcome.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
It's doubtable you'll be able to get full hp results because you'll never be able to mist in the small timing needed to get the proper saturation level, not to mention in too short of bursts the nozzles don't perform properly and the mist doesn't have the room to expand and mix in the air properly before striking a chamber wall somewhere and condensing. Talk with Dickhead because he has been recently getting pretty decent results in smaller chambers. Once the control center is made, building a new chamber and putting it online in the future is pretty much all in a days work, so it won't be hard to switch around in the future if need be.Thank you TB. I always wanted to go full HPA from my intrest in plant biology two years ago. My first setup was a 6" drain tube with the sprayers drilled into the delivery tubing that was sitting ON THE BOTTOM of the chamber!
It was a no brainer for me and I hope anyone who is following this jumps on board the HPA train.
I have mentioned my root chamber area (12 gallons each site), and I was told I might run into issues. Solution?
Thoughts from the community are welcome.
I don't know about training the roots, but you can try. I think touching them will cause some trauma, but perhaps you'll make a new discovery...
I used 2 5 gallon buckets stacked and put 2 misters on each top of the bucket I should have put one in the lower chamber because the roots def dried out in this setup. But I managed to finish the grow succesfully. i also used silk screens at the bottom of the buckets. but I dont recc the bucket sytem a 35 gallon trash can will perform better with prob 4 nozzlesThank you TB. I always wanted to go full HPA from my intrest in plant biology two years ago. My first setup was a 6" drain tube with the sprayers drilled into the delivery tubing that was sitting ON THE BOTTOM of the chamber!
It was a no brainer for me and I hope anyone who is following this jumps on board the HPA train.
I have mentioned my root chamber area (12 gallons each site), and I was told I might run into issues. Solution?
Thoughts from the community are welcome.
I trimmed my aero roots and they seemed to be fine no trauma but it was also my first run! but it didnt kill them handling the rootsIt's doubtable you'll be able to get full hp results because you'll never be able to mist in the small timing needed to get the proper saturation level, not to mention in too short of bursts the nozzles don't perform properly and the mist doesn't have the room to expand and mix in the air properly before striking a chamber wall somewhere and condensing. Talk with Dickhead because he has been recently getting pretty decent results in smaller chambers. Once the control center is made, building a new chamber and putting it online in the future is pretty much all in a days work, so it won't be hard to switch around in the future if need be.
I don't know about training the roots, but you can try. I think touching them will cause some trauma, but perhaps you'll make a new discovery...
thejokertoker2011
Member
The idea is to use a steady cycle to maintain the right level of mist. If you run 5sec/4min you have a very defined wet/dry situation compared to using say 1.25sec/ 1minute which delivers the same amount of liquid but evenly spread over the same time frame. That gives you a more constant level in the chamber compared to the wet/dry situation.
If the roots have to adapt the environment isnt right, ideally you want the roots to exit the netpot complete with root hairs
Ahh I understand. I'll have to grab another timer then something I can get down to 1 sec. Any recommendations?
DoktorD1313
Member
Personally, I'll recommend the Pro-Gro Elite 1 timer.. It's got a hefty price tag on it, but it seems to be built like a tank and can handle any range of off/on cycles from 0.1 sec - 999 sec.. The mechanical push button time setting is so much nicer than a rheostat IMO and it has a two nice digital displays for showing both the on and off cycle timers.
Of course there are plenty of other options as I'm sure you'll find out from others chiming in. Just my $0.02
EDIT: Not to mention it comes with a low reservoir level switch/alarm
You`ll need an accumulator and solenoid to make use of a 1 second pulse, standalone pumps dont respond fast enough.
thejokertoker2011
Member
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
It is very much all or nothing... You hit it right on the head...
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Well- cock ups and all- one clone in the fog propagator is showing it's first white bump of a root (4 days)- nothing yet on the cuttings in the glass of water. Makes me think the fog is still the fastest way to clone, and to be honest I had the fan die and they took a second beating for hours until I figured it out. I'd like to do a sided by side with a bubble cloner (just bought the parts today to make it) glass of water, rapid rooters, rockwool and the fogger setup. Then I can settle once in for all which method I'd like to use in the future. I do like the idea of air layering, and also taking clones from a flowering plants the first week or two into flower (monster cropping). Perhaps a combo of making an air layer the same day as I switch to 12/12 will yield a good candidate best of both worlds? The nice thing about air layering is you can make clones of branches much larger than what's usually considered optimal for cloning without issue. Of course I cannot rule out an hp cloner, but if I can make the fog work it'll be that much simpler and hopefully still create the hp roots so they don't need an adjustment period when going into the main chamber.
I was lucky enough to score a felled parking lot light a few months back. I finally looked at the ballast specs and got the metal halide bulb (170 watts) that is the correct bulb for the lamp. I didn't expect it to be so bright for only 170 watts but gees it gave me sunspots in my eyes for 15 minutes and the sucker is bright. It'll make a perfect light to supplement the sun for the extra 6 hours a day I need to veg.
I was lucky enough to score a felled parking lot light a few months back. I finally looked at the ballast specs and got the metal halide bulb (170 watts) that is the correct bulb for the lamp. I didn't expect it to be so bright for only 170 watts but gees it gave me sunspots in my eyes for 15 minutes and the sucker is bright. It'll make a perfect light to supplement the sun for the extra 6 hours a day I need to veg.
TB, I've cloned in everything possible, and nothing beats coco for keeping the clones healthy.
EZ Clone (sitting in the closet), bubble clones, rock wool, Jiffys, Rapid Rooters, hydroton.........seriously, everything.
Jersey dude, get a few 44 gallon roughnecks from home depot and leave those 12 gallon totes for cloning...........no sense in setting yourself up for failure before you even start.
As far as timers go, ATC 422 is great (and Atomizer will help you with the wiring)..........you couldn't pay me to have a timer (or anything else) with an audible alarm in my grow room
EZ Clone (sitting in the closet), bubble clones, rock wool, Jiffys, Rapid Rooters, hydroton.........seriously, everything.
Jersey dude, get a few 44 gallon roughnecks from home depot and leave those 12 gallon totes for cloning...........no sense in setting yourself up for failure before you even start.
As far as timers go, ATC 422 is great (and Atomizer will help you with the wiring)..........you couldn't pay me to have a timer (or anything else) with an audible alarm in my grow room
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Well, the alarm actually cuts the circuit to the timer, so the setup will stop misting in case of an empty res (to save the pump from burning out). It's only a red alert light and there is wiring ready for a piezo speaker should you wish (I also have the same timer in addition to my 422, and it is nice in it's own right.)TB, I've cloned in everything possible, and nothing beats coco for keeping the clones healthy.
EZ Clone (sitting in the closet), bubble clones, rock wool, Jiffys, Rapid Rooters, hydroton.........seriously, everything.
Jersey dude, get a few 44 gallon roughnecks from home depot and leave those 12 gallon totes for cloning...........no sense in setting yourself up for failure before you even start.
As far as timers go, ATC 422 is great (and Atomizer will help you with the wiring)..........you couldn't pay me to have a timer (or anything else) with an audible alarm in my grow room
Thanks for the coco tip, I'll add it to my tests. Have you ever tried fog? How hard would it be to take a coco rooted cutting and clean it up for HP? In the end I still hope to have a cloning technique that already makes roots adjusted for hpa, so I think either fog, or I'll just put together a small cloner chamber to hook up to my hpa control center, won't be much work at all...
Why'd you shelf your HP stuff, you think you'll ever get back into it? I remember seeing your setup in Cav's thread and thinking "that guy copied his setup- that's just what I'm gonna do" lol... Then Atomizer pmmed me and I started learning so much and realizing things could be done even better.
Shelved it because I like doing vertical SOGs more than I liked doing HP aero, and I still haven't found a method whereby those two outcomes aren't mutually exclusive.
Not sure what could really be better about my setup - at the end of the day, my "control station" did exactly what it was supposed to; whereas it could've been prettier, I don't see what added functionality I could've gotten out of a different setup.
If I do HP again, I'm gonna go the air assisted route and grow trees for a lower plant count..........I still have everything I would need to do the 64 gallon trash can route (which I did with some nice success, IMO), but frankly since I've started working again, starting my own business (in addition to working full time), getting married and having my first child, I simply don't have the time to devote to the time suck that is HP aero.
I do coco DTW and get great results with minimal fuss; it's not for everybody but at this point in my life, it's for me.
EDIT: never tried fog, and it'd be beyond simple to wash coco off of a plant's roots and out it into an HP setup - it's a super clean medium.
Not sure what could really be better about my setup - at the end of the day, my "control station" did exactly what it was supposed to; whereas it could've been prettier, I don't see what added functionality I could've gotten out of a different setup.
If I do HP again, I'm gonna go the air assisted route and grow trees for a lower plant count..........I still have everything I would need to do the 64 gallon trash can route (which I did with some nice success, IMO), but frankly since I've started working again, starting my own business (in addition to working full time), getting married and having my first child, I simply don't have the time to devote to the time suck that is HP aero.
I do coco DTW and get great results with minimal fuss; it's not for everybody but at this point in my life, it's for me.
EDIT: never tried fog, and it'd be beyond simple to wash coco off of a plant's roots and out it into an HP setup - it's a super clean medium.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Agreed- and even thought of that myself. unfortunately the circuit of the float cuts power to the timer. But it can be permanantly bridged and the float contacts wires can be put inline of the pump's powerline...It would be better if you used the alarm function to turn off the pump. When the res is empty there`s still days worth of nutes left in the accumulator..i wouldnt want my timer switching off at that point
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
I understand Bob- I've owned a couple businesses in my time as well. Not much time for anything else really. I guess I was really talking about Cav's small chambers that could've been bigger, his control system was very good and replicatable for all of us (best guide out there matter of fact). Anyway, hope things work out well for you and glad you've found what floats your boat for the time being.
I'll keep testing these Aerolife nozzles and see if they might be an easy choice- I can't deny I'm excited about going AA myself as I always knew it was the next step.