What are the potential problems with Aero?

I'm going to be starting a new grow in the next few months and am trying to decide which system to use. it seems DWC and Aero are pretty similar, just different methods of oxygenation... does this mean that Aero gardeners need to make that microbiotic tea to create a healthy rootzone as DWC gardeners do? Cheers for any replies

i dont think that aero and dwc could be any different except that neither use soil. you dont need to make any teas for aero, or dwc for that matter. the only drawback to aero is that if you dont have some kind of a emergency backup power plan and your power goes out your whole setup can dry up to shit.

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-dwc-root-slime-cure-aka.html This was the concern about tea... Not so worried about the power supply, haven;t had a power cut in over 10 years so think it will be ok Thanks for the reply!

What ever kind of hydroponics you use the first thing to purchase is a monitor being a bluelab guardian or neptunes apex. A water level gage on your reservoir. It is very critical to monitor your system PPM, PH, Temperature, reservoir water level these 4 things will make or break your grow. Being able to monitor everything at a glance is key. When your PPMs go up and your water level goes down your nutrients are to strong (lockout) When your PPMs go down with your water level increase your nutrients. Perfect is PPMs will be stable and not change when water level drops. If you purchase the apex great controller sky is the limit on what you can do from your cell phone. Also consider a dissolved oxygen (DO) meter or oxygen reduction probe (ORP) for the apex. Using one of these will tell you what the oxygen levels are in your nutrient solution. Good luck .......

hammer21 said:

What ever kind of hydroponics you use the first thing to purchase is a monitor being a bluelab guardian or neptunes apex. A water level gage on your reservoir. It is very critical to monitor your system PPM, PH, Temperature, reservoir water level these 4 things will make or break your grow. Being able to monitor everything at a glance is key. When your PPMs go up and your water level goes down your nutrients are to strong (lockout) When your PPMs go down with your water level increase your nutrients. Perfect is PPMs will be stable and not change when water level drops. If you purchase the apex great controller sky is the limit on what you can do from your cell phone. Also consider a dissolved oxygen (DO) meter or oxygen reduction probe (ORP) for the apex. Using one of these will tell you what the oxygen levels are in your nutrient solution. Good luck .......

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Thanks, this was the answer I was looking for! I'm familliar with hydro growing, this seems like a good next step. thanks for the reply!

ArCaned,

Im also starting out my first mj aero grow and have a few pointers:

like hammer21 said a fill level sensor is probably the most important part, I'm not sure if you've ever done any microcontroller programming but an arduino and a flex sensor in the water is a great DIY way to monitor your level... here's a tutorial http://bildr.org/2012/11/flex-sensor-arduino/ it's also the same method I'm using in my Res. I have the arduino hooked up to a little speaker that buzzes when my water level is too low.

My first trial with aero and some pepper and tomato plants I ran into my rockwool cubes disentigrating and clogging my nozzles. No joke within 8 hours all of my saplings were beyond the point of recovery. so GET A FILTER!!!

Also like hammer 21 said you need to monitor your nutes and ph really closely, during the transition from veg to flower for any plants you get large nute runoffs and ph swings. I just purchased this guy http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sustainable-microfarms-hydroponics-genesis-controller to monitor my res. check it out, if you've got the cash it seems like a great investment

happy growing

i'm new in growing cannabis.
just turn to aero last month, it work great.
in fact i have more issue when using soil. (eg. over/underwater, soil too firm, temp of soil too high, roots rot…)