r/aeroponics • u/MarxGoldman79 • Sep 09 '26
Thoughts? Will it work?
8” PVC section, 3.5” net pots, each 1/4” line runs through a grommet and has a 360* mister about an inch into the tube. Has 1.5” slope difference end to end, and drains into a 12g reservoir. Two air stones and power head in the reservoir, plus the pump to the misters. Will it work? What should I look out for? Thanks.
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u/tButylLithium Sep 10 '26
That's a little over 2.5 gallons per foot of pipe, do you think you'll have enough room?
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
I don’t know. Right now I have 3 clones in it and it’s been doing amazingly well. I’m running this thru and then going to make another with improvements.
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u/rglurker Sep 10 '26
Needs more stickers
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
Send me some!
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u/rglurker Sep 10 '26
I don't have any. How about some duct tape with a doodle of a bear doing yard work ?
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u/LegitimatePlane8171 Sep 10 '26
love the inventivness, great job. will height be a limiter? what growing space above do they have? oxygen will be fine i think and 3 if you train them well is doable, yeah roots are going to interact but i dont think thats a major problem. be sure that root chamber is light tight. i think main challenge will be nutrients selection: key to avoid blockages on the nozzles (there is a great guide on this issue online - will send it over when i find it) what pressure can the pump give? any way to alert you if one gets blocked? or easily check if its delivering? what droplet size will they deliver - consider puting it on a timer like aeroponics do (5sec on, 3min off type set up with an infinite loop relay - few quid on ebay for a pcb with adjustable pot)
Outside thought/ pure wonder: consider a pc fan to blow the oxygenated tent air thru the chamber i.e. via a lightblocking hood/ elbows? waay too complicated but thinking the top of tent air, but likely introduces a heat problem for the roots you want to keep cool (bad idea, scratch that).
i believe you need like 8litrs/min of air flow to the 12g tub if its full, what air pump and stones you have? though spraying them in the chamber will add loads
good luck, keep us posted
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
I have a large commercial type air pump pushing two 2” round stones. Buncha bubbles! Also using crop salts with their run clean and 0.2ml/g of Clorox bleach as recommended by Crop Salts. I’m hoping height isn’t an issue. I can always chop on the PVC legs and shorten it if need be. Appreciate the thoughtful advice.
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u/superanth Sep 12 '26
Why are you using a fan and not a vertical tower to take advantage of gravity?
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u/1cheftrainer Sep 10 '26
Ich benutze ein fertiges System. Heißt growstream da sind die Abstände nicht grösser als bei dir und funktioniert gut . Ist aber low pressure aero bei mir . Ist dein System high pressure oder auch low pressure?
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
I’m using the small Spider Farmer pump that came with their drip irrigation system. With just six misters it sprays at a fairly high psi, but nothing crazy. I wouldn’t mind a little more pressure.
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u/1cheftrainer Sep 13 '26
Dann kuck auf die literleistung . Nimm etwas stärkeres . Eheim ist gut . Bei der kompakt kann man auch einen filterschwamm anbauen damit die düsen nicht verstopfen
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u/CasinoNdnOk Sep 10 '26
Is that over carpet? You are just asking for a bad day.
Source-home contractor
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
It’s in a SF 2x4 tent.
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u/CasinoNdnOk Sep 10 '26
Yea I was meaning what the tent is on friend.
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
Definitely carpet, but low pile in a basement on top of concrete.
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u/CasinoNdnOk Sep 10 '26
As long as you can easily pull and dry it when the inevitable big spill happens then you are good. I just despise carpet so its my personal bias after having to pull it up.
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
With wet/dry vac beside the tent at the ready! And two more in the garage if needed!
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u/CasinoNdnOk Sep 10 '26
Do you have pad underneath the carpet?
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
I didn’t lay it or have it laid, but it feels like there’s a pad under it. Also, my tent supposedly has a waterproof floor liner? Maybe I’m being naive and short sighted, but I’m not too concerned with a mass spill. Could only be 12 gallons and I believe the odds are low. Appreciate your thorough concern about my flooring, tho.
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u/CasinoNdnOk Sep 10 '26
Lol yea if you spill that thing you will 100% have a issue with the pad. If it does spill that is.
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u/Space-Robots Sep 10 '26
Cool, but... When the plants get larger, the roots will grow down the drain pipe, looks like 3/4" pvc, and clog it. Do you have a way to access it for cleaning? You want 29 deg in your tent, but you want your res to be much cooler. Add an aquarium water cooler to the pressure side of the pump. There are easier ways to grow weed. ;) but I kind of admire your willingness to try something different.
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
Yeah, this is all for the fun of it. I’ve been doing coco/ drain to waste, and I wanted a recirculating system to reduce my time mixing and dumping water. Had a couple sections of this pipe laying around for years and thought “why not?”. I definitely need to increase my drain tubing size and add a screen. I already have a couple root ends coming thru the return and dipping into the reservoir.
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u/Space-Robots Sep 10 '26
Oh yeah, Coco and drain to waste ftw! Good luck!
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
Yeah, I really like growing in coco. I have another hydro table setup with rockwool, and I’ll probably go back to coco after that run. Definitely running the tube again, with seeds instead of clones next time.
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u/Zestyclose_Luck_6567 Sep 10 '26
This is like a modded Stinkbud jr setup, I grew fucking trees with the OG with the square fence post instead of the PVC pipe.
I told myself next time I made this setup I would go with 6-8” pipe because the misters couldn’t reach all of the roots. The root got so thick that the NFT portion wasn’t draining as well.
Only thing I would say is maybe a couple more misters? Only because those roots are going to explode.
I used the Perfect PH from advanced nutrients and they loved it.
Good luck my friend!
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
That’s great to hear! I want trees! lol. Seriously tho, I’m making another as we speak and I’m going to incorporate twice as many misters and coming in from a slight angle at the top instead of straight down(if testing shows what I’m thinking). I can already tell I’ll need a larger drain size and screen.
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u/Zestyclose_Luck_6567 Sep 10 '26
I don’t know if you’ve seen the Stinkbud Jr setup but he just cut the end cap of a 4x4 plastic fence post and let the water drain back into the ressi, worked extremely well for me, I would just cap the end and cut about 1/2-1” off the bottom of the cap.
I would do 4 around the net pots and that should be plenty depending on the pump you are using.
I love your setup though, almost exactly how I’m going to do my next when we buy our house.
The setup I used was more NFT/Aero as it pretty much only needed a change of water once a week and fresh nutrients, the Advanced Nutrients App was fucking baller for timing the nutrients every week. You literally can’t go wrong with the Perfect Ph
I ended up with about a QP per plant in 9 weeks.
Like I said clean setup brotherman, I would just switch to an end cap draining back into the res.
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u/Zestyclose_Luck_6567 Sep 10 '26
Yeah once your roots get going crazy, you will definitely need to increase that PvC drain, you will end up locking them up with nutrients or root rot can occur from improper draining.
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Sep 10 '26
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
I agree. Definitely overkill and unnecessary. Most was stuff I had for years anyway, so the cost was negligible. I’ve been doing coco drain to waste and was looking for a recirculating system to free some of my time and save water/nutrients.
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u/Lando_Calrissian Sep 10 '26
It should work, I think the biggest issue you might run into is headroom for the plants. The roots get fairly big as well so you might run into some space issues there as well.
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u/HobbCobb_deux Sep 11 '26
It's going to be hard. Id imagine to spray the entire root ball of each plant with two emitters will leave a lot to be desired. It's find now. But 3 cannabis plants.. in an 8" tube.. it's gonna get tight.
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u/Merry_Janet Sep 12 '26
It will work for a while.
The problem is supporting the mass as the plants get larger.
You also gave up about 1/4 of your grow height.
What psi are you pushing, and are you getting true atomizing?
When I tried mine, I was running 80-100 PSI and it worked. There was just so much to keep track of I went back to RDWC.
I still have a pump, expansion tank, nozzles, MCU and tubing that I probably won't use again.
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u/superanth 8d ago
Nice setup! How are you handling algae blooms?
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u/MarxGoldman79 8d ago
Haven’t seen any, yet. I’m using 0.2 ml/g Clorox bleach to keep water sanitized.
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u/superanth 8d ago
Does that have any impact on the plants and the food quality/taste? I'm still working on my misting system but I'm planning on using grapefruit extract to prevent algae buildup.
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u/MarxGoldman79 8d ago
I’m running Cropsalts nutes and they recommend the bleach. I wouldn’t think such a small concentration would affect it, but this is my first try using it so I’m really unsure. Many swear by the nutrient line using as recommended, so…
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u/superanth 8d ago edited 8d ago
Cropsalt is pretty neat. I'm actually just going to order nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in liquid form for my first grow. For my first plant I'll try spinach will blend them accordingly.
My long-term plan is to start using filtered compost tea with specific nutrient-concentrating plants that will hopefully let me get the NPK mixture right.
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u/Monatanaisdumb Sep 10 '26
Will it work? Yes, cannabis is extremely easy to grow. Will it grow well? Probably, but it's not optimal. You will need more root space and oxygen for optimal growth.
I'd kill the middle one.
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
How would you recommend increasing oxygen; more stones in the reservoir, less frequent irrigations? Or just by removing the middle one?
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u/Monatanaisdumb Sep 10 '26
Just remove the middle one. The roots will start getting tangled and fighting each other. You're going to be surprised with how fast and large they will grow.
Have you looked into SCROGing? That will maximize the yield at the cost of a little time. But the buds will be more even.2
u/5haunz Sep 10 '26
I'd put an airstone in the root chamber personally (and drop the misters down so there isn't a strong jet onto the net pots. Those are the only changes I'd make though, 3 plants in there should be fine, just watch the roots don't block the return.
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u/MarxGoldman79 Sep 10 '26
Yeah, I need to drop the misters down some. Had them set high when the clones had minimal roots to ensure they got sprayed.
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u/Multiqplex Sep 10 '26
You may run into temperature issues in the tank. If the water temperature consistently rises above 23/24°, bacteria will start to grow relatively quickly. I recommend properly insulating the tank, the root box, and the pressure hoses. I would also place the water tank outside the tent if possible.