Air-Assisted Atomizer System Development and Inquiry
- Thread starter jamesvagabond
- Start date
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
Me too.....bring on Atomizer!!
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
MONEY $$$.....!!!! Nice craftsmanship.
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
Spray time varies with temp, amount of light, and stage of plant growth. I only use short intervals when I notice they look like spaghetti and need fish bones.
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
I'm working on sealing the room with an a/c so I can run co2. Hopefully transplant some new clones of Northern Lights in the next few weeks.
hydrolyzed
Active Member
I'd be interested in some side by sides. Honestly I'm a total Aero noob and came on here to learn...Since I started growing years ago I've always ran DWC....and I ran it well, modified it to the max I could (went as far as using O2 saturation via Oxygen Cones without airstones to keep the DO around 150%)...I love the way it works, has good "redundancy" if the power goes out, pretty simple setups also...but over the years I've been hearing more and more about how HPA, when done right, increases yields 10-30% even over DWC as well as reducing nutrient/water usage....those factors recently got me researching, and it seems there is quite a bit of controversy in more than just this thread! The "answer" is obviously complicated, as Atomizer has said anything but super short spray intervals with HPA and you pretty much have the same end result as LPA but with all the setup costs/complications of HPA making it a "waste"....and then I see people say LPA isn't much better than DWC which I use now....so this thread is really tearing me two ways! I like the fact that it's staying semi-professional though, hope it stays that way and we all win in the end with great info!
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
I should be up and running by then....knock on wood. New job has me working 75 hours a week.
hammer21
Well-Known Member
I hear ya ,,,been busy working alot myself.
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
Hammer uses LPA...most LPA systems (most) can't develop fish bones which basically takes one feeding tip and makes it 50 tips. Thats why I like HPA. Now I'm not saying hammer can't, but HPA systems use FAR less water and $ nutrients $, especially compared to DWC. As far as set up costs...I don't use all the fancy gadgets and solenoids that others do. I could build my system for dirt cheap (DIY) aside from one 110 p.s.I. pump ($80), rez chiller ($300), recycle timer ($120) and misting supplies (roughly $75).
jamesvagabond
Well-Known Member
Ha no worries, good info is coming through it. I can only speculate based on what I have read about aero so until I have something in my hands I can only contribute questions or ideas. Aero is just a fusion of my two loves engineering and plants, but I have faith that if I set it up right and address issues preemptively then it should be a baller system.
Just found a 120 gal air storage tank on CL, need a good low rpm compressor engine--looking for atleast a 15 hp engine, modified to run at 7.5 hp or half of whatever the power rating is. This way it will be much more quiet and burn less oil, and hopefully stay cooler.
I wanted to use IBC totes for single plant chambers but I realized this is a really inefficient setup, more hardware, more cost, more everything so I want to find something along the lines of corrugated culvert pipe, 12 foot diameter, cut into 4ft heights, leaving me with a cylinder 12ft in diameter by 4 feet tall. I can fit more plants and only need a few nozzles. The only problem with that is it won't fit as easily on a trailer when it comes time to move. So never mind on the pipe.
I need to find cheap aluminum/vinyl pools and use that instead, cheaper and lighter.
1 IBC tote would be a good veg chamber.
Still designing. I know what nozzles i will test, just need the chamber.
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
Remember to KISS KISS!! Ha ha, never knew what it meant, now I love it.
hammer21
Well-Known Member
Yes my system can do fish bones...
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
And I think that is the goal...not pom poms. One tip turns to 50. Hundreds turn to thousands. Sounds like a more efficient way of delivering nutes and water. But the trick is not to soak them til the point of spaghetti...its a delicate balance. Thats why the misting intervals need adjusted according to stage of plant, heat, humidity, amount of light, etc. You really have to know your system and your strain.
hammer21
Well-Known Member
You really hit the nail on the head. This is exactly what I do. noticed the round port holes on the end of my tubes I can see what's happening all the time. Another thing I do is measure the run off on drain to waste this lets me know how much they are using try to average 1/8 -1/4 cup waste per cycle.
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
I make my root zone totally accessible, that way I can get to them easily if problems occur, I can monitor the health of them, check the humidity and temp in the pods, even small amounts of root pruning. Also allows me to easily change and clean misting heads and the pods themselves.
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
I run four 50 micron misters per pod. The mist is never directly sprayed on plant roots, unless I'm cloning in the system. I can adjust them up, down, and at any angle.
PROF XAVIER
Well-Known Member
I guess since this thread is "air assisted" , I should mention I have a seperate inline fan of fresh filtered air going into the root zone which draws in outside air from a seperate room. (For when I start co2.) Don't want to pump 1500 ppms of co2 into root zone!
Mike Young
Well-Known Member
Hey Prof, your setup sounds cool. I don't suppose you'd wanna give us a peek at it?