The Best Nutrient for Aeroponics?

Mike Young said:

Hmm, that's good to know. I started out using H&G, and had a good experience with it, but ended up switching up to dyna gro because I heard great things about it. As far as price and ease of use go, DG is where it's at. But I still have some H&G, and will likely switch back to it now, hearing what you just said about buildup.

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I didn't get a pic of the screen fouling with Advanced. Below is a pic of the fouling from Bontanicare after one week. With Advanced, it would cover the entire screen in a week and actually reduce flow. One thing we have learned, if you shut the system down for any length of time.. you have to either remove the nozzles and soak them.. or toss them out. The manifolds also will need to be thoroughly flushed. Best bet is to just keep the system operating between grows with just water to prevent permenante fouling. Once that gunk dries.. it ruins the system.

Mike Young said:

Hmm, that's good to know. I started out using H&G, and had a good experience with it, but ended up switching up to dyna gro because I heard great things about it. As far as price and ease of use go, DG is where it's at. But I still have some H&G, and will likely switch back to it now, hearing what you just said about buildup.

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My nutes are homebrew but i`ve run store bought canna vega/flores with the same results. They mix crystal clear and come out the same way apart from a little suspended algae picked up from 30ft of sloping drain hose connected to the tub that collects the runoff. If you have waterclear nutes to start with and run a dtw system, you wont have many issues with clogged filters or nozzles. Recirculated nutes tend to pick up a lot of junk from the chamber and res as they go round and round.

The nutes in the left pic go into the accumulator for a couple of days, run up 60ft of buried line to the chamber and come back to the green collection tub via a 2nd buried drain line. The runoff is clear bar some suspended algae and surprisingly cold considering its 34c in the shade.

Advanced Nutrients while they work are no more then a RIP OFF of your hard earned money! They have several nute formulations that are exactly the same thing, all at markedly higher prices! Example; They have 3 different bottles of nothing more then Magnesium and sulfur. All at the same concentrations and each in a smaller bottle that rise dramatically in price for each as the bottle gets smaller! Solution to that? just use SWEET (unflavored) by Botanicare as a suppliment to your formula......Rhino Skin = OVERPRICED Silica! Get the idea now.

Sorry but I hate rip-offs.

as for CLEAN running nutes in Hydro that don't clog up aero equipment: HESI Fair price that comes in UNDER H&G and CANNA. The two best nutes (Synthetic) out there are Canna and Hesi PERIOD. Closely followed by CYCO and H&G. Yes you will be Balancing your PH, but you should be monitoring it daily anyway, after all it's not soil!

GH nutes work but you get problems with lacking micro nutes that you NEED to suppliment.
Lucas formula? REALLY? Again you get micro nute problems and it tends to get out of whack when you use supplements. Example; You can quickly screw up your nitro levels by simply adding a Cal-Mag product to your RO water as required. I run G&H CALiMAGic as it only adds 1.0 of nitrogen in all my applications.
Techno flora is dirty!
Dutch Masters is dirty!

Over time I have found that if it contains a thick or "chunky" brown/black liquid in the mix - chances are it will run dirty and you will be cleaning up too much for the price.

Atomizer said:

My nutes are homebrew but i`ve run store bought canna vega/flores with the same results. They mix crystal clear and come out the same way apart from a little suspended algae picked up from 30ft of sloping drain hose connected to the tub that collects the runoff. If you have waterclear nutes to start with and run a dtw system, you wont have many issues with clogged filters or nozzles. Recirculated nutes tend to pick up a lot of junk from the chamber and res as they go round and round.

The nutes in the left pic go into the accumulator for a couple of days, run up 60ft of buried line to the chamber and come back to the green collection tub via a 2nd buried drain line. The runoff is clear bar some suspended algae and surprisingly cold considering its 34c in the shade.
View attachment 2738589View attachment 2738590

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Damn, that's impressive. My well water without any nutes isn't usually that clean. Depends on the day though. I don't know if it has to do with atmospheric pressure, or the water table, or what. Some days it's clear, some days ya don't even want to drink it. Homebrew is sounding like the way to go. Nute price in my area has gone up significantly in the last year or so. Seeing how clean your brew looks, certainly peaks my interest. How much do you make & how often?

Hi Mike
At the minute its 30L every other day, the accumulator gets 15L a day. The run off from the green tub subsidises a cobbled together waterbutt based outdoor LPA (single spinner on a 15w fountain pump) and the veggie patch gets the spent LPA nutes.

Hey im just curious what kind of a filter that is indrhrvest? Another question i have is if you're running a 1-2 sec on with.. however much time off are you auctially getting a lot of run off to your resevoir? I can see you have LED in there so i assume there isnt that much heat, ill be using a 400w MH so heat is an issue - im starting to think it might just evaporate and create tons of humidity.

dazedel8 said:

Hey im just curious what kind of a filter that is indrhrvest? Another question i have is if you're running a 1-2 sec on with.. however much time off are you auctially getting a lot of run off to your resevoir? I can see you have LED in there so i assume there isnt that much heat, ill be using a 400w MH so heat is an issue - im starting to think it might just evaporate and create tons of humidity.

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In the early stages of growth we run 1-2 seconds every 3-4 minutes. Once the roots develope we dial it back. Our new system will allow us to cut back to a fraction of a second. So in a few more days we will be cutting back to .03 - .05 seconds every 4 minutes. We are running an average of about 60% humidity in the room. We haven't needed to turn on our de-humidfier yet. The AC has done most the work so far.

[video=youtube;4iRRUgYJf2s]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iRRUgYJf2s[/video]

With a solenoid mounted directly on an AA nozzle the best you`ll do is 70 milliseconds of mist from start to finish. A hydraulic nozzle with a dedicated solenoid can manage around 300 milliseconds. With 60 nozzles and a manifold you`ll be doing well if you can get the actual misting duration down to less than a second.

Atomizer said:

With a solenoid mounted directly on an AA nozzle the best you`ll do is 70 milliseconds of mist from start to finish. A hydraulic nozzle with a dedicated solenoid can manage around 300 milliseconds. With 60 nozzles and a manifold you`ll be doing well if you can get the actual misting duration down to less than a second.

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Seems to be workign fine at .05 seconds. We're using .02 gallons per cycle or 3.6 gallons a day, or .98 gallons per plant every 30 days. Our last run was 2.28 gallons per plant every 30 days. That's a decrease in water usage of 57% despite the fact that we added 33% more nozzle coverage. I'm satisfied with the results. You stick with your math and calculator and we'll try it using actual physical testing

There is a big difference between a timer setting and an actual misting duration. With any nozzle, you`ll always come to a point where reducing the timing has no further effect on the actual mist duration. The misting duration in the vid is 70 milliseconds, so yours needs to be twice as fast
[video=youtube_share;DE7xIlU3vf0]http://youtu.be/DE7xIlU3vf0[/video]

hello. i have not been here lately, infact only a couple times guided by g00gle as hunt of knowledge... anyways nice too see people are enthuastic whit hpa platforms, i found that here is unusual amount of info about HPA´s and the troll amount seems low, which is good,
i´m currently constructing for myself a platform not sure what gategory most would label it of aero´s
but i have build it to work around 40- 60psi or 2-2.9bar pressure whit 230 volt shurflow diaghrampump and mister nozzles what advertises itself by no dripping and working pressure 45psi, the rootchambers are two plastic balcony trays what are attached together, i got two of these an planning to run 16 nozzles at same time whit this pump i mentioned, i´m using these parts
pump http://legacy.shurflo.com/pages/new_industrial/industrial/gen_industrial/subcategories/2088_ADP_230VAC.html
misters http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/577721245/Low_Pressure_PP_fine_misting_nozzle.html
accumalator tank http://profil.fi/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=26_52&products_id=329
mister holders for inline http://www.aquatuning.fi/product_info.php/info/p68_L-pivienti-8mm---10mm-letkulle--sis--mutteri.html
timer http://www.g-systems.eu/products/switching-devices/water-timer-8a.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=41&category_id=2
solenoid 16mm http://www.swoy.fi/?file=170

as/if you see these parts were hard to find from diffrent corners of world.
i m planning to get hose diameter of 14-15mm so the "mister holders" plate screw could fit inside the inline and meet the other part from hole what im gonna make to the inlet to keep the holder inplace, plan is that i can screw them out whit my bare hands whit out any tools and only the mister part will de-attach for maintance.


now i have all the systems parts except the hose/pipe to attach the nozzles, and i´m not sure how it is the most effective way to re-ange the misters - i would take a picture but all i have is phone camera and i do not know how to erase the metadata from it, and if i would know the pictures would still be 2 megapixel crappy.
i use hose clamps and gardening hose atm, i´m not sure how they will last in long run, and i would not want to see any water damage as this place has hardwood floors, though im here almost all the time due my back pain problems.
as nutrients i have been past used ghe normal and lucas formula, and advanced hydroponics of holland series untill i try´d cannas line and now using the aqua line and rhiztonic + canna boost + pk 13/14 additives and been very impressed about growth rate and the stable ph (i run 220 liter resorvoir)
as im going to get the new misters on place to system i have plans use the reservoir as run to waste reservoir and add new 200 liter resorvoir.
now there are two thing in fidling whit, to use that big reservoir as root chamber or not, is there major diffrence roughly space of 1.5m long 30 cm wide and 50cm high X 2 trays compared to space of 1m even square and 50cm of height, if the water concentrate to these trays bottom or not, in other words is there some cons about roots touching the bottom where might be more more moisture as it falls down there.
and should i make the mist pointing up from bottom or sideways, do the mist have to be pointed strictly straight to roots or maybe longer the spray time and get it there by ambient turbulence what goes around there.

if you got me some critic,info or what ever it would be nice to have some as no one than me have seen it irl - and im kind alone whit this thing as being "closet smoker" and new to this city where i had to move so any input appericiated ,herbgro out.

Atomizer said:

There is a big difference between a timer setting and an actual misting duration.

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Were using less water on the .5 second setting than a 1 second setting. Half as much actually. We have a digital meter installed. So obviously it's making a difference. Here is a 1,000 FPS video of our .5 cycle. I made it just for you..

[video=youtube;XFAGvEf4ZOQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFAGvEf4ZOQ[/video]

Atomizer said:

The misting duration in the vid is 70 milliseconds, so yours needs to be twice as fast

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Your also comparing a single nozzle, with a solenoid most likely right at the nozzle head. We have 60 nozzles.. let's have a fair comparrsion shall we?

indrhrvest said:

Our new system will allow us to cut back to a fraction of a second. So in a few more days we will be cutting back to .03 - .05 seconds every 4 minutes.

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You were the one that reckoned you could set it to 30-50 milliseconds I was just highlighting how fast it would need to be. ie; 35 milliseconds being half as long as the AA pulse in the vid. I meant to ask how you set your timer to .03 seconds if it only goes down to 0.1 seconds. I guess the multiponics timer didnt go low enough and you bought another. If the nozzles can only manage a 0.5sec minimum misting duration, setting the timer to 30 milliseconds wont have any effect.

Atomizer said:

You were the one that reckoned you could set it to 30-50 milliseconds I was just highlighting how fast it would need to be. ie; 35 milliseconds being half as long as the AA pulse in the vid. I meant to ask how you set your timer to .03 seconds if it only goes down to 0.1 seconds. I guess the multiponics timer didnt go low enough and you bought another. If the nozzles can only manage a 0.5sec minimum misting duration, setting the timer to 30 milliseconds wont have any effect.

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I think you knew what I meant. Your worse than a grammar nazi..

I can only go by what you post and engineers dont generally put decimal points in the wrong place, thats why i questioned the validity of it. I mentioned the word "milliseconds" in my reply but you didnt say the .05 was a typo in post #28. Are you sure the .02 flowrate decimal is in the right place, perhaps its 0.2

Atomizer said:

Hi Mike
At the minute its 30L every other day, the accumulator gets 15L a day. The run off from the green tub subsidises a cobbled together waterbutt based outdoor LPA (single spinner on a 15w fountain pump) and the veggie patch gets the spent LPA nutes.
View attachment 2739628

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jesus dude, how many nozzles are you running at 15 litres a day? are you growing bushes or lollipops? i'm cranking up the netafims again this fall and trying to plan ahead.

Atomizer said:

I can only go by what you post and engineers dont generally put decimal points in the wrong place, thats why i questioned the validity of it. I mentioned the word "milliseconds" in my reply but you didnt say the .05 was a typo in post #28. Are you sure the .02 flowrate decimal is in the right place, perhaps its 0.2

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I'm not an engineer..

clydefrog said:

jesus dude, how many nozzles are you running at 15 litres a day? are you growing bushes or lollipops? i'm cranking up the netafims again this fall and trying to plan ahead.

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24 nozzles total, 12 in each 16ft x 2ft wide chamber.