How to build a $6,000 High-Pressure Aeroponic System (Out-door) in Australia

[Maitland]

After about a year of trial and error (And spending a small fortune), it looks like its finally going to work. A High-pressure Areoponic system that won't clog in the Australian Outback climate. However, the Water pump and Solenoid valve still need their own sound-proof boxes. Something which hasn't been included in the guide yet. The Drums may also need Insulation blankets to keep them from heating up. While its not up and running yet, given the equipment, an Organic-based Reservoir for Aeroponics should be plausible, even in the West Australian (Semi-desert) climate. Please tell me your own experiences with building a High-pressure (5 - 6 bar) Aeroponics system. Has anyone else tried to grow Dwarf Trees in 200L Drums?

For those of you living in the USA and abroad, you should (hopefully) be able to find the equivalents of each product in the list, given the information on each part provided. This guide doesn't account for lighting and Grow-tents. But perhaps you may like to include these things in your own version of the shopping list. It's been attached to this post as a .pdf

 

[Atomizer]

You dont need a $1000 pump for hpa

 

[Maitland]

You don't need a $1000 pump for hpa

Depends how big you're going. If your on a budget, you can start with one drum or tote. And then expand from there. This set-up should allow for about 10 or more 200L drums, but I have very limited space.

Someday, I also want to become a Green Fairy.

 

[Atomizer]

I ran a 1500L (5m x 0.6m) outdoor hpa chamber with an aquatec 6800 which put out about 360ml/min The $1056 pump (60LPM) would be good for 73ft x 73ft of planting area which is almost 1300 x 200L barrels. Sledge hammer and nut comes to mind

 

[Maitland]

Previously, the biggest problem was that the system kept clogging. To counter this, I bought a $600 in-line filter in addition to a water chiller.

And according to my calculations, with 3 drums each plant will need 5.7 Watt/24h (0.2 Wh)

• 40 min using solenoid valve = 100 Wh
• 2 min for water pump = 60 Wh
• Water chiller which would staying on for about %50 of the time (150Wh ÷ 2 = 75) x 24h = 1,800 Wh
• Circulation pump for water chiller (12V x 1.9A = 22. x 24h = 547 Wh
• Air pump 3.5 Wh x 24h = 84 Wh
  • Total: 2,591 Wh per day (2,600 Wh ÷ 453 = 5.7 Wh per plant)

It's difficult to find things when you didn't know that you should be looking for them. Had I known that a "Reverse Osmosis Booster Pump" would do the same job for less, I might have selected one of those instead. But compared to your system, which is more power efficient?

 

[Atomizer]

I have a hpa system that runs on a 20w solar charger and 7AH SLA battery, its tough to get much more power efficient $600 for an inline filter? You have more money than sense, a 250 mesh inline filter capable of 14 bar pressure and a flowrate of 80-100LPM costs less than $30 here

 

[Lucky Luke]

6 bar. $40. Bunnings have the same kind of things for the same kinda price.
https://www.fruugoaustralia.com/5-filter-housing-in-line-water-filtration-set-12-34-1-bsp/p-12437546-24875354?ac=bing&language=en&msclkid=5539b06b7b1b19b0f5a3eba1fe686a62&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=7366 - Shopping&utm_term=4575274042911899&utm_content=7366 - Shopping

 

[Maitland]

You have more money than sense

Are you using concentrated liquid fertilizer or Organic (Compost tea)? What climate do you live in? The compost tea also erodes the inside of the Brass fittings. I chose this filter for convenience, as you don't need to remove the mesh-screen to clean it. Looking at how dirty the reservoir got, the larger screen-area allows for more time before you need to use it's suction capability.

 

[Atomizer]

I use homebrew nutes and run sterile drain to waste. With organics every surface in the system will become home to bacteria colonies will ultimately slew off and cause problems. You could run organic with syphon fed AA because theres less than a foot of pipework involved and its not as easy to clog a nozzle with a 1.6mm orifice.
A little brass in a system doesnt hurt anything, the inline filter i referred is plastic with a stainless element, no brass. Just screw in a couple of JG 1/2" male thread to pushfit pipe adapters and your off to the races.

 

[Maitland]

its not as easy to clog a nozzle with a 1.6mm orifice.

View attachment 4218413

I use homebrew nutes and run sterile drain to waste. With organics every surface in the system will become home to bacteria colonies will ultimately slew off and cause problems.

View attachment 4218413

That's the difference. I'm using a medium orifice size of 0.4 mm (400µ) and since it goes around an impeller, the spiral-like vain that the jet of water travels around would be half of that. The nozzles are the same quality as what's used for outdoor cooling, with pressures reaching 60 bar and above.

I think it would be more costly if I were to continue to fail because the set-up was inadequate.

 

[Atomizer]

I`m amazed your not having to replace the nozzles daily
Here`s a 0.3mm brass patio nozzle at 10bar (145psi), they clog at the drop of a hat

 

[Maitland]

I`m amazed your not having to replace the nozzles daily
Here`s a 0.3mm brass patio nozzle at 10bar (145psi), they clog at the drop of a hat

It's a miracle that they worked at all, which tells you the quality of their design. I've heard that organic systems are less prone to disease is because of how the microbes balance each other out, provided you can keep the reservoir oxygenated and below 18°C

 

[Atomizer]

My accumulators are my reservoirs which hold 40Lof nutes each. Ever tried to oxygenate nutes when they are under 80-145psi of pressure inside a tank? its good that its not necessary

 

[Maitland]

Updated version of Shopping List. This time utilizing a Diaphragm Pump instead of a High Flow one.
If someone had none of these items, the actual cost of the set-up would be a bit over $7,000.

 

[Atomizer]

Half the gear isnt needed and/or could be done using cheaper alternatives.
Some of the info in the pdf is inaccurate. for example, the pressurised air in the tank
needs to be about 70% of the pumps max kPa.
The tank air precharge has nothing to do with the pumps maximum output pressure, it has to do with the pressure switch and ,more specifically, the cut in pressure setting. If the switch is set to turn the pump on at 80psi, the air precharge in the accumulator should be 78psi. This ensures the tank wont run dry before the pump turns on.
If i followed your recommendation, I would have to precharge my accumulators to 112psi instead of 78psi which would reduce the amount of nutes they hold by 18.5L for no logical reason lol. I dont use a pressure switch but if i had one connected and set for 80psi cut in pressure, there would be a couple of lires of nutes left in the tanks when the pump turned on.

 

[carlo987]

Half the gear isnt needed and/or could be done using cheaper alternatives.
Some of the info in the pdf is inaccurate. for example, the pressurised air in the tank
needs to be about 70% of the pumps max kPa.
The tank air precharge has nothing to do with the pumps maximum output pressure, it has to do with the pressure switch and ,more specifically, the cut in pressure setting. If the switch is set to turn the pump on at 80psi, the air precharge in the accumulator should be 78psi. This ensures the tank wont run dry before the pump turns on.
If i followed your recommendation, I would have to precharge my accumulators to 112psi instead of 78psi which would reduce the amount of nutes they hold by 18.5L for no logical reason lol. I dont use a pressure switch but if i had one connected and set for 80psi cut in pressure, there would be a couple of lires of nutes left in the tanks when the pump turned on.

Hi to all!

Atomizer, you seem to know your stuff...

Could use some help designing a very large set up. Anyway to PM you or you me?

 

[Atomizer]

you need more posts, how big is very large, some folks think a 5gal bucket is big

 

[carlo987]

Hey, thanks for the reply. Grow tanks would be 30'x5' and that times 2 using 12x optic 8+.
So yeah... a little bit more than a 5gal bucket. Could probably fit several gals in there, even more, if I chuck them through the mulcher. Kinda messy, I imagine...
But size is relative...
We have the grow tanks from ebb & flow, but they're just pondguards and pallet wood, so we're open to redesigning completely. We would even go with smaller tanks. The possible light area would be 30'x10'.

 

[Drop That Sound]

Please tell me about that $600 t-strainer with the hand crank on top? Is it just some kind of back flush sprayer deal that you spin around to blast the crud off the screen from the inside? Your supposed to operate it with the drain plug out right?