Testing the Aerolife True HPA AA (Air Atomized) System -First run

[Trichy Bastard]

Trichy,
now you know how much mist is there you can use a stopwatch and see how long it takes to disappear A hi res camera is the best tool for clocking AA mist, your eyes only see a fraction of whats actually there.

From what I saw, it would last at least 1 full minute- and I am thinking around 3 minutes pause time seems about right just on gut instinct by now. Before I saw all the plume I thought I needed both nozzles for coverage, especially because the nozzle would be in one far corner unbalanced from center. Now I am thinking the single nozzle will be fine, even if uncentered- would you agree, or should I try to put it in the center cap of the chamber access door? I know it will be even that way, but perhaps running around the outside edges of the box will help a little swirling action if I just leave it on the corner?

 

[Atomizer]

The nozzle should fill the chamber no matter where you put it, unless you aim it directly at a netpot. A circular chamber with nozzle (s) mounted tangent to the wall (accounting for the mist angle) would give the optimum amount of swirl. The larger droplets will follow a curve better than a 90 degree corner.

 

[Trichy Bastard]

The nozzle should fill the chamber no matter where you put it, unless you aim it directly at a netpot. A circular chamber with nozzle (s) mounted tangent to the wall (accounting for the mist angle) would give the optimum amount of swirl. The larger droplets will follow a curve better than a 90 degree corner.

Excellent- thanks... It gives even more credit to the thought of using a brute trash can for the indoor folks.

 

[Trichy Bastard]

So, today I decided to route my airlines through a few coils if 1/4" jg line (around 10 feet) before the solenoid in a waterbath chilled to 40 degrees with my chiller to see if it truly can bring my insulated chamber temps down over the next day. For now the siphon lines are pulling from within the chamber floor itself and recycling, so I didn't bother chilling the entire chamber res because that will be phase 2 of the trial and I expect it to make a major difference as it will literally be chilling a large mass of fluid in the chamber itself. Of course I will run the chamber DTW style in flower, but thought for cloning and veg that recirculating made the most sense and the aerolife chamber really lends itself to making it easy to do.

My issue is now I notice the pitch and sound of the nozzles indicate that the airlines are experiencing "stretch" and also frictional resistance as I can hear them start out strong, and slowly lose pressure throughout the cycle and run-on after the solenoid closes. How do others circumnavigate this issue - should I use some 3/8 tubing and reduce at the solenoid?

 

[Atomizer]

Locate the solenoid as close to the nozzle as possible, the atomix housed the solenoids in black electronic project boxes.

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Locate the solenoid as close to the nozzle as possible, the atomix housed the solenoids in black electronic project boxes.

I understand that will address the run on, but what about the "stretch" in the line before the solenoid? I think the issue is I also have an excess of coiled line that's unneccesary just because I didn't want to cut up my airhose on the compressor. It's a good 30 feet long and I conveniently connected a JG 1/4" nft to 1/4" piece. I can probably just bypass that whole line altogether and connect the transition piece right off the compressor's output and run only the JG line itself. I believe the coiled airline stretches alot more than the actual JG line...

 

[Atomizer]

I`d try to lose the extra 30ft or put a second regulator on the end of it

 

[Trichy Bastard]

I`d try to lose the extra 30ft or put a second regulator on the end of it

Ok, I'll lose it, and if need be add a regulator as well...

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Well, after running the airline only through the water bath, the chamber stayed pretty cool all day in the direct sunlight. It never got above 75 degrees while the ambient air in the shade reached a little over 80. I think I am ready to start a few plants in this thing and see what happens

 

[PetFlora]

I recycle my veg nutes, but keep an eye on the runoff pH as it tends to drifts up. Also as the roots get bigger they consume more of the nutes, so ppms tend to drop. I use a 4G rez that I dump/change weekly

 

[Trichy Bastard]

I recycle my veg nutes, but keep an eye on the runoff pH as it tends to drifts up. Also as the roots get bigger they consume more of the nutes, so ppms tend to drop. I use a 4G rez that I dump/change weekly

The ph climbing up may be a function of the plants consuming certain elements and not others which will change the ph- it may just be the line you are using, or perhaps it is a sign your plants are drinking at a different rate than feeding and perhaps you can make some changes. I also agree on recirculating during veg until the hp rootstructure is dialed in and the timings dialed down. Fortunately the Aerolife chamber does lend itself for easy swap in that regards. All I have to do is put the plug in the drain, fill with a few inches of nutes and route the siphon line into the chamber. When it's time to go to DTW I just unplug the drain and move the siphon line into a seperate res.

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Final thoughts on heat issues before attempting to grow something... I am a little bit leery of heat because it was the main issue in my homebrew hydraulic chamber. Right now the chamber temps are not going above 80 degrees, but I also know the average daily temps will be a steady 95 or so in the next couple months which is 10 degrees higher than today. Once something is growing in there it will be alot harder to make any changes, and that is why I am trying to sort things out right now. According to the diagram on the website of the chamber, it is 3 ply and that is what helps its insulating properties. I am wondering if each ply is completely sealed and seperate from the other. I have 2 ways I'd like to try to combat the temps on top of cooling the air/nute lines. First- I am heading to the hardware store after I write this. I plan to epoxy in a valve with vacuum gauge to the outermost layer of the chamber. I'd like to connect a vacuum pump to it and then close it off, effectively creating a vacuum layer much how a thermos works. If that doesn't work or is not enough, I'd also like to route my chilled water to flow through the innermost layer inside the chamber- that should definitely keep things cool. I suppose I will try the vacuum approach first, because if it does work it will help to keep the chilled water from warming up even if I have to ultimately go that route anyway. The chamber walls seem rigid enough to not collapse with the vacuum, but I am not sure how permeable the polyethylene chamber walls will be. If the thing holds a vacuum then the gauge will always let me know the status of the pressure and when it might need a re-vac.

 

[PetFlora]

Install heat vents on your lid, and run a fan across them. Fan can be on a timer. I use a 1.5" pvc elbow and face it away from the fan. Works great for me.

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Install heat vents on your lid, and run a fan across them. Fan can be on a timer. I use a 1.5" pvc elbow and face it away from the fan. Works great for me.

Losing the mist in the chamber is not what I want to do, not to mention I am trying to maintain 65 degree chamber temps- and while those measures will cool it somewhat, they will not bring my temps down that far I do appreciate the input however PF- thanks!

 

[PetFlora]

I only see a miniscule amount of mist escaping via the vent, and as mentioned you could put the fan on a 15 min o/o timer to minimize that.

I was running 1 sec/3:15. The plants looked happy, but down below, were mostly thin spaghetti and maybe 30% fish bones. Yesterday I switched to 2/3:15. This morning there were lots of small fishbones developing all along the spaghetti. About an hour ago I increased pause to 4:15. It's cool to be able to read the tea leaves, so to speak.

I changed nutes yesterday and increased my DM Zone from ~ 4ml to 8ml. Not sure what if anything that would do for the new root growth.

Oh and since installing a net pot with lava rock (wrapped in painters cloth) in the rez, my filters were totally clean.

 

[Atomizer]

Its best to minimise holes in the chamber with AA mist or it`ll get fired straight out

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Its best to minimise holes in the chamber with AA mist or it`ll get fired straight out

Yes, upon re-reading some of the Atomix journals, I noted that even the small air gap inbetween the liner and the lid was enough to make a huge difference requiring 2x as much mist timings if not tightly maintained or taped off.

 

[PetFlora]

Fire in the hole

 

[Bob Smith]

How do you know? You bought and tried all them to? lol
No but really, if you're gonna feed the world or something close to it, you better first work on bringing the cost down. $1000 a plant pod ain't feeding no skinny kids no where, lol.. Ok I'm done laughing at how much you spent, sorry. But like in a 14 plant perpetual grow like mine, which is more like what i would imagine could feed some hungry, you couldn't even think if going AA at a buck sixty a noz,.. maybe there be some paint sprayer, or fuel injection AA sprayers out there for much cheaper that would work the same AA power spray magic?



What noz's are hard to drop in to any container? And aren't we already filling trash cans full of roots with hydraulic HPA? So,.. don't you need bigger to even fit more roots? And in turn get more fruit above which is ultimately the goal if you're gonna feed the world. This is just where i think you're back tracking is all, but doing donuts can be fun i admit.

You come across as the biggest troll I've ever seen on a weed forum (and that spans about 15 years of checking out forums).

Please start your own thread so we can see how you and your master pods grow the dankest (with pics, if you wouldn't mind) or shut the fuck up.

I clicked on this thread expecting to see a product review and I find Atomizer patiently explaining to you HPA 101 principles.

You don't like the system? Fine, say so in one post and let it go...........fucking Christ.

 

[afrawfraw]

I couldn't resist. Sorry.