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

[Trichy Bastard]

Ok guys, I have made a few mods I feel will give the Aerolife what I need for the best chance in my particular situation. The internal chamber makes it so the maximum siphon height is around 13 inches with 1 inch of nutes on the bottom if recycling from it. Since the siphon height directly effects the quality and quantity of mist, it is an important variable. I wanted more leeway in heights than the chamber could offer, so I devised an external pickup box that the siphon tubes sit in that could have it's height easily adjusted. It's a small insulated igloo cooler around 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide. I found a float valve I could install that has a variable adjustment on the float that gives me approximately 5 inches of adjustment range. Furthermore if ever needed, the box itself could be lowered over the rails of my deck to add an additional amount of height. The chamber itself does sit on castors which raise it an additional 4.5" off the floor, so where the box is on the ground, I can have up to 21" of siphon height with this mod.



Don't mind the water level as I manually filled it because I have yet to add on my insulated water cooler (the one I used on my hydraulic setup) as it will be the main res that gravity feeds into this "siphon box" , the flow of which will be commanded by the float valve. I decided it wouldn't hurt to run through my cooling coils in the siphon box to keep the nutes ice cold as well just prior to misting. The small black tubes are the siphon tubes for the nozzles and I found small black tight fitting rubber grommets to slide over and lock them into place in the cooler so they can't easily be pulled out of the water. The pickup tube tips were also cut at 45 degree angles and held in place underneath the coils in the very bottom and I slid 3/8 poly tubing over them in an attempt to insulate from the heat and sun. I had to run some 3/8 poly tubing inside of the clear vinyl 1/2" coil tubing to prevent it from kinking up, it seems to have worked nice and made little resistance. Now I just have a little more work and I already have some cuttings made up last night just waiting to root (will cover those in my main HP thread). This will be my first time using cloning solutions and I went with clonex gel, and also a light mixture of Dyna-Gro KLN rooting solution in the water I soaked the rockwool cubes in. I finally bought pre cut cubes because the ones I was cutting up always ended up way too mushy. The premade cubes seem alot more rigid and able to have the proper air/water holding properties rockwool is famous for.

 

[thump easy]

thats fucken bad ass trichy!!!

 

[dickkhead]

Ok guys, I have made a few mods I feel will give the Aerolife what I need for the best chance in my particular situation. The internal chamber makes it so the maximum siphon height is around 13 inches with 1 inch of nutes on the bottom if recycling from it. Since the siphon height directly effects the quality and quantity of mist, it is an important variable. I wanted more leeway in heights than the chamber could offer, so I devised an external pickup box that the siphon tubes sit in that could have it's height easily adjusted. It's a small insulated igloo cooler around 8 inches tall and 12 inches wide. I found a float valve I could install that has a variable adjustment on the float that gives me approximately 5 inches of adjustment range. Furthermore if ever needed, the box itself could be lowered over the rails of my deck to add an additional amount of height. The chamber itself does sit on castors which raise it an additional 4.5" off the floor, so where the box is on the ground, I can have up to 21" of siphon height with this mod.

View attachment 2151578 View attachment 2151576

Don't mind the water level as I manually filled it because I have yet to add on my insulated water cooler (the one I used on my hydraulic setup) as it will be the main res that gravity feeds into this "siphon box" , the flow of which will be commanded by the float valve. I decided it wouldn't hurt to run through my cooling coils in the siphon box to keep the nutes ice cold as well just prior to misting. The small black tubes are the siphon tubes for the nozzles and I found small black tight fitting rubber grommets to slide over and lock them into place in the cooler so they can't easily be pulled out of the water. The pickup tube tips were also cut at 45 degree angles and held in place underneath the coils in the very bottom and I slid 3/8 poly tubing over them in an attempt to insulate from the heat and sun. I had to run some 3/8 poly tubing inside of the clear vinyl 1/2" coil tubing to prevent it from kinking up, it seems to have worked nice and made little resistance. Now I just have a little more work and I already have some cuttings made up last night just waiting to root (will cover those in my main HP thread). This will be my first time using cloning solutions and I went with clonex gel, and also a light mixture of Dyna-Gro KLN rooting solution in the water I soaked the rockwool cubes in. I finally bought pre cut cubes because the ones I was cutting up always ended up way too mushy. The premade cubes seem alot more rigid and able to have the proper air/water holding properties rockwool is famous for.

nice I like how you have the digital thermoter in their aswell! just curios why you dont test it inside first?

 

[Trichy Bastard]

nice I like how you have the digital thermoter in their aswell! just curios why you dont test it inside first?

Thanks man, the thermometer in the pics is just for making sure my remote thermometer is getting proper readings. I have one of those $30 indoor/outdoor digital thermo combos that keep track of the highs and lows for the last 24 hours. The "outdoor" sending unit has a temperature probe on a wire that can be dropped into the chamber, so it's quite handy. I don't want to bother with indoor lights, especially with how much electricity is here. So I am stuck working out the issues of being in the sun... My chiller uses alot less electricity than a light will, not to mention the quality of the sunlight is so good here year round 12/12... I will just pop on a few cfl's that come on for 6 hours at sunset to make up the difference to 18 hours for around a week or so. That's probably all the veg I'll need.

 

[PetFlora]

Q for Atomizer, but I think others here will be interested. I am doing a side-by-side (same light/nutes) my hpa v my 21st Century F & D.

Unlike conventional F & D, I use a Rubbermaid tote (high walls). All plants same seeds, germed at same time: The plants in the F & D have bigger leaves, bigger main stalk, and are outgrowing those in my hpa. I suspect the high walls create a rain forest like environment that the plants love.

It would be easy to wall in either a portion or the whole hpa table to simulate.

Instead of me imposing with too much info here, click on my sig for details on my 21st Century Flood & Drain

 

[dickkhead]

Thanks man, the thermometer in the pics is just for making sure my remote thermometer is getting proper readings. I have one of those $30 indoor/outdoor digital thermo combos that keep track of the highs and lows for the last 24 hours. The "outdoor" sending unit has a temperature probe on a wire that can be dropped into the chamber, so it's quite handy. I don't want to bother with indoor lights, especially with how much electricity is here. So I am stuck working out the issues of being in the sun... My chiller uses alot less electricity than a light will, not to mention the quality of the sunlight is so good here year round 12/12... I will just pop on a few cfl's that come on for 6 hours at sunset to make up the difference to 18 hours for around a week or so. That's probably all the veg I'll need.

yea electricity is def exp!! but sounds like your prepared for outdoor conditions!

 

[dickkhead]

btw Rom30 hasnt chimed in in a while? hope hes ok

 

[Trichy Bastard]

btw Rom30 hasnt chimed in in a while? hope hes ok

I hope he is ok too, probably can't talk after his last harvest due to being in lala land ...

On another note can you guys help me to keep this thread only about the Aerolife so it stays smaller and relevent? The other thread is fine for anything goes, but I'd prefer this one to stay on topic for anyone interested in the system and my experiences with it.

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Ok, I am done modding the chamber and sorting out everything, temps today in direct sunlight maintained under 70f (21c) while the ambient temps were around 85f (29.5c). It will get up to 95f as summer comes into season, but the shade from the plants themselves should offset the added heat.

Here's a pic of the readout of my indoor/outdoor thermometer ("indoor" reads ambient air temps while "outdoor" is the probe in the chamber).

EDIT: I deleted the pic as the readout was unreadable


This system is ready to recieve the first test subjects and now the real fun starts. I have the tomato clones in the fogging propagator, but due to not understanding the timer I was using it had an "off period" of a few hours and the stems shriveled into obliteration on the tomatoes without the rockwool. The ones with rockwool cubes are looking fine. The rockwool definitely is a good buffer against cockups. As soon as I see roots in the next week or so I will place some into the chamber and see what gives. Wish me luck!

 

[Atomizer]

Chuck them in a glass of water When you see the first signs of roots appearing, transfer to netpots with rockwool and chuck them straight into the AA. Keep the rockwool damp until the roots get going.

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Chuck them in a glass of water When you see the first signs of roots appearing, transfer to netpots with rockwool and chuck them straight into the AA. Keep the rockwool damp until the roots get going.
View attachment 2152952

True, that's how those were made, might as well not change what works. I'm just excited to have something in the Aerolife chamber finally lol.

 

[dickkhead]

good luck

 

[Trichy Bastard]

good luck

Thanks, I did decide to take them back out and put into glasses of water- the mist wasn't touching them anyway so it was pretty much just bragging rights. The cuttings in the fog cloner magically hydrated again after I took out a plug and let the mist fill the propagation dome, so perhaps there's some hope yet for those too.

 

[dickkhead]

Yes def! You running kln in the cloner? And what do you plan on starting your Hp aero rig at as far as nutes and ppm?

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Yes def! You running kln in the cloner? And what do you plan on starting your Hp aero rig at as far as nutes and ppm?

Yes, a dip in clonex gel and the recommended amount of kln/protekt as advocated on the KLN bottle. I also ph'd to 5.8 even though it doesn't mention it- but the ph was 9.8 after I added the silica and it took a bit of ph- to bring it down.
I used Canna substra before with a touch of silica and plan to again. Usually start out at ec .2 (140 ppm on the .7 scale).

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Something else I noticed yesterday when looking into the Aerolife chamber was that a little yellowish light was penetrating the chamber walls. (Probably yellow from the foam core). I am not sure if it's enough to cause concern, but maybe using a black liner inside or reflectix on the outside will be a good thing to try. Anyone know if some dim light coming through is cause for concern?

 

[dickkhead]

Yes, a dip in clonex gel and the recommended amount of kln/protekt as advocated on the KLN bottle. I also ph'd to 5.8 even though it doesn't mention it- but the ph was 9.8 after I added the silica and it took a bit of ph- to bring it down.
I used Canna substra before with a touch of silica and plan to again. Usually start out at ec .2 (140 ppm on the .7 scale).

yea the pro tekt does raise ph quite a but i noticed when I was using technaflora there nutes would always land RO water at 6.0 and with pro tekt it would jump to 6.5. when Im water my pro mix plants I use straight tap ( my tap is 63 ppm) then i add DG an protekt and dont even bother ph and the plants seem happy so far....

Something else I noticed yesterday when looking into the Aerolife chamber was that a little yellowish light was penetrating the chamber walls. (Probably yellow from the foam core). I am not sure if it's enough to cause concern, but maybe using a black liner inside or reflectix on the outside will be a good thing to try. Anyone know if some dim light coming through is cause for concern?

If I was you Id eliminate all variables and wrap the outside of the container with a refelctive bubble wrap and line the inside with a pond liner or black plastic! maybe this is why the guy didnt like how they grew plants

 

[Trichy Bastard]

yea the pro tekt does raise ph quite a but i noticed when I was using technaflora there nutes would always land RO water at 6.0 and with pro tekt it would jump to 6.5. when Im water my pro mix plants I use straight tap ( my tap is 63 ppm) then i add DG an protekt and dont even bother ph and the plants seem happy so far...



If I was you Id eliminate all variables and wrap the outside of the container with a refelctive bubble wrap and line the inside with a pond liner or black plastic! maybe this is why the guy didnt like how they grew plants

I'm not sure he didn't like how they worked, but I do believe he is interested to learn more and find out if even better results can be gotten than he had. He sent me some pics of his grows and they weren't so bad.
Agree it's a variable I'd rather not worry about. The light is quite dim, so even just the black pond liner would suffice, plus it's a better background to see thoe white roots against

 

[Bob Smith]

Black pond liner will absorb heat.

Better to use orca film (even better would be reflectix as you'd give yourself more insulating properties).

 

[Trichy Bastard]

Black pond liner will absorb heat.

Better to use orca film (even better would be reflectix as you'd give yourself more insulating properties).

Good point on the reflectix. I was speaking of applying it to the chamber's interior, so I didn't think black in there would be much issue, and I was digging the idea of contrast so I could see the mist and white roots easier was my logic.