AA setup

Hi. I've been thinking of going into an AA setup. This is last minute. I’m tired of DWC and the amount of water. I have read about the HP setup. There are many good post. I have a compressor in the room for tools, 60 gal 5hp, max at 125psi rated at 90psi @ 18.2 cfm. I don't mind running the compressor, that's why it’s there. I have look at TB 2011 thread (very long and still reading) and some other thread related to AA. Many information missing imo about AA or where to begin, therefore I will guess as I go.


My plan so far. Build a chamber 4'x8', 2' tall, SOG with 2” collar neoprene collar. 4 nozzle for the chamber. Two on the side, middle slightly pointed up. Two at the middle that offset each other, slight pointed up. The nozzle will be pressure fed, external.

I will run two solenoid for each nozzle, one for air and one for water; or one for air (travel fast anyway) and one each per nozzle for liquid flow. I want to control flow and once dial in, keep it there vs gravity or siphon feed. I will add each line their own pressure regulator. A relief valve will be added to the accumulator tank.


Nozzle: Right now I am looking at the I-spray nozzle. ¼-JCO-SS SUE25A-SS
Waiting on Relab to get back but that could be days. I wish bete had prices online too.

Whew, I thought for a moment you had a Intervention.

Those nozzles use a fair amount of air. If your compressor runs 125psi-90psi, worst case is it may be running every 30 minutes (for a minute or so) to keep up with the demand.

I'm heading towards HP for now. I got the nozzle ordered. The AA nozzle company are not getting back. Upgrading to that wouldn't even hard in the future.

With a usable compressor i`d look at syphon fed AA which only requires a timer, nozzle(s) and solenoid(s). A full blown hpa is a fair investment with timer, solenoid, HP pump, pressure switch, relief valve, accumulator, regulator, nozzles and a whole load of JG fittings.

^Cost and balance is probably the hardest compromise during any operation. I have looked into syphon fed AA but I wanted more control, a bit OCD I guess with the technical stuff. I wanted better control so I am trying to use the external nozzle to fine tune the mist to leave it and forget it. Basically I got everything ready for HPA already. Adding in the air wouldn't be too complicated. I have 100 clones ready for 4x8ft camber made out of wood, est at 55 plants, 8" apart, 4" away from edges, 2 600w lights. Going to stop by Home Depot later to get some wheels and plastic to cover the inside. It should be epic. Have to unload the chamber off the truck tomorrow since I had someone else build it for me to maximize the little time I have. At the same time a cloning station was built 24x48" 3 shelf for t5 and a wax room was built 4x4x6ft for indoor operation. I have about a pd of nuggets and 1 pd of trim to make wax.

I'll post some pic later. Have a lot of work to do to finish up the grow room.

Relab got back and the nozzle seems reasonable. Getting another quote from them which could take another week or so.

For keeping the reservoir at 68 degree, I am going to buy a small frig from wal-mart and leave my reservoir inside fine tuning it to 68 degree, maybe with a timer. A water chiller is expensive trying to chiller 40-60 gallon for DWC and expansion to 100+ gallon (1 pd plants per 28gal tube) was not going to cut it witger, which is the main reason I ditched my setup. In the summer the water temp could be around 80+ degree and 1/4 hp wasn't going to cut it. 1/2hp was too expensive and many of the unit looked cheap, 2-3 year life span lucky imo. Last summer water temp control was shitty and the plant hermes like a SOB. Wasted a lot of money for lighting and got shit back for return. I trashed all the harvest.

I ordered Omron H3CA with two new 11 socket pin. I probably will post questions about it later. So far my biggest issue is the wiring for the reset.

For anyone information, I copied a lot of what TB has contributed and those who contributed in the thread.

I`m a control freak too. With AA, you`ll find maintaining perfectly even mist coverage throughout the entire grow is paramount. Choosing the right nozzle will only give you control over the mist quality and flowrate not the coverage

For the ultimate control you have to think way outside the box on multiple levels and forget all about doing anything remotely close to k.i.s.s. Here`s my latest AA test chamber which is designed to address every issue that can typically crop up. Its octagonal in shape with a cone bottom and a volume of 125 gallons. The single nozzle provides perfectly even mist coverage of the entire chamber even at the minimum liquid delivery of 0.27ml. The nozzle is adjustable in both height and angle allowing the mist to be focused in the early stages, apart from saving on compressed air, it removes the need to handwater while the roots get established. It has a host of other features but suffice to say its definitely a one off, i`ve never been one to follow the crowd



The best way to control the fridge temperature is to hook it up to an STC-1000 thermostat, they`re pretty cheap and very reliable.

Did it ever take off cracker jack?

Did that octagon ever take off atomizer, is it just fed through the bottom or is there a line syphon feeding the sprayer? I can't seem to find any information on AA except on forums where it is so much crap to read through its madness. Your explanation of it syphon fed from march 13 made more sense then the 15 or so different forum threads I have gone through (very rough estimate as it seems like countless and an eternity ago)

The rotary AA works as designed, it solves most if not all of the issues i`ve encountered with fixed nozzles. The upstand pipe under the nozzle is connected to a small res/header tank which maintains a constant water level in the upstand pipe for the liquid side of the nozzle. The small res is automatically topped up by a float valve. The syphon height and air pressure controls the flowrate and droplet size, its much easier and cheaper to rotate a syphon fed nozzle than a pressure fed.

Very innovative, in your experience have you ever encountered nute lock out and need use of a water fogger running to was off any excess salts from the roots? I have never seen it in action but saw a post about it, also atomizer, what nutrients do you use besides regular salts , do you use silica, or anything else , like extra amount of edta per gallon or something, thanks, I ask because I read somewhere you normally dont have clogged sprayers, also what about filter size, 150 micron?

I run homebrew nutes drain to waste. They`re crystal clear with no sediment, i run a small amount of sodium hypochlorite in the background but no filtering of any kind on the HPA or AA. Netafims are very difficult to clog, the AA`s are virtually impossible. A few of the micro`s i use are chelated with EDTA but its next to nothing, the iron is DTPA. If you dont use excess nutes you shouldnt have any build up to cause a lockout . If you overdo it, running plain RO for a few hours will wipe the slate clean.

Awesome, I have not heard of the netafim before, so the 4 way nozzle at 60 psi huh , interesting , if you have had such success I may just change my design as of now from the tefen to these hard to clog misters, will have to do research pertaining to my situation, I am going to use some 5-11-26 and some 15.5 cal nit in equal parts, I think it should be fine, I have had the bags collecting dust for years now so time to make use of them, I may also use some some agsil at 11.09 grams per gallon and then use up to 1ml per L maybe less , since 560 grams in a gallon is equal to protekt from dynagro is 7.6%, and the rhino skin is only .15% silica , will have to have some r & d .

I run mine at a constant 80psi from the caleffi pressure reducer. The tank runs 140psi down to 80psi. The AA runs 30-40psi of compressed air and zero water pressure.

Does the pressure being emitted from the nozzle just spin on its own from pressure I assume, Is there a tutorial for that design anywhere? Seems like plenty of time from trial and error has been observed here. Do you think the yield is superior in the aaa compared to the hpa?

I only use air to generate the mist, the nozzle is electrically rotated. It starts rotating a second or two before the mist pulse triggers and for a second or two after it ends, then it waits for the next misting cycle. The rotation speed is fully adjustable from zero to 1500rpm which adds another level of control. The mist is delivered in multiple 360 degree passes, eg 1sec of mist at 120rpm = 2 passes. or 3 passes at 180rpm.