Aeroflo2 20 Help!

HI,
I am a newbie aeroponics grower and i am having some trouble with my aeroflo2 20 unit. I have a 4ft tek light 8 bulb, with 6 bulbs being 6500k and 2 3000k. I have clones along with seedlings in the unit right now for a total of 16 plants. 6 of these are clones and positioned closest to the drain on each fence post. The ph is around 5.7-5.9 and the water temp at 57 degrees. I use the aeroflo nutrients according to the directions on the bottle. My ppm is at 1700 ppm, which i feel is way too high, but not sure?? Also, my drain valves are positioned about halfway up, allowing the water to just barely touch the bottom of the net cup. Temperatures reach up to 84 degrees at the hottest point in the day and cool down to about 74 when the lights are off. I also have two fans currently running to circulate air/cool down the room. I am looking to get another fan if it will help the temperature situation at all until i can afford a portable a/c unit (which is on sale at costco right now if anyone needs one.) My setup is currently in an extra walk in closet, however i am worried about the ventilation/temp and considering moving the unit to an extra bedroom. However, until them i am looking to combat the following problems in which any advice is greatly appreciated.

My clones seem to have drooping leaves and remarkedly slow growth in comparison to the seedlings. The clones were originally dipped in Take Root and placed in Rockwool cubes for a few days before transplanted into AF. Was this a premature transplant since the roots were barely visible in the Rockwool bottom?

Secondly, what should my ppm stay around because according to GH it should be between 800-1200, but i have heard that ppm is more specific to plant type so any input would be great!

Lastly, i am a little confused about where the water level in the fence posts should. Like i previously stated, the water is barely touch the net cup closest to the reservoir, however the net cups furthest away are about a ¼ “ submerged in water. For some reason, the water level in the back of the AF is higher then the water level near the drain. Is this a problem/should i correct it to be level or more of a slope towards the res?

Thanks so much for everyone’s thoughts and suggestions. I am really appreciative.

well If it is spraying then I am assuming it is ok to let the water level be as low as possible.

this is an nft/aero machine, right?

I think I was going to get one, or at least the arms and buid the rest. Laser cut.


In an nft you want the water to be a film on the bottom of the posts. touching the pots is too high. Not enough oxygen. Maybe or maybe not. Ideally a film with the sprayers wetting the rest.


can you level it off and barley have it slide back? the water.


as for temps. heat rises. vent the roof. tents make this easy. getting that heat down to never over 80 is crucial to good buds, except with co2.


The other room sounds nice, and putting your machine in a tent, it makes it a whole hella lot easier to control temps. I had prob in the batroom, in the closet, and then i got a tent, No probs same fan.

Sounds like your temps are not that bad, 84 is easy to control. Maybe a bigger inline fan before you switch to air.

i meyself have got some protable swamp coolers before I buy a portable air.

although with an aero system I know that the temps are s whole lot more imnportant. What is your res temps.

I bet the aero guys need to hear that.

res temps never get above 76. I empty a bag of ice into a 5 gallon bucket and add 4-6 cups of water and let it sit for about 5 mins so that the ice can melt and cling together. I then drain out some water and replace with chilled water/ice. This is done daily about 2 hours before the lights turn off. Lights are on an 18/6 cycle that goes on at 5 p.m. and turns off at 11 a.m. It is done this way to lower heat.

I I have not adjusted ppm yet due to high nutrient level. I am considering flushing the whole system to get a proper ppm, but unsure if this is a good idea.

Currently the laser line is spraying in the opposite corner of the post and not striking the netcups because it is placed in between each netcup. The water level is probably about 1-1 1/2 inches deep. Do you think i should lower it? I am also not sure if the leaves are droopy because of overwatering. Since they are in rockwool, which maintains water, i think that they may have been soaked in water for the past few days, which may have caused this recent change. Since the lights have been off today, no change has occured with the leaves.

Thanks for the help

Hey there! This should help a little!!!
I have an aeroflo60 with DM gold nutes and feel I have gotten some killer results. The aeroflo is like a sports car though, very touchy and highly responsive to change! Check water temps every day. I recommend anything from 65-70degrees water temps is PERFECT! the ambient air temps fluctuating are less important than the water temps. 65 degrees gives an ideal balance between warmth for roots and allowing for maximum oxygen holding capacity! Keep air circulation at a MAXIMUM to give those suckers a good workout. The more circulation, the more evaporation so watch your water levels. As your water levels rise and fall at different rates, your PH will also obviously due to many reasons. I found that 3 week vegged trainwreck can handle 1200pm(1500ppm i found was too much as growth slowed and buds started to elongate instead of get dense) without showing adverse effects. At the moment I am dealing with easyrider automatics that are reaching over 3 feet tall after 1 month of growth and im still bouncing between 850-1100ppm. As I reach 1100ppm I noticed the preflower hairs begin to brown. If your hairs are browning quickly from bottom to top then you know you can chill out on the nutes. this is how I know I'm getting too excited without it being too late! You want erect and feathery hairs from bottom to top. I even still have full size bright green cotyledons on my 1month old flowering 3 foot automatics(1 1/2 thick trunks) so I know they have got to be darn close to their genetic ideal health. Feel free to see my aero60 in action on this thread (title: Aeroflo60 Easyriders!) As far as water level i ALWAYS keep it at the lowest level possible. I even started them as seedlings in their baskets with coarse vermiculite(not hydroton) in the coco-liners. Vermiculite keep the root zone very moist as the mist is easily absorbed from the aeroflos water system. Tilt the laser shooters at a 30 degree angle downwards against the opposing PVC wall and you will notice not only will it force more air bubble action but it will cause an ideal mist heading upwards and around the baskets. Always check your water 2x per day! Scan your ph once you kool off on the PPM from 5.6-6.1 you will find they will look really pretty at different PH levels depending on their stage of growth! I call it "PH dancing"... and you are checking ph hopefully 2x a day so you are making sure all necessary nutrients are dissolved at their specific ph levels at least once that day by visiting the lower and higher possible levels of the ph spectrum. Like I said its a sports car! just keep your eyes on the meters! My autos like 5.8 right now and my train loved 6.3!
Keep in touch, its just the tip 'o the iceberg with this aero thing!! I'd love to share all I have learned. If you wanna supercharge it a little more add a high powered bubblewand to the long side of the reservoir near the pump end. Keep the wand low obviously and make sure the air bubles do not make your pump sound any different. You want dissolved air and not bubbles being pressurized through an aeroflo! Keep your water level in the tank very high and you will notice each one of the drains from the channels will act as an air stone also!!! There is some suction going on there and your little device will SCREAM performace!!!

you know your system is working well once you start saying HOLY SHIT everytime you visit the room. 2x a day!!!

your "production plant" sounds very impressive. I have adjusted the drain valves to as low as possible and will get distilled water today so that i can flush out the system and provide fresh nutes. I am currently using the aeroflo according to the directions on the bottle which call for even amounts of all three nutrients for general purpose. Do you suggest that i alter the nutrients to only include the flora micro and floragro or should i still use all three together? I also have foxfarm big grow, but was informed that it was too thick of a solution for the aeroflo. Do you have any input on that

I actually just use tap water to flush my reservoir. The calcium and mag count is plenty and the chlorine seems to fend off root rot when oxygen is low or water temps get too high. I recommed following the ratios suggested for the system but I would definitely just keep the ppm much lower. Unfortunately organics are my fav! I tried running botanicare organic nutes for a while and sludge built up, things get gooey, and the worst part.... the opposite end of the reservoir starts acting like a compost pile and is the worst smell you can imagine coming off of the froth that begins to emerge from the water. I am going to try organics again down the road with a submersible water pump on the non-pump end of the reservoir to keep the water swirling and combine that with a dual diaphram air pump. That will keep things clean and breathing! As for now I go with DM Gold because the grow shop whispered about results beyond my imagination combining those nutes and the aeroflo. Just remember dont increase the nutes unless the plants are asking. If you are not sure if they are asking for more .. then they arent! To be honest I have not once had luck with the GH 3parts nutes but old school ebb&flo SOG guys I know swear by the regime. So I won't say one way is better but I will at least give you my full and accurate knowledge about what I DO know. Keep asking questions! its so hard keeping all this info I learn to myself with this intriguing hobby. Also, when I cut clones I will take a net pot and insert the clone so that 3 inches stick out from the bottom of the net pot. Then I feel with my support medium. I then root these guys in me EZ Clone as I have roots within 3-5 days with 100% success. When I pull the clones out of the ez clone they have the basket around the stem still but now a root ball below thebasket. It works wonders because now moving the new clones into the aero is plug and play! also the longest of the roots will be hitting the film of water anyways so you wont be relying on its adjustment to the aeroflos new spray angle/pattern! If this does not make sense I can draw pics!

yo mr president i'm currently in progress to buy couple aeroflo2 60 sites and planning to use the 5 spectrum LED 350w 2x per site ..and i was hoping to get some help from u to get the best results since u do sound like u know what u talking about...

Hey Mr President I just got an aeroflo2 36 site and I would LOVE if you could send me some real specific information on how to use this beast. I am a complete noob. But you clearly seem to know what your talking about and o btw can u grow plants to full maturity or do u just grow a bunch of lil babies and get like an oz per plant or something. Im sorry I am very confused with the small cup size and all.

Hey guys check out the Aeroflo Group. I'll be answering questions over there anyone has=-)