Are AIR PUMP and WATER PUMT supposed to work 24/7 or can you limit them with a timer

Im about buying my first air pump and water pump but i dont know if they are supposed to work 24/7 or if i can limit the hours they are working a day using a timer.

Regarding water pump i understand that if roots get dry for a few minutes they get damaged but i dont know if the time they take to dry would be higher if you are using some medium like perlite, clay, or whatever other you can use in hydro, in comparison to just aero with only water with no medium and hence with roots exposed (faster dry in this case).

Regarding the air pump ive read the most air pumped into a system the better, but maybe u can stop it for 9 hours a day while sleeping as no organism should develope root disiese in that time and if they begin to doit they should be killed once the air pump begin to work again for 15 hours nonstop isnt it.


Those are my questions, not a as interesting as a secret room in a basement but i need to ask them

I am not sure what type of hydro system your talking about here. If a DWC your roots should be in the water and you should never, ever, turn your air pump off. If your talking about a recirculating system it's still the same. If your running an Eb and flow I would stop watering about an hour and a half before lights out, and if your roots are not sitting in water you shouldn't need the air pump on. IMO though I would just leave the air pump on in any case just because it will help keep your res healthy. Good luck and happy growing.
KnB

for the moment im growing some vegs in an aerofarm, which comes with a water pump but not any air pump so i will need to get one.

But i dont know how much water im suppposed to put in the aerofarm. It holds upt to 45l, which would let roots underwater, but i read some ppl telling they fill just half 20 to 25l so roots are exposed and get water from spray noozzles only.

So i understand that air pump should be 24/7 anyway, and water pump depends upon water level being half (then 24/7) or covering roots (then u could stop it sometimes).

Does anyone know how much water im supposed to put in the aerofarm.

userwords said:

for the moment im growing some vegs in an aerofarm, which comes with a water pump but not any air pump so i will need to get one.

But i dont know how much water im suppposed to put in the aerofarm. It holds upt to 45l, which would let roots underwater, but i read some ppl telling they fill just half 20 to 25l so roots are exposed and get water from spray noozzles only.

So i understand that air pump should be 24/7 anyway, and water pump depends upon water level being half (then 24/7) or covering roots (then u could stop it sometimes).

Does anyone know how much water im supposed to put in the aerofarm.

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Doesn't that thing come with instructions?

I took a look at a Spanish language youtube video. That aerogarden works basically on the exact same principles as my tub.

You can play around with the water level. Leaving roots suspended in air is what you're supposed to do with a spray feeding system. There should be a shallow reservoir at the bottom that the pump should be recirculating from. You can make the water low enough so that the pump is just submerged. The only problem I see with running a submersible in a body of water that small is the heating issue.

And who says letting the roots dry damages them? My roots love to dry... just so long as they get wet again.

24/7 365...For sure...

hold up.... now, im NO EXPERT.... but the research i have done indicates that for a true aeroponic system, you need to suspend the roots completely (dont want them laying on the tub/bucket floor).... the roots are supposed to only get a nute-spray for less than 5 seconds per cycle, leaving the roots to "air out" for up to 10 minutes. (example: 2 sec. spray / 3 min. off) in the end you will use 90% less nute/water than any other method of growing! so the nute spray should be timed on the water pump, your air pump runs 24/7 to aerate the nute-solution, then the water pump draws it out to spray on root zone....

someone please dont hesitate to correct me, cuz im still just learning over here!

I admit I'm sort of a beginner, starting out with my first serious hydro setup, though I have been studying hydroponics for a long time and watching carefully what some of my comrades are doing.

One thing that I have been told many times, and various hydro and horticulture guides say the same thing, is that plants have metabolism cycles between day and night, and you want to feed the plants when they are actually "hungry" and can absorb the nutrients . . . so having a timer system that controls water and nutrient access to the plants really does matter. Timers that run off of 120 Vac are extremely common and cheap, any hardware store will have them, for around $10 or less.

If you are running a DC electrical system (like 12Vdc,for instance), these are a little harder to find, but they can be found online.

Hope this is helpful . . .