New to hydroponics
- Thread starter B42082
- Start date
HydroEnthused
Active Member
My best advice for you is to make a little enclosure box for your air pump with a MERV 13 rated air filter on one side. Your air pump diaphragm will last for years. Especially needed if you grow in a basement where an oil burner is near or if there is a lot of dust in your air.
If you have a MERV 13 rated air filter for your environmental air intake and the air pump is in the grow room, than you already have pretty good clean air for your pump.
One less thing to clog the air stone.
Also, if you see any kind of powdery precipitates in the res, just go lower on phosphorus. Calcium phosphate will also clog your airstones.
Slime building up on the surface of the air stone might clog it too (I never had that problem) but you just pour a little warm RO water on the air stone between grow cycles (not boiling because this will sometimes crack the plastic base of the round air stone if you choose those) and that’ll keep em bubblin’! No need for bleach or H202 for cleaning things but if you do just rinse with a deluge.
Best solution to pollution is dilution.
Keep as many heat producing things out of the room if you can and try to pull your air from a second story window if you can. I’m convinced that this is why I don’t know what spider mites are (at least not up close and personal).
If you like tinkering with automation...there are a lot of cool and somewhat unnecessary apparatus that you could come up with (especially for hydro) to pass the time if you don’t mind playing with valves and switches.
Aeration is just as important as your environment temps now that you’re growing hydroponically. Best of luck!
If you have a MERV 13 rated air filter for your environmental air intake and the air pump is in the grow room, than you already have pretty good clean air for your pump.
One less thing to clog the air stone.
Also, if you see any kind of powdery precipitates in the res, just go lower on phosphorus. Calcium phosphate will also clog your airstones.
Slime building up on the surface of the air stone might clog it too (I never had that problem) but you just pour a little warm RO water on the air stone between grow cycles (not boiling because this will sometimes crack the plastic base of the round air stone if you choose those) and that’ll keep em bubblin’! No need for bleach or H202 for cleaning things but if you do just rinse with a deluge.
Best solution to pollution is dilution.
Keep as many heat producing things out of the room if you can and try to pull your air from a second story window if you can. I’m convinced that this is why I don’t know what spider mites are (at least not up close and personal).
If you like tinkering with automation...there are a lot of cool and somewhat unnecessary apparatus that you could come up with (especially for hydro) to pass the time if you don’t mind playing with valves and switches.
Aeration is just as important as your environment temps now that you’re growing hydroponically. Best of luck!
