What would you like to see in a new hydroponics system?

I was thinking just that. For sure, my grown room does too. It will match.

You should see the car stereo I been making, and the LED speaker rings I made scratch with cheap polyethylene tubing and WS2811 strips. I have extra RGB led controllers with music mode too.

Strips aren't water proof enough, but the stringed pixel versions could poke down through drilled holes in the lids and be 100% water tight. I was looking at those cheap submersible fountain leds on amazon, that come with a controller.

My windows might be CNC'ed out cannabis leaves (on each plant site next to the rootzones), and look so sweet with IC controlled RGB chasing green lights at night.

I don't wanna talk to much because I want the reveal to be a nice surprise If i decide to show it off, pretty soon lol. Just got the materials to do it too.

Gonna be vinyl wrapped too, when I can finally decide on a theme/design

No need to worry about an air pump adding anything to the water, if you filter the air. This type of filter will remove just about everything. This is the air pump I use; a little double-sided tape will attach it to the pump.. No restrictions and no added load to
the air pump..

Dgnrt42087 said:

So when designing my hydroponics system I’m trying to think different. I want to go no air pumps but maybe a power head as they use less electricity and less likely to put outside things into the system. I’ve never done hydroponics before but fee I have a pretty good grasp on what a normal system is about.

I’m wanting to look outside the box a little. I want to figure out what every grower wants. And maybe start producing some of these systems for others down the road? I know it’s going to be alot of trial and error with going new ways but why not?

Maybe some of you have been worried about destroying your harvest because of a new idea so you never tried it? I want too! Give me some ideas people! Who knows if we come up with some major success I’d be willing to share with whomever helps me get there!

haha for real though I’m wanting to just try new things. I may spend alot of time for nothing, but that’s what experiments are about! Lol thanks y’all hope to hear some great stuff!

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Hi. If your meaning for the res instead of air stones, I switched from air pump to a water pump with some 16mm pipe on with 4 holes drilled at intervals and a bung on end with a single hole. Think I used 5mm drill for that. This was two years ago and not looked back. Keeps water circulating and constantly airates it. And no ph fluctuations because of air stones. Dunno if this helps. But what I would love to see or aquire help with is building a self filling res from water butt. Would like to use a 150ltr water butt to keep a 50ltr res topped up daily. Know it would involve floats and gravity and stuff, but it's plumbing and u less it's very basics not the greatest. Oh and could do with being totally flood proof. Like 150ltr of nutrients coming crashing down isn't going to be an insurance claim sadly...

2 wks MH, .. .4/5 wks Son T+.., 2 wks MH..The best)))

Trees.

You can add an air intake tube to most commercial air pumps, to suck it in from a remote location. Good for sealed rooms and whatnot.

The air stone itself IS the main filter, if you think about it, lol.

I use lead free soaker hose to make my diffusers with.

Haha, you could make an air pump water filter that chugs like a bong. Probably lower the pump noise down too. I guess you are actually sucking in spores and airborne bacteria, etc.. Filter isn't a bad idea.

I've seen those hydrogen electrolysis cells that create on demand pure oxygen (with some browns gas as a byproduct) that you toss in the res. Not enough hydrogen to explode, but still making enough DO for the roots.

I would like to see that idea perfected in a system, with a huge cell. Using the extra gas created to power a mini generator or something ..

Dgnrt42087 said:

I’ve never done hydroponics before but fee I have a pretty good grasp on what a normal system is about

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you should probably get a few hydro runs under your belt before you start trying to design a new system.

waterproof808 said:

you should probably get a few hydro runs under your belt before you start trying to design a new system.

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Thanks for the advice, I’m sure the first people to ever do anything had plenty of experience before trying something new…oh wait…. Lol

jk, I appreciate it but regardless I’m either going to achieve something or fail, only two options so why not experiment in the process?

Dgnrt42087 said:

Thanks for the advice, I’m sure the first people to ever do anything had plenty of experience before trying something new…oh wait…. Lol

jk, I appreciate it but regardless I’m either going to achieve something or fail, only two options so why not experiment in the process?

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you gotta know what the box is before you try to think outside of it.

Venturi valve mixes nutrient solutions and incorporates dissolved oxygen.
I've played around with alot of hydro hybrid prototypes of my own divise.. but truth be told, it's hard to beat High Pressure Aeroponics when done right. I'm not talking about bullshit irrigation spray heads powered by a submersible pump. But a open loop high pressure system that atomizes nutrient solution. Root trellises are necessary for this style and highly insulated root chambers of substantial proportions. I poses such a system and have given up on it for about 10yrs now. Organic no till water only for me. I produce comparable yields going from hydro to organic coco.

The bubbles popping in an aerated DWC solution actually create a finer mist than the best high pressure aeroponic nozzles are capable of.

If only you could utilize that effect more than just the top few inches over the water..

A slightly soapy nute mixture shooting at the roots out of a bubble machine?

Drop That Sound said:

The bubbles popping in an aerated DWC solution actually create a finer mist than the best high pressure aeroponic nozzles are capable of.

If only you could utilize that effect more than just the top few inches over the water..

A slightly soapy nute mixture shooting at the roots out of a bubble machine?

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True high pressure aeroponics is a drain to waste

Naked ladies.

I run a 2 plant 1 rez 3 bucket system. 3/4" tubing connecting buckets with rez in the middle. 2x 5w water pumps pump water from the rez to the grow buckets, gravity feed back into the rez. Conveniences; changeout and check/adjust PH from the rez. I still use airstones as a fail safe for the pumps. Never seen roots growing into the rez. I think the changeout water flushes any root growth back into the grow buckets.

For more root space you can use 6 or 7 gallon buckets. They add 3" with each gallon size up so be mindful of that decision if growing in tents. 5 gallon bucket setup holds 11 gallons per 2 plants, 6 gallon buckets = 14 gallons per two plants, 7 gallon = 17 gallons per two plants. I just started trialing the 6 gallon buckets to see if having more root space will increase yield.

I used to put the 5w water pumps in the grow buckets feeding into the rez. The logic was to avoid roots in the tubing but after testing I found it wasn't an issue so now no worries about root growth in the pumps. Having the water pumps feeding into the rez provided an easy visual indicator they were working but it easy enough to check the flow when they are in the rez feeding to the grow buckets.

I could probably ditch the air pumps but keep using them. I use just air pumps while vegging so the air stone is there going into flower there . I may try removing them one day and flower with just the tiny pumps.

Next thing to do would be to monitor water temp to see how much heat 10 watts of pumps add after an average room temp startup..

mytwhyt said:

Next thing to do would be to monitor water temp to see how much heat 10 watts of pumps add after an average room temp startup..

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I would need to set up an experiment to see how much heat they add because my buckets are sitting on a concrete slab. Alternatively I could sit a bucket of water in the grow space and take a measurement for comparison. But several hours into lights on the water is 70 and air temp is 75. At least I can surmise the amount of heat added is not that much. They're 5w rated but they actually pull about 4.5, at least the one's I tested. A few I bought are adjustable and those were able to be dialed down to 3.5w.

Another nice feature is that the motor is sealed but the impeller is not and is removable. They can be stripped down and cleaned. I strip them down and rinse them off, put them back together and run them in a mild bleach solution for an hour or so. Strip them down and rinse them off again, let everything dry before assembly and they're ready to be stored until next use. I've got a bunch, had one go bad. Pretty happy with the quality. Easy to find with amazon search for "mini water pump". They come in 3w versions too but I haven't tried those.

Thundercat said:

I ran a flood and drain system for years. It worked great so I only did limited experimenting. My normal system didn’t have any air pumps or anything other then the pump to fill the tray.

However I always thought about adding air stones or an air manifold to the bottom of each of my pots. The idea being it would pump air directly into the root ball and allow me to run more flood cycles per day. Possibly increasing over all growth. But it would have been a ton of air hoses to put a line in all 45 pots.

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I modified a flood & drain with airstones and added a cover so roots could grow, but algae would not. I run it 45minutes on & 15 minutes off & the difference in growth is significant. I just use it for early Veg bcuz the roots will eventually become a problem & clog this system.

Building your own RDWC system is a great project & you will continue to modify & improve as you grow with it. I‘ve built many RDWC systems. One of my favorite is a 4 plant RDWC years ago with waterfalls & kept airstones as a fail safe bcuz I travel weekly. I used 5gal buckets with 1-1/2 UC pipes without any root or pH issues and I can still get a pound a plant in a 3’ x 4’ tent.
A few cool design features to share…It’s a self-filling system with a float valve, so I just fill the back-up res once a week. I also designed a feature where I can just connect a garden hose to the RDWC pump to pump-out the entire system in just a few minutes. I also added c-pipes in each bucket to help avoid root clogging & have paint strainers in each bucket for control of roots & debris. I have easy access to the roots and pipes via hinged bucke-lids, bcuz once the SCROG is in, there’s no moving the plants. Another nice feature is I can lift & carry the entire system with one hand.

spray nozzle or waterfall

c-pipes for root & drain management

built-in pump-out

root & UC access

my current grow

McShnutz said:

True high pressure aeroponics is a drain to waste

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High pressure aeroponics is a growing method that uses high pressure water nozzles or low pressure water and air assist nozzles to make nutrient solution droplets of a desired size range. Recirculating or nonrecirc are reservoir features and have nothing to do with the method.

More than one method can use drain to waste, but only HPA can be HPA….