Testing the Aerolife True HPA AA (Air Atomized) System -First run

Now I'm caught up on this thread, started off crazy, with that assbag troll from your HP 2011 thread trying to muck things up. Have to say I'm intrigued by aa for sure. Wanna say ill stick to hpa, been growing Aero one way or another for 17 yrs, so we'll see. When I started reading this thread last night my wife asked what I was reading, told the bases of aa, and that I was happy with hpa, and she rolled her eyes, 5 minutes later she asked how much this was going to cost, LOL. Oh, and trichy, you get no love from me, I'm in Alaska, and I miss me a kihei iced coffee, ya know, lol.

Originally Posted by Ralph Wiley

Now I'm caught up on this thread, started off crazy, with that assbag troll from your HP 2011 thread trying to muck things up. Have to say I'm intrigued by aa for sure. Wanna say ill stick to hpa, been growing Aero one way or another for 17 yrs, so we'll see. When I started reading this thread last night my wife asked what I was reading, told the bases of aa, and that I was happy with hpa, and she rolled her eyes, 5 minutes later she asked how much this was going to cost, LOL. Oh, and trichy, you get no love from me, I'm in Alaska, and I miss me a kihei iced coffee, ya know, lol.

Lol, yeah, this hobby can get spendy if you want to let it. It also doesn't have to be so bad and can be considered an investment that will pay for itself in the future if you do it right. Either way you might become obsessed like some of us. As Atomizer told me, it's probably best to start with hydraulic HPA and then graduate to AA. The parts for hydraulic are all necessary to do a proper AA anyway because theoretically the best results should be achieved with pressure fed AA nozzles. This system I am testing here however, uses siphon fed nozzles and is actually simpler than HPA, all you need is an air compressor (or a more spendy silent one if you can't have an air compressor running day and night cuz they're a bit noisy ya know) and the nutes are siphoned up from a venturi in the nozzles. I am not sure that this system will deliver yet, and that's what is still to be determined. If my business life wasn't constantly demanding so much out of me I'd probably have some solid opinions by now. As it is, I do have a couple living clones just starting out in the chamber, and will write up an update soon.

Wow, the other 50th state... So funny man I met my girlfriend at that exact coffee shop over 5 years ago, she was a barrista there -and when I used to work in the area, I'd go in and order coffee from her everyday cuz I thought she was cute... What a small world!

p.s. - I now have to explain to her about all the new gizmos and messes I make when working on my hobby here. I've had to convince her it's my "creative outlet"... LOL

I found the absolute perfect aeroponics pump a few years ago. It runs at 120 PSI and only moves 0.1 gallons per minute, has quick fit connect inlet and outlet for 1/4" pe tubing. Let's just say it absolutely rocks and they cost about $75 a piece. It runs fairly cool (not a submersible so it doesn't get the nutes hot) and is 100% inaudible. I've been using the fine mist super nozzles from drip works for my aero setup and they work fairly well. Never had one clog yet and they put out a 50 micron size mist. You guys probably know what I'm talking about already.

Originally Posted by Fonzarelli

I found the absolute perfect aeroponics pump a few years ago. It runs at 120 PSI and only moves 0.1 gallons per minute, has quick fit connect inlet and outlet for 1/4" pe tubing. Let's just say it absolutely rocks and they cost about $75 a piece. It runs fairly cool (not a submersible so it doesn't get the nutes hot) and is 100% inaudible. I've been using the fine mist super nozzles from drip works for my aero setup and they work fairly well. Never had one clog yet and they put out a 50 micron size mist. You guys probably know what I'm talking about already.

So what pump are you talking about- have a link or name? We are aware of quite a few that get the job done, some are very quiet, but none are inaudible that I know of. The solenoids slamming open and shut aren't exactly silent anyway...

I am also testing out the Aerofog nozzle and came across this thread. I'm trying a lettuce grow, so hopefully not as complicated as the plants many others are trying to grow. I put my nozzle in a 27 gallon tote, siphon tube into a pitcher next to the tote and started with a spray cycle of 15 second on and 3 minutes off. Lettuce seedlings (about 2 weeks old) were placed in PVC couplers with some polyester fiberfill to support them. Couplers then placed in holes cut out of the lid. As a control, I have two of the plants with their roots submerged in the same nutrient solution in a plastic box inside of the tote. Started up the system and the misted plants were wilted after 5 hours. Tried various small adjustments to the cycle time, but the roots never seemed very damp though the mist did condense on the surfaces inside the tote. I am just using a simple airbrush compressor (30 psi) without any accumulator running on a Sentinel DRT-1 cycle timer.

In observing the mist that is being produced, it does seem to fill the tote and hang for the duration of the off cycle, but looks almost as fine and dry as what an ultrasonic fogger produces. It makes me wonder if this is too fine a mist.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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Hi KKK,
Here`s my 2c for what its worth.
15 seconds is too much, try 1-2secs every 1-2 minutes. Your plants will need a reasonable amount of roots before they can make use of the fog. The tankless compressor could be working against your chamber temps as the freshly compressed air will be pretty warm. Try to keep the chamber temp around 70F.

Agree with Atomizer, and for what it's worth- it does seem the mist may be finer than ideal. I would expect it to keep your lettuce alive however given the correct settings... You will need to do some trial and error with the mist/pause timings. I am still fumbling with it myself, and have decided the 2 biggest factors in my own issues are that the mist is finer than ideal, while my chamber is also on the smallish side. Because I suspect the mist is too small, I have been playing around with oversaturating and then allowing a longer dry period (but not nearly as long of periods as you mention), which is not ideal- but may be the only way to get halfway decent results. Even so, I would suspect your long settings are allowing the roots to become totally wet, and then dry out again, which is sort of the same as low pressure aero, or even similar to NFT. It may keep the plants alive, but will not offer much of the benefits of a good true aero system. A good sign your timings are getting close to perfect is if you see development of fine root hairs covering the roots.

Glad you found us and hope you will update any progress or issues alike.

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll give the suggestions a try. I agree that the root system is so small right now that they probably don't use fog very effectively. I don't think I'm getting a wet/dry cycle on the roots, they don't even look wet right after the spray finishes. Would I see droplets on the roots if they were oversaturated? Temp is 77F growing indoors under LEDs.