6 inch PVC aeroponics tube system

This is a larger variation on the Irish / Webby tube system found elsewhere in the FAQ. 6 inch tubes allow for more root space and larger plants.

Basically, I am showing how to build the root chambers, rez, and feeder lines for your system. Depending on what is available in your area, pick your own misters and pump to match.


Every system will vary to suit your own needs and space but here are the basic materials for this particular one:

6 inch PVC pipe (With this five-tube system, you also use 4 lengths of 1 inch PVC as feeder / pressure lines)
6 inch couplings, and 1 inch" couplings, along with elbows and endcaps as needed.
Large reservoir - the larger the better for stability and maintenance.
Pump - output and size to be determined by what misters you choose.
Support for tubes (I used sawhorses)
The usual array of handy tools, but youll need a hole saw to match the neptots you choose.

Main 6 inch pvc pipes

I am using schedule 40 6 inch diameter PVC pipe. . Just ask around at Home Depot type places, if they dont have it, they will know who does.. In Canada it was anywhere from $5 to $9 per foot. Schedule 80 is too thick and expensive.

I am also using 3.5 inch netpots, spaced 6 inches apart, therefore you will need a 3.5 inch holesaw. 3 inch or 3.5 inch pots are ideal. The mass of your roots will be in the tubes, so dont worry about the pots being too small (They are just anchors really).



Your 6 inch tubes will be joined by rubber couplers with hose clamps. You can find these where you buy your PVC along with rubber end fittings to close the tubes off. *See last pic

At the end of one of your tubes (or set or tubes) you will need a drain of some kind. I just made a 1 inch hole and inserted a pvc plug. This will drain into the rez. (Here is looking down)










You also see a hole in between the netpots. This is for your sprayline. I use one sprayer in between each two pots, this seems to work just fine as they put out a 360 degree spray.

The sprayline is held in place by grommets or rubber corks with holes drilled through them. You can find something that will work in the plumbing section, or stores that sell beer/wine brewing equipment (a huge selection of rubber corks and stoppers) Choose your sprayline, misters and plugs before you begin drilling holes!

The tubes will eventually be supported on sawhorses with the drainage end ultimately sitting right on the resevoir. Be sure that the far end of the system is higher than the rez end so that your liquid will drain back to the rez easily. There is a 2 inch height difference in this system. You dont need much. These stands are easy enough to make, you will notice also that there are cutouts for both the 6 inch tubes, and the 4, 1 inch PVC tubes that run along between them to feed the spraylines.


Since each of my tube sections is 15 feet (3, 5 foot sections joined) I needed the same amount in 1 inch PVC.


1 inch Feeder tubes

I used PVC couplings to join them on two sections and then got fancy and used a valve to join the last section. This way I can shut off water to the last section if I am not using it (like when vegging out mother plants or doing a smaller crop, you can also conveniently shut off a section if something needs repairing).





At the end (not the rez end) the feeder tubes are capped. Oh, and USE TEFLON TAPE, PEOPLE!! Or some kind of sealant - you dont want to get it all together and find out that you have leaks!






Along the 1 inch PVC feeder tube, I have drilled (and tapped to match the threads of my sprayer assembly) holes to mount the spray lines. One hole per sprayer (Youll know what size holes to drill once you decide on the type of sprayer you wish to use).






Here is the big funky rez. A 300 litre / 80 gallon monster. This rez is actually a dock float - they are built to withstand great pressures and will not fail on you.

It has 5 holes drilled in it that fit the drain spigots of the tubes. You will need to drill an access hole for nutrient access and the intake line of your pump.

You can also see the business end of the feeder tubes, they are all joined together in one common pipe that leads to the output of the pump, which will soon be sitting on the floor beside the rez.


A pressure gauge helps you figure out what youre running at and lets you know if there is some kind of problem.








Here is the drain spigot on the tube I was talking about - it just fits into the rez. It is just a 3 inch bit of 1 inch PVC - some kind of connector I found. Use whats at hand.







The rez end, with the 1 inch pvc joined together with various elbows and fittings. The pump is ready to be installed.









Here is the inline filter that sits between the pump and the rest of the feeder lines. Filters are essential to prevent mister clogs.








Here is a long view so that you can see how the big tubes and the feeder lines lie beside each other and how the spray lines are hooked up.







Look inside! - You can see the sprayer coming in between the netpot holes.











Here is another full shot of the whole thing. Notice that the ends of the 6 inch tubes are capped and they are joined by those black couplers and hose clamps. You can buy those wherever you get your PVC.






Next step: fill it with netpots, rocks, water in the rez and then clones.

Happy aeroponica

Magical, mogie.

Pondering upgrades- and this is how I'd do it.

Thanks for this.

Not that I have done this myself just info passed along to me. Hope you all can use it and benefit from it. Much love.

mogie, that's cool- even if you haven't done this one yourself, you have provided more than a sufficient level of detail, which ought to allow anyone to replicate the system.

However, I would like a bit more detail on the type of pump used by the builder of this op. It doesn't seem to me that a standard aquarium-type centrifugal pump would generate the pressure needed to get good atomisation of the nutrient solution.

Good point. What type of pump would you recommend?

Good question, mogie. I'll have to do some research on available types of pumps. Will post my notes when I've found something suitable.

I could be off base- I've got some seriously high-volume centrifs which might work, but centrifugal pumps have a gap between the pump blades and the housing they spin in. This would not allow them to develop a lot of pressure.

When I'm next down at Ye Olde Hardware Shoppe (where everybody knows my name ), I'll get some lawn irrigation sprayers and plumb them up to one of my hi-vol centrifs and see what happens.

Nice thread, hats off to you both!

Another question I'm pondering is how best to get oxygen into the nutrient solution. The aero setups I've been looking at all address how to spray the nute solution, but not how to get the O2 into that nute solution.

The options seem to include an airstone and a typical aquarium diaphragm pump as well as using the water motion to draw air through a small tube, into the main water pump. The pumping action would force some O2 to dissolve into the water, but since air is compressible and water is not, this might lower the pressure at the sprayers.

The pump for a system like the one pictured would have to be a decent irrigation or pool pump to generate enough pressure.
You can aerate the res but with all the nutes 'falling' back in it will self-aerate. Also, the misting heads eliminate the need for lots of aeration - the mist does that.

I've seen a similar setup where the 1inch pvc runs within pvc fence posts and has 1/16th inch holes drilled between net pots. Supposedly this eliminates the clogging of the misting heads and also prevents leaks.
I have been toying with which way to go...

MightyBuddha said:

The pump for a system like the one pictured would have to be a decent irrigation or pool pump to generate enough pressure.

Click to expand...

Got any linkage to sellers with suitable pumps? My usual hydro shop doesn't deal in anything but the small aquarium type centrifs (400-800 litres/hour).

MightyBuddha said:

You can aerate the res but with all the nutes 'falling' back in it will self-aerate. Also, the misting heads eliminate the need for lots of aeration - the mist does that.

Click to expand...

Very good point. My only concern past that is how easily fresh air can enter the area where the spraying is happening. If the misted area is well sealed, fresh air might not get in very efficiently. However, there's probably going to be enough air gap between the plants and the holes that they drop into in the PVC pipe to sort that out.

I think I'm going to build a very small (perhaps suiting 4-5 plants) 'proof of concept' model and grow out a few plants before going whole hog and replacing all my flood trays.

MightyBuddha said:

I've seen a similar setup where the 1inch pvc runs within pvc fence posts and has 1/16th inch holes drilled between net pots. Supposedly this eliminates the clogging of the misting heads and also prevents leaks.
I have been toying with which way to go...

Click to expand...

The design mogie has posted includes a filter on the water pump input, but I'm with you- I have some concerns about nute salts crystallising on the sprayer nozzle apertures, simply by virtue of exposure of the sprayed nute solution to air. This is a problem I contended with when I was using a drip system some years ago- and the main reason I switched to a very clog-proof flood system.

It seems sensible to fit the sprayers into the PVC pipe in some manner which is easy to disassemble and clean- perhaps by fitting rubber grommets to holes drilled into the PVC pipe, which the sprayers will fit tightly into, instead of mechanically fitting the sprayers more permanently though the pipe.

I'll tell you, I wouldn't mind eliminating the rockwool potstuffer media from my op. The used rockwool is easily disposable, but at the end of the day, I still have to buy it and get rid of it when I'm done with it.

I'd also like to eliminate the netpots and expanded clay from the featured design. I've seen some aero systems which support the plant without the need for any expanded clay pellets.

Another thing which occurs to me is that I really like the ability in the flood system to easily move plants around.

This is most important when I have to spray plants for powdery mildew, which still happens from time to time despite a dehumidifier, good air circulation via osc fans in each corner of the flowering area and more than sufficient air exchange capacity in intake and exhaust fans. It's convenient to be able to spin a plant around to make sure all of it gets throughly sprayed.

Seems to me that the plant will have to be in a netpot with pellets to make 'portability' of individual plants even remotely possible. I'd still be concerned about damaging those roots which would be hanging freely from the netpot, unsupported by any media, while lifting and turning the plants around to spray them.

Al B. Fuct said:

It seems sensible to fit the sprayers into the PVC pipe in some manner which is easy to disassemble and clean- perhaps by fitting rubber grommets to holes drilled into the PVC pipe, which the sprayers will fit tightly into, instead of mechanically fitting the sprayers more permanently though the pipe.

Click to expand...

duhhhhh....

mogie said:

The sprayline is held in place by grommets or rubber corks with holes drilled through them.

Click to expand...

mogie already covered that. wake up, Al..

Scratch the high-pressure pump idea. Lots of potential problems, now that I think about it.

I think I can produce a more finely atomised mist than with lawn spayers- and not have clogging problems- if I flood the PVC pipes and put a number of airstones in them, driving them with plain ol' diaphragm type aquarium air pumps, using several in a redundant arrangement.

The air bubbles breaking the surface of the water will create an acceptably fine, oxygenated mist- if the mist jumping up from my present aerated reservoirs is anything to go by.

However, the "airstones" (mine are not really stones, but rather tubes of a porous synthetic material with a stainless steel tube inside to weight them down), about 1" in diameter, would have to be submerged, at least under about 1" of water, to send up a good mist. If the PVC pipe is 6" dia, this leaves only 4" for roots to hang in mist. A larger diameter tube, perhaps an oval shaped tube (if it exists, 8" x 6" would be ideal) or a ~8" deep channel with a lid might be alternatives.

I might even be able to convert my existing flood trays to aero in this way. Running the pumps as they are floods the trays to about 3" deep. I could put airstones in continuously flooded trays and make a plastic cover with "pot holes" in it, suiting netpots with a little rockwool or perhaps clay pellets to cover the flood tray and trap the mist. If I used rockwool, I'd have to play with the aeration pump duty cycle to keep the stuff from saturating.

hmm...

Well, I guess I'll have another cone and think about it summore...

Fuct, use a utlity pump . The pressure these pumps put out is pretty strong, stronger then a regular house water pressure. I think it pumps about 250gph may not be necessary but im sure it will do the job. You can get them for 80 bucks at home depot i like to go with flotec. Also what you say using the garden sprayer the flotec would be awsome because that will imitate the water pressure from a garden hose. Hope that helps your pondaring I read alot of your post and your really helpful hope I helped you solve this matter.

Hi there, I anyone alive on this thread, could use a little assistance on the PUmp, totally new to this and was kinda inspired by this style of setup, Most in now just need to sort the pump and the misters, help...

SailAway said:

Hi there, I anyone alive on this thread, could use a little assistance on the PUmp, totally new to this and was kinda inspired by this style of setup, Most in now just need to sort the pump and the misters, help...

Click to expand...

Most of these guys retired, look up ez-clone sprayers, as for pump, get a 700gph foutian pump,

Hi there, I did bang a bit of an artical up re the build, but alsa all the guys that seemed to have had the experience have drifted, Retired, Gone Streight, Quit Smoking , or just had the net cut.

I am trying to put a tube system together, but running up a few problems and every one says it is difficult, so just looking for guidance in a few areas.

Well I will give it a hit and thanks for the post.

J

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/769247-my-first-attempt-growing.html

Sailaway, I still use my tube system with great results. What do you need help with? Here to help.