My first aeroponics grow

Well I started out growing out of soil back at my old place, now I got a new place and want to get back into growing I was looking online because I was interested in hydro. I read about aeroponics and liked it. I then checked out ebay and saw the general design of them. I decided I could make one myself for cheap it didn’t look to hard. I went to menards to get my shit. I got two 6” tubes 3 feet long. Two end caps for those tubes. I then got two ½” tubes 3 feet long that were going to use as my sprayer rods. I also got two caps for those too. I got some more of the 1/2 “ tubes so I could connect the tubes for a manifold. I went back to my house and got to work right away. I cut the ½ inch tubes to fit perfect inside the 6” tubes so that they sprayed right at the roots. I found out that they had small lawn sprayers so I picked up some of those and put them as my sprayers. I drilled eight 3” holes in the tops of the 6” tubes so that I can put my 3” net cups. Then I hooked up all my tubing and was set to go. I built a little stand for it, allowing my reservoir under it. It’s a 25-gallon tote dark so no light gets through to the water or nutes. I went to pet-expo to get the most powerful air pump I could find. I got a 12” long air band and a 6” air stone in my tote. Well I was there I grabbed a water pump that pushes 2100 gph which seems to work perfect. The water pump is hooked up to a digital timer that goes of every two hours for a half hour. I’m not sure if that’s too much or what. The only lights I got now are two 48” grow light. They are about six inches or so above the plants. The PH in my water is 5.3. I check it every day some times more. I have 10 gallons in my resivor. I have a nice room for all this in my basement, its got a door on it so I can put a lock on it and keep people from seeing. I painted all the walls white with the whitest paint I could find. The nutes I use is floramicro, floragrow, and florabloom. I’m so new to hydroponics I hope im doing everything right so far. As soon as I got my setup all done and made sure it worked fine, I asked my friends for the best seeds they had. I got about ten of them and only 4 sprouted. I’m using rockwool as a plug that was soaked in water with a ph of 5.5 overnight. The seeds had about ¼ inch root so I put them in the rockwool with tweezers, roots down. I don’t have anything for the rocks for the net pots so I used some fish aquarium rocks that I cleaned with hot water. I’m not sure if that’s a bad thing and will hurt the plants or if it will work. I put the rockwool with the seeds into the net pots and put the rock around them. I haven’t added any nutes to the water in my reservoir yet. I want to learn more before I screw anything up.

That’s about all I can say about my setup. I have so many questions that I would like some answers. Its hard trying to figure all this out on my own because I’m so new to aeroponics. Some of my questions are… my reservoir has a open top on it so the water can drain back into it, should I get on that is air tight and wont let any light to the water. Before my ph was changing everyday when I used tap water. Is that because of the open top. I now got pure water for my reservoir it started out with a ph of 5.0 and had no chlorine in it. My next question is how often should I water the plants and for how long. My sprayers really seem to put out some water because the pump is so huge. Another question is should I be using the fish aquarium rock or should I go to get something, if so what should I get.

Can Anyone HELP me?

With aeroponics the sprayers spray 24/7. I don't know if your PH was changing because of the open top. I would use hydroton clayton pebbles. If you have a local hydro shop you can get them there. I hope I was of some help.

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-TheDopeMan

I dont i have to drive like 3 hours to get some or order it off the internet

You really think that i should keep the water on 27/7 it pushes 2100 gallons per hour

you may have over soaked the seeds in the rockwool, if you soak them over night make sure to give them 3 or 4 good squeezes rotating the wool in a circle as you do it. then open it up place your seed in and pinch it closed. I only the other hand germ my seeds before i ever even fill my system with the ph'd water. the fish rocks are prolly the slick kind of rock and wont hold any type of water unlike the hydroton it holds water but wash off the clay dust before adding it to your system or you will have clogged misters. As for the germing they need oxygen too...3-4 paper towels moistened real good on a plate or tubberwear bowl. I put all my seeds in the papertowel and just kinda roll them up, if you seal it off like folding it, they wont get enough air and thats where you get the liquid white stuff that comes out of the seed when not germed right. Once i get my seeds in the paper towel moisten that bundle, then place 2=3 more paper towels in your bowl/plate and cover them. I place them up on top of the monitor for a low warm flow of heat, and i usually cover that bowl or whatever up with a hat, kinda holding humidity in there... i have germed 45 seeds at one time in soil out of 50. and just the other day for my aeroponics setup did 10 out of 10. I buy my seeds though. Although i did turn some bagseeds into some pretty good stuff...maybe just used different nutes than the previous grower. I run my pumps and air stones 24/7 to prevent clogs and just to keep water mixed up and flowing at all times. cant hurt... hope this helps.

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Important: Everything i do or say on this site is complete fiction and is made up by me and only me. I have never tried pot and never will and i would especially never even consider growing it

Now i have heard that before run the water 24/7...if thats what you guys thing i should do ill do it

It depends on your system, but not 24 hrs. If you are using Just hydroton, you
will need to water more often. For RW, only water up to 6 times a day, depending
on how big cubes your using. I was using an aero with 1" cubes, and they liked
to be sprayed four times a day on 15 min. intervals.

so your saying it could be harmful to run pumps and air stones 24/7?

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Important: Everything i do or say on this site is complete fiction and is made up by me and only me. I have never tried pot and never will and i would especially never even consider growing it

My system (an aero) recommends 24x7 watering until roots establish themselves enough to reach the reservoir. Once the roots are long enough, water only when the lights are on (and an optional hour during the middle of the dark period). Your mileage may vary so experimentation is the best bet. Hydroton is great cause you can plant right in it (no rockwool or anything) and it doesn't hold water.