All aeroflo users... Help!!

hey everyone,

I was wondering if anyone else using the Aeroflo systems have had or are having a problem with root rot. I have the AF60 and all of my roots got dark brown and dont look so hot. The plants have been growing new white, healthy roots but not fast enough. I have the lines all the way down now.

ANY AND ALL HELP IS DEFINITELY APPRECIATED!

Thanks in advance!

Are your root chambers insulated? what is the temp in your chambers? I have mine mylar on mine and it keeps the temps allot lower with the misters off.
I have aeroflo60 too and the root chambers are just to crowded in my opinion

yea i agree!! I dont think that the roots have enough room.. I try to keep the water around 70 and the pump is 3on/5off!

Your keeping your rez at 70 but what is the temp in your root boxes? They heat up pretty quick as I said with the pump off. I run my pump on for 15 and off for 45 and I keep my root zone at 68.

How do you check that regularly? do you have a probe in the lines? Also, you are insulating with mylar? do you have any pics?

Why don't you guys just run your pumps 24/7? It is suppose to be an AEROflo. When the pumps are off you lose that aspect [lines off, no atomization] . Secondly, it also acts as a NFT, which once again requires water flow. And as mentioned when the pumps are off, things can heat up easily.

With the pumps on, the res temp raises super fast. I cant get frozen bottles in there enough! A chiller is like $500 so I think that will be my next purchase!

No pics I just glued mylar to my tubes to reflect the heat back and recut the holes. I have a thermocouple in each root chamber to check the temps I hsvr s fluke. The mylar helps to keep the rez a bit cooler too. I have all my thermocouples hooked up to an omega controller. http://www.omega.com/ppt/pptsc.asp?ref=DPS3300&ttID=DPS3300&Nav= I have it programed to show the highest and lowest temps it also datalogs.
Your problem is most likely caused by to high of root temps. What nutrients you using?

cephalopod said:

Why don't you guys just run your pumps 24/7? It is suppose to be an AEROflo. When the pumps are off you lose that aspect [lines off, no atomization] . Secondly, it also acts as a NFT, which once again requires water flow. And as mentioned when the pumps are off, things can heat up easily.

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I have ran it 24/7 no difference Its not a true aero the aeroflow does not atomize.

Mount your pump out of the rez that will stop your rez from heating up from the pump. If you have unmetered water and GOOD drains you could use a water chiller

Dpango are you running a chiller of any sort or are you trying to manage to heat by cycling your pump? From what I've seen and IMO, when running higher temps people seem to have better luck when they are proactive about the maintenance. Treating the reservoir with h202 or chlorine schedule. I haven't had to deal with this yet, so I really don't have a preferred method, but I like the idea of being able to measure the content of chlorine in my solution. I don't know how you would flow the dissipation rate of the h202. I did leave my pump off once for 12-13hrs, but everyone bounced back, with new root grow.

Creek, when running on a cycle are there was no noticeable difference in the roots? I'm just curious aside from the obvious, lower temps and electric consumption, whats the advantage to this?

cephalopod said:

Creek, when running on a cycle are there was no noticeable difference in the roots? I'm just curious aside from the obvious, lower temps and electric consumption, whats the advantage to this?

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Advantage lower watts and less noise. Putting the pump out of the rez there is NO heat difference between it being on 24/7 and cycled. I find the roots do a little better with a dry cycle they seem to be allot busher and stronger. Another advantage is less solution is going thought your pump filter and lines so you can go longer with out clogging not that I have had a clogging problem.

Can you switch to a remote pump that is not in the RES? This would remove the heat source and help drop the temps down.

I'm building my own aeroflow system using lowes and home depot stuff. First I made sure I had a big res. I'm going to use 44 gallons. That should help with water temps. What height should I keep the water in the grow tunnels?

OK hey all... I dont have a water chiller and thats y i am running the pump less.. I will hopefully be getting one soon. They are just so dam expensive!! I am using all GH nutes! I use RO water for my res so I dont deal with chlorine levels and i use h2o2 when I am going to change the res. The plants were looking ill this am and when I cooled down the res, they all bounced right back!