Constructing a Homebrew Atomix Air-Atomized Aeroponic System

Trichy Bastard said:

lol... The credit goes to tree farmer and Atomizer... Pretty much taught me everything I know on the subject, and they are definitely the mentors here... I just happened to be seeking the best way to do this stuff, and consistently they seem to have the answers I was looking for... I didn't see a real need to use the cleanout needle, but perhaps if you are going to attempt the organic route it will be of some help to you...

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I don't think I am going to go with the needles. You have to push them yourself anyway, I can't see why not just using a similar sized pin or something to clean it. From the looks of the nozzle assembly, something can be rigged in the same place as their needles. If we weren't so afraid of showing our faces it would be sweet to make an aero family tree ha. Has Treeefarmer been around lately? I could use his advice since he focused on trees instead of sog.

Cheers Trichy for supplying the exact information on your siphon fed nozzles. I will eventually have to upgrade to these from the cheap one I brought. Does the job for now but pretty sure the average droplet size is too small. Great info and details. Been trying to get something going like this for years now just about managed to get most of the components needed thought id go the arduino route for the timer which is holding me up as need to learn about making simple circuits with that. May even just drop the cash on a timer so I can get it all up and running. Hope yours is going well, hopefully better than my efforts anyway.lol.

Hi agaain trichy don't suppose youve settled on which nozzles and bodies are best for your siphon fed air assisted aero. Have one siphon fed nozzle already plus 2 pressure fed. Currently trying to get away with using siphon fed for the simplicity and its taking me forever to get timer and solenoid valve rigged up. Ill get there eventually.

fatalflowers said:

Hi agaain trichy don't suppose youve settled on which nozzles and bodies are best for your siphon fed air assisted aero. Have one siphon fed nozzle already plus 2 pressure fed. Currently trying to get away with using siphon fed for the simplicity and its taking me forever to get timer and solenoid valve rigged up. Ill get there eventually.

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Hey fatalflowers- all sounds good. I jave not settled on any aa nozzles but promise to post here my findings when I do. I know I keep saying it, but soon- very soon. Just happened to find an amazing girl who I can see spending the rest of my life with- so you know how it goes- we're hanging out for all of our free time... The cool thing is she's interested and supportive of my hobbies and wants to be a part of them so soon enough we will build this chamber...

never clean a high pressure mister of any type with a tool of any kind chemical cleaning and ultrasonic only to remove mineralization, from what i understand anything inside the fine orifice of the head almost anything is abrasive and causes blockage and turbulence im sure

Trichy Bastard said:

I jave not settled on any aa nozzles but promise to post here my findings when I do. I know I keep saying it, but soon- very soon. Just happened to find an amazing girl who I can see spending the rest of my life with- so you know how it goes- we're hanging out for all of our free time... The cool thing is she's interested and supportive of my hobbies and wants to be a part of them so soon enough we will build this chamber...

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Hey Trichy.. we started some lettuce. Here we are at 11 days since germ. Using the same setup. Only difference is we are using Botanicare nutes instead of Advanced this go round.

indrharvest- What starting medium did you use for that lettuce? From this angle it looks like some rendition of the rapid rooter.

bicit said:

indrharvest- What starting medium did you use for that lettuce? From this angle it looks like some rendition of the rapid rooter.

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They are rapid rooters.

Lovely roots indr! Definitely going to be watching this one TB, and of course wanting to try it.
Alas, I had a lot more $ when I first started collecting parts for my accum. setup. I will be watching eagerly TB!!

indrhrvest said:

They are rapid rooters.

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Does the organic material in the rooters cause any long term problems? Do they break apart at all?

bicit said:

Does the organic material in the rooters cause any long term problems? Do they break apart at all?

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Yes, there will be some material that falls into the root chamber. The trays a pretty easy to clean between grows so it's not an issue really. We are looking at designing our own mediums though.

Trichy Bastard said:

Are you sure u need 12 nozzles? I am pretty sure 1 or 2 max will fill virtually any sized chamber given longer spraying times- these things can output HUGE plumes of mist... Recommend buying the parts for a single test chamber first, and them making sure it all works well before buying your whole room setup...

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If you can get away with 2 it`ll be much cheaper, you`ll need a bambi 150/500 or equivalent to run 6 nozzles

whats up tricky. hows your diy atomix going, i think my project is going pretty good, now that i have atomizer supervising lol
turns out my chamber is the exact dimentions of the first g-love thread, im thinking im going to up it to 4'x4'x15" in the near future though to accomodate a 1000hps

tomarrow im going to attempt to convert my gravity fed system to a sub 1 psi pressure fed setup, no more droping my resevoir on my chamber/plants.
im currently at 60F in the greenhouse so things are going slow, but once the weather warms up and i have a faster growing plant(solar coleus) i will be ready to rock and find out
if these delavan #5s are up to the task.

until we speak good luck

ps i have videos on pages 15 and 16 in my thread

I know this is almost two years old but it seems to me that the discussion has been left hanging a bit. It would be helpful for those of just going into aa aero to find info about nozzles easier. Then maybe my search skills are sorely lacking. Has a consensus developed yet on a good air atomized nozzle?

Oxanaca, how are the Delavan #5 nozzles working out for you? Are you using pressurized solution with them? What pressures are you using if so and what air pressure works for you?

Hi Joe
Most any AA nozzle that produces a vmd of 30 microns (5-80 micron spread) will work. Pick the nozzle(s) with a mist pattern that fits the individual chamber size,shape and planting layout. Some chambers/layouts lend themselves to narrow cones (delavan), others to flat fans (not delavan).

Hi Atomizer
Not really sure about picking an air atomized nozzle to fit the chamber. I can't really visualize how a flat spray would work in any chamber. Perhaps my assumption that a flat spray nozzle would put out a wide pattern is wrong.

What I have now is 4' x 4' x 31" high with 4 of the 1.5" pvc threaded couplers with scrog setup in mind. The layout if divided into 1 foot wide rows there would be 1 coupler in the first row, 2 in the second row, 1 in third row, and 2 in the fourth.

I'm really trying hard not to buy lots of different aa nozzles. I've been leaning towards the Delavan siphon nozzle and using low pressure to feed the solution to the solenoid. The siphon idea doesn't appeal to me nor does the gravity feed. Just don't know which size to go with if I use two of them in this box shooting from opposite sides of the box.

Full cone nozzles come in wide angle varieties too. I dont have any data regarding pressure feeding delavans but taking a syphon fed #5 (model: 30610-5) with 30psi air as an example, you`d get a flowrate of around 3.6LPH from each with a cone angle of 30 degrees. Pressure feeding them will increase the flowrate as a gravity fed #5 using a 2ft head (ie less than 1psi liquid pressure) with 30psi of air gives 4LPH.
In the case of the syphon fed nozzles you`d need misting pulses of 2-4 seconds to provide 10-20L a day throughput in the chamber. The compressed air consumption for the 2 nozzles comes in at around 700 cubic feet per 24 hours. (4 second pulse using 2 nozzles will consume 0.305 cubic feet )

10 to 20 liters a day seems quite high nutrient use to me. I was thinking of the 30609 # 2 nozzle as a starting point. I can't help but wonder what that fatman guy used.

If you don't mind me asking, what make and model nozzle do you use?

Your chamber is over 3x the volume of the atomix which used 2 nozzles and cycles of upto 3 sec/40 sec to maintain enough fog in late flower. The 10L-20L/day throughput is just a guide for the amount of liquid you may need to put through your chamber to maintain the correct aero environment. Bear in mind, you have to fog the entire chamber volume with every misting pulse, even if the majority never makes contact with a root.
I have a variety of nozzles, some are pressure fed (mainly from spray systems) and some syphon fed from a few different manufacturers. I dont have any delavans as the higher quality AA nozzles cost about the same. No bargain nozzles over here, they`re all damned expensive
Ox is the one to ask about the delavans he`s got hands on experience with a few different models.

The box I made came about by my jumping the gun a bit. I initially decided to go with a modified flood and drain style. I purchased a 4 x 4 tray and lid to use for this. While researching I came across HP aero and changed my mind about flood and drain. So I built an insulated box to sandwich in between the tray and lid. Then while researching HP I discovered AA aero and found less information about this style than HP but find iAA very intriguing.

Hopefully OX might chime in and share his experience with the Delavans over the past two years.