# Anyone tried ultrasonic fogger-type aeroponics?



## Johnny McChroni (Apr 11, 2009)

I don't know how many people even know about this method, but if anyone does and has used it, I'd like to hear back. There are pre-built nutrient delivery systems available, but they are way expensive (like $1000), so I opted to just buy a 6-head fogger from mainlandmart.com, and build a system around it using 2" hose and a small muffin fan (computer fan) to blow the fog through the sealed reservoir where it was being created into the table. I also bought a pump and all the accoutrements to create a hybrid flood & drain/aeroponics system - from the research I've done, supposedly the most productive method out there. Though I don't have everything I need yet, I bought the stuff I _do_ have for it almost 3 years ago now, and due to various things haven't set it up yet. I've never grown even hydro before, though I've grown both indoors and out in soil, so maybe it wasn't the greatest idea for a first system, but I really wanted to see what a cutting edge system would deliver. Knowing how much more efficient than hydroponics a regular aeroponics system was as far as nutrient uptake and root aeration goes, and discovering that the particles created by ultrasonic foggers are far smaller (5-20 microns), translating to far more efficient nutrient uptake - not to mention how much more oxygen is made available to the roots this way - I couldn't resist. Visions of dense bushes of bud grown with days-long veg periods (after rooting, of course) were dancing in my head. Anyway, I'm hoping to set it up this fall, and am hoping there's someone out there who can maybe help me avoid any issues before encountering them. Any help's appreciated.


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## orzz (Apr 11, 2009)

I have a 100 gallon fish aquarium and the first time I saw the foggers was at the fish store. Talked with the owner and he said that the foggers ge Very HOT! I think they would be too hot to use.

just my 2 cents -- good luck


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 11, 2009)

orzz said:


> I have a 100 gallon fish aquarium and the first time I saw the foggers was at the fish store. Talked with the owner and he said that the foggers ge Very HOT! I think they would be too hot to use.
> 
> just my 2 cents -- good luck


Was this guy talking about the foggers themselves, or the unit that runs them (presumably a ballast, but which isn't even in the system at all)? I got the idea actually a long time ago from a 'cool mist' vaporizer my parents had. You know, the kinda thing made for when you have a cold typa deal? To keep the air humid? Anyway, it worked on the same principle - a vibrating piezoelectric disc made out of a crystal of some sort that vibrated at an ultrasonic frequency when electricity was passed through it. The disc was immersed in just the right depth of water to allow it to break the surface molecules above it into fog by adding enough energy through these vibrations to cause the surface tension to break down. Anyway, I messed around with that thing a bit, and it never got even warm, to my recollection. That's actually the first I've even heard of heat being an issue. And if he was talking about the ballast, I can't see it being much of an issue - not any more than with, say, an adapter which is run for long periods of time. And that's not even in the system anywhere, but just sitting on the floor somewhere in the growroom. And it wouldn't be running all the time, anyway. I have to do some more research before setting it up, but it will only be running intermittently - maybe 5-6 times an hour for 5 minutes a pop, since I'll be flooding probably that many times an hour, anyway. There are units made specifically for aeroponics applications, so I don't know what this heat thing's all about. And the unit I have now works the same way as the ones made specifically for aeroponics - in fact, aside from the teflon coating on the plates to prevent salt buildup, they're the exact same thing. Though I could see extreme heat being an issue with the nutrient solution, and maybe fucking that up somehow if it was the fogger itself that got hot, it's nowhere near the roots themselves (it would actually be in the reservoir), and the fog produced remains right around room temperature, so there wouldn't be any issue with too-hot fog hitting the roots.


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## orzz (Apr 11, 2009)

Yes I know the type of humidifiers u speak of.
I have a Vick's cool mis nad a Vick's warm mist. Summer and winter use respectively.
I look forward to hearing if it works.
good luck


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## Major Tom (Apr 11, 2009)

What do think of Fogponics systems?
I think the key to this technology working is that the fog is the right consistency to carry the nutrients.
Thanks for your input


NUTRAMIST 16 Plant Producer
Complete system for producing 16 plants in a 3'x3' area. Use with a 400-600W Grow light for best results and use an adjustable, short-cycle timer for extra control.







The aeroponic fogger / hydroponic fogger operates by oscillating at a frequency of approximately 2 MHZ which is two million vibrations per second. At this frequency, water is nebulized into a cold fog / dry fog which can support the needs of plants using an ultra low volume / ULV of water and nutrients.


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## orzz (Apr 11, 2009)

Major Tom said:


> What do think of Fogponics systems?


Looks sw33t.


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 12, 2009)

Tom, what exactly were you referring to with 'consistency'? Proper % nutrient content (ec/tds levels kinda thing)? I do know that with aeroponics this must be lower than when growing hydroponically in a medium, the same way that in hydroponics it has to be lower than in soil, though I haven't taken the time to find exact information on that yet. Or fog density/amount of fog ending up in the chamber at one time? I'd have to go dig out the box with my fogger unit in it to check for sure (and I'm not doing that because it's in some unlabled bigger box with other stuff amongst a huge bunch of boxes packed away in my parents garage), but I think the unit I bought has a regulator with it so I can adjust how much fog is produced at a time, and also, the muffin fan (PC fan) I'm using to push air into the fog system has an adjustable adaptor for it from (I think) 2v up to 12, so I can control flow as well.


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## GreenThumbSucker (Apr 12, 2009)

SmartPond Fountain Fogger $54.95 at Lowes

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=8435-60167-FTNFG&lpage=none

I noticed this fogger on the shelf when I was buying a cheap birdfeeder fountain at Lowes to use in my aero cloner (I got the fountain head for 11$ and it works on 60 gph pump).

Anyone ever try this? Im always on the lookout for cheap solutions.


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## Spliffious (Apr 12, 2009)

GreenThumbSucker said:


> SmartPond Fountain Fogger $54.95 at Lowes
> 
> http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=8435-60167-FTNFG&lpage=none
> 
> ...


yah dude, I went to PetsMart. got a single node ultra sonic fogger and submerged it in PH balanced Distilled water and let it cycle 12 on 12 off. My roots are crazy pretty white, clean and spread out. The Fogger really helps with root repair as it provides ultimate advantage in water absorbtion. The teenie tiny micro water molecules that creates a film around the roots and makes that baby grow nice and big.... but it does heat up the rezevoir for it puts off heat with the high humidity and droplets over inside of my Rez..... I love it.... heres a pic of it.... in action


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 12, 2009)

Oh, and yeah Tom, to answer your question, as for the Nutramist systems, that's where I actually got the idea of making a hybrid system like the one I have (most of) the parts for now. In my other thread on oxygen enhancement in the root chamber (https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/182929-injecting-0xygen-aeroponics-root-chamber.html) the pic I posted was actually from their site. It would be really nice to have one of their systems, since all the bugs have already been tested out of their earlier prototypes (unlike mine will be, though I hope I don't run into any serious ones, and don't think I will), but I priced one at a dealer in Montreal Quebec (I live in Canada), which was the closest one I could find, and it was like $999 + tax and shipping or something really close to that. And I suspect the shipping cost for something that big crossing the roughly like 730km (450miles) would drop your jaw, you know what I mean?

But, if you have any mechanical ability, and some ingenuity, I think prebuilt systems are kind of a waste of money. I got the fogger unit I have - a six-head with adjustable output (I think), 6 replacement discs and a float for like $125. I paid like $15 for a big reservoir for flood and drain, and maybe $8 for the smaller one for the fogger. The 2" hose cost me less than $10, the 12v muffin fan to push air from the fog reservoir into the root chamber was like 12$ and the 2-12v adaptor for it was $20. The table was $100, the cover (precut for 5" pots) was $50. The pump for flood and drain was like $150, and the mushroom valve and tubing came to maybe another $12. I'll have to spend a few bucks on 2x4 to build a stand for my table, say $8, since I don't have one designed to fit on top of the reservoir like the Nutramist one, and of course there's the time to assemble it all. _BUT_...if you add that all up, it comes to $510. With tax and shipping on the unit from Nutramist added on, I'd be looking at probably 12-1,300 bucks for essentially the same system. And I'd still have to buy net pots, neoprene discs for covers, a light & ballast, bulb, hood, ducting, a ventilation fan and one for airflow in the room, a carbon filter, probably a dehumidifier and an air conditioner, poly & mylar, an aero cloner (or the parts to build one), timers for the pump, light, and fogger, and probably 10 more things I'm not thinking of right off the top of my head. That extra $7-800 I would have spent on the Nutramist system would cover a fair amount of that stuff, you know what I mean? The convenience of it would be nice, and if I was selling pot wide open and making a fair amount of money, I'd probably go that route, but I'm not selling pot wide open, and I certainly wouldn't use the phrase 'hand over fist' to describe how much money I make. It all comes down to economics I think, really. If you can afford it, go for it. If money is more of an issue, doing it yourself makes more sense.


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## GreenThumbSucker (Apr 12, 2009)

Spliffious said:


> yah dude, I went to PetsMart. got a single node ultra sonic fogger and submerged it in PH balanced Distilled water and let it cycle 12 on 12 off. My roots are crazy pretty white, clean and spread out. The Fogger really helps with root repair as it provides ultimate advantage in water absorbtion. The teenie tiny micro water molecules that creates a film around the roots and makes that baby grow nice and big.... but it does heat up the rezevoir for it puts off heat with the high humidity and droplets over inside of my Rez..... I love it.... heres a pic of it.... in action


 
So the fogger is the only source of liquid for those roots? that is quite impressive. 

So it gives off heat? Sounds like it would work nicely for rooting cuts. Perhaps one of these days Ill make a fog-cloner and see how it goes.


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 12, 2009)

GreenThumbSucker said:


> SmartPond Fountain Fogger $54.95 at Lowes
> 
> http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=8435-60167-FTNFG&lpage=none
> 
> ...


You already know I havne't tried this yet, but if you're looking for cheap solutions, here's the site where I bought mine from. http://www.mainlandmart.com/foggers.html

There's info on output and such for the products on there, and they have a very wide selection of products, too.


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 12, 2009)

GreenThumbSucker said:


> So the fogger is the only source of liquid for those roots? that is quite impressive.
> 
> So it gives off heat? Sounds like it would work nicely for rooting cuts. Perhaps one of these days Ill make a fog-cloner and see how it goes.


It's _way _better than traditional aero. Misters produce particles anywhere from roughly 80-500 microns, and foggers produce particles that range from like 3/4-20 or so. And the smaller the particle, the easier it is to be absorbed by the roots. More efficient nutrient uptake (therefore less nutrient consumption), aeration is way better too. No pump, no lines, and from what I've gathered, mister heads can have clogging issues. Especially with a cloner, where there's no nutrient solution and just water (presumably), there would be no issue with having to clean or replace heads in the fogger - at least certainly really infrequently. This heat thing I've only just heard of though. Might be fine for a cloner where they like a warmer rooting zone, but I don't think you'd want to make a system for veg/flowering where the fogger was right in the root zone. I could see roots getting burned, and maybe bacteria/algae/fungus problems developing over the much longer time period involved, you know what I mean?


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 12, 2009)

Hey splif...that last picture - is that just one plant? The growth density is fucking _amazing_! If that's the kind of growth one can expect from this technology, then I'm even moe hyped than I was about it. Are you just using this for cloning, or for a whole system?


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## Spliffious (Apr 12, 2009)

Johnny McChroni said:


> Hey splif...that last picture - is that just one plant? The growth density is fucking _amazing_! If that's the kind of growth one can expect from this technology, then I'm even moe hyped than I was about it. Are you just using this for cloning, or for a whole system?



go to my sig and check my shizz out... I used it alot more during transplanting and during vegg.... I want to use it more but... I dont want to contaminate and damage the ginormous root growth that has now taken over in my 18 g. rubbermaid roughneck rez....

p.s. that pic i posted was the jumbo sized male... it was a random bagseed that took off....!!!! roots were crazy....... i grinded into garbage disposal.....


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 12, 2009)

Spliffious said:


> go to my sig and check my shizz out... I used it alot more during transplanting and during vegg.... I want to use it more but... I dont want to contaminate and damage the ginormous root growth that has now taken over in my 18 g. rubbermaid roughneck rez....
> 
> p.s. that pic i posted was the jumbo sized male... it was a random bagseed that took off....!!!! roots were crazy....... i grinded into garbage disposal.....


Went and checked it you...very nice looking! Posted, too.

I'm curious though, what do you mean you don't wanna contaminate/damage your root growth? In what way?


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## Spliffious (Apr 12, 2009)

Johnny McChroni said:


> Went and checked it you...very nice looking! Posted, too.
> 
> I'm curious though, what do you mean you don't wanna contaminate/damage your root growth? In what way?


i used to be able and set a tubbaware dish in there on the bottom of my rez. and run the fogger in it's own mini rez, heating that water big time.at-least 90 degrees or so... the mist would definably ingulf the whole dome and do wonders for roots... theres a bed of roots in there now about an inch or 3 thick.... i could set it on top????


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## Johnny McChroni (Apr 12, 2009)

Spliffious said:


> i used to be able and set a tubbaware dish in there on the bottom of my rez. and run the fogger in it's own mini rez, heating that water big time.at-least 90 degrees or so... the mist would definably ingulf the whole dome and do wonders for roots... theres a bed of roots in there now about an inch or 3 thick.... i could set it on top????


Ahhh, gotcha. I don't know why I never thought of that. Not that it would be an option in your current grow, obviously, but were the results you saw with the fogger a big improvement over the way you've got it going now? Like enough to warrant converting your system to something like I'm talking about using for a later grow? Or did you use it enough to really judge?


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## Spliffious (Apr 13, 2009)

Johnny McChroni said:


> Ahhh, gotcha. I don't know why I never thought of that. Not that it would be an option in your current grow, obviously, but were the results you saw with the fogger a big improvement over the way you've got it going now? Like enough to warrant converting your system to something like I'm talking about using for a later grow? Or did you use it enough to really judge?


well, i learned a bit from it. The aerogarden 200 DWC machine was neat for roots also... I filled the 1 gallon tank easy when germinating for a month. I began fogger Idea after searching around on E-bay and Youtube... there's some cool DiY build your own drip system and fogger... I was impressed w/ that dude on u Tube... The fogger was used on and off for probably a month, getting giant root growth and swelling. More like dreadlocks.... I now have it in a DIY mini aercloner that I have built... It is getting me a great jumo on root growth during germ, I dont so much care about the upper leaf growth... I can imake a difference in the resevoir & better root growth tho.....its creative and experimental shit that I dig....

watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brvJ2fGXusU


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## Maybetomorrow (Apr 13, 2009)

Holy cow many that looks like you attached a wig to a net pot. Gonna look into them cause there are kinda cheap on eBay. My only things is nutes and how big there particles are in order to attach itself to the fog.


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## Major Tom (Apr 15, 2009)

Johnny McChroni said:


> Oh, and yeah Tom, to answer your question, as for the Nutramist systems, that's where I actually got the idea of making a hybrid system like the one I have (most of) the parts for now. In my other thread on oxygen enhancement in the root chamber (https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/182929-injecting-0xygen-aeroponics-root-chamber.html) the pic I posted was actually from their site. It would be really nice to have one of their systems, since all the bugs have already been tested out of their earlier prototypes (unlike mine will be, though I hope I don't run into any serious ones, and don't think I will), but I priced one at a dealer in Montreal Quebec (I live in Canada), which was the closest one I could find, and it was like $999 + tax and shipping or something really close to that. And I suspect the shipping cost for something that big crossing the roughly like 730km (450miles) would drop your jaw, you know what I mean?
> 
> But, if you have any mechanical ability, and some ingenuity, I think prebuilt systems are kind of a waste of money. I got the fogger unit I have - a six-head with adjustable output (I think), 6 replacement discs and a float for like $125. I paid like $15 for a big reservoir for flood and drain, and maybe $8 for the smaller one for the fogger. The 2" hose cost me less than $10, the 12v muffin fan to push air from the fog reservoir into the root chamber was like 12$ and the 2-12v adaptor for it was $20. The table was $100, the cover (precut for 5" pots) was $50. The pump for flood and drain was like $150, and the mushroom valve and tubing came to maybe another $12. I'll have to spend a few bucks on 2x4 to build a stand for my table, say $8, since I don't have one designed to fit on top of the reservoir like the Nutramist one, and of course there's the time to assemble it all. _BUT_...if you add that all up, it comes to $510. With tax and shipping on the unit from Nutramist added on, I'd be looking at probably 12-1,300 bucks for essentially the same system. And I'd still have to buy net pots, neoprene discs for covers, a light & ballast, bulb, hood, ducting, a ventilation fan and one for airflow in the room, a carbon filter, probably a dehumidifier and an air conditioner, poly & mylar, an aero cloner (or the parts to build one), timers for the pump, light, and fogger, and probably 10 more things I'm not thinking of right off the top of my head. That extra $7-800 I would have spent on the Nutramist system would cover a fair amount of that stuff, you know what I mean? The convenience of it would be nice, and if I was selling pot wide open and making a fair amount of money, I'd probably go that route, but I'm not selling pot wide open, and I certainly wouldn't use the phrase 'hand over fist' to describe how much money I make. It all comes down to economics I think, really. If you can afford it, go for it. If money is more of an issue, doing it yourself makes more sense.


I'll get back to you on this, bed right now





Thanks


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## luielugatz (Apr 16, 2009)

question......so if i bought one of these little fogger lets say i would get a small rubbermaid bin made some holes in for neoprene....then filled the bottom with water and submerged the fogger itself in the water. turn it on and it would make fog being submerged. then the fog comming from the rez would make roots on clones or if i had rooted plants i would put them in net pots and the fog would give me crazy roots like these pics posted????


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## FilthyFletch (Apr 16, 2009)

Its known as fogponics. The big systems like the ultramist work great and the smaller store foggers work great for cloning as I sell fooger clone units and have used them for few years. The issue you run into using the store foggers is nutrient salt build up and the ceramic disc clogging so those dont work as well for full grows. The bigger industrial kind with pumps like the aquamist works very well though


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## jerkin247 (Apr 16, 2009)

yea i was doing research on this too. 600$ for 16 site nutramist. ive heard good things about these. i might drop the cake and let you know how it is.


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## Major Tom (Apr 16, 2009)

FilthyFletch said:


> Its known as fogponics. The big systems like the ultramist work great and the smaller store foggers work great for cloning as _*I sell fooger clone units*_ and have used them for few years. The issue you run into using the store foggers is nutrient salt build up and the ceramic disc clogging so those dont work as well for full grows. The bigger industrial kind with pumps like the aquamist works very well though


Self promoting now?


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## UserFriendly (Apr 17, 2009)

Those commercial systems are way over-priced (Nutramist). There''s a guy over on IC building rigs way bigger than that for a lot less money.


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## Major Tom (Apr 17, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> Those commercial systems are way over-priced (Nutramist). There''s a guy over on IC building rigs way bigger than that for a lot less money.


Not everyone want's a WAY BIGGER rig and the beauty of the Nutrmist units is there COMPLETE and there sells reflect the convenance people want.
I have some DIY plans I paid for off ebay and may go the right too.


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## UserFriendly (Apr 17, 2009)

Major Tom said:


> Not everyone want's a WAY BIGGER rig and the beauty of the Nutrmist units is there COMPLETE and there sells reflect the convenance people want.
> I have some DIY plans I paid for off ebay and may go the right too.


Oops! Did I say bigger?... cuz I meant bigger and better.


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## Major Tom (Apr 17, 2009)

UserFriendly said:


> Oops! Did I say bigger?... cuz I meant bigger and better.


 
What fucking ever


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## FilthyFletch (Apr 21, 2009)

Nope major been self promoting since I joined in 2007. I share my designs in how toos and custome build for those who cant or dont want to so works fine for all


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## UserFriendly (Apr 21, 2009)

FilthyFletch said:


> Nope major been self promoting since I joined in 2007. I share my designs in how toos and custome build for those who cant or dont want to so works fine for all





FilthyFletch said:


> ..... I am probably going to sell the plans with step by step ,parts list and photos if anyone would be interested.In pdf form for direct download electronically.Anyways heres the basic look..


heheheheee..... that's still funny.


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## FilthyFletch (Apr 21, 2009)

like I said I been promoting since day 1 lol


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## Growpro420 (Jun 16, 2009)

I purchased 2 now...a 3 head and a 1 head. I put the 3 head in my home made cloner from a 5 gallon bucket. Also use a 400 gph pump and sprayers to work in combo. I leave a hole or 2 open in my cloner and the fog pushes thru the hole and fills the plant with mist. I am very happy I don't have to worry about spraying for humidity! My temp in my cloner(5 gal remember) is 84-85 deg. Perfect for a cloner.


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## FilthyFletch (Jun 17, 2009)

work great for cloning no so much for full grows though since any nutes are very light for cloning no real build ups


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## sheerwaste11 (Jun 17, 2009)

Filthy Fletch ----Whats the basic ideas behind your systems and how much you buiild and sell for?


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## village idiot (Jun 17, 2009)

So I have had mine in a cloner for three weeks and have seen a lot of anguish but it is my firts attempt at a hydro system. My box is a tote that is about 3ftx1ftx1ft i use a 66gph pump with black poly hose (1/2in) and a bunch of tiny holes in it for spray, an aquarium arrator and a single node fogger that i found in a local pet store for 10 BONES. (yes i said to bones for my fogger they had nine so i bought nine.) 

First off I put clones in using neoprene discs, no medium and use the box itself as the reservoir. I run 1/4 strength nuts and change the water every week doubling my nuts untill i am at full strength. I run the pump arrator and fogger 24/7.

My plants did well for two hours untill my brother put 2 t5's and 2 t8's 4fters like 4in from the clones, I brought them back from their near death and had them going okay. Some saw root growth some saw less all grew roots but at no amazing rate. The pump was left off for 12 hrs and I lost half of my stock. the only ones that seemd to be allright were the ones with bigg roots. 

Note that I also haven't checked water temp and I know that the plants had to comeback from two huge obsticles from burning to no water maybe I am missing something but the system seems to me to be giving about the same production as just a normal aeroponic system. Lame


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## sguardians2 (Jan 13, 2011)

I'm running an aeroponic/SWC/fogger system with good results so far. Using a 45 gallon reservoir with lid, a single head fogger, with 6 gallons of water and two 12 inch air stones, running 24/7. The roots are pure white and layer the entire bottom of the reservoir. The only problem I've had is the aeroponic pump will suck in a piece of root once in a while and clog up a sprayer. The fog nebulizes the nutrient salts and distrubutes them throughout the entire reservior and when any fog escapes the reservoir you can see the salts on the area touched by the fog after it evaporates. plant growth is much faster than in DWC, and the root system stays disease free and algae free, with no signs of root rot, of course I treat my solution with ozone once in a while to kill any bad bacteria that may present itself. So you might say that running a fogging unit with a little ozone introduced to the system once in a while is a good way to achieve a sterile system. I always had to add beneficial bacteria to my DWC sytems to keep them from root rot and the brown algae slime. With foggers this does not seem to be a problem. Many companies are using foggers to disinfect entire buildings, so its sterilizing properties are well documented.

I tried to order the growfogbox, but the company seems to be defunct so I built my own, and it works great!


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## sguardians2 (Jan 13, 2011)

And by the way, you must reduce the amount of nutrients you use as the nutrient uptake is much more efficient in this system and you will get nutrient burn if you use the normal measurement of nutrients. 

Also, you may need to feed less often, and change the solution out less often. I also noticed that the ph remains extremely stable in this unit.


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## Ghettoman (Feb 23, 2011)

just started my fog grow, got a 3 head and a whole lot of fun


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## PetFlora (Feb 25, 2011)

I tried fog but the obstacles were too difficult to overcome. On top of it typical pond foggers cannot handle the ppms needed to grow plants to harvest. It was a stepping stone to transitioning to HPA, which is far easier to implement. hth


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## SWHydro (Oct 21, 2015)

I've been experimenting with different hydro grow set ups for my own personal grow. I saw a video on youtube of some asshole showing his root branching that looked so insane it looked like a white bush not a rope of roots. I thought these foggeres looked neat so I bought a couple cheap ones from china. Baisically what I ended up doing was running a hybrid fogger/deepwater culture system to test.

The res water cycled on a timed pump and had airstones in the bottom keeping it well oxygenated. I dropped water level to 1/3 of the bin O got from home depot and let the foggers float on top. Even using cheap chinese foggers it only took 2 to completely fill the bin with a dense impenetrable fog, dropped 3 in for kicks. I didnt need to run them constantly to keep the fog at that density so I put them on a short cycle timer and cut them back to a 33% run time. This worked with my system to fog the bin and give enough time so the fog just began to clear before fogging again.

I ran this system for about a month of veg on some clones I had taken and they definitely survive, but that's about it. The roots continued to grow in the fog and the plant above looked fine, but what I noticed was that once the roots grew long enough to dip into the water the parts that stayed submerged in the well oxygenated water branched like crazy. I let it do its thing for a bit longer to confirm but I noticed the same thing on both bins I was testing; a clear line of demarcation where the roots thrived in the DWC after not getting everything they needed from the fog.
*to clarify, I was running 8 plants as a sea of green in each bin and I noticed the same demarcation on the root ball of every plant running the fog hybrid instead of the DWC.

I wish I had a picture to show you cause it's really emphasizes my point. I read earlier in this post that you need to run lower ppm for fogging, I'll admit I didnt take that into account. However, I only run about 550-600 ppm during veg and my plants didnt show any signs of nuteburn so I would find it hard to believe that I was harming the roots with that conc.

TLDR; Fogging is a gimmick. You get superior results with less complexity in your system if you just have a DWC with some air stones. I found the same thing for sprayer heads. They do clog very seldom but more concerning was that I would find small pieces of fine root tips in the water that the sprayer heads would inevitably blast off even at low pressure.


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## Phytium hater (Oct 22, 2015)

So ...but the achieve the proper fogging it needs to be a pressure system what can create the correct PSI to get the fogging effect...NOT enough to by pump and nozzle...will not get the real deal foggy mist...
Have you seen this :


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## SWHydro (Oct 23, 2015)

Yeah I've seen the pressure misters. Like I said, load of complexity and cost for no real benefit over a well done DWC in my opinion. Those roots you posted look nice but I've achieved similar results from my DWC set up. The only foggers I've worked with were the ultrasonic foggers, and they put out plenty of dense fog, though I'm not sure if the droplet size is the same in ultrasonic vs high pressure foggers.

When I first started growing I tried the low pressure spray manifolds, I tried ultrasonic fogging, I tried flood irrigation, they all work and I was really hoping they'd be superior cause they were cool and I liked having timed sprayers and neat things happening in my grow room. However I was a little disappointing to find that honestly it's really really hard to beat putting them in a big bin full of solution with a couple airstones and thats about as shit simple as it gets. Only moving part you need is a pump to circulate from your planting bins and your external reservoir. Worst case scenario you lose power and the plants have to sit in their nutrient bath slowly using up the dissolved O2. They'll live for weeks. You wanna talk about fucked up? lose power for an hour with those foggers and have your fine root hairs dry out. 
Not to mention you can build a adequate DWC for less than $30 including the air pump and stones, takes 10 minutes to set up, and there's next to zero risk of failure barring a meteor crashing through your ceiling and crushing your grow.

As your name suggests you know what a pain in the ass pythium can be. That has been my only issue with DWC, it is more prone to pythium infections than soil grows. My solution was getting a reservoir cooler for my external res and dialing it in to 65 degrees. From my research it looks like that water temp discourages pythium and also cooler water has a higher O2 saturation point so even better for your roots.


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## Atomizer (Oct 23, 2015)

Phytium hater said:


> So ...but the achieve the proper fogging it needs to be a pressure system what can create the correct PSI to get the fogging effect...NOT enough to by pump and nozzle...will not get the real deal foggy mist.


The treefrog doesnt deliver fog, its a wet mist. You dont need high pressure, i use 30psi of compressed air and water pressure at less than 0psi. The whole thing including a silent compressor cost half of what multiponics are asking (thats if you bought everything new, off the shelf)


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## Phytium hater (Oct 23, 2015)

YEP , SWhydro I agree with all you say, I am not going eather for complicated High Pressure systems ,,,
why, there ain't any pros, but many cons, Expensive, high risky to blow apart or get glogged etc. ,NOISY ! using electricity like
No other system, results are achievable equal even with hand watering in dirt, its all about light, temps ,nutrients and strain.

And yep I had my Pythium probs learnd my lesson, always Hydroguard, chillers, and airbubble pumps !
And yep,,misspelled the name when made my account and now stuck with it..


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