4 inch Tube Aero with Chiller

Here is an aero system I made using 4 inch PVC.

6 inch PVC is very expensive
and the 4 inch saves a lot of money.

I use a Danner 1250 gph mag drive pump for the spray jets,
and a Rio 600 gph pump for the chiller/waterfall.


Here are the pics.

I started with a 10 foot joint of 4 inch PVC
and a 18gl Sterlite tub




I used bulkhead fittings to mount the pumps outside of the rez.



With the 4 inch tube the 3.5 inch net pots won't work,
but the 2 inch with neoprene work great.



The float valve is connected to the blue tub RO rez.


and this RO rez has a small float valve
that connects it to the RO machine

I took some cuts from a Thai cross mother
and put them right into the neoprene
and started spraying them
with 200ppm AN sensiGrow @ 5.6 and 74ºf


In a few days we had lift-off.



Now I upped the nute load to 400ppm @5.6pH
and lowered the rez temp to 66º


At the next rez change I went to 600ppm
and kept it there for the rest of veg time.






Here is the waterfall
from the chiller pump.



The lights are two 400watt HPS.
Hoping to add more.
I flipped the lights to 12/12 last week.
More pics to follow.

Man, another super grow op! Keep em coming Earl.

nice work earl....you like pvc pipe don't ya...hahahaha

It's cheaper than dirt.
.

very much so....i wanna try your space shuttle....which of the two do you like better even though they are similar do you like one more than the other???

also can you explain a little of how much RO helps and what it does....this is one thing i don't have for my dwc.....but thinkin of which one to get

If I would have figured out the 2 inch net pots,
the shuttle would be 4 inch PVC tubes,
with a little more spread between them,
(I could have put them closer to the edge of each tub)
and there would be a little more room for the plants to fill out.


If you build one
be sure and
post a link to your show
here in my thread.
Thanks.
.

and it does much better than dirt too! My unit looks pretty sparse cause I only had 6 plants sprout from the 10 beans and I yanked two of them cause they were boys AND I've cut clones from the bottom. I'm sold on PVC grows!

If you are using rain water
or you have a source of water that has not been underground,
then you will probly be OK.

If you live in the USA
and get your water from a municipal source,
more than likely
your water has come from a municipal well.

Almost all well water in the USA
is unsuitable for growing
due to the high Calcium content,
which has been dissolved into the H2o
for millions of years.

RO machine removes this suspended Calcium
through the use of a Membrane
that allows H2o2 to pass through it by Osmosis
thus leaving the Calcium behind.

Suspended Calcium will bond with other micro elements,
mostly Magnesium,
and this will be detrimental to your grow,
sometimes even fatal.

Purchasing an RO machine
is the cheapest solution
to getting around the Calcium problem
that you will always have with most USA tapwater.

Hauling bottle water is too expensive,
and too much labor.

Once you have added RO
your grow will greatly improve,
because you will have better control over the pH
and the micro nutrients won't be "locked out",
by bonding to the Calcium suspended in your tapwater.

If you have spent a $100 on good seeds,
it pays to have good water to grow them with.

RO is about 20¢/gl after you amortize the unit.
.

cool system earl! Are you planning on putting several of those tubes next to each other? It seems like you would need several to fully use the space under the 400w?

Man I wish I had time to build cool systems like that.

Hey Earl.
I have seen you around the forums. I've always had respect for your thoughts and ideas.
Very nice to see your work finally.
Keep up the great work!
~~ Flams~~

Been reading several of your builds on RIU. A lot of great info. Thanks. I' can't tell you how many times I've borrowed ideas or setups from your systems.

Earl said:

RO is about 20¢/gl after you amortize the unit.
.

Click to expand...

Is that GAAP?

This is the unit I have.
I got it on ebay.
I have to change the filters for every new grow.

Nice RO setup.

Earl, you mentioned using rain water. Is it usually ok to use it without analyzing its mineral composition? I can collect quite a bit of rain water is why I am asking. I have tested it a couple of times with a ppm reading of less than 40 and a Ph of 6.2. I grow hydro in a small diy setup so I would adjust the Ph down to around 5.6 where my girls seem to like it. I get some pretty high ppm readings using my tap water. It reads around 200 with a Ph of 7.2.

Rainwater is some of the best water you can use.
Make sure your collection barrel is clean.

If you have meters,
the tds should be around 600 max and 5.6
after you have add nutes.

Add nutes first
and then measure the pH.

If it is too low,
use Potassium to bring the pH up.

Barricade, Silica Blast and Potassium carbonate/hydroxide
will all work to raise and buffer the pH.

Always add the potassium silicate to your rez after
you have added all the other ingredients.

Make sure you have a fast pH meter,
recently calibrated,
and use an eye dropper
to administer the Potassium Silicate.

Try to add just enough to bring the pH to 5.6

In my 20 gl rez
I add about 8 or nine drops.

I usually add about 5 drops
and then wait for my meter to stablize,
then add a couple of more if needed.

The max dose of Barricade is 2.5ml/gl
or 25 drops per gallon.

But I almost always have the solution buffered
before I have added anywhere near that amount.

If you do it correctly,
you will never need to use pH down,
of course you must be using RO or rainwater.

40 tds is OK
and the pH of that small amount does not matter
until you add nutes and bring the tds up to 400 and above.

Keep your tds between 400 and 600 and your plants will be happy.

They always have a growth spurt immediately after a nute change,
so if you want to increase the uptake of nutrients,
change your rez more often
with low nute loads.

You can use that same amount of nutes as if you were running 1200,
while only running 600
which will increase nutrient uptake,
by changing the rez twice a week.

Of course if you don't have the light to support this amount of growth,
then no amount of nutes will speed things up.

You need lots of light
for the plant to need lots of nutes.

If you don't have evenly spread High Intensity Lighting
then your plants will not benefit from the added work
of twice weekly nute changes.
.

Earl said:

Rainwater is some of the best water you can use.
Make sure your collection barrel is clean.

If you have meters,
the tds should be around 600 max and 5.6
after you have add nutes.

Click to expand...

hu? I used to keep my nutes at 1000 but after reading al. b's thread I changed it to 1400, I thought I was on the low end. Why so low?

Why so high ?
.

Earl said:

Why so high ?
.

Click to expand...

See the thing is I do not necessarily know what I am doing, I have basically been guessing from what I can get from reading posts here and trial experience. I can not say for sure if the plants at 1000 are any diffrent from the 1400 ones.
I think my story is not unlike a lot of folks. I killed some of my first grows with ph and nute burn issues. So my theory is I should use weaker concentrations, and I though I was at 1000. Then I was reading the al. b. fact and started thinking 1000 was to low. So I swithced to 1400.
Maybe I should go lower. It is so hard to tell since I never do a side by side and am aywayse making improvments.
I was not sure if you were using a low ppm because of some pecularity of your sytem, like maybe with 4" PVC you need weaker ppm. Or beause of the water chiller.

Hey I got a question for you if its ok, What exactly do you want the water chiller for? Pathogen control? You live in a hot climate? I never fully understood why people use them. What would happen if you did not have one? Does it also filter?

Sorry for the million questions but from the looks of your system it looks like I could learn a lot from you.

curious.george said:

See the thing is I do not necessarily know what I am doing.

Click to expand...

Neither do I
but I have read stuff that a lot of smart people have figured out.

curious.george said:

I think my story is not unlike a lot of folks. I killed some of my first grows with ph and nute burn issues.

Click to expand...

So did I.

curious.george said:

Maybe I should go lower.

Click to expand...

I couldn't agree more.

curious.george said:

I was not sure if you were using a low ppm because of some pecularity of your sytem, like maybe with 4" PVC you need weaker ppm. Or beause of the water chiller.

Click to expand...

I am using my biggest pump on the 4 inch system.
I use Low ppm to save money, and to make my plants healthier.

curious.george said:

Hey I got a question for you if its ok, What exactly do you want the water chiller for? Pathogen control? You live in a hot climate? I never fully understood why people use them.

Click to expand...

I use the chiller for disease control only.
It is the best insurance that your rez will stay disease free.

curious.george said:

What would happen if you did not have one? Does it also filter?

Click to expand...

You will have to make sure
that your rez stays cool enough to prevent disease
by keeping the room cool and monitoring the rez temp.
It does not have a filter,
and requires that you purchase a pump
and the necessary plumbing.
.