Constructing a Homebrew Atomix Air-Atomized Aeroponic System

Okay guys... Time for a new project... I started this adventure in: https://www.rollitup.org/aerogardeners/437684-true-hp-aero-2011-a.html and had a little detour playing around with the Aerolife AA system: https://www.rollitup.org/aerogardeners/519014-testing-aerolife-true-hpa-aa.html ...
Now I have amassed a lot of information, disspelled myths, made some great friends who share the passion of HP and Atomized Aeroponics, and found the specific issues I have to deal with in my quest to have perfect fuzzy roots and the benefits of this style of growing in my particular outdoor subtropical conditions...
I am currently making a new AA chamber and modeling the chamber dimensions similarly to the Atomix- mainly because I already have a supplemental light setup that will fit perfectly on it, and I have a belief that the size of the Atomix Pro V9 is thoughfully designed and sized for 2 AA nozzles. I have done my research, and also with the help of some friends purchased 2 AA nozzles that I think will be the most suited in Mist size (30-80 microns) and throw to adequately fill the chamber. Although I believe pressure fed AA nozzles are likely better in terms of adjustability and constancy in mist- I am going to try siphon fed because the allure of simplicity in setup- and after all- the Atomix did run off siphon fed nozzles- so unless G-love's Diaries on UK420 were a fabrication- I'll believe it can be done with siphon feed nozzles, and alot of user intuition/ability. True Aero continues to be wrought with misinformation, malice and trolls- there are very few posts and pics of fully successful grows gone to harvest. I hope to address some of that in this thread- and perhaps bring my own experiences and results to this small world of tinkerers and perfectionists. I think anyone interested in true aero would love to see the likes of an Atomix system running again, documented for the world to see- however since I will not be running with original equipment, but my own homebrew version with a few of my own tweaks to work in my specific situation- it will not be a perfect test. However, if successful, It will be even more important- because I will have created a homebrew version that will cost much less, and will be available to anyone willing to build something similar after seeing proof that the results can happen under the right conditions and understanding of the underlying principles. Since Aeroculture and the Atomix are long out of the business of selling these systems, that should be a very interesting proposition to all the others out there trying to achieve the same goals as I am.

I'll start with the usual plea to everyone to keep this to the topic at hand. Use the True Aero for 2011 thread as a general catch all for other general aero topics. I beg to limit differences to constructive criticisms and any rude posts or trollish behavior will have zero tolerance here. We are all mature adults hopefully, and as True Aero enthusiasts, not the typical marijuana site posters in the first place. I hope everyone will come here with interest, and their own set of strengths and genius. I know this topic is always hotly debated, but again, please keep the emotions out of it- it really sucks the fun out of it for me, and I have, and will continue to put alot of work and writing into this hobby here until I finally get put off enough with the trolls. So I offer all of this to anyone interested to read, and if you angrily dispute my outlook, or train of thought- simply post your posts somewhere else...

The main differences where I will deviate from the Atomix design are in response to dealing with the outdoor heat issues here... The original Atomix design was poly paneling with black pond liner, but I'll be using 2" thick foamboard, fiberglassing over it, and incorporating some active cooling coils with chilled water recirculating through them in the top wall of the chamber to combat the heat, as well as using the chilled water to run my air/nute lines through to cool them en route to being Atomized. My target chamber temps will be 65-70f and I believe my chamber design will keep me in that range. I also plan to stand off some corrugated PVC paneling an inch or so away from the exterior of the styrofoam chamber so it will protect from UV rays and be a source of shade which allows for the hot air to vent away without radiating through the chamber. I may use some radiant barrier, or perhaps use some shiny metal corrugated roofing panels instead of the PVC paneling- to be figured out as I ponder things and start on the build.
My nozzles are en route- and I have purchased most of the materials. I'll be using the timer and control system from my other builds, which will significantly reduce my needed efforts down to basically just hooking the new chamber up to them and hopefully growing some fuzzy roots. At the moment I'll continue using my stock craftsman air compressor for the air supply, but have plans to swap out the compressor part of it for a silent refrigerator compressor once I have proven the design works and is worth investing more work into perfecting.
Wish me luck, come along for the ride- by all means start commenting and intelligent conversation, perhaps give me some ideas to work with along the way- and lets get some fuzzy damn roots!

Trichy Bastard said:

Wish me luck, come along for the ride- by all means start commenting and intelligent conversation, perhaps give me some ideas to work with along the way- and lets get some fuzzy damn roots!

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We've been doing a lot of R&D, but not making it public beyond our original HPA test. The thing we have found so far was that you'll need a wetter mist in the begining 60-80 microns, then once you have a decent root mass, you can bring it back to under 20-50 microns. You may want to try two nozzle styles in the same chamber. We did not have good success starting out with under 50 microns. The Teffens are still my favourite. Not real fuzzy, but got us under 4 gallons per site, per 45 days, that's quite a bit better than a recirculating system. .

I will be following your progress and hope that we can have a civil thread. If things progress nicely and there are not to many fan-boys or manufacturers trolling this should be a very cool thread. Great to see your still pursuing this endeavor. Subbed.

Years ago I purchased a Jun-Air 6-25 on a Med supply website at a great price. It runs sweet. I have six Spraying System CO. bodies #2050 and nozzles #73328 that need to be hooked up and tested myself. I believe the Atomix chamber were 40.2 inches square by 16.3 in height. Hope this helps.

indrhrvest said:

We've been doing a lot of R&D, but not making it public beyond our original HPA test. The thing we have found so far was that you'll need a wetter mist in the begining 60-80 microns, then once you have a decent root mass, you can bring it back to under 20-50 microns. You may want to try two nozzle styles in the same chamber. We did not have good success starting out with under 50 microns. The Teffens are still my favourite. Not real fuzzy, but got us under 4 gallons per site, per 45 days, that's quite a bit better than a recirculating system. .

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Thanks bro... I'll be going full AA nozzles this round- and like the Atomix, will be using 2 of the nozzles in a similarly sized chamber.

Ester said:

I will be following your progress and hope that we can have a civil thread. If things progress nicely and there are not to many fan-boys or manufacturers trolling this should be a very cool thread. Great to see your still pursuing this endeavor. Subbed.

Years ago I purchased a Jun-Air 6-25 on a Med supply website at a great price. It runs sweet. I have six Spraying System CO. bodies #2050 and nozzles #73328 that need to be hooked up and tested myself. I believe the Atomix chamber were 40.2 inches square by 16.3 in height. Hope this helps.

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Look forward to seeing your nozzle tests... The Atomix dimensions I am copying were 1mx1mx 15-18" tall. I am using some foamboard from home Depot and the pieces I got for the side panels are 20" tall- I may just go with that for simplicity and I doubt a couple extra inches height will be a bad thing- however depending on how I fasten the top and bottom pieces, such as laying them on top of the sides, or carving the sides and nestling them inside, I can get 16" inner height...

Looking forward to seeing this coil cooled chamber for sure! There is a foamboard adhesive that I recently tested out to see how well it bonded two pieces of 2" foam. It was surprisingly strong. Probably not healthy for plants, but I think if you cut channels, and used the adhesive in the channels, the exposure would be minimal. I guess if you're glassing over the whole thing, it won't likely matter. I'm curious about your cooling lines. Are you planning on recessing them into the foamboard, and then glassing over? Copper or pex? I know copper ain't cheap, but I'd think it would provide the best results. Who am I telling? You know what the hell you're doin. I hope you can get at least 10 degrees out of this thing. 20 would be better.

Progress... Well, I spent a couple hours yesterday and have the general chamber made out of the 2" foamboard. I simply screwed it together with some drywall screws which seem to hold it well enough until the fiberglass is applied. Interior dimensions are 1mx1m (h=24" but will be less after the bottom and top are finished) I'll finish the lid and plan to cut in the netpot holes after the fiberglass. This was really easy to work with. I read an electric knife worked good to make clean cuts on foamboard, however i think the 2" thickness presented a problem and stripped the gears of my knife! Anyway a sawzall with hacksaw blade proved to cut through the foam like butter and I wish I had used that to begin with... Once the interior is glassed, I plan to make a secondary false bottom out of fiberglass stapled to the sides of the chamber and a weight in the middle- this will provide a perfect slope for the effluent to run to a central drain. I bought a standard sink drain to install, and the metal ring on the bottom of the drain looks perfect to hold in a small piece of silkscreen to keep roots from falling through. The green corrugated PVC in the background is what I plan to fix to the outside of the chamber to shade it, perhaps wrapping the final chamber with reflectix under the corrugated material. However- I am still considering using the aluminum corrugated roofing sheets instead as they likely posess enough reflectivity to double as radiant barrier.

Well, I spent a good hour or so at the fiberglass shop yesterday. I think I have all the answers I need and can pull this off- spent $350 on fiberglass cloth and some good resins with UV inhibitors, mixing buckets, a roller, spreaders, and some self opening- waterproof vents with a gore-tex center that will allow the rigid final product to breathe in case of air expansion due to heat or moving to a different altitude. Without vents the fiberglass might separate from the foam and bulge with changing internal pressures. Since I was using the white foam sheets from Home Depot, I had to use Epoxy resins as opposed to the old school polyester resins. The other bonus is the epoxy resins don't have the harmful fumes. I originally was going to get the quick curing hardener (only workable for about 10 minutes) however the guy talked me into a slower curing hardener that allows everything to be workable for an hour or two and then takes a full 24 hours to completely cure. He thinks I can get away with a single ply of 10oz cloth, which make this a fairly simple project and I can probably glass everything over in one day... He also gave me some sort of micro balls filler powder that I am to mix with resin and coat all of the foam with first which apparently will save me alot of resin overall as it will seal the thirsty foam. The epoxy was around $120 and it will be good to try to conserve it. I spent around $110 on the glass cloth itself, I got 10 yards of 50" cloth which should be plenty to cover everything and make my internal faux sloped bottom (for good drainage). I got a 1.25 gallon kit of resin- hopefully it will be enough. An interesting thing the guy showed me is the dry weight of the cloth should be about equal to the weight of the resin that will need to be used... So we picked up the cloth and gauged it's weight to be similar enough to the epoxy kit, might need a tad more resin, but we'll see... This is all assuming I can pull off a clean glass job, but honestly all you do is lay the cloth down over the foam, and spread some resin on it until it's saturated- it doesn't seem very complex or skillish at all... I am sure I will find some snag somewhere- - it's just the way these things tend to go -lol... Oh last thing I forgot to mention- I got a bottle of black pigment to dye the internal chamber resin pure black. The roots and mist will show up nicely against a black surface... The rest of the box is just going to be clear and let the white foam color through- hopefully this helps keep it cool in the sun, but as I said- I plan to also cover the whole box in some corrugated pvc roofing sheets (stood off with an inch or so airgap) as the whole chamber will be self-shaded like this.

Mike Young said:

Looking forward to seeing this coil cooled chamber for sure! There is a foamboard adhesive that I recently tested out to see how well it bonded two pieces of 2" foam. It was surprisingly strong. Probably not healthy for plants, but I think if you cut channels, and used the adhesive in the channels, the exposure would be minimal. I guess if you're glassing over the whole thing, it won't likely matter. I'm curious about your cooling lines. Are you planning on recessing them into the foamboard, and then glassing over? Copper or pex? I know copper ain't cheap, but I'd think it would provide the best results. Who am I telling? You know what the hell you're doin. I hope you can get at least 10 degrees out of this thing. 20 would be better.

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Sorry Mikey, I just noticed this post for some reason... Well to answer your question, I believe once everything is glassed over, I will probably add in the cooling tubes and have them exposed to the interior. This is totally open to discussion and ideas btw, but I think I will just make them on the inner top cover routed around the netpot holes- the cold air can fall down from here as opposed to radiating in from the walls. I may sweat some copper, or I may use some clear plastic tubing. I realize the copper will have a better heat transfer, however it's more work and who knows if the condensation drips might hurt the roots since it is copper after all. I plan to make the lid hinged on the back, and with some sort of clasps on the sides and front to keep it tightly secured. Even if I use copper, I will likely use a short run of plastic tubing right where the inlet/outlet tubes comes out of the wall through the back of the chamber so it can flex with the possible opening, closing of the chamber top. I will still incorporate a viewing window in the top like the Atomix had, but being able to open the full lid has some benefits in my mind, even if it's just for dead root extraction and cleaning between runs...

Trichy Bastard said:

Sorry Mikey, I just noticed this post for some reason... Well to answer your question, I believe once everything is glassed over, I will probably add in the cooling tubes and have them exposed to the interior. This is totally open to discussion and ideas btw, but I think I will just make them on the inner top cover routed around the netpot holes- the cold air can fall down from here as opposed to radiating in from the walls. I may sweat some copper, or I may use some clear plastic tubing. I realize the copper will have a better heat transfer, however it's more work and who knows if the condensation drips might hurt the roots since it is copper after all. I plan to make the lid hinged on the back, and with some sort of clasps on the sides and front to keep it tightly secured. Even if I use copper, I will likely use a short run of plastic tubing right where the inlet/outlet tubes comes out of the wall through the back of the chamber so it can flex with the possible opening, closing of the chamber top. I will still incorporate a viewing window in the top like the Atomix had, but being able to open the full lid has some benefits in my mind, even if it's just for dead root extraction and cleaning between runs...

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I love your persistence TB. Fiberglass is what originally crossed my mind but I came to the conclusion to use polystyrene sheets as they are much cheaper at 12.00/ 4x8 pc. I am also going to run a cold line using 3/8 aluminum tubing. I got all my supplies in the mail two weeks ago but haven't found the time to rip up the bottom sheet of my chamber. Aluminum as you know is much cheaper than copper and with my line I plan to use flare fittings as necessary to run approximately 70' of the tubing in the floor of the chamber. I figured it would be quite easy to shape the tubing with a bender and lay it flat on the polystyrene foam. In order to install it under the poly sheet I would heat it up with an iron and slowly press it into the foam. I am hoping that once cooled the polystyrene would act as an adhesive to somewhat hold the tubing in place. The poly sheet would then be re adhered to the foam using greatstuff urethane foam.

Mike, you may want to experiment with the geatstuff foam because it is cheaper than 3m polystyrene adhesive. I like to spray it down and then trowel it around as necessary to prevent as much expansion as possible. Also, I recommend window and door foam along with a weight pressing down on whatever you are gluing to prevent as much expansion as possible. Eventually I may try a 2 part mix to get even less expansion but the greatstuff is so damned cheap and readily available.

Good luck TB. Will keep checking in.

Cool! So now we have two cooling chambers in process. I like it. Filling your tubing with sand or salt can get you some tight bends without kinking. Trichy, I would suggest making sure your target temps are achieved before glassing. If your "top only" cooling doesn't pack enough punch, you'll still be able to add more in the walls/bottom, etc... Looking forward to your progress.

aerojunkie said:

I love your persistence TB. Fiberglass is what originally crossed my mind but I came to the conclusion to use polystyrene sheets as they are much cheaper at 12.00/ 4x8 pc. I am also going to run a cold line using 3/8 aluminum tubing. I got all my supplies in the mail two weeks ago but haven't found the time to rip up the bottom sheet of my chamber. Aluminum as you know is much cheaper than copper and with my line I plan to use flare fittings as necessary to run approximately 70' of the tubing in the floor of the chamber. I figured it would be quite easy to shape the tubing with a bender and lay it flat on the polystyrene foam. In order to install it under the poly sheet I would heat it up with an iron and slowly press it into the foam. I am hoping that once cooled the polystyrene would act as an adhesive to somewhat hold the tubing in place. The poly sheet would then be re adhered to the foam using greatstuff urethane foam.

Mike, you may want to experiment with the geatstuff foam because it is cheaper than 3m polystyrene adhesive. I like to spray it down and then trowel it around as necessary to prevent as much expansion as possible. Also, I recommend window and door foam along with a weight pressing down on whatever you are gluing to prevent as much expansion as possible. Eventually I may try a 2 part mix to get even less expansion but the greatstuff is so damned cheap and readily available.

Good luck TB. Will keep checking in.

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Hey, I like your idea to melt the lines into the foam, I may just steal that idea... Incase you hadn't realized, I'm doing the 2" poly foam but glassing over it with a single ply... This will give me the rigidity and long lifespan in the sun, along with good smooth drainage- I figure the faux floor can be made from the glass cloth stapled up higher on the sides, and a weight slightly larger than my drain in the middle and letting the glass dry that way- should give me some perfectly smooth draining slopes in my imaginary world...

I think the glass will work well outdoors have you thought about gelcoating it?

aerojunkie said:

I think the glass will work well outdoors have you thought about gelcoating it?

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No, a bit more work. I plan to cover the exterior with some corrugated pvc roofing material stood off an inch or two for ventilated shading- should do the trick.. I saw a youtube video on a "poor man's gelcoat" where you do an extra layer of epoxy and cover it with a polyester shower curtain that pulls off in the end- leaving a smooth finish. The epoxy I have does have UV stabilisers as it's made for surfboards...

Xmas- a few days early... Yesterday's mail brought me my 2 new atomizers... These should make the droplets in the 30-80 micron range at acceptable flowrates and hopefully be the heart of a well designed system. As previously mentioned, they are siphon draw, and I am hoping they will work similarly to the Atomix nozzles. I ultimately was not happy with the results of the Aerolife nozzles- they seemed to make too fine of a mist with the ultrasonic design. These have a flat fan spray that should strike the roots and bring them just enough mist, while not oversaturating them if I can get my pressures, siphon height, and timings dialed in just right... Perhaps it's a little premature, but I am starting to feel giddy that this system's gonna be my best work yet- now heat is not going to be an issue...

Did the guy at the glass shop offer you cotton fiber strands as well? They can increase the strength of your build for very little extra cash.

I'll be interested to see how your floor works out without a full foundation for the glass. Ideally you'd cut a 2" piece diagonally to get the slope but that would probably require a hot wire cutter and a great deal of patience.

I know it's to late for you TB but if anyone else is looking for glassing supplies check out the home-built aircraft suppliers (Wicks and Aircraft Spruce are the two I've dealt with). There is also a lot of info on techniques if you do a little googling, check out the Cozy if you want to see just how much people can do with fiberglass.

good luck

r0m30 said:

Did the guy at the glass shop offer you cotton fiber strands as well? They can increase the strength of your build for very little extra cash.

I'll be interested to see how your floor works out without a full foundation for the glass. Ideally you'd cut a 2" piece diagonally to get the slope but that would probably require a hot wire cutter and a great deal of patience.

I know it's to late for you TB but if anyone else is looking for glassing supplies check out the home-built aircraft suppliers (Wicks and Aircraft Spruce are the two I've dealt with). There is also a lot of info on techniques if you do a little googling, check out the Cozy if you want to see just how much people can do with fiberglass.

good luck

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No on the cotton, but I will research into it. Thanks for the input/links- shipping would likely have killed me anyway out here

Very good to hear from you r0m, I trust you are doing well? Are you still running aero my friend?

@ Tricky Is that the adapter CP3376-PP in the background in the nozzle images used in the bulkhead attachment? If so do they still run around $51.97 Each? Also what are the numbers on your body and nozzle heads? Wish we had warm weather here to work on projects like you. Happy Holidays.

Trichy Bastard said:

No on the cotton, but I will research into it. Thanks for the input/links- shipping would likely have killed me anyway out here

Very good to hear from you r0m, I trust you are doing well? Are you still running aero my friend?

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Yeah, shipping is a disadvantage to living on a volcanic rock in the middle of the ocean, but as I sit here cold and listening to it rain for the whole day I'm having trouble feeling your pain

I'm in week 4 of flower in the same setup I was using before my summer break, it's a strain they are calling "Cherry Pie". I hate the strain merry-go-round here, I wanted some more Lemon Haze but couldn't find any. If I have a second or two after the holidays I'll snap a few pics and post them on the other thread.