klever
Active Member
This is my first post, but I've been lurking here on RIU for a little while now and I must say that this place is full of great information and a lot of experienced growers.
Anyways, I thought I'd start a thread since I'm planning to put together an aeroponics system and I don't want to spend $600. My goal is going to create a replica of one of the expensive aeroponics systems for roughly half the price. This is going to be a fairly slow process since I don't need to use the system right away, but I hope to aquire all of the parts and have a working system within the next month. I won't be able to start using the system until June, but I figured that now is a better time than later to start gathering the supplies I will need so that I'll be ready once the time comes.
Since I'm starting with nothing, I figured I'd do a write up on my entire process so I can get feedback from others with more experience than I. Seeing that I have only helped out a few friends and relatives on a handful of occasions with thier grows, my experience is pretty limited.
My first step in this process is to figure out the specifications of the unit I am trying to replicate. I found some rough specifications on a system that I like, and decided that this would be an excellent starting point.
The unit I'm going to base my design on is the AeroFlo 36
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Ok, so now I'm going to start putting together a rough materials list. This is just to aid me during my blueprinting/design process, which will allow me to determine which parts to use in my final design.
I'm going to try and keep this as cheap as possible, so I'm going to do quite a bit of shopping around before I drop any money, and I will try and do most of my shopping online. If you know where to find a certain part cheaper than I found it for please feel free to share.
I will need the following materials:
6 x Trays (approx. 4' in length)
6 x Lids for above mentioned trays
1 x Submersible pump (approx. 900+gph)
1 x 40 gal. water res.
60 x (approx.) mister heads
1/2" PVC Pipe (unknown amount)
1/2" PVC Pipe fittings (various, unknown amount)
Some other stuff
I think it is safe to say that this system will mostly revolve around the trays and lids, so this is going to be my starting point. Ideally I'd like to use 6 trays, with each tray holding 6 net pots giving me a 36 site system. The way I see it, since I want to have some nice, snug fitting lids for my trays it really doesn't leave me with too many options.
I found some pretty cheap trays called Aeroduct Channels, which can be used for many different types of hydro set ups. Each tray with lid is $7.50, plus $3.50 for each end cap (12), and my total so far is $87.
I also found a great part that is going to make my life a lot easier when it comes to the plumbing of this aeroponics system, there are internal feed manifolds for the Aeroduct Channels that sell for $9 each. Since time is money, I'm going to save myself a lot of time and move forward with these. So at $9 each I'll need another $54, bringing my total to $141.
I'm going with 36 - 4" net pots, which is going to cost another $27, bringing my total to $168.
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Now it's time to find some sort of reservoir, and hopefully on the cheap cuz it looks like my budget is drying up fast!
I think I'm going to chill for a bit and look at finding a cheap reservoir. I'm probably going to need somewhere between a 30-40 gallon to be on the safe side. Let me know if you have any suggestions, and also if you know where to find any of the above mentioned parts for less than I was able to find it for. Any feedback is appreciated.
Anyways, I thought I'd start a thread since I'm planning to put together an aeroponics system and I don't want to spend $600. My goal is going to create a replica of one of the expensive aeroponics systems for roughly half the price. This is going to be a fairly slow process since I don't need to use the system right away, but I hope to aquire all of the parts and have a working system within the next month. I won't be able to start using the system until June, but I figured that now is a better time than later to start gathering the supplies I will need so that I'll be ready once the time comes.
Since I'm starting with nothing, I figured I'd do a write up on my entire process so I can get feedback from others with more experience than I. Seeing that I have only helped out a few friends and relatives on a handful of occasions with thier grows, my experience is pretty limited.
My first step in this process is to figure out the specifications of the unit I am trying to replicate. I found some rough specifications on a system that I like, and decided that this would be an excellent starting point.
The unit I'm going to base my design on is the AeroFlo 36
[break]
[/break]Ok, so now I'm going to start putting together a rough materials list. This is just to aid me during my blueprinting/design process, which will allow me to determine which parts to use in my final design.
I'm going to try and keep this as cheap as possible, so I'm going to do quite a bit of shopping around before I drop any money, and I will try and do most of my shopping online. If you know where to find a certain part cheaper than I found it for please feel free to share.
I will need the following materials:
6 x Trays (approx. 4' in length)
6 x Lids for above mentioned trays
1 x Submersible pump (approx. 900+gph)
1 x 40 gal. water res.
60 x (approx.) mister heads
1/2" PVC Pipe (unknown amount)
1/2" PVC Pipe fittings (various, unknown amount)
Some other stuff
I think it is safe to say that this system will mostly revolve around the trays and lids, so this is going to be my starting point. Ideally I'd like to use 6 trays, with each tray holding 6 net pots giving me a 36 site system. The way I see it, since I want to have some nice, snug fitting lids for my trays it really doesn't leave me with too many options.
I found some pretty cheap trays called Aeroduct Channels, which can be used for many different types of hydro set ups. Each tray with lid is $7.50, plus $3.50 for each end cap (12), and my total so far is $87.
I also found a great part that is going to make my life a lot easier when it comes to the plumbing of this aeroponics system, there are internal feed manifolds for the Aeroduct Channels that sell for $9 each. Since time is money, I'm going to save myself a lot of time and move forward with these. So at $9 each I'll need another $54, bringing my total to $141.
I'm going with 36 - 4" net pots, which is going to cost another $27, bringing my total to $168.
[break]
[/break]Now it's time to find some sort of reservoir, and hopefully on the cheap cuz it looks like my budget is drying up fast!
I think I'm going to chill for a bit and look at finding a cheap reservoir. I'm probably going to need somewhere between a 30-40 gallon to be on the safe side. Let me know if you have any suggestions, and also if you know where to find any of the above mentioned parts for less than I was able to find it for. Any feedback is appreciated.