1st time grower - custom aeroponics setup - including schematics

decente

New Member
Hello guys, Im a first time grower, and after lots and lots of research I have found that aeroponics is the best method that seems to fit my needs and my interests! :ciao::reading420magazine: The reason Im posting my setup, Id really appreciate any feedback and advice from you experienced guys, so that my first grow can be a success..! :D (schematics at the bottom of my post)

My goal and challenges:

  • Need to be steath, meaning low noise, no smells
  • Limited vertical space
  • Perpetual cycle, harvest every 3-4 week
  • Low maintenance, meaning I should be able to leave the grow and go away for the weekend with no problems


My plan:

I will start from seed, then go into a perpetual growing cycle, where I take clones from the females and veg them in the same room and box. Then move them into flower as needed. I will be growing both indicas and sativas (which take longer to flower, right?). I will be running GH FloraGro nutrients, pH up + down.

The setup:
So, my setup will be placed in a closet with two compartments, one for flower and one for clones+veg.
First let me run down the veg compartment, its 50x50cm x 100cm height, I will be running a box with custom aeroponics setup inside, much like the custom clone boxes posted around forums.

My questions/concerns for this:

Is the 265GPH pump big enoug?
Is the box, space and light good for both clones and veg stage?


Moving onto the flower room!
This space is 90cm wide x 50cm depth and a total of 175cm height. Starting from the bottom, there will be a 120mm fan, taking in cold air from the floor. (see schematics) On the floor, filling almost the whole space is a reservoir with 792GPH pump. The res. will hold about 15-18 gallons of water. I have chosen a box with a low height profile to save vertical space. Is this pump overkill, or just right? There will be 12 nozzles to run.

Above the res., I will build a custom wooden frame for the flower boxes to sit on. There will be two boxes with 5x 2" slots for plants each, meaning I will have 10 plants total at all times. Also here I have gone with low profile boxes - my question here is, will there be enough space for the roots?

I will use flexible PVC hose for connecting both the pump and the drainage, so that I can easily remove the reservoir for cleaning and inspections.

For light I will use a 400w HPS, with digital ballast and Silverlight ventilated reflector. I will use a TD Silent fan, that will drag hot air from carbon filter -> reflector -> out. Insulated ducting all the way. I want to keep the noise level as low as possible. The whole space will be covered in mylar reflective material. There will be one or two fans inside the grow space aswell, for circulating air and stimulating plant growth.

I have calculated that there will be about 55cm veritcal space for plants to grow, taking all the other elements into account. Will that be sufficient height for growing both Indicas and Sativas? Im thinking I have to LST the sativas a bit.

I hope you guys can give me some advice and/or feedback on my setup..! Feel free to fill me in on anything I have to think about or take into account :D :thumb: :thanks:

Peace! :cool:

Here is my schematics for the setup
 
Looks like a great set up. That's an awesome blueprint!

Everything looks good on your plans. A couple things that jump out at me. First, even with an air cooled reflector heat might be an issue running 400 watts. I'm just guessing cuz I'm not positive with metric measurements lol. What I'd recommend doing is either running an LED or at the very least a dimmable ballast so you can turn your hps down to 250 if necessary.

The second issue is the aeroponics system . Are you getting a pre built custom or building one from scratch yourself?

I recently built a drip irrigation system and completely miscalculated the work load. I also have an aeroponic king clone which I believe is the system your replicating. My 36 site king cloner uses a 300 gph water pump. I'd recommend at least double that for yours. I saw a sweet pond pump at home depot for like $150 thats around 1000gph.
 
Hello mrbubbles! Thanks a lot :D I like to plan out good, and it helps alot to draw up what you are getting into :)

Yeah I tried keeping the measures in inches and galons, but I see I used centimeters for the cabinet, lol! In inches, the flower room is 35,5 inches wide x 20 inches deep and total height 60 inches. With the stuff inside, it comes to about 37" vertical space for the plants (measuring from the top of the flower box and up to the reflector/lamp)

I will definitly look into getting a dimmable ballast..! What do you think about the general air flow in the cabinet? Im thinking there will be a vacuum in the cabinet, from the main fan dragging air out, so making 2x 120mm holes in the bottom to let air in, and maybe put a 120mm fan in one of them as you can see in the schematics.

Yes, I will build the whole system from scratch. Food grade plastic for all the boxes, EZ-clone nozzles, PVC piping etc. :) But Im worried about the pump for the veg/clone box not having enough juice. The other pump (for flower) will have plenty though, maybe even a little overkill?
 
I have actually, for some reason, bougth two different types of misters/nozzles. I know many use the red EZ-clone ones, so I have 30 of those coming in - but, I found another type on ebay aswell

Any thoughts on the yellow ones? Link to the producers website, there is even a video of them in action (0:40 mark): Welcome to Antelco - Micro Irrigation Specialists
 
I'd run 300gph min in veg and aim for 1000 plus gph in flower. I'd also recommend an inline filter to prevent the misters from plugging. Not sure of the differences tbh. I have the red ones on my aero cloner. They plug up occasionally with 0 nutrients. I just wash them and their fine afterwards.

My first tent was 2' x 4' x 5'. Even with a 280cfm exhaust fan and dimming my 600 down to 400 I still topped 90 on some days. Thats in an open room too.

I'd prolly go led, t5's, or max 250 watt HPS in that space.

Hope that helps :)
 
Back
Top Bottom