What now???

[oldmac]

The misters you showed will work well, especially since they are designed to work with typical house water pressures (40-60psi). But if you could run them at 100-120psi they would work better. Your idea to have extras and swap them if clogged is good. Not sure what pump you are thinking abt from harbor frieght, but I use a SurFlo 8000 series in 120v that had a 150psi pressure switch that I've by passed to get to 200-210psi. BTW these pumps can be had currently for abt $130. (google Streamrite Supply)

The misters I'm using are made by Bete Co., and are brass "J" style impingement nozzles with a .012" orifice. There are cheaper versions of these made in plastic that are available from AI, an aeroponic supply outfit.

For timers I use Sentinel, MDT-1 to control lights and FrapaPlas fogger and a DRT-1 to control the pump/mister system. BTW the fogger is on a 24hr cycle and the pump/misters are on a day time only schedule. I also have a photo cell that switches the fogger from nutrient solution when the lights are on to RO water durting the dark period, gives me a cleaning cycle at night.

When I finnally clean up my ruff plumbing and wiring, I'll post a picture of it all.

That's all the time I got right now, lights just came on so I have some work to do, plus I then need to get to my other grow. I'll try to answer more later tonight when I get back.

[Prodaytrader]

I thought of another idea tonight with regards to the misters. Since the misters only need to come on for a few seconds every so often, maybe I should just use plain nute free water for the misting. If I just use plain water then I can hook the misters up to the house water supply which would let me bypass the need for a pump. There is a water line real close to my grow spot.
This system and more importantly the booster pump is what I was thinking of going with. This pump is supposed to work with the misters that I was looking at earlier and provide 160psi which is right where you were looking for me to go. Somebody mentioned earlier or I read somewhere else, that many fog systems even prefer 2 or 3 cycles of nutes and 1 cycle of just water. You even mention doing water cycles at night. Since the lack of water is most likely the root of my problem anyway then this seems like a pretty good solution to me. Here is the pump and misters in a combo pack: mister system with pump

I can hang the misters from the bottom of the lid like you mention, connect the new pump to my timer and away I go. I don't even need another timer since I will just run fog 24h and use that one instead. I will need to install a good water filter for my misters and completely redesign the grow chamber to account for the waste water, but I think I have just about everything covered.

[oldmac]

....is probably not lack of water but the lack of very fine roots to take advantage of fog. But getting away from a water culture to more of an aero system with the mist will allow for more fine roots, which in turn will allow for better fog use. They tend to work better together that way rather then just adding fog to roots that are used to a water bath.

I like the idea of a pkg system, with the line water pressure and a booster pump. The only thing to think about is the total water used with that system, it is surprising how much water can go thru in just a few seconds.
Plain water from the misters and nutes from the fogger, lean heavy on the fog use, yeah that sounds pretty good.:thumbsup:

Welcome to the wacky world of aero/fog. Now you just have to build it, and experiment with it to get it right.

BTW what size plants are you looking to grow?

[Prodaytrader]

gosh....never put too much thought into it. I'd like to at least yield two oz per month but right now I just have 3 plants and who knows if those are even females. I have 2 more sprouts and about 10 seeds that I have going as well. Hopefully the next time around I can have all 10 netpots filled with a few varieties that I clone from this first batch.

I have heard 18" is a good point to start flowering which will yield 3 foot tall plants, right? I figure 18" will be sufficiently tall enough for my tastes especially since I messed this first batch up so bad. I'm eager to start round 2 already.

Did I hear you say that a waste bucket wasn't a good idea? As it turns out there is a washer/dryer hook up in this area so I could run a line down the washing machine drain hole. I'll have to ensure that the hole is connected to something. Previous owners had their washer/dryer in this space but have since relocated the hook ups to inside the house. So oddly enough there is a drain hole in the back of my grow wall. Maybe I can put it to use instead of a bucket at the bottom. I'll need to raise the grow table some to make use of it.

[Prodaytrader]

I was up late last night trying to think of various ideas for the next design. I ran across vertical growing with fog which looks pretty interesting but I think I will stick to something a little less radical then what I am already doing. I am curious about using buckets though or any other chamber system for that matter. I was thinking I could use 4 buckets and connect them in such a way as the top of one bleeds over to the top of another but that bucket connects at the bottom of the next and so on. This way the fog would be forced through each bucket entirely. Additionally I can connect one aero spray mister at the top of each bucket to supply the wet fog. At the beginning of the bucket chain I can put a separate bucket for the fogger and a fan at the top to push fog throughout the bucket chain. On the final bucket I will put a waste system. I could probably fit 2 or 3 pots on the top of each bucket lid. I'll see what I can draw up after I have had some sleep.

[EvilCartman]

Did I hear you say that a waste bucket wasn't a good idea? As it turns out there is a washer/dryer hook up in this area so I could run a line down the washing machine drain hole. I'll have to ensure that the hole is connected to something. Previous owners had their washer/dryer in this space but have since relocated the hook ups to inside the house. So oddly enough there is a drain hole in the back of my grow wall. Maybe I can put it to use instead of a bucket at the bottom. I'll need to raise the grow table some to make use of it.

I don't know how much of a PITA it is to raise your table, but a bucket w/marine bilge pump will work well for delivering waste to the washer drain. A simple micro switch on a float to run it. Worked for me. :thumbsup:

[Prodaytrader]

After a ton of searching I think I am going to go with this pump: pump from harbor freight

It runs at 145psi and will maintain that pressure. I learned just recently that not all pumps will self prime and maintain the pressure. So tomorrow I will see about getting an R/O filter system and this pump.

The container is still an issue. I located a 2x2 growing tray with lid for about 70 bucks or I can do rails. I asked about getting the rails that the Aeroflo system uses. I can get them but they are 100 bucks each and I probably need 2. Forget that! I have been searching and searching for vinyl 4x4 fence posts and might be on to something finally. Apparently there is a place in my area that makes them and they will sell me whatever I need to whatever length I want. They make an end cap for these posts already and tonight I saw an end cap with a 2 inch circular hole in the middle. Whatever it's true purpose, tomorrow I will be using it to run 2 inch flex pipe between the rails. My plan is to lay 4 posts next to each other since I only have 3 feet of width to work with. This will give me all the tray I need.

My biggest fear is that the fog wont pass through the entire length of the tray properly. I'll have to play around with it to make sure the fog propagates through the entire system. I'm not sure which will work better either by daisy chaining the rails or splitting the lines so that the fog goes to each chamber separately.

I will have a mister at the beginning of each rail post which should circulate nicely.