Advice on a gift from a mate ( Plantit Aeros IV master )

[RoseyRipple]

Hello everyone! an extremely close friend has gifted me an unwanted/new Plantit Aeros IV master. He was going to use it but ended up sticking with coco and not go down the RDWC path.

 

Anyway! I was just wondering if anybody has experience with a Plantit Aeros IV master??? seems like a decent bit of kit tbh, more so that it cost me nothing!

 

So yea thoughts/advice/experience would be grateful! 

 

[badbillybob]

My thoughts are that it looks ok, but would need some modifications to prevent disaster and get the best from it;

1. the return lines are too small, and will undoubtedly clog, either with root mass of a stray hydroton pebble or two. This can be solved by upgrading them to 40mm pipe and tank connectors

2. I don't know what size water pump for the feed pump that is, but I would want something at least 3500-4000 litrs a minute

3. I would also want to relocate the res outside the tent to prevent it heating up too much

4. ideally would be much better with a chiller

5. air pumps look ok, depending on their output. 

The biggie for me would be the return pipe size and the chiller issue, but if it cost you nothing, a few quid spent would result in a killer system

[Dodgee]

My mate had one a couple years back, iirc they only come with 1 small air stone per pot??

 

Again iirc he binned them off and used 2 larger stones per pot and upgraded the airpumps to 1 bigger meatier jobby.

 

He had good results.

 

Hydros not really my thing though and I'm talking anecdotally, badbillybob knows his stuff with these kits/systems and won't steer you far wrong.

 

But yeah, bigger or more air stones are needed as I recall..

 

Atb

[RoseyRipple]

11 minutes ago, badbillybob said:

My thoughts are that it looks ok, but would need some modifications to prevent disaster and get the best from it;

1. the return lines are too small, and will undoubtedly clog, either with root mass of a stray hydroton pebble or two. This can be solved by upgrading them to 40mm pipe and tank connectors

2. I don't know what size water pump for the feed pump that is, but I would want something at least 3500-4000 litrs a minute

3. I would also want to relocate the res outside the tent to prevent it heating up too much

4. ideally would be much better with a chiller

5. air pumps look ok, depending on their output. 

The biggie for me would be the return pipe size and the chiller issue, but if it cost you nothing, a few quid spent would result in a killer system

 

 

I thought about modifications but was unsure what would other people would do tbh, I some times over think things so thought it be best to ask on here!

 

1. I thought this system will/would flood if I do not use mesh to cover the end of the pipe work for the system or use the large airstone to sorta cover the return lines if you get what I mean? The pipes are 14mm internally... I think but I did think of upgrading the pipes to a larger size for better flow/reduce the chance of roots mass going down there

2. For the 4x 18L pots it came with one pump with a max of 800L/H pump with speed control.... was unsure if it would of been ok but thought it seemed abit like a lazy river and not a rapid river but also due to the return pipe size I thought it would be ok..

3. I'm going to be running LED so thought I might be able to get away with leaving it in to be honest but for the price of pipe its not so expensive plus its not a problem even more so if I'm upgrading the pipe size anyway!

4. I've looked into these a bit but would need to look more into them now!

5. It's got 2 air pumps, its 480L/h per pump so 240L/H per pant pot

 

When I set it up, it did looks like a novice set/kit to RDWC and its deffo not the best out there but not half bad either. 

I appreciate your response, thoughts. Im going to go and start looking into chillers plus pipe/pumps for this kit, hopefully get growing with this soon n get some monsters growing in my spare room! 

[RoseyRipple]

1 hour ago, Dodgee said:

My mate had one a couple years back, iirc they only come with 1 small air stone per pot??

 

Again iirc he binned them off and used 2 larger stones per pot and upgraded the airpumps to 1 bigger meatier jobby.

 

He had good results.

 

Hydros not really my thing though and I'm talking anecdotally, badbillybob knows his stuff with these kits/systems and won't steer you far wrong.

 

But yeah, bigger or more air stones are needed as I recall..

 

Atb

 

Hola, It's got 2 air pumps, its 480L/h per pump so 240L/H per pant pot, it comes with four 4" round airstone witch seem to be big enough for each pot

 

Thanks for the response! 

[chris48]

Hi m8 I used 1 of these systems for a couple of years the changes I made were you know the small pipes which return nutrient back into main tank I drilled a little hole in each pot and ran it into them instead alot better imo and changed the piping between pots to 25mm iceline and upgraded air stone pump to hailea 8 outlet pump so 2 air stones in each pot use the round disc air stones that came with system for the bottom of each pot but rested them on a sterile bit of sponge cause they rattle around and make a bit of noise in night time cause constantly on and I added a coke can air stone to each pot hanging it off net pot with bit of wire to maximise air in each pot but had great results with this system gutted lost it due to the plod but found it easy to use and great results bit if a bitch to empty and get every bit of nutrient out of each bucket when cleaning but sucknit out with pump on hose or Karcher wet/dry vacum easy then good luck with it tho buddy you should have some nice trees out of it my pots used to be completely full of roots I couldn't see or find my air stones until I ripped the roots apart so all the best need any help just give me a shout thanks Chris

[RoseyRipple]

23 hours ago, chris48 said:

Hi m8 I used 1 of these systems for a couple of years the changes I made were you know the small pipes which return nutrient back into main tank I drilled a little hole in each pot and ran it into them instead alot better imo and changed the piping between pots to 25mm iceline and upgraded air stone pump to hailea 8 outlet pump so 2 air stones in each pot use the round disc air stones that came with system for the bottom of each pot but rested them on a sterile bit of sponge cause they rattle around and make a bit of noise in night time cause constantly on and I added a coke can air stone to each pot hanging it off net pot with bit of wire to maximise air in each pot but had great results with this system gutted lost it due to the plod but found it easy to use and great results bit if a bitch to empty and get every bit of nutrient out of each bucket when cleaning but sucknit out with pump on hose or Karcher wet/dry vacum easy then good luck with it tho buddy you should have some nice trees out of it my pots used to be completely full of roots I couldn't see or find my air stones until I ripped the roots apart so all the best need any help just give me a shout thanks Chris

 

Hello, cheers for the insight Chris, at the moment I'm moving house so sadly everything is on hold so wont be setting anything up until the wife is happy that everything is done then I can get on with my "hobby" as she calls it

Did you move your main tank outside to keep the water temp down or did you use a water chiller? That really sucks that the coppers took everything even more so if you was getting monster grows

When I get into full swing with this set up I'll drop you a line mate if I've got any questions or just to let you know about my progress or lack of it

Cheers for the response mate

[chris48]

Na m8 I didn't get the chance to move the main res outta tank I was putting frozen bottles of water in there a chiller would be the 1 if your gonna use the system slot mind you a chiller is handy to have around anyhow but I think drilling a lil hole in each pot is essential cause I didn't like the way the return pipe sat under the lid had 1 pop out an nearly flooded the tent so poking the pipe in the lil hole you drill is just safer imo m8 but that system in a 1.2x1.2m tent is perfect any questions give me a shout when you set things back up again k m8 all the best ,,Chris

[NarniaTwins]

I choose the twin system so they are independent res tanks. I didn’t have room for a internal res tank in the space nor outside either. I was going to mod a dripper but ended up just leaving it because I didn’t want the leak chance. 

 

it’s worked out well you could say as ones thriving and ones got a manganese def I think which is struggling with no doubt 1 or 2 other. The PH caught me completely off guard on 3 fronts. My ec is .8 from tap (RO just delivered) and I stupidly assumed ph would just stay there until plant roots hit it and started to manipulate it. Also didn’t take in to account different types of PH down at different stages, as I was using citrus now changed over to nitric first down and then readjust with phos. It seems to keep it stable for much longer. 5.8 to .6.3  in around 12/18 hours because it needs 1 or 2 drops of phos again.

 

such a noob but a lot learnt in the last week!