water Recommended brands (water pumps, air pumps/stones, etc.)

[ThrowHeat]

With winter fast approaching, I plan on working on some projects to keep me busy during the colder months, and also prepare myself for the upcoming spring.  Last year, due to some of the repairs we had to do around our new house, I never had the chance to start a pepper garden like I was originally planning.  So I'm definitely going to try and make up for lost time in 2016.
 
Now with that said, I'm looking to start some DIY projects in the coming weeks.  I already have a propagation setup in place, with two 4' fluorescent T8 ballasts, and plans of expanding it to six ballasts at some point (most likely next winter).  I also plan on buying 20+ 5 gallon buckets, and several more 10 gallon totes, which I will be using to build some self watering hydro containers.
 
But I don't really need any help with any of that.

What I do need help with, is figuring out what kind of water pump(s), air pump(s), air stone(s), and tubing I will need to build myself a DIY aeroponic garden setup (or three), to help develop a strong root system for all of my starter plants.  This is a subject I know very little about, so I figure it would be best to bring this to the forum, in hopes that I can benefit from the knowledge of people who have already been down this road.
 
If you have built your own aeroponic system for your plants, what brands/models of pumps/tubing have you had success with?  Which ones would you recommend I avoid?  Also, bonus points if you have any DIY guides that I could use for building my own.  I want to make sure I do this right the first time.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, in advance.

 

[juanitos]

what kind of setup are you looking for? like aeroponic like fogggers/sprinklers? or just dwc with lots of bubbles? or rdwc?
 
oh you say for starting plants only? or you want to keep them in the hydro stuff? There isn't that much of benefit doing hydro to soil.... 
 
Don't get sold on the stuff that costs $$$$. The generic hydrofarm stuff works fine. sometimes their prices are cheaper on their ebay shop vs their website.

 

[Pepper North]

I am running a DWC system, and for an air pump I use a General Hydroponics Dual Diaphragm which is awesome. Totally silent, and each of the 4 outputs can be split into 2 without a loss of power. For airstones I use Hydrofarm 4 inch round disks which also work great.

 

[ThrowHeat]

what kind of setup are you looking for? like aeroponic like fogggers/sprinklers? or just dwc with lots of bubbles? or rdwc?
 
oh you say for starting plants only? or you want to keep them in the hydro stuff? There isn't that much of benefit doing hydro to soil.... 
 
Don't get sold on the stuff that costs $$$$. The generic hydrofarm stuff works fine. sometimes their prices are cheaper on their ebay shop vs their website.

 
I'm leaning towards an aeroponics system, like the one pepper_rancher uses in this video:
https://youtu.be/i3TmEFZIq3s?t=4m4s
But I'm not necessarily opposed to DWC, as long as the performance and cost of components are comparable.
 
And I will not be using this for all of my plants.  The ones I intend to plant in soil will be started in soil, and the ones I plan on growing in self watering hydro containers will be started hydroponically. 
 
 

I am running a DWC system, and for an air pump I use a General Hydroponics Dual Diaphragm which is awesome. Totally silent, and each of the 4 outputs can be split into 2 without a loss of power. For airstones I use Hydrofarm 4 inch round disks which also work great.

 
Thank you. 

 

[dubG]

Don't try to buy the cheap pumps at the pet / aquarium / big box stores. Find a decent hydroponics shop in your area and check out what they have. They tend to have the high quality stuff and the people working at said shops are generally super helpful too.

As for tubing, you can't really go wrong.. it's tubing. Just make sure you get black tubing for any water lines. You want to keep light from reaching your water to avoid algae growth. Use black bins/buckets for your reservoirs for the same reason. Air lines can be clear or black.

Lots of DIY guides are available for different hydro setups if you look on the cannibus growing sites. There are a lot of hydro/aeroponics experts on those boards.

 

[juanitos]

go on youtube and check out all the setups. It will depend on how many plants you want / how much space you have really.
 
smaller systems:
pepper ranchers videos are good self contained systems.
single dwc bucket

kratky playlist
 
larger systems with multiple buckets:
dutch buckets:

rdwc:

,

 

[ThrowHeat]

Don't try to buy the cheap pumps at the pet / aquarium / big box stores. Find a decent hydroponics shop in your area and check out what they have. They tend to have the high quality stuff and the people working at said shops are generally super helpful too.

As for tubing, you can't really go wrong.. it's tubing. Just make sure you get black tubing for any water lines. You want to keep light from reaching your water to avoid algae growth. Use black bins/buckets for your reservoirs for the same reason. Air lines can be clear or black.

Lots of DIY guides are available for different hydro setups if you look on the cannibus growing sites. There are a lot of hydro/aeroponics experts on those boards.

 
We do have a hydro shop in our area that is pretty awesome.  It's where we've picked up some of our supplies already, and I know I'll be heading back some point in the near future.  The next time I'm in, I will see what kind of pumps they have, as well as tubing.
 
And I've spent plenty of time on those forums looking around.  When it comes to anything hydro, it seems like the vast majority of discussion takes place on those types of boards.

 
 
 

go on youtube and check out all the setups. It will depend on how many plants you want / how much space you have really.
 
single dwc bucket

 
I have been looking on YouTube.  A lot of the videos for making your own aeroponic system that I've found have only shown off the system, but have never really explains how they're built.

That single DWC bucket video is awesome though.  I think I might try something like that.  I'm just curious if there is a way I could do that, but instead of just the single net cup, I would have multiple sites?

 

[juanitos]

 
I have been looking on YouTube.  A lot of the videos for making your own aeroponic system that I've found have only shown off the system, but have never really explains how they're built.

That single DWC bucket video is awesome though.  I think I might try something like that.  I'm just curious if there is a way I could do that, but instead of just the single net cup, I would have multiple sites?

yeah you can do that.
here's an example kit you can copy. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Viagrow-Hydroponic-Deep-Water-Culture-Vegetative-System-4-Site-V4DWCV/203124373

 

[DMF]

I hear that for lights many hydro stores have a stock of used stuff that you can get for a considerable discount over new. 
 
Perhaps the same is true of hydro gear, too. 

 

[Burning Colon]

for air pumps i have run the topfin 4000, that i paid $ 20 each, i have 4. never had one fail, yet. the only problem i have had are the airstones and no matter the cost, they always fail, rot or clog, so i keep a backup of cheap stones from walmart.

 

[ThrowHeat]

I hear that for lights many hydro stores have a stock of used stuff that you can get for a considerable discount over new. 
 
Perhaps the same is true of hydro gear, too. 

 
I will make sure to ask when I visit the local shop later today.  Thanks for the suggestion.
 
 
 

for air pumps i have run the topfin 4000, that i paid $ 20 each, i have 4. never had one fail, yet. the only problem i have had are the airstones and no matter the cost, they always fail, rot or clog, so i keep a backup of cheap stones from walmart.

 
Noted.  I will make sure to stock up on airstones.

 

[DMF]

Maybe there's an aquarium supply store near you, too.
 
 
Oh I can see it now.  Little treasure chests with their lids bobbing up and down releasing air bubbles.  "Hey, they were cheap and they don't clog."