PETFLORA?? Help pls. I am trying the HP Aero using Rubbermaid totes and Mistking reptile misters.
These are basically the same as mine. What pump are you using?
So far I'm noticing a lot of light penetrating the totes so i need to better wrap and insulate to keep heat out as well.
Heavy Aluminum Foil works I have two 22 gal totes stacked sitting inside a 35 gal filled with ice water to keep temps good. There is probably about 6" of water in bottom of stacked totes with plants and airstones inside. The nutrient reservoir is about 8-10 gallons inside an 18 gal tote that's inside a 35 gallon with ice water to keep nutes at about 64-67 degrees also with airstone.
[/I]Damn good set up, but that's a lot of nutes for roughly 6 mature plants. How many plants are you growing? I understand the safety valve inside the root pod, but it creates problems too- specifically, the tap roots make a beeline for it out instead of developing lateral roots. As soon as the tap roots come in contact with the water on the bottom your system becomes FAG- (faux aeroponic grow) 
Not the worst thing, but it is a variable. Sounds like your choice of strains is too big for aero though. I found that out the hard way on my last grow with a lot of bag seed that was Sat dominant. I had to add the stacked totes midway through, which diminished my plant height by 2 feet: they grew past my LED. I compensated by adding CFLs on the sides [/I][/B]
I have to every so often empty some of the water out of the bottom tote but try to leave in a few inches atleast. The roots are growing so long that they are just sitting in the bottom of the water. WTF??? You said your plants are like 10", are you saying their roots are like 44"s?????? There is two airstones in the bottom though and also the ice water bath around it keeps it cool and darker. Unless you experience brown-outs in your area I would eliminate the water inside the the pods. I need to wrap the top totes with something else and i've already put the reflective film on the lids to keep light from going right through the tops. Is that ok to reflect light back up at bottom of plants?? Absolutely, good in fact.
Right now i'm using a few smaller 6500k cfl and i also have a 600 watt stealthgrow led. NICE I picked up clones 2.5 weeks ago. Lost almost all roots when transplanting because they came out of dirt cups. new roots grew and i clipped off some of the mess. They seemed to recover fast but the smallest one from start is now the big one. starting just under 3" and now at 2.5 weeks in Aero is almost 10". idk if that's good but it had a few rough days where room got too hot or hose disconnected from nutes for hours. HPA raises the near dead!
Idk how to post pics right into the thread here but this is the link for the pic i posted of the roots after i put misting times down to about 3-4 seconds and then a few min off. This lost most roots when removing dirt and then in about 5 days this is what i found. Lots of root hairs. I'm envious.
https://www.420magazine.com/gallery/data/500/roots.PNG
Let me know how what i should be feeding them? I could use help there. So far using the GH lucas formula at 5.7 ph and 320 ppm. There is no set amount as some plants like more ppms than others. Let the leaf tips guide you. Start clones ~350, increase weekly by ~100 until you peak at 650, then flip to flower beginning at ~ 600, add 100 ppms per week max at ~900. You should have ~ 4 ft tall plants by then, but that also means 4ft roots. I am moving to shorter plants to avoid this problem. I picked clones 2.5 weeks ago and went from 3" to 8-10". Should I be feeding high ppm or something other than lucas formula? No need for Lucas. Just mix and feed, but once you flip (better do that soon) monitor your runoff pH and ppms. About 3 weeks in you will see a noticeable increase in both. From then on do not recycle the nutes! I heard people say they started doubling yields with advanced nutrients. I'm hoping this LED works out. They are crazy expensive and heard a few good reviews so hopefully it comes through for me.
