Aeroponics
As told by me, Robbie Kunz.
One day, my friend, Gabe, suggested that I use aeroponics for my plant. And so construction began.
He came over to my house and decided that we needed a pump for the water. I have a turtle and I remembered that I had bought a water filter for it which was too small, so that particular one was not in use since I had bought a new, larger one of the same brand. Below is what the larger water filter looks like. For us, we didn't need a filter, so I removed the filter off of the end of the smaller water filter and thus succesfully converted it into a water pump.
The larger water filter used in my turtle's tank.
This is the smaller water filter turned water pump that will be used for the aeroponics unit. You can see how it's much smaller than the other water filter because I took off the filtering part. You can also see the reflection of the fluorescent lights I use.
We needed a tube that would fit over the end of the water pump. Just as a test, I checked to see if the tube that was used with the water syphon would work (I have this since it is needed with the turtle and before the turtle, the fish we used to have). Interestingly enough, the tube fit perfectly over the end of the water pump, however, we deemed it too dirty for usage. So Gabe and I went out to this pet place in Upper Darby, once I find out the name, I'll write it here. We took along the water pump and checked out different water syphons there. Basically, we just pulled them out of their packaging and checked to see if they would fit over the end of the water pump. Eventually we found one that fit fairly well and so we bought that one and a ph testing kit so that we'd be able to test the water's ph, which is important for when we actually put the plant into the unit.
Pic of the ph testing kit and the packaging of the syphon, along with the parts that we don't need.
After the pet place, we went to a SuperFresh and picked out a nice sized water bottle to use, I also bought a power strip since I was going to need extra space for my timer, lights, etc. After SuperFresh, we went home and went down into my basement in order to create the stand which the water bottle would sit upon.
We got wood from the wood pile that was sitting in the corner and we basically cut a square piece for the top. Then I found this huge circular wheel that would be attached to a drill or drill type tool for making wholes. First, we didn't see a power drill anywhere so we started using these crank tools which didn't help us at all. Even with Gabe's mighty strength, we could not use it to cut all the way through. I asked my Dad about something and he told us that there were electric tools in this box, and thus we found a real drill. So Gabe attached the wheel thing on to the drill and we cut a whole through. It looked very nice. Then Gabe cut up some pieces of wood and nailed them on as legs.
The wooden stand that we made for the aeroponics unit.
The next part involved drilling a hole into the bottom of the water bottle so that the tube which we got from the syphon (by eliminating the rest of the sypon) could fit. First problem was that we couldn't find any drill bits for the drill and my Dad had left so I couldn't ask him where they were. After a long time looking around in my basement, we finally found them and chose a 1/2" one since it looked about the size of the tube. We drilled right through the bottom of the water bottle and then tested to see if the tube would fit. It did not fit and probably the hardest and longest part of the project came here.
We couldn't use another drill bit to make another larger hole over the existing hole since we didn't have an appropriately sized drill bit. The plastic on the bottom of the water bottle was extremely hard so we figured it might be easier to just make the tube smaller. First, I tried using a knife to shave off parts of the plastic of the tube to see if I could just make it get in. We supposed that once we got a little bit in, we'd be able to force the rest. However, this did not work since I couldn't shave the tube enough to get it to fit in.
Gabe then got the idea of using fire to burn the plastic and then while it was still hot, crush it and mold it. So, I went upstairs and got one of my lighters and we went outside. In my driveway, I held the end of the plastic tube over the flame until it was black and smoking. The fumes were not pleasant. Gabe used a piece of cardboard to protect his fingers from the heat and tried to mold the end. We were able to force it so that it was pushed together at the end. We actually went down into my basement to the sink and used the water pump with the tube to see what the water would look like coming out of this end. The water came out in a stream which was what we needed. However, this tip did not fit through the hole in the bottom of the water bottle.
We cut the end off since it was black and charred and I tried flattening the end of the tube and cutting off a piece, diagonally, with a knife so that the furthest tip would be small and then as you moved down the tube it would widen out. You can see what I'm talking about by looking at the picture below, at the tip on the right. When we tried to fit this in, the very end of the tube made it through but when it got to the full tube, it did not fit so we could not use this. I believe after this we tried using a nail file to try and widen the hole but the plastic was too hard and the nail file hardly removed any plastic.
The failed attempts at making the end of the syphon tube smaller and better.
After these failed attempts, Gabe remembered seeing this sanding tool downstairs on my kitchen table. My grandfather is currently living with us and he's building a model ship so apparently it was one of the tools he was using. The sanding tool is amazing, perhaps one of the most magnificent tools I have ever seen. Maybe I only say this because it saved us from this horrible problem. Basically it's a piece of sandpaper wrapped around metal which whirls very quickly. It reachs such high speeds that it burned the plastic where it touched. The first time the plastic melted then rehardened in front of the hole so Gabe had to go back and use the sander to remelt it out of the way. Finally, the tube was able to fit.
A picture of the amazing sanding tool that saved us.
The next problem involved how to have the water spray up since at that moment all we had was an opening that was about 1/2" wide. We thought about possibly stapling the tube end together so that water would be forced through a small area when I got an idea. I took the red cap off of the spray bottle I use to spray my plants. Gabe fit it on to the end of the tube and it fit perfectly (thankfully!) Now, when the pump was connected to one end of the tube, it forced the water through the spray bottle cap making a stream of water shoot up. Although the cap was wider than the hole at the bottom, we solved this problem by pushing the tube all the way up, out the top of the bottle and placing the cap on there then moving it back downwards.
Here you can see the red tip I took from my spraying bottle on the water syphon's tube.
At this point, we had the intake part of the aeroponics unit working. It was now 9:00pm (Gabe had come over around 4:00pm and so Gabe and I stopped working to eat at Bella Italia.
The next Monday, we began work again. Gabe and I went to Home Depot to look for a small tube that we could use as the drainage pipe for the aeroponics unit. After looking around, we found the perfect size, diamater-wise at least, the tube was 10 feet long but that was okay since we could always cut it down. After that we looked at some lights and then went and bought some nutrients that we would mix into the water for the aeroponics unit.
The nutrients, 20-20-20.
We left Home Depot and went to my house where we drilled a smaller hole into the bottom of the water bottle. The hole was small but wasn't much of a problem since I just pulled out a knife and started widening it a bit. It only took a minute and the tube fit perfectly. Gabe still wanted to take the amazing sandpaper tool to it but he would have destroyed the thing had he done it. The tube fit and now we had a way for drainage. Now we just needed a few more things...
First a plant. We went to Albrecht's for this and we picked out a "peppermint-scented geranium" (P. tomentosum I think, I wish these labels would state the scientific name). It's a fuzzy plant and kind of ugly but it doesn't matter since this is just the test subject for the aeroponics unit. After that, we went to Mapes to buy two buckets. One for the water that the water pump would take water from and another that would get the drainage. I also bought another water spray bottle since my first one was rendered useless after I took the cap off (to put on to the end of the tube). Gabe also bought a water sprayer which would prove very useful later...
Pictures of the test subject, a peppermint-scented geranium (Pelargonium tomentosum).
We went back to my house, took the container away from the plant and started removing all the soil that the plant's roots were gripping. This took a long time and involved getting a hose and blasting it with water. After that and taking it to my basement's sink for a while, almost all the dirt was gone. We placed the plant on top of the water bottle and the roots hung suspended in the air. We set up the buckets and poured water into the one which had the water pump in it. Then we took a pinch of the plant nutrients we had bought (20-20-20) and stirred it in. We turned on the water pump and everything worked.
A pic of some of the 10 foot drainage pipe and the container which collects the drainage. I'll have to get a shot which shows the entire length of the pipe, but that will be for later.
I set up the water pump on a timer to go on at 12am, 6am, 12pm, 6pm for half an hour each time. Right now I'm tinkering with the direction of the spray and I'm trying to stop the leaks (I've used clay but I may use caulk soon). The drainage pipe is still 10 feet long and I intend to have it running over my bed to the bucket which will be placed on the other side of my room. One of the reasons for this is so my dog doesn't mess around with it if he should somehow get into my room.
Picture of the aeroponics unit as a whole.
So, I still have some work to do with figuring out the right amount of nutrients to give, the ph level the water should be at, stopping the leaks, the right amount of time the water should be on for, the right height and strength the stream of water should be at and possibly making a humidity tent for it. Maybe I'll add information about that as I work on it. I'll definitely be putting up more pics as I continue work on it.