Greetings,

I have read much here and at other forums (this seems to be the most consistently active), and have posted a few questions here. Thanks to all the helpful people out here in hydro land, I think I am well on my way to my first salad...

First I constructed a 5'x6' 'Retainment Pond' out of 2"x4" lumber and heavy plastic sheeting on the basement floor in my Computer/hobby room. This should contain any leakage, not IF, but, WHEN I foul something up...

It happens that Futuregarden.com is my local Hydro shop, so I bought Keith Roberto's book, 'How-To Hydroponics' and picked up some tips from his staff.

I started out simple with a 9 site raft in an 18G Rubbermaid, using GH Flora Neuts, 2" mesh pots, LEC, and seed starting sponges similar to 'Perfect Starts'. A friend gave me an old Hydrofarm 400w HPS fixture, so all I needed was to buy a bulb(Hortilux EYE).

All went well, but keeping things simple is not really my strong suit, so I was itching to build something like the 'Aerospring' that was on display at FutureGarden, and outlined in Keith's book. On further investigation and more hanging around their shop(hopefully not) making a nuisance of myself, I decided to try to build myself a fogger unit along the lines of their Nutramist($350!). It cost a bit more than a DIY Aerospring, but it seemed a way cooler project. I purchased a 6-head fogger unit, a float valve and a few odds & ends from them, and went to the local home improvement store for the rest.

After a bit of trial and error, I think I've succeeded in creating a fogger system for about $200 that should work as well as their $350 pre built unit, and mine is even uglier ;-)

It's been up and running for 2 days now, with minor glitches, but so far no mass die-off.

Please check out my slideshow on Shutterfly. Any comments, critique, etc gladly accepted!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8WcNHDRkok3g

CS

Here is a link that might be useful: CruelSun's Hydro project