Active Aqua 2.0 Low Rise Tray 4 x 8 ft | 4 in Wall, 62 gal, Black HIPS

What the Active Aqua 2.0 Low Rise Tray Measures

The outside edge is 96 by 48 in, so it drops onto a standard 4 by 8 bench frame. Inside, the growing floor is 92 by 44 in, and the wall stands 4 in high all the way round. The volume is rated at 62 gallons. The tray weighs 21.6 lb, which one person lifts onto a bench without help. It is moulded in food-safe high impact polystyrene, black, UV stable, and rated as impact and heat resistant. Its part number is AATLR84B, and it is made in Canada. There is no pre-cut drain. The floor carries a pattern with flat sections where a drain fitting can go. The drain lands where the plumbing wants it rather than where the factory decided. The same pattern is what Hydrofarm calls easy clean, since it has no deep channels for roots and medium to pack into. The 2.0 range is drawn for both top feed drip and ebb and flow, and the 4 in wall is the reason it can do both. A drip table only needs to catch run-off. A flood table has to hold water up the side of a pot without spilling. Four inches is enough to flood the bottom third of most pots on the market. Load is the other number worth knowing. The tray is rated at 125 lb per square metre with supports no more than a foot apart. The drain section must not rest on a beam.

Setting Up an Ebb and Flow Flood Table That Drains Clean

An ebb and flow flood table lives or dies on how it sits, and a 4 by 8 shows every error twice over. Build the bench with cross supports at 12 in or closer. A tray full of wet medium sags between widely spaced beams, and the sag is where water pools. Pick the drain location before the tray goes on. Put it at the end nearest the reservoir, over open space between two beams, and drill it on a flat section of the pattern. A bulkhead fitting wants a flat seat, so the gasket seals. Level the tray side to side with a real level. Then give it a slight pitch towards the drain, around an eighth of an inch per foot. Dead flat leaves puddles, and puddles grow algae. Too much pitch and the high end is dry while the low end is still draining. Set the overflow standpipe to about a third of the pot depth. The flood wets the bottom of the medium and the roots pull it upward. Cap the standpipe with a screen or the first stray pebble finds the pump. Size the reservoir for the flood volume plus a quarter again. A 4 by 8 flooded 2 in deep moves a lot of water in a short time, and a reservoir that runs dry mid-flood burns a pump. Wipe the floor down between runs. The pattern rinses with a hose and a soft brush. A tray kept clean never gets the biofilm that turns a flood table into a pH problem. Black absorbs heat under lights, so keep an eye on reservoir temperature through summer.

Key Features

• 96 x 48 in outside: Fits a standard 4 by 8 bench frame.
• 92 x 44 in inside: The growing floor, with a 4 in wall all round.
• 62 gallon capacity: Deep enough to flood the bottom third of a pot.
• Food-safe HIPS: High impact polystyrene, black, UV stable, impact and heat resistant.
• Drain where you want it: No pre-cut hole; flat sections in the floor take a fitting.
• Easy clean pattern: Shallow relief that rinses out instead of packing with roots.
• Top feed or ebb and flow: The 2.0 range is drawn for both.
• 21.6 lb: One person lifts it onto the bench.
• Rated to 125 lb per square metre: With supports at 12 in or closer.

Technical Specifications