Bubble bucket hydro method 101

[Freeze]

If you are gonna do a sea of green, u can link all the buckets up to each other.
Just link all of your buckets with hose at the bottom and link them to a main bucket with no plant in it - but a water level bubble (like in the top of your toilet). This will allow you to set the levels for all of the buckets.

I have got this main tank linked up to a "reservoir" tank which i mix my nutes in and allow to drain into my main tank regulated by the bubble thing.

Hope that makes sence.....

here is a pic of what my small system looks like!

[up4anything]

Originally Posted by Freeze

If you are gonna do a sea of green, u can link all the buckets up to each other.
Just link all of your buckets with hose at the bottom and link them to a main bucket with no plant in it - but a water level bubble (like in the top of your toilet). This will allow you to set the levels for all of the buckets.

I have got this main tank linked up to a "reservoir" tank which i mix my nutes in and allow to drain into my main tank regulated by the bubble thing.

Hope that makes sence.....

here is a pic of what my small system looks like!

I too have been thinking of using a float valve setup to maintain the proper water level. Could you please be more specific about how you set up yours? Have any more pics? Looks great!

[Freeze]

i bought mine already set up..... ill try and explain tho....

the big tank is the reservoir and from this, we have a small plastic filter which runs down into the head tank (the tank with the blue pump on it).

So a pipe runs from the reservoir to the head tank through a hole drilled in the top of it to which the float mechanism is attached....

Once the height of the float has been set, this regulates the level of the water througout all of the four plant holding pots as they are all connected by hose at the bottom using T connectors and rubber seals....

hope that helps :P

[MickeyC]

Am I correct in assuming that coconut fiber pots will work as well as the net pots?

[Purilite]

This made my life a million times better! I can't thank everyone enough. You will see a BB by me soon!

[DoItAgain]

I just started mine and man it takes a lot of duct tape to triple wrap a 5-gallon bucket.

[DoItAgain]

PS. Has anyone thought of an easier way to keep light out of the bucket other than using like two rolls of duct tape?

Also, I couldn't find buckets with covers... Any advice there??

[Freeze]

Originally Posted by DoItAgain

PS. Has anyone thought of an easier way to keep light out of the bucket other than using like two rolls of duct tape?

Also, I couldn't find buckets with covers... Any advice there??

use black buckets and for sovers just get some wood/strong cardboard/plastic thats strong enough to hold ur net pots and just put em on top of te bucket with a hole cut in

[tylonalsnifnfoo]

There is an easier way than manageing your water leval. Instead of using a lid, cut a large piece of styrofoam to float and then cut a hole in the middle to hang your net pot in.
Here is a diagram: http://greenmanspage.com/guides/hydrosystems.html

Its the second one down : "WATER CULTURE SYSTEM"

[mattg34]

How often and for how long sahould the bubblers be turned on?

[tetrahydrocanna]

24/7

[DeadFish]

Can you please give some more gory details about measuring out the nutrients... I read earlier you mentioned a syringe and some kind of measuring device that also does ph? Do garden stores sell syringes? or where?

Since you mentioned that it doesnt really matter what company you get the nutrients from... I saw Gro formula and Bloom formulas... but I put it back on the shelve.. and almost hung up this whole project all together.. because of one simple fact: I suck at math.

I dont know any of this 4 quarts to a gallon or whatever.. so I fear burning the plants, drowning the plants, starving the plants, because I dont understand this "Parts Per MILLION" language.

Can you please give us some more details on this extremely important section.

Thanks in advance, and great thread so far!

[devil_piggy]

im very unfamiliar with hydro setups / the bubble bucket idea, but ideally how deep should the pot that sits in the bucket be ?

[Version 2]

Both your explanation of the bubble bucket setup, and the link that tylonalsnifnfoo provided were great. I can see why hydroponics works finally

1 question though. How much water do plants use in a day? I hear people saying they change their nutes every 7-10 days and I'm wondering how much of it is being dumped.

[devil_piggy]

did anybody mentioned about wether or not roots should be allowed to come out the bottom of the pot and into the water ? this i am curious on.