bubble bucket setup HELP!

[drumanick91]

okay, so im thinking about taking on the challenge of bubble buckets...i sort of have my doubts but i would still like to try it sometime in the near future. my first question is....what nutes should i buy? like in soil i kno veg 20-20-20 is good and flower 10-20-10 is good....but how does it go for BB? also where can i buy them? i have looked for near by hydro shops and i cant find one....as for gardening shops im not to sure i know where one of those are either....can i get them at any big named stores from their gardening section such as home depot,lowes,walmart...anything like that?last thing....how much on average are they....for in between shitty and decent nutes?(cuz if i screw up it wont matter as much)

okay now my second question is about pH.....is it an ABSOLUTE MUST for a pH tester? even if i try to control it very much w/ every technique i read suchas letting grow rocks sit in the right pH water for 1-2days? does the nutes affect the pH....if so is there any kind of nutes that dont so i would have more control? see i am kind of on the broke side....right now i have about 40$ lol....(i already have lights to use though)....i hear pet's'mart is a good place for pumps/aquarium rocks/air rocks/air tubing.....so i will probably drop by there for those things. only things left are a bucket (which i have), net pots (where can i get em?) and once again the NUTES....i really wanna try to do it decent the first time, i know that would be really hard w/o a pH tester.....but i would try my hardest.

thanks for ANY help in advanced......peace out

[Cody3]

you've looked in hydro stores? ask one of the workers there lol just tell them you are growing tomatoes and you can pick up a ph test kit for like 10 bucks... if i were you.. i would save up a lil more then 40$

[drumanick91]

no, i dont know where a near by hydro shop is....i cant find one, thats y i was asking if any big named stores sell this stuff....same for pH tester kit, where can i get one of those and how many times can i test pH w/ one?

i agree with you, i need to save up some more....so for this grow im going to do soil since i already have the stuff but my next will hopefully be bubble buckets with a clone from the soil grow....

for now this is what i have for cost wise:
air pump - 15$
tubing- 3$
air stones- 5$
bucket- 2$
net pot- 2$
pH test kit-10$
nutes- ????

so i guess its going to be around 50ish....sound right?

[lemmenischnikit]

that sounds accurate .... as long as you got everything else...... ive built them from ANYTHING THAT WILL HOLD WATER AND FIT A POT IN THE TOP get creative .... outside the box bro....

[drumanick91]

yeah....ill keep that in mind , also i would like to know what the smallest reservoir i could use is...mainly i need a short one because my maximum height where im growin is about 2.5'...also does anyone know how much nutes will cost? im trying to plan things out because i didnt with what im doing right now and i ended up wasting about 30$ so i want to know exactly what im doing from now on....another thing can u LST in BB?

lastly, im only using 112w of CFL's....which i know isnt much but i hear it will do the job for now, considering the height of the area (wont really be an issue if i can lst) what do you think i could yield if i did everything pretty good obviously allowing a few errors because it will be my first BB?

thanks for the help guys! peace out

[crapskater]

i also am starting a bubbler. So far i have 5 gallon buckets (4 of them) and 2 dual water pumps (one airline to each bucket) and 4 six inch air stones. All under a 400 watt hps/mh system using hydroton.

There are a couple of questions taht i have also. i understand that i should leave the water level to about an inch below the netpots with no nutrients until the roots develop into the water. I am planning on using the general hydroponics 3 bottled solutions. To clarify, do i keep filling the water up to about one inch below net pot level or what? i have a tds and ph meter on its way. I think tds meters are suppose to measure the amount of nutrients in the water solution. How should i start out with and how should i end up with (in ppm)?

And as for training, i dont think there is any differnce from training in soil. I am doing LST on the plants. If its possible, can someone provide me with some information on the ppm of nutrients?

[irieluv]

well.. I encourage everyone who is doing dirt growing, to follow these guys example and go with hydro.. my friend at the top.. I just put three of these extra buckets I had back into use.. but needed a res. to attatch the other three buckets too.. cause when those plants get HUGE like they do in buckets.. You can't take the plant up or anything.. any water exchange has to happen from the res.. so just use another bucket .. run the hose along the bottom of the buckets and they will all keep the same level..

my home down at the bottom.. Hey bro.. I am using drip buckets with hydroton filled 2 gallon bucket inside of a 5 gal. but I'd done just a strait bubble before and I kept it right about an inch from the netpot.. also about the ppm.. I personally would lay GH nutes aside.. and go with Botanicare's pureblendpro.. there are measurements on the back that work fairly well with minor tweaking for all the strains I've done(lavender, diesel, trainwreck, blueberry, white widow, skunk #1, MK-ULTRA) I'm sure that 3 part is good too.. just sounds complicated for a new hydro grower.. also.. those little drip drip ph tester's work great.. been using them for years.. (cheapass I know) Just keep the water at 6.0 which is the yellow color in the drip ph tester.. and if yer using pureblend pro.. just folow the directions .. 1/4 ounce for clones per gal, half ounce per small plant, one ounce(or thereabout) for fully flowering... I just recommend what I've been doing for a while.. and it definitely works

[irieluv]

ps.. to both of you.. really. hydro is phenomenal, it grows REAL fast.. and if your considering training.. I would probly recommend just throwing some chicken wire over them and scroging them.. training will work too.. just bothersome.. you'll be tieing the damn thing down everyday.. I would scrog.. you'll get the most wieght...

[up4anything]

Only suggestion I have is to use an air pump that has a dual outlet and place one into one bucket and one into the other. Then, with a second pump, do the same thing, one side goes into one bucket, the other into the other bucket. Now, you have each bucket with 2 different air pumps pumping into it. This way, if one airpump fails, you have a redundent system as a failsafe. No more drowned plants.

If yu don't have dual outlet pumps, or don't want to spend the money or whatever, just get a manifold or "T" and split each pump into two buckets.

Hope that made sense, I'm stoned off my ass right now.