Bubble Bucket help please trying to set up 5-6 interconnected

visit the plumbing dept & get some bulkhead compression (or push-in) connectors.
dead easy - just put a connector at the bottom of each bucket & join them up.
Don't forget to add a drain tap

do not scrimp on airstones & pumps. The bigger the airstones & pump, the frothier the water & the bigger / healthier the plant will be.
It's worth buying 2 pumps & connecting them both up so u still have air if 1 pump fails.
If u lose a pump, ur plants will die within 48hrs, so at least have a spare 1 to hand.

Cheap pumps & small airstones are false economy.

Just a point about joining the tubs together......... I know it makes ph'ing etc a lot easier, but u will find that some plants need a lower strength feed than others.
Some plants' roots will develop faster than others & u will be stuck with the same level in all your buckets.

It's really not hard or overly time consuming to maintain 6 buckets individually.
Mix & ph your feeds beforehand - undiluted. Then add to the fresh water to get the ec u want for each separate tank.

If u are joining the tubs together & adding the undiluted feed to 1 bucket, i can more or less guarantee u will kill that plant as it will take a while for the feed to circulate & mix properly with the water in the other buckets.

 

I currently run a bubbler and I believe the one thing you don't want to skimp on is the airstone. More air better roots, better root system BIGGGGG plants. As for multiple plants on the same solution. I do have 3 in a 18gal storage box(cost $4 at dollar general). I run three air pumps in mine. Here's a link to pics of my current grow.

http://forum.grasscity.com/attachme...6-picts-dagirls-hopefully-pict-001_edited.jpg

By the way, I think you will have an easier grow if you keep them seperated, I'm constantly having to adjust, one plant keeps wanting alittle more mag while the rest are happy without. So its a juggling act.

 

Get yourself a rubbermaid container. Instead of having to connect all the different buckets, you can just fit four plants in one rubbermaid, just get a sgood airpump and run two into the rubbermaid, just make sure they have two spots to hook up hoses, put one under each, and ur good to go. IMO, this is 20x easier than setting up a bunch of buckets, not to mention a space saver.

 

Cut holes in the top and then have the net pots sit in there. Dierwolf had a journal where he had a rubbermaid bubble bucket set up.

 

Hey, I was thinking, what you really need is to add a circulating water pump. And I'd put 2 airstones per bucket, one fails your plant still lives.

 

airstones don't fail m8 - air pumps do tho.

 

Build yourself a controller. Easy and cheap. This is the link to GH version http://www.generalhydroponics.com/genhydro_US/controller.html

 

All BB set ups should have a control bucket(for one or ten)the control bucket size will depend on how many BB's you have going and how your add back procedure is done(i use a float from r/o which is always adding water).

Using a lil pump to circulate makes your DWC into a RDWC and is highly recommended(i also use a chiller which splashes back into the res/control bucket for added DO.

All BB's with plants also have an air disk,if the air goes off the waterfall and water pump will work alone as will the air if the water pump fails(neither ever did).

I have an online ppm/pH meter on the wall and all i do is read it everyday and add in a lil nutes to 1200ppm.

BTW,i grew for 4 months without EVER changing the solution,during flush i did twice.

 

I'd just say buy a 20gal rubbermaid for under $10, with lid, and cut your holes for ALL plants in the lid. add a hole for your air tubing and water/nutes on a top corner, throw under a light, plug it all in...good to go.

Takes up less space, is easy to do...

Only problem is plant specific problems...but really, if you are going to use seeds, soil those and take clones for the reservoir. itll take an extra month but will make it more seamless and less need to have separate res's since they are all the same.

You could even make 2 tubs, 1 for each strain.

Very simple, very large yield, for what it is.

Your going to want some blue spectrum for the initial 18/6 vegging, so grab a few compact fluorescents and put those next to the plants, hanging from the...wherever.

Good luck!

 

My setup consists of this:

2 rubbermaid tubs with lids
12 plants per tub
2 air pumps, with dual tubing outlets
2 airstones per tub
Net cups
Hydroton

VERY self automated. HARD to fuck up. cut holes the exact size of the net cups, put them in as far as you can get them fill with hydroton and pot clone, ready to grow!

Heres a pic of my DWC mothers. This is nearly the same size reservoir I use for 12 plants at ONE time.

 

You want to build a RDWC - recirculating DWC setup. Google.... ICMAG has some good tutorials as well.

 

I'm currently running 3 buckets and a 4th one as the res outside of my tent. It works the way I do it but I could make it work better if I re-designed it.



Mine are laid out like this:









If I used 3/4 or 1" plumbing I could use a bulkhead pump and circulate the water by joining bucket 4 and bucket 1 to complete the series. But 1/2" plumbing doesn't allow the buckets to auto level fast enough and you will overflow the one connected to the output of the pump rather quickly.



I'm switching to one giant container instead of separate ones for my next grow. I am already extremely confident in my growing ability and I fully understand how MJ grows now, so I am not worried about the plants being in the same container like some people are.

 

If you use a tiny lil power head pump$20 it won't overflow,it's all you need.

 

I'm already into flowering, not worried about it anymore.


I am certain the one giant container will destroy the bubblebuckets results... and my plants are huge already. The roots will have a LOT more room. I gotta look into getting CO2 now.