Mr. Greenbud

Sometime in the next year I would like to start a basic hydro grow. I've been browsing this site for a long time and this is my first post. Please tell me if you think this setup would work and critique or tell me how to correct anything that sucks about it. I made this diagram in MS paint and I hope you can all understand it. I based my design on a random hydro tutorial I found at http://www.1stmarijuanagrowerspage.c...oponics-3.html. A question I have about it that the tutorial wasnt very clear on was how I will be changing the nutrients. Will I need to empty the entire buckets often or just occasionally add more nutrient/water solution to the buckets when the water level is down? And the in the guide in that link, the guy says he doesn't really pay attention to pH or anything but I plan on monitering it. I guess thats about it but I'm sure I'll probably have more questions as this thread progresses. Thanks for taking some time to look/critique. Any help appreciated! (and yes I've read the grow bible! )

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grass_hopper

First, Welcome Mr. Greenbud.

OK - I'm building a very similar DWC setup. One suggestion I'd make is to find a way to connect the buckets together with tubing to increase your effective res capacity. I'm using marine through-hull fittings I got from westmarine . com and black tubing from the garden store. This will help buffer water loss, pH swings and variations in nutrient absorption. Small reservoirs are harder to manage than larger ones.

Many air pumps come with dual outlets - walmart only sells one pump style (at least the one near me), which has two nozzles. If you get this kind of pump hook up an air stone to each outlet and place them in two different tubs, and do the same with the next one, overlapping so that every tub has two airstones run by different pumps. Then if one fails, you'll still have another one limping along to keep the plant alive.

Here is the thread I started asking for feedback on my setup (Link). I've got some diagrams in there of what I'm doing.

Hope this helps.

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"Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk in front of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone."


Ancient History:
Blueberry/Mazar (started in hydro, moved outdoors)...Skunk#1/Blueberry in Soil
Botanicare 42 Site Cloner - a Review...Grass_Hopper's Butane Honey Oil (BHO) Thread

Website goodies:
Grow Guide...Cecil_B's CO2 Enrichment Guide...Grower's Dictionary...Getting Females From Standard Seeds

mybetas

As far as the nutrients go, most systems call for you to replace the nutrient solution completely every two weeks. You might need to top off your nutes in between changes because the solution will be constantly used up. Whether or not you add nutes to the "topping-off" mixture will depend on how much of the nutes your plants are using. You'd need a device to measure the ppm of your nutrient solution, and the amount of nutrients you add when topping off your res. would depend on this reading and your target amount.

Am i making sense? haha..

grass hopper's suggestions would definetely help, but the basic design you have for your deep water culture system seems pretty solid. I'm not too experienced with these types of systems, but I think you'd need to have your water level a bit higher than shown in the diagram... i might be wrong.

Mr. Greenbud

Hey Grass Hopper, thanks for replying! I want to connect the buckets together because I definitately do want to buffer water loss, prevent pH swings, etc...but what I don't understand is how the tubing accomplishes this. Maybe you could elaborate there for me a bit? And as far as connecting the pumps, would surgical tubing work or would it need to have a bigger diameter? And that dual pump thing is a great idea, I'll definitely get those kind. I also noticed that on your link, you have a clear tubing that helps you check the water level...I've seen these but I guess I don't understand how it works and where to drill the holes to build one, and does it only need to go on 1 of the buckets?

Hey mybetas, I appreciate your help too! Do you think it would work if I somehow installed like a water tap/faucet type thing near the bottom of the buckets and emptied them like that for the nutrient changes? And as far as the water level, I'm going to make it as high as possible, I just didnt really do the drawing to scale. Thanks for the help people! PEACE!

Puppydawg

the general idea there, Mr. Greenbud. And, if I might add, you're a darn-good artist too! (Nice use of colors).

From what I can tell, you like to figure out what you're going to do before you go ahead and do it: Highly comendable.

Check out some of the grow journals; there's a few interconnecting bucket bubblers being put to use right now!

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Accept the things you cannot change. Change the things you can't accept.

grass_hopper

I used this fitting through the buckets:



The tees are similar to these (the barbed one)



Black tubing in between connects them.

The clear tubing is for a water level checker. It's made simply from a section of clear tubing, a stopper with a small hole drilled in it, and a 90° barbed tee simliar to this one:



Hope this helps.

__________________
"Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk in front of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the hell alone."


Ancient History:
Blueberry/Mazar (started in hydro, moved outdoors)...Skunk#1/Blueberry in Soil
Botanicare 42 Site Cloner - a Review...Grass_Hopper's Butane Honey Oil (BHO) Thread

Website goodies:
Grow Guide...Cecil_B's CO2 Enrichment Guide...Grower's Dictionary...Getting Females From Standard Seeds

penguin

I would really ditch the clear tubing level-checkers, they will promote algae growth. Completely light-tight is the way to go.


penguin

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