Hi everyone, this is my first post. New to the site and been searching it all day. I figured this would be the best place to post what I am doing and to get some feedback.

Well, as the title says, I'm building a grow enclosure that is low costing to build, consumes very low wattage and yeilds a high amount of buds for the size.

My objectives for this project are to only grow two plants to start with until I can clone. Then I will build another chamber just for the mothers or the clones unsure yet.

I was going to just take a 5-gallon bucket and put it upside down onto another 5-gallon bucket to create a chamber.

Inside the bottom 5-gallon bucket I would have two 5" net cups. Filled with Hydroton. This platform where the net cups are is adjustable in height.

Then the top 5-gallon bucket will have two holes in it for the forced air to pass through and also would house my LED bank.

This is what I plan to use.


I will be using two 5" net cups in the bottom 5-gallon bucket. This will have a ring of .25" vinyl tube fitted onto a .25" T-fitting. This will drip water into the clay stones. Then there will be a air stone in the bottom of the 5-gallon bucket putting air into the water. The net cups will be suspended above the water. So, this is kind of like a drip hyrdo plus a aerohydro setup.

The water circuit will go: pump>.25" T-fitting>t-fitting in the net cups.




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The power usage is as follows:
LED Panel: 13.8w
80 gph pump: 2.1w
Air pump : 2w

I'll have the air pump on all the time but the LED panel on a timer.

I guess, my question is can you grow in a small controlled environment and be able to grow two plants and be able to control the height of the plant but not limit the size of buds that if flowers?

I'm not after huge grow situations like some of you guys have. I just want to flower two plants at a time and yeild enough for personal usage. And since I'm a light weight that would be like 12grams every time they are done flowering. Is this possible?

And the height limit that I have in the buckets is about 15"-17" before the tops would be 3" from the LED panel in the top of the top bucket.

My worries are that the 5-gallon bucket with a diameter of 12.25" is goign to be too small in diameter to house two plants. Should I be looking at something with more width?


I'm trying to build these grow pods in a fashion that I can have a self contained unit for growing and not have to worry about a room or anything else. I'm only trying to flower two plants at once and then have two plants in another growing pod. I may end up with three pods: Mother, Clone, Flowering.


Well what do you guys think?

And is there a huge difference with the additives for the water? I have not done any reading about this and honestly, I would rather just go to Steins and buy plant food at whatever amount to the water and be done with it.

Just buy some pot if all you want to smoke is less then an 1/8th a month.

What is the point of having the top bucket? Also I've never used led's but I would imagine you wouldn't want them any further than 3 inches from the plants the entire time they are growing. Maybe more like an inch or less.

I don't want to buy, I want to grow.


The point of the top bucket is to encapsulate the growing area. This will allow me to control the temps, humidity and air flow much easier than just keeping it open.

As for the LED panel, I have not found much information on them. But, I swear by LED in anything that produces light. I know these are first gen's, but they will work because I'm not going to let my plants get bigger than 10" before flowering them.

I've heard that LED's cant take your plant past 6 inches...

If you want low cost than i would def go with cfl's over led's. Plus theres a shole cfl sub forum in indoor growing where you can get advice and comparisons.

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Protons and Neutrons make up atoms, atoms make up molecules, and molecules make up hydroton. That is the fabric of the universe.

if you havent bought the led's yet i would go with cfl, The bottom line is no matter what form of light your are using 13.8w wont get you far at all....

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wanna get high? how bout just a little high?

there are better high out put LED's that are on the market but sadly the makers of these things decided to put cheap leds in an sell it mostly as a gimmick, if ur serious about LED growing, design ur own thing from scratch...

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800w SOG

Why the buckets? You could do much better in a rubbermaid tote. Sorry, but I don't think that LED panel will take you through flowering. I'd use CFLs, or better yet, T5HOs. Good luck!

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If you know aero, please go critique my new aero design.

+1 with areoking get a couple rubbermaids and stack 'em. no way will 2 plants fit in a 5 gal bucket.