Bucket vs reservoir

Hi guyz , i have a quick question... my plants are now ready to go in flower stage. I was using aeroponic.. but its now a pain in the ass since they always clog.

I was wondering what you guyz prefer. For like 6 plants , would you flower in a big 30 gallon reservoir... or use 6 5gal buckets?

peace

shredder69 said:

Hi guyz , i have a quick question... my plants are now ready to go in flower stage. I was using aeroponic.. but its now a pain in the ass since they always clog.

I was wondering what you guyz prefer. For like 6 plants , would you flower in a big 30 gallon reservoir... or use 6 5gal buckets?

peace

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i prefer big res's, this is one i built last night. the open space near the hoses will be covered completely with metal tape. i think total with air pumps and everything it costs about $180 to build one of these...

Most I see go with each plant in own bucket

I was actually wondering if I have a reservoir with 25 gallons, if I have a pump with dual hoses, would one oxygenate the water enough, or should I go ahead and get another pump. Also having a hard time getting clones to take root under the metal halide, in net pots with a set up much like defcomexperiment's. Two have taken root and are flourishing, but the rest aren't having it. Any advice?

I have 5 girls all in different stages and they all have their own bucket, each plants likes a different level of nutrients so I like to keep them all at their desired levels. This is just because I am running multiple strains

defcon u have a killer machine there hehe I like the fact u used a cooler as a reservoir. but arent your pots too close to each others ?

Anyway Thanks guyz for answering its always cool to see people answering.And you know what... I want to go with different bucket. looks better to control the environnment. My only problems is that bucket cost like 8 bux + i have to buy a big ass air pump to put a splitter for 6 buckets . And that would cost me like 48 just for the buckets vs 10 bux for a 30 gal reservoir. And a i have 2 cheap air pumps that could do it.... Also i dont have ppm /ph meter yet so cant control shit hehe lol

I saw that people like at burgerking or food shops almost giving buckets for free... so if find them ill go with the buckets.

Also what air pump capacity would you recommend to oxygenate 6 5gal buckets?

shredder69 said:

defcon u have a killer machine there hehe I like the fact u used a cooler as a reservoir. but arent your pots too close to each others ?

Anyway Thanks guyz for answering its always cool to see people answering.And you know what... I want to go with different bucket. looks better to control the environnment. My only problems is that bucket cost like 8 bux + i have to buy a big ass air pump to put a splitter for 6 buckets . And that would cost me like 48 just for the buckets vs 10 bux for a 30 gal reservoir. And a i have 2 cheap air pumps that could do it.... Also i dont have ppm /ph meter yet so cant control shit hehe lol

I saw that people like at burgerking or food shops almost giving buckets for free... so if find them ill go with the buckets.

Also what air pump capacity would you recommend to oxygenate 6 5gal buckets?

Click to expand...

Coolers are the way to go I use 5 - 5gallon sport coolers, I thought the same thing you have a lot of net pots.

I just switched from an RDWC, 8 gallon res with a 5 gallon bucket to a 12 gallon cooler style DWC filled to 7 gallons. It's only been a couple of days for me but I have one concern already, When pumping into my 5 gallon bucket, I never had to aerate more than about 3 gallons at a time in a cylindrical container. Now I have to aerate seven gallons in a rectangular cooler and it takes A LOT more air power to gain the same *texture* in the water.

BeaverHuntr said:

Coolers are the way to go I use 5 - 5gallon sport coolers, I thought the same thing you have a lot of net pots.

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Coolers are way 2 much expensive at the momment hehe... Plus i do not need to keep my water cool i need to keep it warmer since they are on the garage floor and its very cold....

I was lucky yesterday my plants were going bad since i just separated the roots and i stopped the aeroponic system... something need to be done... So raised the water level , added some nutes and added an airstone with a pump... And this morning they were doing great im so stoked hehe ....

The bucket thing with airstones made me think a lot... Is there a way to put oxygen in water without putting an airstone in the water... And i came up with something ... Id like to have feedback on this idea (its probably already done but anyway)... Here is the picture first..



Here is the deal:

Since i stopped my aeroponic system, i have an extra water pump... So what i could do is put the pump with a tube that goes in the air and shoot some water ... First that would always keep the nutes mixed and put a flow in the water wich can only be good... And like you can see in the picture... at the end of the water stream i would put something like some door net to break the water flow and let the molecule get some oxygen from that process...

So tell me what you think... I will do it and give you guyz some feedback


Neuman , why did u switched from 5 gal buckets to 12 gal reservoirs ? Did u plan to put 2 plants in the 12 reservoir or u needed more space for ur plants ?

defcomexperiment said:

i prefer big res's, this is one i built last night. the open space near the hoses will be covered completely with metal tape. i think total with air pumps and everything it costs about $180 to build one of these...

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You must have gotten a good price on the cooler. Where did you get it defcom?

shredder69 said:

Neuman , why did u switched from 5 gal buckets to 12 gal reservoirs ? Did u plan to put 2 plants in the 12 reservoir or u needed more space for ur plants ?

Click to expand...

I was doing an RDWC, a 5 gallon bucket with an 8 gallon res and it was taller than I liked. I like the volume of the cooler because I do 2 clones in a 6" net pot and that works perfectly for me. There are parts of the RDWC I prefer. Here's how I set up my cooler.

For the next one,I'm thinking about cutting the top to fit a smaller cooler for a flower bucket, keeping the footprint and only losing about 4" in height. I'm working toward a 30 day perpetual, so I want to standardize everything.

shredder69 said:

Hi guyz , i have a quick question... my plants are now ready to go in flower stage. I was using aeroponic.. but its now a pain in the ass since they always clog.

I was wondering what you guyz prefer. For like 6 plants , would you flower in a big 30 gallon reservoir... or use 6 5gal buckets?

peace

Click to expand...

I like my 12gal Igloo Marine cooler, myself.
Keeps things real stable the entire grow, in my environment.
Coolers cost me $22 each at Wally World.
I use a standard 4 way air pump like at PetSmart or PetCo for $20.
Air stones are from Wally World too, except the round ones.
Harvested JillyBean, ChemDawg and C99 in them during these last 4 or 5 months.
5 or 6 ounces on Jilly, 6+ ounces on the Chem and 9 ounces on the C99 !!!
INDIVIDUAL plants too !
On each grow, I've also successfully left the chopped males stumps and roots in the coolers after 2 weeks Bloom, the remaining of the grow until harvest with NO probs in stability, PH, PPM, temps, rot, bacteria, fungus, algae OR odors !!

Mellowman2112 said:

You must have gotten a good price on the cooler. Where did you get it defcom?

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walmart $54.00

as for having a bunch of netpots, i assure you, they will be fine as i do not have to fill that many netpots. mainly i have that many holes because eventually it will be a dedicated res for vegging plants. i am going to see how it does with almost all of em filled, it should allow me to cut down on a bit of veg time... here is my last flower res i built...

nice coolers both of you, def what are the dimensions of your 54. dollar cooler? Think I might go that route.

Hey FLOgrow, rocking pic number two. What sixe light is that and how many plants per cooler? and how many plants are under the light in the pic? Great results you have there, making my mouth water.

hey what air pump you guyz using l/min ?

Mellowman2112 said:

Hey FLOgrow, rocking pic number two. What sixe light is that and how many plants per cooler? and how many plants are under the light in the pic? Great results you have there, making my mouth water.

Click to expand...

400w Hortilux
My coolers have different lids I made.
This is the 4 site lid and I have a 2 site lid also.
All with 5 inch net pots.
That 2nd pic is ONE CINDERELLA 99 PLANT = 9 ounces !! lol

shredder69 said:

hey what air pump you guyz using l/min ?

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Both of my 4 port air pumps are rated at 9L/min or 2.3gal/min, which I think is standard for these.
I bought them at 2 diff stores and from diff manufacturers but rated exactly the same on everything.
I use 4 - 14 inch air stone bars ( the blue ones) from Wally World in each cooler.

Sams club is selling the huge 7 day camping coolers for like 70 bucks, I guess with camping season coming soon they are putting them on sale.

Is there a certain type of like formula for how many gallons of water you need to keep in a res. as per bucket/cooler? Like if you have 5 gal coolers how many actual gallons of water need to be in your individual cooler and how much needs to be in the res? Also do you top off the individual buckets or the res. *sigh* I don't know why this is so confusing to me but I think I'm making it more difficult than it is lol.