hlep me bubble bucket plumbers

I am looking to re-plumb my rwdc system. I have 16 five gallon pails rigged up to a 40 gallon tote. The last run I got lucky and didn’t have any clogs using 1/2. In the begging it would clog with pesky little immature hydroton balls. For my plumbing I had a 1" hose connecting to all the 1/2. The hose would come off the res and go into the room and t off to the other hoses. I think this t set up also cause the ½ lines to be slightly kinked. I could draw a paint diagram if it will help you guys help me. I think the T caused improper flow. Some buckets would have more water in them than others. This could also have been due to the top drip sprinkler system adding more water to some buckets than the others. So now I am wonder what would be the best way to plumb buckets that are in rows of four by four. I am thinking each row should get its own direct line to the res without any ts like you see on the premade ebb and flow bucket setups. Instead of using sprinkler top feed I’m going to use the old ½ for the fill and the 1” of the drain. The reason for getting rid of the top feed was they were a nightmare. The sprinkler top feed barbs would break and then water would shoot all over the place or flood. I think the hydro nutes help wear the plastic out faster and made them brittle.


Thanks RIU you guys are awesome and have the best bubble bucket forums.

picture, diagram ,both, something.

The green is the 2x4s that go over the grey bricks. The black rectangles are the buckets. The orange is the fill. I plan to use the 1" from the res. Then have Ts that have 1/2" on the l of the T. The next picture below has another side view.

My room is basically a 10x10. Since I was in paint I could not get it to scale very well. I plan to space the buckets slightly better than this.


The reservoir is the green oval outside the box. This was my old system I used. From the orange circle I had spaghetti feeder lines to each bucket. I used the landscaping stuff from big orange box store. The landscaping stuff dried and cracked thus leaking. It was just not nice having to wonder when the next leak would be.

Orange is fill and blue is return. for above and below.

New and improved idea. Uses 1" drains instead of 1/2" previously. Also doesn't have the return lines going into a t. Should be more reliable and leak proof.


I plan to use the rubber grommets vs bulkheads on my five gallon buckets. I think the bulkheads are better for flat surfaces and not for curved buckets. I will use bulkheads on my reservoir.

I have the fivers on the wood and bricks so it is elevated. This way I can have the reservoir filled to the top without over filling the fivers. The elevation also helped the flow.

Well I plumbed it up as the diagram. It doesn't seem to leak much either . I didn't want to have to but I may end up buying hose clamps for all the fittings. The only leaks seem to be from condensation building up on the hoses. The tap water is pretty cold here. If the ro unit is left on long enough water will drip from condensation on the intake pipe.

lvtokerr said:

Well I plumbed it up as the diagram. It doesn't seem to *leak much* either . I didn't want to have to but I may end up buying hose clamps for all the fittings. The only leaks seem to be from condensation building up on the hoses. The tap water is pretty cold here. If the ro unit is left on long enough water will drip from condensation on the intake pipe.

Click to expand...

Leaking at all is an issue for me as I hate a messes in my grow room, which equals no bugs or other nasties. One reason I stopped using RDWC as it produced the same as single buckets without the mess.