6k Bubbleponic Room, and 8k 12bucket 13gal Under Current Room

Hello everyone, this is my new journal for my DWC bubblegum bubbleponic room. 6k HPS, 28K Btu Air conditioning, black 5gal buckets, 6inch lids, clay pebbles as medium. This, in my opinion, is possibly the cheapest way to grow. 5gal and lid, including the air pump, costs roughly 20$ per bucket. These buckets can be used forever, and the only medium required is the clay pebbles. There is a learning curve but its quickly passed. Here are some pics, ill keep posting them through the grow. These are Bubble Gum from California. The guy who gave me the clones brought the mother plant in his truck, and he's been harvesting it for a year. Also put up a picture of the under current room I am working on now. I should have pictures of the room setup with clones by Monday.

Very clean and nice. Plants look very happy.

Awesome rooms man. Very clean!

I am going to try and let the pictures do the talking on this journal. In my previous journals, I have blabbed on and on without many responses. If anyone has questions or comments, please do not hesitate to write them out, as I am more than happy to answer them.

Bubbleponic Room, Day 26



Current Culture 12bucket under current, Day 1 Veg

Looks very nice. The trichs are showing up pretty early! Keep up the great work!

rooms look great!! loving the UC...I'm waiting for updates.. One question, are you sick of emptying those 5 gallon buckets yet???

rooms look great!! loving the UC...I'm waiting for updates.. One question, are you sick of emptying those 5 gallon buckets yet??? Your a week ahead of me in flower....

Whats your electric bill? Gotta be around 700+ right?

sbirch said:

rooms look great!! loving the UC...I'm waiting for updates.. One question, are you sick of emptying those 5 gallon buckets yet??? Your a week ahead of me in flower....

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I love the 5 gallon buckets. They are easy to maintain. Much easier than the UC's so far. I have extra buckets, fill up the bucket all the way, nute it, and swap it with the current bucket. Every swap, the bucket that the plants sit in is always almost empty, so half of the load is light.

Slimjimham said:

Whats your electric bill? Gotta be around 700+ right?

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Yes, in that neighborhood. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

Nice undercurrent... I tried setting one up with uniseals and 5g buckets but I couldn't stop it from leaking.

Malevolence said:

Nice undercurrent... I tried setting one up with uniseals and 5g buckets but I couldn't stop it from leaking.

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I tried the same thing, with 5gal black circle buckets. It worked, no leaks, but the tubing was so small that not enough water was circulating. I would deff do it again if I were you, but with square or rectangle buckets rather than the circles. but from experience, I prefer 5gal buckets by themselves rather than under current.

Very nice am in for the ride, Your roots look lovely an white, So id like to now your nutrients line up an your temps plus also what EC/PPM your running at.

Many thanks

Uni-seals are terrible mine luckily are no longer leaking. I made DIY bulk heads that sealed 5 gallon bukets with no problem, no leaks, easy to come apart for cleanup too (just not in production yet). Turtle, you mentioned tubing? I am using 2" pvc now, but plan to go to 1.5" for the bulkhead swap. I have heard people say not going lower than 2" is wise for root clogging purposes. Any thoughts??? If i do the whole thing in 1.5" I might put a bowl on bottom of bucket over intake and outake, that has holes all over it to allow water flow but keep pvc from getting root clogged. Anyway never had a problem with the 2".

sbirch said:

Uni-seals are terrible mine luckily are no longer leaking. I made DIY bulk heads that sealed 5 gallon bukets with no problem, no leaks, easy to come apart for cleanup too (just not in production yet). Turtle, you mentioned tubing? I am using 2" pvc now, but plan to go to 1.5" for the bulkhead swap. I have heard people say not going lower than 2" is wise for root clogging purposes. Any thoughts??? If i do the whole thing in 1.5" I might put a bowl on bottom of bucket over intake and outake, that has holes all over it to allow water flow but keep pvc from getting root clogged. Anyway never had a problem with the 2".

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Yes, 2'' is a good size to work with. How big is your water pump? I would say the biggest factor that should hint at what size pipe you should use is the amount of water in the system. If it is just 3-4 buckets, 2'' is certainly good to work with. Anything after 6 buckets, or in other terms 50 gallons+, you should increase the size, along with the water pump size. I have never had issues with root clogging.

And I dont think you want to put holes all over a bucket. I am sure you know this, but a gentle reminder for anyone lurking on this journal. Water is really heavy. If you have a system with 140 gallons of water, the amount of weight that it pushes on fittings is very high. The more holes you put in a bucket, the more chances it has of cracking, warping, or popping out. If you don't have a tray to catch the water, that means END GAME for many growers, especially those with neighbors below them.

machead said:

Very nice am in for the ride, Your roots look lovely an white, So id like to now your nutrients line up an your temps plus also what EC/PPM your running at.

Many thanks

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My base nutrients are House and Gardens Aqua Flakes A+B. Its very good in flowering, but lacks a few things in veg.
Drip clean from House and Gardens for salt build up.
Flora Nova as main pk boost, and 2 sub pk boosts from same company.
Diamond black for humic acid.
Cal Mag, every feed.

What do you think some of the benefits are of using DWC rather than soil? Just the top three if you dont mind.

1. People say hydro is not friendly for new growers. In my opinion, its the opposite. With soil, people tend to overfeed, and once the soil has too much nutrients, the only way to assure the plant is not hurt is to flush the container. To flush a 5gallon container properly in soil, you really need to run 50gal of tap water. Now image trying to flush 10 containers. With hydro, all you need is to switch the reservoir with nothing but water. Much more simple. And I would deff suggest to flush at least every 2 weeks for 24 hours.

2. Soil increases humidity, and brings insects. If you do not cook or freeze your soil, you have a high chance of nasty bugs like gnats, or aphids. Also the humidity you get every time you water may easily cause mold or mildew.

3. The stretching period in hydro plants is amazing. For some reason, in my opinion the excess of oxygen, plants in hydro have a huge stretching period.

Fast growth.

Big yields.

Easy to correct problems / fast response.

I was using 2" pvc and uniseals. Tried 5g buckets and square sterite containers which are flimsy shit. Dont even have black buckets around here. I will probably give it another shot when I have a house and garage or some place to build shit. Carpeted closet on 2nd floor isn't the best for trying to seal up diy plumbing.

Think I misrepresented the "hole idea" no pun intended. the idea is sort of a false bottom in the bucket. You could do this by putting a 3 gallon with holes like Swiss cheese in bottom in a 5 gallon bucket this would keep roots from clogging said tubing. My idea was skip the expensive bucket and use a bowl that's flipped upside down at bottom of bucket. The bowl would cover the intake and out of the tubing but have holes all over it so it would still allow water movement. This make sense?? Gosh words don't do a picture justice. Anyway, not even sure I'd need it with 1.5" pipes, it would be shitty though to find out the hard way. Home made bulk heads I think are still the way to go, and still cheaper than uniseals. Malevolence, do you have a Lowes near you, blue buckets are great, and cheap 2.50 or 3 bucks. Your using bubble on outside too so light penetration will be no problemo