Help NEW to hydro!!

hey guys i recently bought one of those hydro buckets from general hydroponics. its a top feed bucket i think. i bought it off one of my friends. how exactly does the system work? is the pump on 24/7 or do you have to cycle it on and off? and once its growing do you allow the roots to hit the water in the tank below? how much water do you put in resevoir? its one of those buckets that sits on top of another bucket. and has a ring of tubing where water drips from up top. sorry if its confusing, any response will be appreciated!!

If you could post a pic that would be nice. What I think you have though is a two bucket deal where a 3 gallon goes inside a five gallon and fill the three gallon with hydroton. Your drip ring is connected to a tube that goes down into your reservoir with a separate tube for you air line what happens is when you connect your air line it forces air into the reservoir. The bubble action aerates your reservoir and the bubbles forces water up and out through the drip ring.

When I first started out in DWC Years ago I had a system that sounds just like what you have. And yes the air pump needs to run all the time. You want to fill the reservoir within 1 or 2 inches below the top bucket.

But like I said I'm not totally sure what you have because all things change with time. Sounds to me you would have been better off building your own Dwc bucket for under 40 bucks.

Anyway I hope this helped out some.

Peace.

yea well i paid 50 bux for it with a big bag of hydroton and some nutrients. but yea sounds exactly what ur talking about ill post a pic soon. so ur saying that the pump blows oxygen into the water so it wont drown? lol im new to hydroponics. are you sopose to keep water below the roots? or roots in water? oh nvm u just answered my question i think. Is this system pretty effective? any advice?

oh and whats DWC??

DWC stands for deep water culture and yes you want the roots to be in the water. I'm assuming the pump you are talking about is like an aquarium air pump. It will run nonstop and it is meant to oxygenate the water and push the water up to the drip ring. You will put the clone or seedling into the hydroton and it will be fed and watered by the drip ring. As the plant grows the roots will work there way down into the hydroton and possibly into the water depending on how big your holes are in the top bucket. It's been a long time since I used a system like this.

I hope I helped you out. If you have anymore questions just give me a shout and I will help you anyway I can.

Peace.

Dropastone said:

DWC stands for deep water culture and yes you want the roots to be in the water. I'm assuming the pump you are talking about is like an aquarium air pump. It will run nonstop and it is meant to oxygenate the water and push the water up to the drip ring. You will put the clone or seedling into the hydroton and it
will be fed and watered by the drip ring. As the plant grows the roots will work there way down into the hydroton and possibly into the water depending on how big your holes are in the top bucket. It's been a long time since I used a system like this.


I hope I helped you out. If you have anymore questions just give me a shout and I will help you anyway I can.

Peace.

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so i do want the roots to grow in the water resevoir? and did you have any good results with this setup? thanks for the response!!!

yes I had good results but I have better results with what I'm using now.

Dropastone said:

yes I had good results but I have better results with what I'm using now.

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what setup are you using now? do you grow with hps and metal halide systems or florecents? i have 4 in soil about 2 or 3 weeks from harvest. first grow turned out pretty good and i am thinking about trying the hydro. i wanna grow one in soil and one in a hydro system.

The picture in my avatar was grown in a similar bucket. You can put the pump on a timer but I have had no problems running it constantly. In a large plant the roots will even begin to fill your reservoir area. The side of the bucket should have a hole where a 90 degree elbow goes attached to a piece of clear blue tubing with a white tape ring around it to indicate the fill line. Everything else I think Dropastone covered quite well. Good luck.

I just responded to your pm with more info. I use a 400 watt MH/HPS in my flower room and I use 8 - 26 watt 6500 k CFL in my veg room.

I also just started using the drip system. Germd a Bubba Kush, threw the sprout in a cube of rockwool and nestled the cube into the hydroton. I'm running the pump 24/7. I hope this is the correct procedure for new sprouts.

i have read that DWC systems need an airstone for the plants to survive. do i have to buy another pump and add an airstone?

goto walmart n get an air stone for 2 bucks. turn on ur system n walk away. u only need to check on ur plants once a week to change water n lift lights. its fast n easy. throw away ur soil n go hydro

MercenarySed said:

goto walmart n get an air stone for 2 bucks. turn on ur system n walk away. u only need to check on ur plants once a week to change water n lift lights. its fast n easy. throw away ur soil n go hydro

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haha i am open to learning hydro. i do love how bud taste in soil tho. nice pics by the way. ill try to post some pics of my soil grow. 3 weeks from harvest!