Planning two dutch bucket system

[tobh]

Hey there hydro people,

I've thought about this a long time, and I'm kind of at a point where I'm split, and I don't want a massive expense for what may turn into a massive failure. UC and RDWC systems are right up my alley (highly technical, automated -- essentially my day job), but I don't have the time/money/energy to put into that. So, I've decided on doing a small scale dutch bucket system. I've searched with various keywords, and surprisingly, it doesn't look like many people are running dutch buckets for cannabis at this point.

That being said, this is what I know at this point. For larger plants, you need approximately three gallons per plant. So, that means I need at least six gallons in the reservoir for a two bucket system. I plan on using five gallon buckets, bottom three inches filled with rock and the rest filled with coarse perlite, or hydroton; whichever is cheaper. To be safe, I'm thinking I'll need a 20 gallon res, so I don't burn out my pump. What I'm trying to figure out now are these details:

- I don't understand how to determine what GPH pump I'll need. I know rise comes into play here, so a full design plan needs to be evaluated, but for hypothetical sake let's assume a three foot rise. This will put the tops of the buckets at a level it doesn't kill my back to check for algae and maintenance purposes.
- Do I need a high volume air pump in the res?
- Should i consider a chiller? I plan on putting the res in the ground, and building a small platform for the buckets to be on.
- What's considered an excessive size for a return line? Obviously something like a six inch culvert is excessive. Would one inch suffice? two inch? what girth do the ladies like in this regard?
- I'm planning on picking up some Jack's nutrients for some indoor coco endeavors. I haven't seen anything in the past few days since I've been back about this brand; they were all the rage about four years ago. Any input? I need something simple for now, this is my first hydro endeavor though I have years of experience in coco, and treated it as such.

Links to threads, how-to's, whatever will be greatly appreciated. I want to build this system to be scalable as I plan on running some NFT trays off the same pump for lettuce and other veggies, and would potentially like to grow some tomatoes as well, so any help on flushing out those initial questions would be killer.

Stay high, stay safe
- tobh

 

[Aqua Man]

Hey there hydro people,

I've thought about this a long time, and I'm kind of at a point where I'm split, and I don't want a massive expense for what may turn into a massive failure. UC and RDWC systems are right up my alley (highly technical, automated -- essentially my day job), but I don't have the time/money/energy to put into that. So, I've decided on doing a small scale dutch bucket system. I've searched with various keywords, and surprisingly, it doesn't look like many people are running dutch buckets for cannabis at this point.

That being said, this is what I know at this point. For larger plants, you need approximately three gallons per plant. So, that means I need at least six gallons in the reservoir for a two bucket system. I plan on using five gallon buckets, bottom three inches filled with rock and the rest filled with coarse perlite, or hydroton; whichever is cheaper. To be safe, I'm thinking I'll need a 20 gallon res, so I don't burn out my pump. What I'm trying to figure out now are these details:

- I don't understand how to determine what GPH pump I'll need. I know rise comes into play here, so a full design plan needs to be evaluated, but for hypothetical sake let's assume a three foot rise. This will put the tops of the buckets at a level it doesn't kill my back to check for algae and maintenance purposes.
- Do I need a high volume air pump in the res?
- Should i consider a chiller? I plan on putting the res in the ground, and building a small platform for the buckets to be on.
- What's considered an excessive size for a return line? Obviously something like a six inch culvert is excessive. Would one inch suffice? two inch? what girth do the ladies like in this regard?
- I'm planning on picking up some Jack's nutrients for some indoor coco endeavors. I haven't seen anything in the past few days since I've been back about this brand; they were all the rage about four years ago. Any input? I need something simple for now, this is my first hydro endeavor though I have years of experience in coco, and treated it as such.

Links to threads, how-to's, whatever will be greatly appreciated. I want to build this system to be scalable as I plan on running some NFT trays off the same pump for lettuce and other veggies, and would potentially like to grow some tomatoes as well, so any help on flushing out those initial questions would be killer.

Stay high, stay safe
- tobh

I can only comment on rdwc hydro system. You want a pump that will give you approx 10x the volume of water of your system for rdwc. You can get away with 10x the volume of sites only but I would recommend the whole system. Of that helps.

 

[tobh]

I can only comment on rdwc hydro system. You want a pump that will give you approx 10x the volume of water of your system for rdwc. You can get away with 10x the volume of sites only but I would recommend the whole system. Of that helps.

That's actually a huge help. I'd love to do an RDWC system at some point, on the road to UC, but baby steps. So for a two site system, where each site is five gallons (so 10gal total for sites) plus 20 gal res, a 300 GPH pump should suffice, yes? I'm a little drunk, so my math might be off.

 

[Aqua Man]

That's actually a huge help. I'd love to do an RDWC system at some point, on the road to UC, but baby steps. So for a two site system, where each site is five gallons (so 10gal total for sites) plus 20 gal res, a 300 GPH pump should suffice, yes? I'm a little drunk, so my math might be off.

I would say 180-300 gph should be good. Remember the sites and res are not full.

 

[tobh]

Though, thinking about it now, in a dutch bucket system, they won't hold the full five gallons. Perhaps only a quarter of their total volume, max a third. Given that, we can estimate approx. four gallons site total, which means 240 GPH pump would suffice, and 300 GPH would just offer some scalability for potential expansion to a five bucket system (which is inevitable).

 

[tobh]

In your RDWC epi tanks, do you run an air pump? Or do you rely on the movement of water to supply the necessary oxygen levels?

 

[Aqua Man]

In your RDWC epi tanks, do you run an air pump? Or do you rely on the movement of water to supply the necessary oxygen levels?

I run air stone in everything. It's not necassary but I did because the pump I bought just happened to match up to that many airstones so why not. If using air then pick your airstones and match your pump volume to them.

 

[tobh]

Trying to multipurpose this build, so the air pump I was looking at for compost teas it has plenty of port to be able to feed the sites and a few air stones in the res. Thanks for the input!

On a side note, how long have you been here? I feel like I recall your username from back when I was real active here (before life got crazy for a bit -- fuckin' 20s).

 

[Aqua Man]

Trying to multipurpose this build, so the air pump I was looking at for compost teas it has plenty of port to be able to feed the sites and a few air stones in the res. Thanks for the input!

On a side note, how long have you been here? I feel like I recall your username from back when I was real active here (before life got crazy for a bit -- fuckin' 20s).

On and off couple years I just got back from an ass fucking in life.
Ports don't mean much you need to match the volume of the pump to the total volume of air stone. Different stones require a different CFM/gph/lpm to function properly. To little and you don't get the agitation you need as the bubbles will single file stream to much can also affect function. The typical 4x2" are around 8-10 gph each if I remember correctly.

 

[Aqua Man]

That's at the usual 12-18 inch depth. The deeper you may need a bit more per stone.

 

[tobh]

Well, glad to see you man. A lot of the names I remember are gone, guessing we're all slowly trickling back after our own ass fuckings. This place has changed a lot -- looks a lot like GC now, if you know what I mean.

Appreciate the input, throwing notes together so I can get the core parts. Obviously buckets/res/feed lines aren't as pivotal as pumps are that are my real concern.

 

[Aqua Man]

Well, glad to see you man. A lot of the names I remember are gone, guessing we're all slowly trickling back after our own ass fuckings. This place has changed a lot -- looks a lot like GC now, if you know what I mean.

Appreciate the input, throwing notes together so I can get the core parts. Obviously buckets/res/feed lines aren't as pivotal as pumps are that are my real concern.

Can do it on the cheap. Way cheaper to build than buy. Few slip for bulkheads and some 2" PVC a pump. The key thing is water temp also. Not sure what kinda temps you are looking at. If run ng hydrogaurd I have had no problems and find plants do best at 74f. Now that said anything like pythium or bacterial blood from organics will hit fast because of the reproductive rates at higher temps.

 

[tobh]

yeah, that's my other concern. Say I bury a 20gal res top level with ground level, mid summer (I plan on running this setup outdoors), and cover it with some insulated reflective shit (looks like chrome windshield screen), you think I should run a chiller on a thermostat? Figure I should be keeping water temp at ~60F to account for the rise and the buckets being above ground level.

Buckets will be wrapped in the same insulated reflective material, but outdoors nothing is guaranteed, especially when the material is 10mm thick. I'm in SW Washington and the summers have hit 90+ the past couple years so this is def a budget experiment.

 

[Aqua Man]

yeah, that's my other concern. Say I bury a 20gal res top level with ground level, mid summer (I plan on running this setup outdoors), and cover it with some insulated reflective shit (looks like chrome windshield screen), you think I should run a chiller on a thermostat? Figure I should be keeping water temp at ~60F to account for the rise and the buckets being above ground level.

Buckets will be wrapped in the same insulated reflective material, but outdoors nothing is guaranteed, especially when the material is 10mm thick. I'm in SW Washington and the summers have hit 90+ the past couple years so this is def a budget experiment.

If they are partially in the ground temps won't be an issue. If anything maybe a bit low. But that may bring other issues when say it rains etc.

 

[tobh]

Ah, that's a good point. It's been weird up here the past couple years during the summer. Even this winter was super light in comparison to five years ago. Thank you for giving a lot of food for thought. This will be my second hydro run, first in a decade, so having to re-evaluate the approach a lot. You guys that run RDWC are masters of this.

Out of curiosity, what nutrients do you run?

 

[Aqua Man]

Ah, that's a good point. It's been weird up here the past couple years during the summer. Even this winter was super light in comparison to five years ago. Thank you for giving a lot of food for thought. This will be my second hydro run, first in a decade, so having to re-evaluate the approach a lot. You guys that run RDWC are masters of this.

Out of curiosity, what nutrients do you run?

I use mega crop. I would suggest for ease GH

 

[tobh]

I'll take a look at mega crop. I'm not a fan of Scott's/Miracle Grow for various reasons. Was debating running Jack's, but they've changed their lineup quite a bit from a few years ago from what I could find on their site.

 

[Aqua Man]

I'll take a look at mega crop. I'm not a fan of Scott's/Miracle Grow for various reasons. Was debating running Jack's, but they've changed their lineup quite a bit from a few years ago from what I could find on their site.

Jack's is good. I prefer dry feets but it does take some extra work and a few more things to go wrong. None the less I still feel they are much better and much cheaper.

 

[cemchris]

Oasis, Jacks, Chem-gro all work and are all pretty good.

 

[cemchris]

even good ole maxi grow/bloom works fine