I noticed before you had a collar under each basket elevating it and now you dont. I plan to run no collar so i can drop my nute line down 2 more inches and use a lot less water... I figure that the system will recirculate completely a lot faster and DO should increase, correct?
What is the reason most use these collars... is it to hold the basket firmly in place or to increase the nute level.
I personally dont feel that a slightly higher nute level does any good anyways and if your good with a jigsaw and get the baskets with the large lips the fit nice and snug in the mpbs with no collars.
I just wanted to get some insight on your thoughts running with or without a collar since i believe your the only one with experience running both ways.
thanks
Mike - Im the one who started the collars and I have an entire thread dedicated to answering your question of why. I have some very good reasons for running my buckets the way I do.
*reasons not in the Cheap Easy MPB Thread)
Im running 6 buckets right now at 160 total gallons used for the system. The more water/nutes you have in your system, the more of a buffer you are giving yourself. Also, I do not run top feed. Since I do not run top feed, I have very very little roots in my top pot. My buckets get 75% filled with roots at my 20 gallon per tub level. Part of it is finding out what works for you. Missing an oz here or there is nothing to having a system that works 100% of the time for you.
I have also grown some of the larger MPB plants, upwards or 9 feet tall (7 feet of vertical growth and over 2 feet or trainded horizontal growth, hit the cieling and I went sideways with the branches), and my modified DD's bucket has capicity for more. That being said, yes you can easily go less capicity if you top feed. If you run low drains and do not top feed, I believe the end result will be rope roots, something to avoid.
I can shoot some pics if you would like to see pics of my buckets that are currently up and running so you can decide for yourself, which road you want to go down. I can say there are less things that can go wrong killing the top feed. Just let me know, and what specifically you want to see...
Both the way Dizzle does it and the way I do it are very similar, but everyone should tailor this system with what they know and what they are comfortable with. There are surely 1000's of "Correct" ways to build this system. You could even do a top feed, misters in the inside of the bucket, lava rock inside the bucket with drains at 3-4 inches. I guarntee you, you will still pull similar #'s (if not higher with the aero top feed stuff).