Ok, I have not been following hydro growing in the past 2 years really. I switched back to organic soil after many happy years in hydro. I am a huge advocate of bio buckets and bio tubs. They are a recirculating DWC that has a thriving beneficials colony. The bio buckets create their own oxygen. Plants grow to trees very quickly.
Now if my understanding is correct, these UC systems do the exact same thing except you need to supply the oxygen. I also see they are very pricey.
Am I correct about the UC or am I missing something?? Thanks.
Yes, the UC is a rdwc, however it comes with an air pump and stones for the option of running a live system with beneficials, or a sterile system without. The pricing is all relative to your possible yields, plus its a nice and neat pre-packaged system.
There are many threads here on The Farm that can explain the UC process in detail. Those threads will more than likely be able to answer most of your initial questions as well.
If all else fails, check out Current Cultures website, www.cch2o.com. If you still have questions or concerns, Daniel or Christian at Current Culture will be glad to answer them.
Yes, they were not pre packaged, so too many different design flaws. For beneficials, water temps must be maintained at 68f, not many did this neither.
I am not knocking the UC system, I am trying to understand it.
I designed bio tubs for growing 1 or 2 plants in a closet and built up to a 26 bucket system.
I think they work great. It's like hydro for dummies if all the requirements are met, which mainly being 68F water and buckets having all the water replaced at least ten times per hour. I live in AZ now and the beneficials come from the air, here it is too arid so you cant get a colony built up. How does the UC get its beneficials?
I designed bio tubs for growing 1 or 2 plants in a closet and built up to a 26 bucket system.
I think they work great. It's like hydro for dummies if all the requirements are met, which mainly being 68F water and buckets having all the water replaced at least ten times per hour. I live in AZ now and the beneficials come from the air, here it is too arid so you cant get a colony built up. How does the UC get its beneficials?
If using benie's we pre-mix and poor them in. Some (most) crown feed them in by hand. fungi.com has a decent mixture for a good price. Some use Great white or other retail pre packaged benies.
Bennies and baddies are in the air every where, not just AZ.
No real difference between the functions of the systems other than the way the nutes are circulated (positive pressure vs negative displacement in the UC. As well there is no need to elevate the UC to make it work as with Big Toke's bio buckets.
IMO, the whole run your system for 2 weeks to allow bennies to colonize before planting is silly, they'll show up without needing to waste 2 weeks waiting for them.....sounds cool though.
Bio Buckets are alot more like MPB's than UC's......check out the MPB forum.