ebb and flow gone wrong.. help!

[whereami]

Hello, so I finished building Orgeseeker's controller bucket, works fine.. but the problem I have now is when I flood the buckets, the inner bucket starts to floats off the bottom bucket, so only half the pebbles gets water.. control bucket float switch is 3/4 lower. media I'm using is plant it clay pebbles.. inner bottom holes are 3/4. any ideas?


I even added less pebbles.. nothing it keeps floating.. how big are inner holes, I have over 50 at 3/4 ..

View image in gallery​

 

[whereami]

pic of clay pebble with bucket floating.

View image in gallery​

 

[blooper]

maybe run a zip-tie from the top bucket to the bottom bucket where the handles usually are? that way you can secure it. hydroton has been known to float so i'm not sure if that will even fix your problem but all i can think to do is either secure the bucket in position, find a way to weight it down or switch to a medium that doesn't float.

personally i bailed on ebb and flow w/ hydroton (for now) and started up a RDWC.

 

[whereami]

so when pebbles floats, bucket floats too?

 

[killermoats]

Plastic floats...

 

[whereami]

ok, never seen anyone use zip-tie before, but i'll give that a try. thanks.

 

[blooper]

i was thinking about it all wrong. if the bucket is floating i guess you need to tie it down or add a significant bit of weight. it's already drilled full of holes, not sure how to make it any less buoyant. does the bucket float without the pebbles or does the water just rise up through the holes?

 

[whereami]

the bucket doesn't float when i remove pebbles. I had smaller holes so I made those bigger.. same problem. I don't think i can make them bigger. do you think pebbles is blacking the holes?

 

[blooper]

could be but i sort of doubt a complete blockage. whatever the case, zip ties holding the top bucket down should work.

 

[whereami]

Ok, I'll be trying the zip ties later tonight. Thanks.

 

[whereami]

so the zip ties worked.. clay pebbles floats like crazy now.. is this normal on ebb and flow buckets? lol.. I'm scared to do damage to plants.

 

[blooper]

ha, yeah i've heard that'll happen. not sure how to stop them from floating. i have ebb and flow tables and use lava rock to support a net pot full of pebbles.

 

[PetFlora]

see my Mini-Me F & D for ideas