Bio-Bucket Mischief!

Well, seeing as I have finished the construction of my grow, it's time to start a grow thread. Right now I am patiently (kinda) waiting for the beneficial bacteria to build up, here is the specs of the garden:

2-600w HPS lights, 1 digital ballast, 1 core and coil.
Osram Plantastar bulbs.
1 Cooltube, 1 CoolSun, both 6" air-cooled.
8 buckets, each bucket occupies a 2'x2' space
Mag-Drive 7 pump, 700 gph
environmental controller,6" 440 CFM Canfan, 6" carbon filter
GH Flora series nutes, with Liquid Karma as my only additive.
Genetics will be Serious AK-47, a cut thats been alive since 97 or 98. I wonder how different it is from AK sold today?

Hmm.....I think I just about covered it. Here is a pic of the garden area, the system is running and (hopefully) building BB up. Is there any additives to help speed up the process maybe?



The link to the construction thread is in my sig. Stay green!

ill take the fist seat on this one

Nice set up. Looks like it will work out just great.

Thats a clean looking setup there. Ill be checking in.

Exellent budgood, i'll be just a couple of days behind u i think. I'll be droping in some celtic stone & some white heaven, possibly a bubblious too depending on how the other strains root up.

Nice set up, like your work. You might try florolicious bloom to add flavor, and a bump bump of fulvic to add frost. Happy buds.
H

Everything looks great. One thing that concerns me is the net pots being so close to the drain. You have to keep a eye on the roots getting into the pipes and causing a overflow. If you put a sheild between rocks and pot by drain then you should be fine.

when you say speed up the process do you mean flowering?? never used a bio bucket so not sure if you mean some kind of bio mass in the rocks or what.. anyway, as far as speeding up budding "Dark Energy" is suposed to be good for that, i use it myself but haven't really kept track or flower times so well... should start writing this stuff down. either way, it's good for your plants it's got all kinds of goodies.

Thanks for stopping by everyone.

mushupork5 ill take the fist seat on this one

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And the first bonghit come harvest!

rule35sub1 Nice set up. Looks like it will work out just great.

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Thanks. After seeing so many people, you included, succeed with them, I had to try it. Seems like a no brainer once it's running, but damn was it some work to set up!

Indophiliac Thats a clean looking setup there. Ill be checking in.

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Thanks. I tried my darndest, it's nice to be able to share it with people who appreciate these kind of things.

Rattrap Exellent budgood, i'll be just a couple of days behind u i think. I'll be droping in some celtic stone & some white heaven, possibly a bubblious too depending on how the other strains root up.

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Nice! It'll be cool to see more and more people doing these. I have Shiva Skunk, Blue Mystic, and AK-48 waiting to be germed, once I get the entire hidden area built. Should be within the next week or so.

Haps Nice set up, like your work. You might try florolicious bloom to add flavor, and a bump bump of fulvic to add frost. Happy buds.

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Thank you. I've used Florolicious in soil before, and I have a gallon of Diamond Nectar, but I was concerned about adding much, seeing as this is my first hydro grow, first, and how the "man" on the subject recommends against them. Guys, what additives have you used in Bio-systems? (I say systems cause I know rule35's is a tub system). I'm just trying to be cautious, but maybe I should throw that to the wind??

Secret Room Everything looks great. One thing that concerns me is the net pots being so close to the drain. You have to keep a eye on the roots getting into the pipes and causing a overflow. If you put a sheild between rocks and pot by drain then you should be fine.

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Hehe, your name is my room's inspiration Seriously though, I did put a piece of plastic that completely covers that side, about 1/4 to a 1/3 of the side near the drain. Plus, if you look at the construction thread, I have the drains darn near flush to the side of the bucket, so hopefully I'll be ok? I'll just have to keep a close eye on it, thanks for looking out!

fuzygrowth when you say speed up the process do you mean flowering?? never used a bio bucket so not sure if you mean some kind of bio mass in the rocks or what.. anyway, as far as speeding up budding "Dark Energy" is suposed to be good for that, i use it myself but haven't really kept track or flower times so well... should start writing this stuff down. either way, it's good for your plants it's got all kinds of goodies.

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I meant speed up the process of building the BB's (beneficial bacteria), but after doing some more reading, I think it'll be better to just let it colonize at it's own pace. Dark Energy is good stuff though, I've used it and it's sister product Supernova with much success in soil, however as I stated above, I'm a little leery of adding too much this first grow, as I want to get used to the system, and hydro in general. And man that stuff STINKS!!!!! :jawdrop:


Once again, thanks for the responses, I'll be updating regularly. Stay green!

like your disclaimer bro

ill take you up on that bong hit....

I did the buckets too, don't add any beneficials, they seem to work against the ones that come from the air. I use and have used the following with no problems: AN grow, micro, bloom, dark energy, big bud, overdrive, sensi 1 part, bloom booster and barricade. In my closet tub, I am using sensi 1 part just added the big bud a couple weeks ago and in a week or two I will be adding overdrive.

Hehe, really, you're imagining this all

Bonghits for everyone!!!

Yeah, after doing some reading, I came to the conclusion that air-generated BB are superior to any product out there. Read some horror stories about Subculture, so yeah, I think the water is starting to get slick anyway. How long did it take your water to build the beneficials?

I have never used any AN products, although I can see from yours and others grows that it gives good results. I may just have to add a few more things, like the Dark Energy, which I do have experience with. Have you tried the companion product, Supernova? I definitely noticed a difference with it in soil, so I'd imagine it'd work great in hydro. Here's what it says on the website:

SuperNova™ is more than just a seaweed extract!

SuperNova™ is an extremely unique blend of seaweed extract (derived from the sea plant Ascophyllum nodosum), specialized amino acids, carbohydrates, vitamin C and B vitamin complex. This enhanced seaweed bio-blend will improve the growth performance of any plant.

SuperNova™ contains high concentrations of the phytohormone cytokinin, which promotes cell division, differentiation, lateral growth, cell enlargement, bud formation and production of chlorophyll. Cytokinin can cause the release of lateral buds from apical dominance thus promoting bushier plants with an increase in flowering sites. Increasing the chlorophyll production enhances the rates of photosynthesis and overall energy production throughout the plant.

Carbohydrates are the primary products of photosynthesis and are used as the main source of energy for every vital plant function. They aid in energy (ATP) transport and are components within DNA and RNA. Also included are the specialized amino acids, betaines. Betaines play a major role in increasing the plant’s tolerance of high nutrient levels, drought and leaf curling diseases caused by thrips and mites. The plant will also respond to the presence of betaines with an increase in chlorophyll content.

Through continued use of SuperNova™ you will notice the following changes in your plants:

* Improved crop yield and quality
* Improved rate of photosynthesis
* Improved root and shoot development
* Improved seed germination
* Stimulated microbial life

If you are striving to push your plants to their maximum potential, and achieve quality only found in crops grown by the most advanced gardeners, you require SuperNova™!

SuperNova™ contains a wetting agent, increasing it’s effectiveness as a foliar spray, so use it with Dark Energy™ and Super Charger™ for optimum results.


I may just have to check this out, it seems perfectly suited to bio-buckets now that I read this whole thing. As well as Companion, check out the website amhydro.com


Thoughts?

Peace...

bud

yea if I were you I'd deffinately go ahead and change out those drain lines. even without the roots cloggin anything your still gonna get over flow once you throw that mag 7 in there. other than that it looks like everything is good to go. It might put you a little behind since when you drill new holes you gonna get little plastic pieces eveywhere including your water. which means youll have to take everything down and clean it. just try to save as much of the water as possible in your res so you dont loose all of your BB.

peace

Yessir, I plan on doing that, heading to the Depot now. And, as far as the plastic shavings go, I'll just do 1 bucket at a time, so I only have to filter the shavings from the 3" pipe getting larger holes cut for the drains, the shavings from the buckets I can clean out and minimize impact from that. I used a fish net to filter out the drain the first 24 hours, pulled a few shavings of PVC out that I had missed. Oh well, at least I'm doing this now before I get plants in there. See ya

I'm using dutch master nutes in my current grow, a recyc dripper system & i'm planning on using them in my bio-bucket grow too. Anybody had experence with DM nutes & bio-buckets? Do u still run the nutes at the same levels in bio-buckets?

Personaly I didn't care for the dark energy. I am going to use AN iguana juice next grow. I have seen great results with any brand grow and bloom. I will use big bud and overdrive every grow for sure though, it works fantastic imho.
I am also thinking about using the PBP grow and bloom, a little cheaper than what the AN costs. AN has been designed specifically for marijuana though.

Can't wait to see this in action...

i call this seat, kickin up my feet! nice job on the buckets, clean lookin and should yeild nicely.

Hey guys


Well, after redoing the drains, I decided the water was "slimy" enough to get started. I started with a medium-low strength nutrient solution, the roots were nicely developed on the trees I put in. Here is the babies on the 15th:




And again on the 17th:





I have noticed a good amount of growth on the babies, they were raring and ready to go! No transplant shock whatsoever, which I was pleasantly surprised by. PH has been holding between 5.9-6.3, tds is at 1000 or so, temp has been steady at 69-70 F. Pics of the fan I have blowing on the waterfall are in the construction thread. The little one in the pic is a new mama Room temp is @ 80 F, RH is 40%. Gotta go, peace!