[BigToke]

Bonzo – ya the Bio-Buckets are a little different from the conventional hydro systems, but I do believe you’ll be more than satisfied with the results……I haven’t heard from Petemoss in a wail I hope every things ok with him, but his grow is still around for every one to see and learn from.

Maistre –

Could you gave me an idea of how many buckets would work under a 1000 HPS?

Here’s a top-view of one side of my Bio-System, they are eighteen buckets and this is a pic of the configuration of my lights, although the light in the middle could be switched with a 1000w. It really is just a matter of how you build your system you know what I mine. Oh and btw, if and when you decide on going with the Bio-Buckets I’m sure there will be plenty of info here to help and besides that I ant going no were. So ya bring it on!!
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Leeroy&Co – Thanks for stopping by, if I can be of help to ya in any way bro, just ask.

Giantmanbags – “Nitey night indica” that’s funny as hell dude pretty cool, I’ll tell ya one thing when I was done with this I had no problem sleeping.

[CrunchNasty]

this is an awesome step by step tutorial! im gonna try this method and see how it works asap!

[smokey-cigars]

Awesome...my top feed NFT system is re-circulatin,and i never have problems with PH flux, i even got the waterfall effect as well

Good post BIGTOKE

WoW... 3 lights... 1600w total. What are the dimensions of your grow area?

I have 5' X 8' X 80" area to work with. Lights: 1000w on a 6 foot tracker... I could also add another 400w to the mix.

My tap water was out of control ph up around 8 and 600+ ppm. With a reverse osmosis unit it dropped to around ph 7 and 15 ppm.

Ideally, I'd like to build a system that would work well under the 1000 with tracker and expand that to another room setup the same with a central res outside of either room.

I'm also curious as to your nutes... what do you run in your system? I've come to like PBP grow and bloom with cal-mag, liquid karma and hyrdoplex... would there be any problems with that mix?

[deZerTomB]

big toke-nice thread, great info as I am gathering info to eventually build my own hydro setup. Waterfall effect is great way to make bubbles. I certainly learned something here.

[sunnyside]

a great 'how to'...you rock big toke! I Don't know much about hydro systems, so I was wondering...
-does the pump stay on all the time??
-do you just use one pump?
-what pulls the solution back to the res from the pots?
-how does the solution drain with the return hose near the top of the bucket?

silly questions I know...I gotta learn somehow.

[BigToke]

What are the dimensions of your grow area?

My grow/room dimensions are: 10’ x 12’ x 8’

Ideally In a 5’ x 8’ x 80” area you could easily run 12 Bio-Buckets and have room to move around which is important!!.........Here’s what you would need:

1. 12-Buckets – Black preferably.
   
2. A Pump – In order to get the exchange-rate per-bucket for 12-Buckets you would need a pump that could pump 132 gallons of water an hour!!
   
3. A Nine-Gallon Reservoir – Using my method of calculating 3qt per-bud canopy this should sustain your grow for the full duration till harvest, without system change-outs of water/nutrients. Remember you need a reservoir of 9gal and then a 1-foot drop for water-fall-effect will generate enough dissolved oxygen to sustain your system.
   
4. 50-Feet of ¾ water hose.

This should get you started if your interested.
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If you were to have the space to go 8’ x 8’ x 80” you could run 22 Bio-Buckets with the same light, it would be more efficient for the amount of watt’s your using and still have room to move around………Same as above, but a little bigger.
Here’s what you will need to change.

1. A Pump – that can pump 242gal an hour.
   
2. A 17-Gallon Reservoir – using the same calculations.
   
3. 100-Feet of ¾ water hose.

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I'm also curious as to your nutes

I have always used General Hydroponics 3-Part Solution, but I see no reason way that PBP would not work….I would not foresee any problems with this.


Smokey-cigars – thanks for stopping by, and is good to see that you were able to implement some aspects of the Bio-System.

Dezertomb – I wish you looks of luck on your new hydro system whatever it is, thanks for the kind word thou and for stopping by.

[BigToke]

Sunnyside –

does the pump stay on all the time??

Yes!! 24/7 if not algae will set in.

do you just use one pump?

Yes!! One pump is all that is required.

what pulls the solution back to the res from the pots.

Each bucket has a 1” ¼ drain pip that fits in the mane drain pip which is 4” pvc and drains back to the reservoir. Look at the photo’s they can tell you more than I can say.

how does the solution drain with the return hose near the top of the bucket?

The 1” ¼ hose fits into a 4” drain pvc pip and then drains back into the reservoir.

I hope this helps sunny, if not just ask again I’ll eventually get it right.

[Hooked-On-Grown]

Do you need to grow them in veg and flower in the same system?

If I wanted to have a system to veg them.....can I take them out and move to another system for flowering? Does that screw things up??

[JustSayGrow]

BigToke this is an awesome thread, its very informative and easy too follow, this is definitely the "BioBucket Bible". I am sure the mods will sticky this one. Thanks for all the great info!!