BigTokes ~ "How-To" Of The Bio-Buckets 101

[L~B]

Outstanding!!!! Top gear love the buckets....Happy new year!!

 

[Seneca]

BT after reading, rereading and studying as much as I could find, I took the bio plunge. The idea of Bio-Buckets made a lot of sense to me and my style.

Here's some specs, 2 rooms, 6' x 8' equipment and rez & 8' x 12' flowers, 16 buckets, 27 gal rez container, 960 gph external pump, 1300 watts (2 PL deep 400's, 1 batwing 600), GH nutes, tons of PVC pieces.

BT I noticed you use a mesh or chicken wire to hold back your plants for the aisles. How much space do you leave on either side of the buckets for access? I'm going for similar size plants.

Also and tips for tuning the buckets flow?

I've seen an pic of a Bio-bucket excel feeding schedule for GH products, is it available?

After multiple trips to the improvement stores and planned, I've started building some walls. Everything should be up and testing in the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for all the time, hard work and research on Bio-buckets BT!!!

 

[Deft]

I set up a DWC in an 18 gal rubbermaid, few days ago some clear slime started depositing around the water level but not on the roots/net pots for some reason. The plants seem very happy and the roots are nice and healthy and feel good to the touch.

There are some floating white particles and the rez is cloudy and there is an earthy light odor but its barely there. Kind of smells like a fish tank but not as bad and not as strong.

Whatever is living inside seems to love SM-90 (i guess because its got organic compounds in it like oil etc).

So do you think I've inadvertently set up a bio bucket system? Heres a pic of one plant with the darkest longest roots, seems very healthy even in the well colonized water.

 

[CLDBD]

Big Toke,

First I want to say what a great job you have done with this thread. I have been waiting to be approved for almost two weeks but I am here now. I am only halfway done reading through this thread. I will finish before I start asking questions. I have been growing in dirt and I have made the decision to switch to hydro and this is the method I will be using. Just wanted to stop in so you know the name later on when I need help. I will be back after more reading. Thanks again for giving my brain more food. Time to eat now.

 

[Seneca]

Well I have 14 bio-buckets fulled. running & tested for 3 day now. I tracked down a couple of small leaks. Other than that it's working great!!!

I'm a little unsure about how tune flow rates for them properly. Without Lava rocks the water level is just below the top of the drain tube in the buckets. It seems high, but no overfills yet. Any suggestions?

Thanks all

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=769179&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=769180&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

http://www.icmag.com/ic/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=760475&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

 

[kp^]

Seneca,

That looks like you've got a great system there!! great job on it! I really like your 3d drawing, can I ask what it was created in? I've been working up my 16 buckets design in multiple 3d apps, and not getting the results im looking for........ Currently working in chief architect x1. Learning the application as I go

Starting to get closer to my construction of a 16 bucket system. Just a lil more time, and money and I can start!!

Cheers all, and happy growing!

 

[highvolt]

hello peeps. a question for anyone to answer please : i understand letting the system run with just tap water for the first 2 weeks for the benifical bacteria to grow and get established but after the 2 weeks the system has to be drained in order to mix in the nutrients with now more fresh water, so wont this fresh batch of water with nutes reduce or kill off the BB. thats now in the system (because of the fresh chlorine thats now been added) also wont this happen again if i choose to do a one day flush from veg end for one day before flowering nute mix is added.....with a reduced if not totally killed off BB. surely the plants would suffer untill the BB re establishes itself.....
thanks.

 

[highvolt]

o yeah one other thing BT says the red lava rock is high in silica so with hard water like mine it will create high levels of amonia which causes incresed uptake of nitrogen causing stretching and airy buds...so whats the cure for this or is there none...thanks.

 

[kp^]

highvolt,

The idea is as follows as I've gathered...

New system, new rocks, new buckets.... etc... The first time you get your rocks wet, you will want to kill neutralize all bad bacteria and whatever else is attached to the rocks. A great way of doing this is with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide that runs in the system. Let run 24 hours, drain system.. refill.

Second. Run the system for 24hours with fresh water This takes 2 weeks depending on factors etc... After this, There is no flushing of the system.... Just put in your nutes, and your good to go!

EDIT: Okay, I hope this helps.. This is straight copy/paste from this loong thread, as well as BT's other threads. I've just collected all the info into a single, organized doc.

"....The Bio-Buckets because of it's non-change-outs of the reservoir builds up a certain amount of decomposing plant matter, which is not a problem because of the Beneficial Bacterium that is already established/colonized in the lava rock, but on the other hand will lower your ph some what, my tap-water ph is 7.0 right out of the sink, after adding nutrients to the system the ph will drop again to about 6.0 when I first fill my Bio-Buckets up I let the system run 24/7 for one to two weeks at 7.0 then put my cutting/cones in the system at 6.0 after a few of weeks in the Bio-System the ph will drop to about 5.5 and after that will even go down to 4.8 but will come back up to about 6.0 in a few weeks..."

"...After filling your Bio-System up with fresh tap-water the chlorine is a bit to high for the Beneficial Bacterium to forum, that is the reason that I encourage people to let the Bio-System set and run 24/7 for two weeks before putting there plants in the system, (depending upon the size of your Bio-System and the amount of fresh air you have circulating in the grow/room,) after the Beneficial Bacterium has colonized throughout the Bio-System what little tap-water with chlorine gets into the system will not effect the Beneficial Bacterium, because that it has already established a foot hold throughout the Bio-System and is deeply colonized in the pores of the lava rock: I have personally overseen Bio-Grows in other grow-ops than mine, I have witnessed as they have done parcel Bio-System flushes plus a complete full flush of the Bio-System (N00bs!!! they panic to easy!!) the systems would have failed if it were not for the safe guards that I implemented (8" net-pots) within just 24 hours of refilling the Bio-System back up with fresh tap-water the Beneficial Bacterium were able to overcome the chlorine refill because of the deep colonization within the 8" net-pots and wile that I have NEVER lost a crop or failed to produce great yields, I do believe that it is due to the fact that these singled-cell microorganisms; having a well designed Bio-Bucket System to fall back on helps play a roll in there speedy recover, if the system is designed right, it well provide plenty of oxygen in such a raped pace that the Beneficial Bacterium will be able to overcome most any root-rot dieses. Btw if you are wondering how to tell when your Bio-System has sufficient enough Beneficial Bacterium established or colonized, simply put your fingers into the water to test: by dipping your fingers in the water and rubbing them together, if they fill slick or slimy, you are ready, and if not you are not ready, don't expect a great deal of slickness just a little will do...."

"...Now let's discuss the good and the bad of using plane old tap-water, after that the system has now been established and the Beneficial Bacterium has a foot-hold in the system, let's look at what happens when a little amount of chlorine-tap-water is added on a daily basis, first the chlorine is going to assist the BB in fitting off the bad fungi (algae) and here's how it does that, first we need to understand that chlorine manly attacks the multi-cell bacteria such as algae, the Beneficial Bacterium that we are harboring and colonizing is a single-cell bacteria that not only lives in the pores of the lava rock but because of there microscopic size can even penetrate the fibrous roots themselves, thereby the chlorine that is introduced into the Bio-System will attack the multi-celled bacteria first and thereby using up what little chlorine is introduced to the system. Now on the other hand if you use something like H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) in the Bio-System you will be successful in killing all bacteria in the system, hydrogen peroxide will penetrate the lava rocks and the fibrous roots and kill even the roots also!!...."

"....I use nothing to jump start my Bio-Buckets, simply fill them up and turn on the fan's to circulate fresh air in the grow/room, let set for one to two weeks and your ready to go; no need to get complicated with this thing but if you wont I suppose there are products out there that would do the trick for you....."

"....After the, let's say two weeks are up DO NOT FLUSH!! the Veg. there are several reasons way you don't wont to do that!! Just switch to Bloom solution of 1-2-3 for the duration of your grow, what ever Nitrogen is left in the system will be eaten up within 24 to 48 hours, depending upon grow/room condition, and you will be left with Bloom formula only!! This is how I have done it for little over a year now it will work, and in principle should work in any system of hydroponics, but the transition may take a little longer because of the non recalculating system, even if system recalculates like: ebb-n-flow or drip-system or some other type of partial recalculating system the Nitrogen up take that the plants will be able to move out of the system will be slower in comparison to a system that run's 24/7 and has this type of exchange-rate of water/nutrients....."

Sorry, I don't have any info about your other question at this time... I will see if I can find/locate info...

Happy Growing!

hello peeps. a question for anyone to answer please : i understand letting the system run with just tap water for the first 2 weeks for the benifical bacteria to grow and get established but after the 2 weeks the system has to be drained in order to mix in the nutrients with now more fresh water, so wont this fresh batch of water with nutes reduce or kill off the BB. thats now in the system (because of the fresh chlorine thats now been added) also wont this happen again if i choose to do a one day flush from veg end for one day before flowering nute mix is added.....with a reduced if not totally killed off BB. surely the plants would suffer untill the BB re establishes itself.....
thanks.

 

[kuff23]

good info

 

[highvolt]

thanks for that KP^ i must have missed that somewhere when reading through the thread mate....now if some one could answer my other question about how to get over the high amonia in the water because of the high silica in the red lava and having hard water which in trun means high nitrogen uptake (not so good) i would be willing to give this system a try. big toke wrote about this in the thread but he failled to explain if there is a way to get over it ?? maybe just greatly reduce the nitrogen to start with when adding nutes ?? thanks guys.

 

[MCsqrd]

To anyone that has setup a bio-bucket system, what angle did you put your intake 90degree fitting? BigToke has his pointing straight down, but I have read on other threads of putting the fitting at an angle to create a circular current in the water. The idea with the current is to help keep roots out of the drain, but will I get enough air to the roots?
Picture of my fitting, thoughts?

 

[GOT_BUD?]

To anyone that has setup a bio-bucket system, what angle did you put your intake 90degree fitting? BigToke has his pointing straight down, but I have read on other threads of putting the fitting at an angle to create a circular current in the water. The idea with the current is to help keep roots out of the drain, but will I get enough air to the roots?
Picture of my fitting, thoughts?

I'm just going with a gut feeling, because I have yet to grow using biobuckets, but that seems like a really good idea. I don't think it will ness. help with roots clogging the drains, but I can definitely see the benefit of the swirling action to help eliminate "dead" spots.

I say do it!

 

[loco81]

nice info toke, kinda wanna try my next room around thanks

 

[Seneca]

I thought about the very same angled intakes, but went with the straight down approach.

I might be off with my thinking, but with straight down intakes the water will likely penetrate deeper into the buckets (shorter distance to the bottom) and circulate water from the bottom to the top.

With a angled intake the flow circulates (longer distance to the bottom), but also create a slower moving flow at the bottom and a dead spot in the center, like a whirlpool. Plus it likely won't have a strong flow pushing water from the bottom to the top.

When you start thinking about the friction from the roots, the swirling flow from the angled intakes lose even more water movement at the bottoms and less circulation to the top.

 

[MCsqrd]

Penetration to the bottom of the buckets was my main concern with the angled intakes. I think I just need to be watchful of the roots and rotate the lids. This being my first bio-bucket grow I think I will stick to BT's method until I get one under my belt.

 

[TrickyNicky]

Wow, thats alot of good info

Guess what I'l be building soon???
will post pics
Thanks for all the info BigToke and all... knowledge is priceless

 

[Seneca]

Seneca,

That looks like you've got a great system there!! great job on it! I really like your 3d drawing, can I ask what it was created in? I've been working up my 16 buckets design in multiple 3d apps, and not getting the results im looking for........ Currently working in chief architect x1. Learning the application as I go

Starting to get closer to my construction of a 16 bucket system. Just a lil more time, and money and I can start!!

Cheers all, and happy growing!

I've been using Google SketchUp, it's a freeware and fairly powerful. Once you get started 3D modeling isn't tough. My room has come a long way, because of the 3Ds.

 

[kp^]

I've been using Google SketchUp, it's a freeware and fairly powerful. Once you get started 3D modeling isn't tough. My room has come a long way, because of the 3Ds.

Thanks for the reply... I've actually used sketchup... was having issues with it, so I went with chief architect x1... I should give it another shot! I will agree that having a 3D model helps with the visualization of the setup.. I know its helped me!

peeace!!

 

[Seneca]

I was thinking today when insulating and foil taping some bio-buckets, that it would have been a good idea to spray paint them white 1st. The black buckets and lids (lids mostly) absorb a lot of light/heat, so why not reflect it will a white paint? Adding reflective insulation to the lids and buckets did improve my rez temps down to 4 degrees below room temp, so about 72 peak rez temp. A computer fan for the rez is a must, it really cools things down.

Insulating is the way to go to retain the cool temps, but a spray painted white surface on black bucket/lids to start with is better than a black one, right? Ideas, thoughts, comments???

Update:
Start of 2nd week of veg clones in the buckets, 6-7 inter-nodes and 8" of growth for some of the clones. Let the explosive growth begin...

Big Toke you still with us??? It be great to hear from you again on the Bio-Buckets