The Suck-it Bucket (NEW)

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Originally Posted by waterdog

TREE's???? Come on we ARE talking about INSIDE...Trees thats a good one!!!!Show us your "tree's"......Maybe "shrubs" NOT trees.Tree's have stalks the size of 2 litre bottles....I'm sure inside tree's are different.

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Just ribbin you aquaponic!!!! We love your input on growing... This is the place to share ideas and we appreciate all of yours! Tree's inside... Thats a good one:D

...the best weed I've ever had (and I do mean ever) was from an Edmonton Wizard who only grew four plants per year, but they averaged 9' tall, and had colas the size of footballs.

He was doing indoor, with outdoor-veg-type-timings, so that after a full year, the yield was insane... (and incredible density). Not sure how many lights he had on 'em, but it was lots.

Trees. Mmmmmmmmm.

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Originally Posted by AquaponicHerb

Ok. The way this thing works:

The bucket has a pot inside of it with 5/8inch perforations on the bottom only; it fits a perfect seal inside the bucket. See first picture....

Super oxygenated venturi-driven water trickles in from the top through 1/2" tube when my timer kicks in. A venturi is better than an airstone for many reasons, we can get to that later. Also the oxygenated water has to feed in from the top in order for the process to work properly. This creates pressurization inside the fittings starting a countdown...

The waterline fills all the way to the top of bucket, fully soaking the entire lavarock filled pot to the rim with superoxygenated nutrient solution. It fills 1 inch from top of bucket, submerging all of the grow medium, actually the whole plant up to the stem is in the nutrient solution. Then the magic happens.

Right when it gets to an inch from the top of the bucket and looks like its going to overflow, a powerful snap and rumble can be heard from inside the bucket.

Through fittings and the physics of fluid, a siphon forms in the bottom of the bucket, and through a extremely powerful vacuum the water is rapidly sucked out through the bottom of the bucket, with approximately 40 lbs of pulling force.
The water level will quickly recede back into the depths of the bucket.

This creates of a surge of air being drawn in from the surface of the medium all the way through root system, the medium, down through the 5/8inch holes, into the the root chamber below the pot in the bottom of the bucket, and finally out through the bell-fitting in the very bottom of the bucket.

Basically it works like connecting a vacuum to the bottom of a plant container, and sucking air through it via a 1 inch hole in the center-bottom.

Everyone is familiar with flood and drain. One of the reasons this works so well is as the water leaves the pots and the beds drain, new air gets pulled into the pots like a piston. Now imagine this concept x10 and much more often, each time after a drain so there is always a fresh coat of nutrient solution on the roots to protect them as air blows over them through the entire medium.

When the timer is on, every 3 minutes the bucket fills and empties drawing enormous amounts oxygen directly through the entire root system.

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This is some mad scientist shit. I love it.

If you guys are looking for cheap bubbles by the ton made by Venturi's, check out protein skimmers and their pumps. I've been thinking about using one in my dwc but don't quite know how to incorporate it easily into my setup yet. A bubble blaster pump cost about $150 on eBay and will turn a 5 gal bucket into bubbles so thick it will look like milk .

Also you guys were wondering what the seal is called that you used when you drilled a hole into the bucket, it's a bulkhead so search 1" bulkhead and you'll find what you need

Here is a skimmer that I have. Notice the way the water looks inside the reaction chamber.Attachment 290058

Initially, it's an interesting idea, but wikipedia states that the purpose of a skimmer is to remove molecules of waste and to do so, must inject air which creates the foam. I think there are other ways to achieve small bubbles. I don't know if the skimmer will work in hydroponics because molecule removal, like fertilizers, isn't what you want. The bubbles develop as a need to provide filtration. Protein skimmer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
If you read through this thread from a couple years ago, the poster Charles Xavier seems to understand the subject well. https://www.thcfarmer.com/community/...skimmer.18442/
Hydro should use forced air without filtration. Thus the occassional need to dump and replenish. But this method works. Skimming may not work the way you'd like. But it's up to you.