I have noticed that allot of peeps are using this type of system to grow and thought maybe I would share a thought of mine. From all the comments and such I have read about this setup it seems the biggest gripe is that the last bucket can end up with stale water. If fact I believe it was Daddy that pointed this out and I think he was the one that mentioned turning it into a drip system. So far here is what I have done.
PH at res 5.7 PH at bucket 6.5 ....... not good
It has always been said that the bucket and controller must be at the same height (myself included), this my friends is very false. If the controller is higher than the buckets then you will have a mess in the room but if the buckets are higher than the controller then you will have that much less water in the buckets. Here is the simple version. Started my setup this run with 15 buckets all at same height as controller but I did put a 2" piece of 3" pvc in between bucket and liner to keep roots from sitting in water. When the buckets were empty, (drain cycle) I place a piece of a 2x4 under the bucket to raise the whole thing off the floor and end up being aprox 1 1/2" higher than the controller. Doing this means I get about 1 1/2" less water in the buckets but more drains back to controller because of height diff. With 15 buckets I ended up with about 3 gal more that drained out compared to all at same height. As long as this is done when buckets are empty, if done when full you might want to have the mop bucket next to the controller. Just dumped res yesterday and will check PH at buckets tonight and let you all know if I'm going dwon the right road or not. :jointsmile:
tinytoon Reviewed by tinytoon on . For the Ebb&Gro population ......... I have noticed that allot of peeps are using this type of system to grow and thought maybe I would share a thought of mine. From all the comments and such I have read about this setup it seems the biggest gripe is that the last bucket can end up with stale water. If fact I believe it was Daddy that pointed this out and I think he was the one that mentioned turning it into a drip system. So far here is what I have done. PH at res 5.7 PH at bucket 6.5 ....... not good It has always been Rating: 5