Advice on bucket choose for DWC

subielove454 said:

I'd like to get black buckets but they are double the price. Any ideas on where to purchase black buckets other than a hydro store?

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Blue buckets will work just fine. If you're dead set on black buckets a can of spray paint costs like 3 bucks.

subielove454 said:

I am hoping that I can grow a nice canopy but it's going to be my first time trying DWC and scrogging. I am confident in myself but I always leave room for error. I went to the hardware store yesterday to start getting supplies for the net setup using the thread you created.

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We all started from nothing. Be patient and expect failures, which it sounds like you're doing. The DWC community is kind of mum around here although it has gained a few new people who are passing around some good information lately.

Feel free to message me with any questions or concerns. I was lucky enough to have someone helping me when I first started and ill always pay that forward however I can.

Remember to top atleast once and keep tucking the growing branches under the screen and you're golden. Oh and don't overfertilize

firsttimeARE said:

We all started from nothing. Be patient and expect failures, which it sounds like you're doing. The DWC community is kind of mum around here although it has gained a few new people who are passing around some good information lately.

Feel free to message me with any questions or concerns. I was lucky enough to have someone helping me when I first started and ill always pay that forward however I can.

Remember to top atleast once and keep tucking the growing branches under the screen and you're golden. Oh and don't overfertilize

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Thank you! I'm sure I'll be messaging you in the future. I'll of course try to search for my answers first so I don't bug you with noob questions. Have a great day!

whitey78 said:

I'm personally going with this idea with black buckets...

http://hightimes.com/grow/how-to-build-a-two-bucket-dwc-system/

Black and lightproof is a must, many people use any and every color but if the buckets aren't 100% light proof your plants will be battling algae for nutes and if you don't see it; you should look harder because it's not easy to see sometimes as your plants won't necessarily show any signs of problems, but your resis' will have algae in them if they aren't light proof...

Home Depot; believe it or not has the cheapest price I could find on black 5 gallon buckets as I recently been stocking up on them....but online or otherwise... any and all other colors aside from the orange Home Depot buckets were the same price or more I believe... but black is the way to go don't believe otherwise, the blue lowes buckets are close but if you press a flashlight up to the outside of a bucket and you can see it on the inside; vaguely or otherwise; it's not light proof... anything that's not light proof is going to breed algae... and that is a fact... if as I said u put a flashlight up to it and u see anything; it either needs to be covered with light proof insulation or painted... more work than necessary, the black ones are more expensive in most places because they know why we buy them (because we're growing weed in them and you should be using black/light proof buckets to do so) but time is also worth $... if u wanna save a few $'s on a cheaper bucket, you're gonna spend it on paint or something to make it lightproof, save the time n buy black ones..

Edit:

in that link to HT; they list a 1-3/8" hole saw for the 1.5" uniseals; (that's the id of the pipe not od) but a 2.5" is required for that size uniseal/pipe and the pipe is not called black pvc when you buy it, it's called abs, which coincidentally needs to be used because pvc isn't 100% lightproof if you need more of a reason to use black buckets, however a short piece of pvc pipe is easily covered with the aluminum foil type tape...

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Dude thanks for the heads up about the black buckets at Home Depot. I guess it's a new item that they are now stocking. When I went there was a big ass sign that said "New!" almost like they knew I wanted black buckets.

subielove454 said:

Dude thanks for the heads up about the black buckets at Home Depot. I guess it's a new item that they are now stocking. When I went there was a big ass sign that said "New!" almost like they knew I wanted black buckets.

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Yeah I had randomly went down the bucket isle a few weeks ago to get one of those painter buckets so I could fill one a 5 gallon bucket and assure myself I was filling them properly, come to find out for every 5er I dumped into my res I was adding an extra quart so when your adding 50+ gallons at a time in one container it adds up, not a lot but enough to fuck a hydro newb up, but that's besides the point... but when I saw them it was like that "aaahhhhh" light from heaven type experience to finally see them for a reasonable price... as I was just getting the dwc thing going and being the asshole I am after the algae issues in my tables I was gonna get black buckets or nothing... well I woulda went with a tote or something but I preferred to use buckets...

However overpriced it is; if you go on the depots website you'd be surprised if you typed "hydroponic" into the search bar and watch 12-15 pages of ebb and flow setups, grow lights, hydroton etc... even pre made current culture bubble buckets... way over priced obviously but I'm fairly certain that's why they started stocking the black buckets, I'd bet my nonexistent bottom dollar that as soon as medical arrived in my state they started stocking them.... I've been there dozens of times and never noticed them until recently but the 2 Home Depot's near me sell out of them regularly... I asked because the shelves were empty and the sales person replied "no.... were out some guy came in and bought the whole stick" so we all know that anyone looking for a bucket for any other use walks in and buys the cheapest one possible, color doesn't usually matter... so on one hand it's good to see growers are starting to come out of the wood works and stop getting raped for sub par meds at the dispensarys... they're concentrates are better than anything available to me but I do one thing at a time... I did soil and had it pretty well mastered, now I had to go hydro out of necessity so I have to focus on perfecting that and once I do that then I can move up from canna butter and rso and try my hand at proper concentrates...

I learned very quickly that I needed to focus on one aspect and master growing the best cannabis I could rather than trying to jack of all trade it on a sub par level... this is where I am with hydro, I know it... I understand it, but I have not produced anything close to the meds I made for years with organic soil... so I'm on that until I get it right, then I'll decide what aspects of the trade I wanna learn next...

The world of cannabis is large, it's tough to learn it all at the same time... I could breed, I could make concentrates, I could just not bother and tune my op to the best of my abilities (which is my plan) and then put something different on my plate from the laundry list of things you can do... I plan to do them all; just one at a time and at the highest quality I can... im beyond critical of my product... so much so I didn't like the way my last crop was smoking in raw papers so I lowered the price to my patients 30%.... I hate the phrase jack of all trades; master of none... I've mastered everything I tried to do or walked away if I felt it was beyond my abilities... I'm a plumber/boiler/pipe fitter... a multimillion dollar company I worked for 10 years ago has a very spiffy website showing off "they're work"... except 80+% of the pictured work I personally did, most times alone without a helper... I'm very happy they did that; and in the past 10 years they've asked me to come back 6 times, they laid me off and I like growing cannabis and watching it help people much better even though I still have to sling pipe wrenches during the day...

Aim for the sky and don't settle for good/ok....the cannabis market is going to become more and more saturated with top tier growers ontop of the Budweisers and the like m; so make sure your skills are honed my friend if u desire a career or way to support yourself with it... only the best is gonna do... you can get schwag cheap anywhere; quality product will become a niche market state by state if it hasn't in yours already...

Only 2 weeks since transfer from clone chamber. 6" netpots for reference

Blue buckets kicking ass

firsttimeARE said:

Only 2 weeks since transfer from clone chamber. 6" netpots for reference

Blue buckets kicking ass
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Hell yeah check out those healthy white roots!! Good testimony for blue lowes buckets.

firsttimeARE said:

Only 2 weeks since transfer from clone chamber. 6" netpots for reference

Blue buckets kicking ass
View attachment 3886664

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Is it possible to run too much air? I was wondering if it would be better to run two air stones in each 5 gallon bucket. I have a small commercial air pump that pumps 793GPH. I'm currently only using it for a two bucket system.

I use 5lpm per bucket which is like 80gpm

Good info here I'm a newbie and should have checked here first. I got a bucket from Home Depot (orange) and put rocks on the bottom and filled it with soil. The plants got about 8" high and they seemed to stop growing, I didn't poke a hole in the bottom of the bucket and just water it every couple of days. Today I seen mushrooms growing in it, is this normal? Plus I have them indoors and just use sunlight thru the window to grow them. I don't want to seem cheap but buying hydro systems and grow lights is not what I want to do. Will the plants grow doing it this way? and with what I have now how can I improve them growing. Thanks Chaz

chazdawg35 said:

Will the plants grow doing it this way?

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chazdawg35 said:

The plants got about 8" high and they seemed to stop growing

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you answered your own question.

think of it this way, you bought a car with four flat tires and refuse to put air in them.

subielove454 said:

I'd like to get black buckets but they are double the price. Any ideas on where to purchase black buckets other than a hydro store?

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Homedepot.com baby. ships to store for free. 3-$12.

If you are doing RDWC then buckets are fine but if growing plants in just a stand-alone DWC a Rubbermaid tub is the better option imo. The shorter tubs hold 35 liters when 1" below the net pots and the taller tubs hold 50L. There are nice slots in the bottom that keep 12" airstones in place. If you have a large plant or multiple plants it/they can drink a few liters every day so you really have to stay on top of things with a 5gal pail as you really only have a few gallons of water in it. I've always used the tubs and the lids are the same size so it's easy to just fill a tub with your nute mix then lift the lid off and drop it on a fresh tub even if it's the taller one.

I've never used anything to prevent light leaks as the plastic is thick enough that algae never seems to grow in there and the nutes stay clear. I've done revegging through 4 grows with the same tub tho the airstones need changing with each cycle as they tend to plug up but at $4 each it's not a big deal.

This is a pic from when I used to just use 1 - 12" stone in each tub. Those had upwards of 20 plants in each. I drill holes for the airlines just under the handles so there is no impediment to lifting the lids off. Those are the taller tubs where I will often start with the shorter tubs then switch up when going into flowering.

Okay so I have a question, seeing as from what I understand plants cant see and or use "green light" so how about green buckets from Menards?? Just a thought.

Cranky35 said:

Okay so I have a question, seeing as from what I understand plants cant see and or use "green light" so how about green buckets from Menards?? Just a thought.

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Doesn't really matter what colour they are. No light gets thru strong enough to cause algae growth or damage the roots. Some people cover the lids with aluminum tape or tin foil but I never have.

The green light thing pertains to leaves and not roots anyway,

subielove454 said:

Hi everyone,

As the title says I need some advice on what bucket to use for my DWC grow. I've done some research by visiting my local hydro store and found 5 gallon black buckets but they are double the price of a blue 5 gallon bucket from Lowe's. Another hydro store had yellow buckets but feel the light will go through the yellow and blue buckets.

If anyone has used the blue 5 gallon buckets from Lowe's and could provide a review that would be great! I've seen a few tutorials using the blue buckets but I'd like to know if anyone has experienced any issues or had great success.

Thank you in advance!

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Hey My local hydro store sells 6 gallon black buckets for $6.50 each I know they aren't $2 bucks a pop, but is $6.50 too much for what you get. It's not like you are going to keep replacing them so why not just drop the cash on them? I think the lid baskets are way overpriced personally but once again reusable. Good luck.

how do you support your tops in flower cycle ? basically easiest method you know?

I wondered about this. But if you need to you can just get black 5 gallon totes or just paint them. I aint had problems with grey tho