I am always a tinker and always looking at ways to improve my system. Every harvest I go little better and little bigger.
This time around I am going with a Photo-period plant, using it as a mother, going with a DWC and dipping my toe into cloning.
Now I know the downsides of my room, mostly its heat, since its on a second floor, Since we are going into winter I can offset that with keeping a window cracked and door closed to keep that room cooler then rest of the upstairs rooms.
BUT, in several months it will be summer and then I will run into issues with both air and water temps, unless I find a solution. I have seen advice of using frozen water bottles, but those only work for 24 hours. Running a AC unit in that room would run up my electric bill too much and may be noticed (why does he have a AC unit in window and central air), plus electric costs.
I could use a water cooler but to buy a cooler for each bucket would be insane expensive and electric would be even worse. I was digging around and I came across something like this which was kinda what I was thinking of:
http://supercloset.com/product/hydro-supply/bubble-flow-buckets-bubble-buckets/
The idea fits what my needs require. Since it has a main reservoir I can use one cooler to keep that at temps below 70F and the water would get circulated to the other pots. Plus this would also allow me to maintain the nutrients in the main tank.
Of course nothing is perfect and I am looking to hear from everyone on what the pros and cons are of this style of system.
So far my thoughts of cons are:
One plant get sick, they all get sick since they share the same water supply.
Changing out the water every 10-14 days would require to drain out every bucket individually (unless you attach a pump to the "fill line" to draw from the bottom intake)
Since the top "overflow" is static, you could never adjust the water level in each bucket (but since working with clones, they may not be a issue since you have established roots).
What are your thoughts on this? What are the downsides? I already plan on having 4-8 five gallon buckets at a time, so can you give any insight?
Thanks in advance.
This time around I am going with a Photo-period plant, using it as a mother, going with a DWC and dipping my toe into cloning.
Now I know the downsides of my room, mostly its heat, since its on a second floor, Since we are going into winter I can offset that with keeping a window cracked and door closed to keep that room cooler then rest of the upstairs rooms.
BUT, in several months it will be summer and then I will run into issues with both air and water temps, unless I find a solution. I have seen advice of using frozen water bottles, but those only work for 24 hours. Running a AC unit in that room would run up my electric bill too much and may be noticed (why does he have a AC unit in window and central air), plus electric costs.
I could use a water cooler but to buy a cooler for each bucket would be insane expensive and electric would be even worse. I was digging around and I came across something like this which was kinda what I was thinking of:
http://supercloset.com/product/hydro-supply/bubble-flow-buckets-bubble-buckets/
The idea fits what my needs require. Since it has a main reservoir I can use one cooler to keep that at temps below 70F and the water would get circulated to the other pots. Plus this would also allow me to maintain the nutrients in the main tank.
Of course nothing is perfect and I am looking to hear from everyone on what the pros and cons are of this style of system.
So far my thoughts of cons are:
One plant get sick, they all get sick since they share the same water supply.
Changing out the water every 10-14 days would require to drain out every bucket individually (unless you attach a pump to the "fill line" to draw from the bottom intake)
Since the top "overflow" is static, you could never adjust the water level in each bucket (but since working with clones, they may not be a issue since you have established roots).
What are your thoughts on this? What are the downsides? I already plan on having 4-8 five gallon buckets at a time, so can you give any insight?
Thanks in advance.