Becca's 4-gallon SIP Bucket Conversion

[BeccaBuds]

To test the capacity, a couple days ago I soaked the wicking cone and filled the reservoir with exactly one gallon of water (I weighed and adjusted till it weighed exactly 128 oz). Poured it in with a cup beneath the overflow fitting and around 90mL drained off, so the the capacity is 125 oz. Close enough!
It's now in service, check out my journal, Becca takes a Big SIP.

 

[BeccaBuds]

I tried a couple of ideas for a way to measure the volume of the contents of the reservoir. A sight glass from McMaster-Carr would be way cool but way expensive so that's out. Then I tried inverting a 5mL polyethylene pipette to act as a float and mounted it on a thin 2 foot bamboo stick with some dual-wall shrink tubing. It worked but had lousy resolution and was really only good to tell you there's water in there. I did notice the surface of the bamboo appeared fairly hydrophobic. Then I thought about notching it to make a dipstick.
I made a notch with a needle file and the water stayed in it and was easy to eyeball, so I made wide primary notches every inch, narrower notches every half and narrowest every quarter. I blackened the notches with a Pilot Precise Gel pen, sealed the end with bees wax and left it overnight for the ink to set. It works great! A full res should read 3.8 inches so it's about 8 fluid ounces per quarter inch. I put a hook on the other end so I can hang it up till needed again.

 

[BeccaBuds]

At this stage, with a small plant, my first dipstick isn't going to give me enough resolution to determine daily use, so back to the drawing board. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention!

I have two 6" steel pocket rulers that have graduations down to 1/64" on one side (about an 1/8 fl.oz) and 0.010" (corresponding to 0.32 fl.oz) so I grabbed a larger diameter bamboo stake, split the end 1.5" in, and mounted one of the rulers on the bamboo with nylon cable ties. To be sure they are good and tight I installed them with a cable tie gun.

The materials for the reimagined dipstick.

Dunno why I didn't think to do this to start with, lol!​

 

[BeccaBuds]

The design is now validated, and I just completed the second of six planters after confirming today the short rope wicks were working properly. This one went together much faster as I thought it would. It took less than an hour and a half to punch all the holes and prepare the wicking cone with paper towel and wicking ropes.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Thanks, @Buds Buddy. It's gotta be the only bucket on earth with a netpot mounted in the bottom right now, lol! That and being able to recycle the feet have made it work out well. As I said to Azimuth, I can't run weed right now so tobacco will be the test crop. Link is Havana Gold, Nicotiana Tabacum.

Mmmmm... not even the only bucket with a 5 inch net-pot wick, I'm afraid... but it is a super-sweet build. Thank you for taking the extra time to detail for us and provide lists/great pics. For sure, take advantage of the aeration potential where you can, and all the best to you for your move and grow. Thanks again!

 

[BeccaBuds]

Yea, @ReservoirDog it is a pretty obvious wicking cone solution for anyone that's run hydroponics. 5" may be better suited to 5 gallon buckets, but it occurs to me they may be just the ticket in a heat wave. It certainly is performing spectacularly with my test plant.