Help: Bubble bucket and info on nutes and clonex?

[Ironmike340]

I set up an experimental bubble bucket.
Ro water cal mag. Air pump and large
stone. Hydroguard also.
I put in a Kandy kush Clone
It’s 13 inches tall and thick. All I have is ph 5.9 and added clonex 400ppm with calmag I read 700ppm.
When should I start adding nutes?
Another thing friend runs clonex through whole grow says it has all micros? He has gallons.
If so how would I keep clonex in the regiment with nutes?
And when to add nutes?
Plus my water is 72 keep putting frozen bottle in but that’s gonna get old and hotter when it goes in tent ?

 

[TorturedSoul]

I never used Clonex, so I couldn't speak about that. I've used Olivia's Cloning & Rooting Gel when I used any kind of "helper" product, but generally just let the cuttings do what they're going to do naturally anyway.

Unlike soil, water has no nutrients to speak of, lol. If your plant has roots, feed it.

I've never iced my nutrient solution, even when ambient temperature was in the 90s. I just follow the strategy of mad amounts of DO (dissolved oxygen) in the nutrient solution and regular supplementation with 3% H₂O₂ (common consumer-grade hydrogen peroxide). Aquarium power heads are better than air pumps/stones (IMHO), but the latter can, of course, be added to a reservoir that has one of the former. Large reservoirs are better than small ones - a 23-gallon tote beats a 5-gallon bucket, lol. But that probably depends on what size plant you wish to produce, I suppose.

 

[Ironmike340]

What ratio do you add hydrogen peroxide.
And I use hydroguard. So I not use hydrogaurd with hydrogen peroxide ? Or use both ?

 

[TorturedSoul]

It's been several years and I lost my notes, but I think I ran 15 ml per gallon, start to finish. I'd also add some "when the spirit moved me," during power failures, et cetera.

IDK "hydroguard." Can someone who does give Mike some advice, please?

 

[multiVortex]

IDK "hydroguard." Can someone who does give Mike some advice, please?

You don't want to run H₂O₂ combined with hydroguard. Hydroguard is beneficial bacteria which out competes the bad bacteria to keep your roots healthy. H₂O₂ will kill the bad AND good bacteria, so no bueno on using both.

Now if you had a bad issue, then by all means get some H₂O₂ on there stat.

I use Z7 from Flying Skull. Seems to do the trick, and it keeps things nice and clean too. I like a sterile res, but that's my personal preference. Nothing wrong with either option. H₂O₂ is going to be on the sterile side as well, as opposed to something like Hydroguard.


Clonex? Meh, not necessarily needed, but not going to hurt when properly used.


OP, what are you going to use for nutes?

Do you have a pH tester?

Honestly, keep it simple for the first run in a new system. Either the General Hydroponics Flora Trio (Gro/Micro/Bloom), or the Advanced Nutrients Sensi line (Has Grow and Bloom, with 2 parts each).

Maybe Cal Mag if needed, depending on water source.


That bucket will get warm. It will be no cooler (without intervention) than the temp of the tent. Dissolved oxygen will be your best friend.


If you decide to really run hydro, an external res is the way to go. You can get a 17gal tough tote from lowe's (or similar) for about $10, or a 27gal for about $15 give or take.

I'm setting up a new RDWC that will have 4 buckets in a 4x4 tent, and a 17gal external res. I actually bought 4 totes (was going to have 2 plants in a tote, then an external res for each tote. So 4 totes all together. I swapped that idea up a bit and went with buckets inside the tent though. Reason being is that I can isolate each bucket if need be, without issue to another plant. Of course that concept can be scaled to other sizes as well.

Anyway, with an external res you can run things like powerheads, a chiller, etc. I'm not running a high flow pump, but if my head calculations are right, each bucket should be "turned over" about 8-10 times an hour. 1/2" feed line to each bucket, with 2" return from each bucket, into a 3" main return line. I could have went 3" all the way, but honestly I need 8 valves and the only 3" ball valves I could come up with were 3 to 4 times the cost of a 2" valve. No way I wanted to drop $320+/- on just some stupid valves.

 

[Ironmike340]

I have a bluelab gaurdian and I have ran buckets and Rez before. Temps was the problem.
I also always used sensi grow and bloom , but have decided to change to drive and budd a,b
I had 15gallon Rez hooked to two buckets.
I lost the grow being new and nute killed them.
I’m gonna run hydrogaurd and keep eye on them. I know in three days they are booming crazy.
Can’t find affordable cooler and wonder how much cost it is to run one?

 

[Ironmike340]

Soil I have no problem

 

[multiVortex]

Can’t find affordable cooler and wonder how much cost it is to run one?

Yep. Chillers aren't exactly cheap. Cost to run depends on size, etc. There are some DIY options, and you can get creative with it, but for some it may be more hassle than it's worth.