KBS, KFB or Freedom Bucket questions...

[BruceLeeroy]

SYK, thank you for accepting my apology. i truly did not mean to slight you with the fag comment, and the other one was just me jumping to conclusions. i can be a total prick some days (wake up on the wrong side of the bed kinda thing) but i always try and see things from anothers perspective.

DedHed, i sincerely hope you do not abandon this thread, as you have been here the whole time offering advice, suggestions and support.

i know some people have a past and won't/can't get along, that's just life. i think (perhaps foolishly so) that we can keep drama to a minimum if we all just respect each other even if we don't LIKE each other kind of thing. can't we all just get along? lol.

taking on a project of this magnitude, as i'm learning, takes a certain type of personality much like SYK said. there is no way a wishy washy indecisive person could do this. as such i think bumping heads is a given, it's just all about us each looking at how what we say/do can be taken by other people. they say the path to hell is paved with good intentions. personally i dont think ANYONE sets out to be an asshole, but person A takes something wrong when person B meant something else.... then person B bites back because they dont feel like person A was justified in attacking them because person B knows their intentions were honorable so they strike back, and that begins the downward spiral lol. let me give an example just because i'm bored.

john is trying something new and wacky out with his grow. peter starts corresponding with john about it, and says something like "well your basis for this is stupid" or something like that. john then feels like peter is calling him stupid even though that wasn't necessarily peters intention. so john bites back and gets a little snotty, saying "if your going to be an asshole dont bother posting". to peter, who offered an honest opinion in what he thought was a non insulting way, he's now being called an asshole by someone who he is trying to help. so he returns with more name calling and it just all gets real ugly. who was wrong? in reality neither one of them was wrong, they were both operating in good faith on the information available to them. to john he was just trying to share ideas and got called stupid. to peter, he was just offering an intelligent argument on why something might be a bad idea and got called an asshole for it.

i've been using various online communications since before there WAS such a thing as the internet, back when it was just IRC, and i can't tell you the number of times i've just sat back and sadly shaken my head because situations like this result in hatred/animosity. it all comes down to what we MEAN to convey, and what a limited mode of communication ACTUALLY conveys are often vastly different.

anyway enough waxing psuedo-philosophical LOL!!!

peace

 

[tainted]

thats right baby boy syck...replies to me on your end are better left unsaid...you couldnt argue your way out a wet paper bag...always the same shit with you guy...your condescending "i could sign you to my site..ahh.. but i wont"..why even say shit??...oh youre spamming for new members..i fergot...mite need their contribution$ later....

see ALL your posts are laden in poserism...wow...busting a nut on girls...your posi-cash flows (can you all send me 200 bux though for 3 bux of "NSA-grade" bandwidth )...you infer you taught climberdude...and now you believe /without you/ we are nothing...gooodie!!!! your motives have always been clear-cut and dry with me...shady control freak playing the philanthropist card...

LMFAO...and i see you now even borrow your comebacks from krusty...god youre a tosser...be yourself syk..atleast if you were still that wanker...we'd respect you a lil more for your honesty...

now you know how i really feel...go back to not wasting your breath on me (and sending responses to me by email cuz your too pussy to suss shit with a way for me to defend myself )

bruce/leeroy :::

does your AC reverse and have indoor heating mode...if i get you right..you have frost on the outside coils..

does your AC have a defrost cycle

if you have your exchanger heating indoors...if outside is cold--coils will frost...its lowering your heating efficency and gunking your coils when dirt flows by the frost...make sure they stay clean....

 

[BruceLeeroy]

thanx for the info on the A/C, sounds like that was the problem. runs fine during the day but is worthless at night. that'll change in a month but the rockies in April are still cold enough to freeze at night!

the frost is on the INSIDE coil though, the coils that are on the front of the a/c where the air gets taken in. it has no heating mode, just a cheap POS 12,000 BTU window model A/C. it DOES have a function that is supposed to auto shutoff the a/c but keep the fan going for if it gets TOO cold, and that seems to be working fine, just that it's not able to keep the room cool while it's doing that. i'm pretty sure it's got to be related to the outside temp. if the back end of the a/c where in too cold of an area then it could still frost the front right? the frost dissappears withing a minute or two of the compressor shutting off so i dont think it's close to freezing solid or anything.

anyway i ran it for 12 daylight hours when the outside temps were 65-75 and it kept the room at 75-79 without any frost at all. like i said i also moved the temp probe from right below the cold air vents on the front where i think it was sucking in cold air.

peace

 

[Guest]

New here,but great thread.

New here,but great thread.

G'day all, been watching this thread since the beginning,BL, great thread idea m8.I must confess to being a buckethead as well, and have followed most of Krusty's threads wherever he went.LOL. Anyways great job keeping the thread on the straight and narrow so to speak.LOL. Funny how the buckets instill flaming wherever they go, guess it's just cause they are so good. Here's a coupla pics of my current bucket grow.Not krusty identical but inspired by them anyways.

Stay Safe.Peace.

 

[BruceLeeroy]

yummy those are some crazy looking reflectors, but i always knew aussies were a little weird! lol j/k. someday soon i plan to pay a visit to you folks down under! i've always wanted to visit australia and would LOVE to move to new zealand. what a gorgeous place(judging from pics)!

drainage for the buckets. it would be simplicity itself to plumb the bucket drainage using pvc from the buckets to a main drain line of pvc running through the wall and into the res. the problem is that then the buckets would be immobile. does that matter with this much light? do you guys find yourself repositioning your buckets throughout the grow or do they just get set centered on the lights and left there the whole time? the top bucket would be semi mobile in order to pull out and check for clogs if necesasry but if i use PVC to drain from the bottom buckets, they'll be permanent. bad idea?

my problem is twofold here. 1. i have limitted height. the room is only 7.75 ' tall, and i can't bury the res. so assuming i can find an ultra low profile res (10"), with added bucket height i'm already down to about 5.75' growable height. 2. after searching high and low all i can find in 1.5" hose is this horrible plastic shit that is curved and seems like it'd be impossible to move anyway. it sure would be easiest to just have one centered spot where the buckets "take root" so to speak but i'm not sure how wise that is, there is no telling how the plants will behave

i think upon reflection i'm going to have to figure out an even lower profile res. something in the 4-6" range unless i want to complicate the hell out of my res system. if i really wanted to i could gravity feed the buckets with a big res and drain into a small res with float activated pump to keep it pumped back into the main res but that just sounds like unnecesary complications. anyone have any idea's on a res that would be 4-6" high and hold 15-20 gallons?

thanx again for all the input!

peace

 

[BruceLeeroy]

another quick question, general plumbing info.... what slope is recquired for good flow? is it 1 inch per 6 feet?

peace

 

[tainted]

!

the frost is on the INSIDE coil though, the coils that are on the front of the a/c where the air gets taken in. it has no heating mode, just a cheap POS 12,000 BTU window model A/C.

yea frost on inner coils mucho typical esspecially dehumidifier coils...

dunno how much you know...but hot air holds much more water vapour than cold air...

so when its daytime...suns out heating and evaporating ponds/lakes/etc//

so lets say 80* with 50 RH..

then nite comes...goes below 65 and below "dew point" so either way the RH ROCKETS...

so now lets say 65* and 95% RH...

so some of this moisture is brought in to your room during venting...& passive diffusion..this moisture once again is WARM compared to the freezing coils--so you get more condensation which is now cold enough to freeze=frosty coils at nite...

to solve...get a better AC..or run the fan all the time so room air warms the coils and they defrost...

you say they defrost minutes after compressor shuts off...so not a problem...a white THIN frost is normal...just dont want chunks or layers that still exist when it kicks on again...

ice fucks the shape of the coils and lowers your efficiency...a thin white frost layer wont effect much..im talking old style freezers...which CHUNKS

@slope...its a quarter inch per foot for nft...but we have a blower at the drainage point..so if you enclosed the bucket...DO wise..only needs to drain in order to relieve excess water...theres always water in the bottom of the kfb...soooo...as long as you maintain that height..not a problem..its drip...so its not like aero flow rates of GPMs...slow really..as long as your drain is clear of roots..ya cool..

& with taht in mind...speed of drainage is created by RAISING the buckets and not angling them...and creating an "air brake"...eg water flows more freely through a pipe when the pipe is NOT completely filled with water...

 

[HyGradeChronic]

who pulled the drainn plug

who pulled the drainn plug

..... yea 2" per six feet will give ya good runoff.
..... my rez aint buried either. sits same elevation as floor where buckets are. get a rez with WIDE FOOTPRINT. combination of shallow rez with wide sides n length and fact that my buckets sit 8" above floor AND the 2" of nutes in each bucket gives hgc 10" depth of fluid in my rez without worry that it will float back into buckets. it touchy balance act, but it work fine for me...
..... peae
..... HGC

 

[BruceLeeroy]

good info, i guess i should have been more specific in my question, one of my nasty habits lol. what i'm getting it is what slope does a PVC pipe have to follow to keep water flowing. i'm trying to absolutely minimize the height of these buckets so as to keep the maximum possible plant space. lets see if i can word this properly. i'm going to assume it's acceptable to have the buckets be stationary and not have to be moved.

what i plan to do is place a 1.5" hole 1.5" up the bottom of the bucket for drainage. the buckets will sit 10" off the ground. so my drains will start at a height of 11.5 inches. from these holes i plan to run 1.5" PVC three feet or so to a 3" (maybe 2" haven't decided yet) pvc. all four buckets will T into that 3 "drain line. this main line will start at a height of 11" off the ground at it's furthest point. so the bucket drain 1.5" pipes will be connecting to the 3" at approximately 9-10.5" off the ground, which will give me a roughly 1 inch slope from each bucket to the shared 3" drain line (more slope on the buckets closer to the wall where it goes out to the res. the main 3 inch drain line will enter into the wall at roughly 9" or so and be at 8.5" where it exits the wall and enters the res. does this make sense, and if so does this sound like it'll be enough to ensure drainage? like i said doing it this way with PVC makes the buckets stationary and the bottom bucket unable to move, but i just can't think of anything better to do for drainage with materials that are easily acquirable. anyway this will give me a reservoir that is 7-8" tall, assuming that would ensure the flow out of the buckets is sufficient to keep the water level below 2".

i also considered using a 1.5 inch pvc off the bucket but after 6 inches or so mate it to a regular garden hose or something 5/8" or so. use the big pipe initially to keep the roots from plugging it as easily and then switch to something small and flexible to actually drain the water. plumbing has never been my strong point lol.

unfortunately height is limited enough that i just can't raise the buckets, i need to have them the absolute minimum i can off the ground and still ensure flow. not for DO reasons, just to make sure they dont fill up with water faster than they drain.

peace

 

[Guest]

Res problems

Res problems

Weird eh ! LMAO. If weird works then why not.LOL
Anways here's a cupla pics of how I solved the very same problem with drainage back to the res.



With the right amount of light I would say plants wouldn't need to be moved,but at the beginnig of my current run because of my light setup I found myself turning the inner bucket every few days until I had 'em in their current configuration.My setup does look immobile but can be changed configuration wise easily by changing the res connection pipe to any length or bend required.I always did that change whenever I replaced nutes and water.

Stay Safe. Peace.

 

[BruceLeeroy]

luckily i have a virtually endless supply of food safe buckets with which to experiment! lol.

unfortunately cementing PVC together gets expensive fast on a trial and error basis

thanx again all for the excellent info and advice!

 

[HyGradeChronic]

..... huh???
..... peace
..... HGC

 

[HyGradeChronic]

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

..... HEY BRUCE MON, I DUNNO. HGC not big fan OF PVC N HARD DRAINAGe n lines etc etc. i made both my systems w/flexible hose. 3/4". ANY SIZE YOU USE IS SUBJECT TO CLOGGING. and, whereever you put drainage on buckets is susestiple to clogging. bottom or sides. sure, larger openning might not clog as fast or as bad, but it can clog just by nature of water flow. the roots follow the agitation of the drainage. i read where ya wanna reduce to 5/8". i wouldnt recommend it. too slow, n waaaaay mo suspect to clog. 3/4" is smallest flex hose i'd use. like i say, any nall sizes can clog. w/3/4" you can still use standard garden hose type fittings to attach either water or forced air to purge clogs w/out something exotic size wise and adaptable.
..... i was also gonna tell ya, in my experience, i find ya do hafta move something during a grow. and flex hose moves so you have two options: move hose n buckets, or, move lights. i like having multiple options.
..... peace
..... HGC

 

[Guest]

HGC.....good info dewd.......A lot easier to break down and re-assemble as well .....pvc is too permanent and it`ll leak like hell if you DONT clean and glue it.......Bruce I apologize if I got caught up in SYK`S drama since there was none till he showed up...............HGC........you ever thought about puttin an inline pump on the drainlines back to the rez? I mean ,hell its all in a loop anyways............To speed the recirculation of nute flow and o2 to the roots,plus less solution in bottom of bucket keepin the roots soggy, while speedin up the drain and flow............If it sucked all the buckets dry before the feedlines could keep up I guess would be somethin to be worked out,but I think its worth lookin into (maybe put it on a timer so it wont go dry and burn up )....next improvement to stop drains clogged with roots is re-plumbin the buckets to accept ebb and flow clog-free overflow fitting inside of bottom bucket(unless someone`s got a bigger better mousetrap and clog-free drain idea.....lol)roots pushin flat up against the drain screens slows down drainage already , thus the pump Im lookin into ,but no more clogged drainlines and you know as well as I do,when the bottom buckets full of roots and the drains aint what they used to be and the bottom buckets holdin 4-6 inches of nute solution instead of the 1 1/2 its supposed to be holdin at best what youve got is a re-circulating dwc(thank god for the soakerhose or whatever type air to roots youve got cuz mj will drown faaaast without DO......... Just like you said a long time ago HGC and I was stupid..............the system needs tweakin to optimize production............Anyone can grow trees with the proper strain, length of pre-veg, and veg time that Krusty used to use,but this system is one of the fastest growers and biggest producers........................Bruce..............CK........good luck with your grows and becoming one of the chosen few............Got nuthin but luv for yas...............PEACE...........DHF.............

 

[Guest]

I`ve NEVER sucked syk cawk and never will..................Yeah ,you know your shit, but your fuckin arrogance and cryin like a lil bitch boy makes me nauseous..............Plus youre retired and have your own XANADU.COM(yeahrite and who fuckin cares))................Why are you here? Again........You bored syk?...........Shouldnt you be back at sucksykcawk.com.......?Look at my last post about legit questions and comments on the topic of this thread with another member that has been contributing as well................thanx HGC...........Who`s off topic syk.............Drama.......You cant stand it(classic syk)..........Keep all that knowledge over there in your vault syk........... make it unavailable to the community at large except through your discretion (god help us all )better yet,put it up for sale SYK...........YOU all bout the benjamins anyways DEWD........FUVM!....DHF....................

 

[BruceLeeroy]

ok so who has a good method of mating 3/4" flex hose with PVC and having a water tight connection? when you say flex hose, i assume you just mean plain old garden hose? or is there some specific type of hose you mean?

i have to say i expected a lot of work going into this. the fact though is that it all seems a whole lot simpler on paper than it really is lol. i'm sure that once you've got alot of the experience necessary it gets easier, knowing what works and what doesn't lol. for someone thinking of doing something like this for the first time, it's hard to overstate the work recquired lol.

peace

 

[Guest]

Greenline (which is actually yellow) is what Krusty used, but the larger the drainline the better,and even running the bucket drains out to a single pvc drainline back to rez like nitrous works great...... bucket drain clogs even with screens...........uuuuugh.............SYK..where you at with the miracle cure?Oh, Ive gotta have the password to get that info................DHF...........

 

[Guest]

Clogged drains from the buckets is something I am battling right now, I tried screens but they seemed to make things worse, the only solution I have been doing, is as soon as I notice restricted flow I unplug from the bucket and manually gently force the roots back into the bucket.Not something I like doing but it is the only solution I have come up with. When using continuous flex hose from the buckets, would it be harder to spot clogged lines, I dunno, just a thought. Can't wait till someone suss's it out though. There is some great info here, good luck to all you contributors.

Stay Safe. Peace.

 

[BruceLeeroy]

Ok, so tell me what you think about these bubbles.








are they

A. not even adequate dude, you're talking poor SWC here.

B. low end of adequate, not so much extreme air as just air.

C. this is what people talk about when they say froth.

D. Any more air and your wings will melt.


Ok so cheesy mythological references aside, these came from some old soaker hose i had and an air pump i have. i know this isn't what i could get with that HDPE pipe and a whitewater, which is definitely the way i want to go, but which will unfortunately have to wait until i can earn a few more dollars lol. i know it's hard to tell from a pic but if you guys could give me an idea of if this is adequate that would be great.

it's also worth noting that 1. the semi-destroyed yellow bucket has yet to be sanded down and 2. the white buckets will be wrapped in 6 mil black and white poly to make "light tight".

thanks for your input

Peace

 

[BruceLeeroy]

on another note the bubbles would increase if i made all the connections air tight, this was just something i rigged up to see if it would even come close to enough air. i can probably gain another 25-50% just by making my connections tight on the manifold coming off the pump.