excuse the diagram ,you need to view the full image as this croped version is missing some of the lines!!!! i have no photos of the system .
This was a design i first used way back when and i couldnt afford to buy a system. It was cheap and fairly easy to put together.
Its a flood n drain system that auto syphons its-self as soon as the water pump turns off . i had exelent results from mine and the fattest main stem i have ever seen on a plant!!The only disadvantage was the hight taken up by the stacked buckets but no problem if you have the head room.
What you need...
Wire coat hanger
crush proof garden hose or stiff hydro tube that will fit your water pump outlet
food grade buckets 15ltr and 25ltr
pvc drain pipe with L piece
2x L tube that will fit hose pipe
air pump/tube/stone
water pump 250ltr/perhour (at least)
wire shelf (like a fridge shelf )
aquarium grade silicone sealent (from petstore)
plant pot or suitable basket to hold a few clay pebbles (needs largeish holes for roots to penetrate but still holding the pebbles)
First take the smaller bucket and drill a hole to snugly fit the drainpipe L piece about 3 to 4 inches down from the top. Insert the Lpiece (it should be a tight fit !!!!) and use some silicone to properly seal in place , inside and out .
On the opposit side of the bucket drill a hole for the hosepipe or hydro tube (again a snug fit is needed!) cut a 2 inch length of the pipe and push this through the hole and then attach the 2 L pieces to each end. Then seal the hole with the silocone sealent.Make sure both the drainpipe L piece and the 2 hose Lpieces are pointing down and let the sealent set for 24hrs.
When the silicone is set measure the lenghth from the hose L piece on the inside to the bottom of the bucket and cut the stiff hose or tubeing and attach to the inner Lpiece.Make sure this tube is long enough to reach the bottom of the bucket but leaving about a 2 mm gap so the end is not blocked by the bottom of the bucket.
Now take the larger bucket and the wire shelf, place the wire shelf over the top of the large bucket. Now place the smaller bucket on the shelf in the center and measure from the drainpipe L piece to the bottom of the larger bucket and cut a lenghth of drain pipe to fit and secure one end to the drain Lpiece.
Now measure from the opposit side Lpiece to the bottom of the larger bucket and cut some hose to fit , place your pump in the large bucket and push the cut hose through the wire shelf and attach to the pump and the other end to the L piece.
Now take the wire coat hanger and straighten it out, make 4 holes in the plant pot/basket directly opposit oneanother .Cut the wire coat hanger in 2 and thread thru the pot .this will hold the pot at the top of the bucket.You can secure the wire coat hanger with electricians tape to the bucket .
Now your ready to test the system for leaks, fill the large bucket with water and run the pump . It is important that the drain pipe is big enough to drain faster than the pump can fill so the top bucket never over flows. if it does over flow you need to make another drain .
place the air stone on the bottom of the small bucket and have it on the same timer as the water pump.
Make sure that the lower couple of inches of the pot containing the pebbles is under the level of water. Once you are satisfied there is no leaks and the pebble pot is getting partly submerged then turn off the pump , the system will then automaticly self syphon the top bucket to almost empty .
your good to go , use a rooted clone or seedling that is in rock wool cube and cover the cube in the pot with clay pebbles. Add apprpriate hydro flood n drain nutes ect.
You could anchor the top bucket to the wire shelf for extra support because when the top is empty it can fall over if you grow a huge plant in it!!!
happy growing
they work a treat!!!
