# Stealth Hydro



## bigweedo (Sep 4, 2008)

What's up guys,
I was looking at the stealth bubbleponics hydro kit and saw that it holds 6 plants on top of a 6 gallon tub. It seems like 6 plants would be crammed on top of this kit. Would growing 4 be better fit for this system? Or growing 6 smaller plants? Any suggestions would be appreciated!


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## TURKEYNECK (Sep 4, 2008)

build your own!


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## bigweedo (Sep 4, 2008)

I just bought pretty much all of the same stuff...but I bought four 4 inch diameter pots with holes in them i'm going to use to put the plants in. Do you think 4 plants would be better than 6?


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## andy52 (Sep 4, 2008)

get you some 5 gal. buckets.cheaper and as to what i've read and learned,you need 1 plant to a 5 gal.  cheaper and easier than screwing up 4-6 plants in one little res. i just started dwc myself and its sure alot cheaper than soil growing.cleaner also.i might destroy some plants,but i will never buy another bag of dirt again.waste of money when you can buy some distilled water for less than a dollar a gal. i just started with 1 clone to try this myself.lol i got 3 more clones going as of 30 mins. ago.4 bucks for the black buckets,cut a hole,put a net pot in it.few dollars worth of nutes.but,the tds,ph testers are not cheap.well i guess you can buy cheap.i always believed,you get what you pay for.so get u some buckets and throw that 6 gal. thing away.not enough rs. for 4-6 plants.jmo from a newbie


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## TURKEYNECK (Sep 4, 2008)

that all depends on your veg time..clone or seed?.. are you trying to do a SOG? need more details.


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## TURKEYNECK (Sep 4, 2008)

I would agree with Andy but 4 or 6 5gal buckets is far from stealth.


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## bigweedo (Sep 4, 2008)

Normal grow, No Sog, and from clones. I just want to grow 4-6 plants in my closet with a with my 400 watt hps. Do you think I should buy 5 gallon buckets and try, or will this setup still yield quite a bit?
Thanks,
BW


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## old blue (Sep 4, 2008)

i have one of the 4 pot 4 gal ones. And all i have to say is, they're WAY too small unless ur growing single cola lowryders or equivalent. I was only able to fit one in it after vegging for 4 weeks! Like they said above, go buy 3 or 5 gal black buckets, some netpots whatever size u like, a walmart airpump for every 2 buckets, some airstones, and ur set, bro. I wish i didn't waste my money buying a hydro setup when i started.  Much cheaper and tailored to UR needs, building ur own. So easy, even a caveman can do it!


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## bigweedo (Sep 4, 2008)

Could I just buy a bigger rubber maid (like a 30 gallon?) and put the four plants in there? Four 5 gallon pots might be a little too much for my closet.


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## Funkfarmer (Sep 4, 2008)

Its not the volume of the container thats the prob its the dimensions, not enough room for the plants to grow.


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## bigweedo (Sep 4, 2008)

A 30 gallon rubbermaid is a lot bigger container. More volume plus more surface on top. I have an 18 gallon right now (24x16) on top, while a 30 gallon is (32x19). Think this would help? A 5 gallon bucket has a 12 radius. So, 4 plants in 5 gallon buckets would take up 4 square feet, while this rubbermaid would take up around 3 square feet with 10 more gallons 

Am i going down the right path here? Suggestions would be great!
Thanks,
BW


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## TURKEYNECK (Sep 4, 2008)

If you are growing from clone, you can squeeze atleast 1 plant per square foot with minimal veg time... meaning single cola clones... the buckets ARE easy but, (to me) none of it is really hard..

IMO..6 or 8 single cola clones would do fine in a 30 gallon tank..
But the buckets ARE ganna be more "fool proof"...just my 2cents..
One res IMO is just easier to maintain...w/ Ph...and nutes,
on the other hand..the buckets are easier to move around..
I guess it all depends on what you think is best for YOU...


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## bigweedo (Sep 4, 2008)

I think I'm going to go with the 30 gallon res. and put 4-5 plants on top. How tall should I grow the plants out before I flip to 12/12? I am a soil grower, so this hydro stuff is new to me


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## bigweedo (Sep 4, 2008)

Also I bought 3 inch wide by 4 inch deep pots to put the hydroton(brown balls) and plants in. Do these need to be bigger?


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## TURKEYNECK (Sep 4, 2008)

how much head space do you have?  by minimal veg time I mean..2-4 weeks which in DWC means 8-12" clones... will be approx. 1 month veg (after rooted) ofcoarse... they can triple in height during flower though so you know.


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## TURKEYNECK (Sep 4, 2008)

bigweedo said:
			
		

> Also I bought 3 inch wide by 4 inch deep pots to put the hydroton(brown balls) and plants in. Do these need to be bigger?


No


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## andy52 (Sep 5, 2008)

i am using 5.5 in net pots in my 5 gal buckets,with hydroton.


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## old blue (Sep 5, 2008)

andy52 said:
			
		

> i am using 5.5 in net pots in my 5 gal buckets,with hydroton.



Andy, how do YOU change the water in ur buckets every week? And do u grow ur plants really big, or keep em small. I was told it's a pain to change the water in individual buckets if you lst em or grow em tall.  Just tryin to get ideas to make it an easier process.


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## andy52 (Sep 5, 2008)

always have spare buckets.i just started myself in dwc.yes i changed mine out this morning.every 7-9 days,thats how i'm doing it.just have another bucket ready to go.ph'd and tds'd.all you have to do then is change the net pot over to the new bucket.i am going to veg mine until about 10-12 inches and then flower.i've had head space room problems before,growing in soil.so i want to try keep them around 3-3.5 feet tall.if your using lst,just change the lid out,if you are tying to the lid.


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## bigweedo (Sep 5, 2008)

Yea, I think I'm going to go with bigger pots, these things just seem a little too tiny.


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## old blue (Sep 5, 2008)

andy52 said:
			
		

> always have spare buckets.i just started myself in dwc.yes i changed mine out this morning.every 7-9 days,thats how i'm doing it.just have another bucket ready to go.ph'd and tds'd.all you have to do then is change the net pot over to the new bucket.i am going to veg mine until about 10-12 inches and then flower.i've had head space room problems before,growing in soil.so i want to try keep them around 3-3.5 feet tall.if your using lst,just change the lid out,if you are tying to the lid.



Cool, thanks for the input. Since i'll be doing lst, i'll be using the 6" net aero lids, that fit directly on the 5 gal buckets, so i can just drill some holes in the edges of the lids and use pipe cleaners to tie em down to the lid, to ease transferring to other buckets.


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## andy52 (Sep 5, 2008)

that sounds good to me.i did some serious studying before doing this dwc.and for once i had everything i needed to begin with.just remember to sterilize your buckets


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## bigweedo (Sep 6, 2008)

Would you guys keep the water pump pumping nutrients 24/7 into the pots or give it a little break? I heard a guy saying if you turn the pump off for periods of time the roots will grow faster.


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## andy52 (Sep 7, 2008)

i keep mine going 24-7  i never heard that 1.unless its ebb and flow.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Sep 7, 2008)

bigweedo said:
			
		

> A 30 gallon rubbermaid is a lot bigger container. More volume plus more surface on top. I have an 18 gallon right now (24x16) on top, while a 30 gallon is (32x19). Think this would help? A 5 gallon bucket has a 12 radius. So, 4 plants in 5 gallon buckets would take up 4 square feet, while this rubbermaid would take up around 3 square feet with 10 more gallons
> 
> Am i going down the right path here? Suggestions would be great!
> Thanks,
> BW



I like individual buckets.  If you only have 4 plants or so, it is not a big deal to change out the buckets.  I do like Andy does--I have spare buckets and just swap them out.  One of the things that about having just 1 reservoir is that if you screw something up (like nutes), you can kill all your plants at once almost instantly.  A 30 gal container will be impossible to move with water in it.  And a 32x19 container takes up 4.22 sq ft, 4 5 gal buckets take up 4 sq ft.

What is the height of your space?


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## The Hemp Goddess (Sep 7, 2008)

bigweedo said:
			
		

> Would you guys keep the water pump pumping nutrients 24/7 into the pots or give it a little break? I heard a guy saying if you turn the pump off for periods of time the roots will grow faster.



Water pump?  What type of hydro are you planning on doing?  Why not just do DWC?  It is soooooooooo easy.


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## bigweedo (Sep 8, 2008)

Well, it essentially is dwc. I'm going to run the pump until the roots hit the nutrient solution. When the roots are submerged I'm going to take the pump out and just run the oxygen pump. The question is, if I have a 35 gallon resevoir with 5.5 inch pots, how much solution do I fill up each time? Do I change the res. every 7-10 days?
Thanks,
BW


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## The Hemp Goddess (Sep 9, 2008)

bigweedo said:
			
		

> Well, it essentially is dwc. I'm going to run the pump until the roots hit the nutrient solution. When the roots are submerged I'm going to take the pump out and just run the oxygen pump. The question is, if I have a 35 gallon resevoir with 5.5 inch pots, how much solution do I fill up each time? Do I change the res. every 7-10 days?
> Thanks,
> BW



When I first got my reservoirs, I filled them with 5 gals of water at a time and made marks at different water levels so that I would know how much water I was using--you have a 5 gal mark, a 10 gal mark, a 15 gal mark, etc, etc.  I keep the reservoir at different levels based on how large the roots are.  As the plant roots grow, I lower the water level so that the roots are not entirely submerged.  

I personally like to change out the water/nutes in my res every 7-10 days.  This is one of those questions that you will get differing answers on.  Some never change their res out, but just add nutes when the water level gets low.


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## HydroManiac (Sep 9, 2008)

BG to answer your question since no seems they dont want to experiment hydro plants grow less roots because of the fact nutes and water are prestine conditions for the plants to grow lst and topping should do you fine if you want to grow 6 plants in your bubbleponics kit 

P.S. Id run the pump the whole time unless you wanna conserve energy :hubba:


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## bigweedo (Sep 10, 2008)

So, if I'm going to do bubblepoincs (with a pump pumping directly to pots)with 5.5 inch pots in a 35 gallon rubbermaid, how much nutrient solution should I fill the container up with each time? 10-15 gallons?


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