We've added a dutch bucket system to our homestead based on the hydroponics bato bucket design only we are doing it using fish instead of hydroponic solutions. (Aquaponics)
nice system, nice video, add a swirl filter after the water comes out of the fish tank and before it goes into your bucket system and i bet you'll be very happy with the results... you can also take the removed solids you get from your swirl filter and use it to fertilize other plants outside your greenhouse or even setup a bit of a vermiculture or "feed" it to your trees
How did this work for you? I put in a dozen buckets last summer, filled them with a mix of coir & perlite in paint strainer bags. Cost about $3 to fill all 12 buckets, recylcled the medium again this year, dropped the costs to $1.50 ea. The only difference is that I put the elbow pointing down as well as a drop tube to leave a 3/4" reservoir at the bottom. The coir mix wicks the fluid up into the bucket. I also have the pump set to turn on for 15 min @ 0600, 1000, 1400, 1800, 2200.
Hey bud that elbow and side of the buckets turn it upside down it works better and rocks can't cover it up a flow filter would help with the solids and if you added a subtank it would be cleaner for your pump to go in. you could have a your fish water and going up to the flow filter then go ahead and go down to subtank and you could either use gravity to go from the subtank to the Dutch buckets or your pump. I just thought I would suggest this to you and if you go with it cool if not at least you got the information
Great vid and sweet set up! Im really curious as to weather those 1/4 inch lines are clogging. I love that your set up can run on that one pump. If it is clogging have you figured a way to clean them? I would imaging taking each line section and T, then having to soak and then clear them with an air compressor maybe? Buying new ones periodically seems expensive in the long run and a waste. Also i'm curious about the use of the rocks in the buckets. At probably the same cost as filling the buckets with medium you could use net pot lids with an 8 inch basket filled with whatever medium. I think that would allow for substantially larger root growth and the ability to entirely see the root structure of your plants. However you then would use more water... Curious as to what you think and how your set up is going. Thanks for sharin. Nt
+N. Town Yeah, they clogged up and we went back to DWC. We just seem to like everything about deep water systems. They are so simple. I like your idea about the medium. We used river rock. It was fairly inexpensive. We were worried about limestone raising the PH but the rock seemed to be fairly free of lime. Sorry it took so long to respond. You were flagged as spam for some reason.
this is amazing.am planning to do the same for growing 5000 cherry tomatoe plants under greenhouse.am concerned about using perlite or some gravel or charcoal as medium.any advise on it and also about the nutrients that i could give it through the water tank .thank you
This setup seems to be missing the solid filter tank between the return and the pump out to the buckets. No idea why. That prevents waste from the fish getting into the water pipes.
+Mr3kiwis We feed our fish flake fish food. Some people use catfish nuggets but we found that when we used the nuggets it created a lot of undigested waste as well as uneaten nuggets. The flakes are much cleaner.
+Damian & Kelly We probably have around 75 bluegill in the hoop house system. It's hard to tell since they are in the ground and it's hard to see them because of their color. We've had them for about 3 years since they were fingerlings (1 inch) and they are now between 4 and 6 inches. The pond holds around 300 gallons and the troughs hold 800 gallons for a total of 1100 gallons. Our dome system is around 600 gallons. We have around 100 goldfish ranging in size from babies (1 inch) to about 5 inches.
I'm sure by now you have figured out that the buckets holding over 2 inches of water especially the fuller ones is causing your rock to heat up due to stagnant or old water is pooling in these buckets and collecting heat. Not good for everything including fish, also promotes algae. I use the double dutch bucket method with a 3 and 5 gallon buckets with mini lava rock and love the result. Maybe consider putting a fish filter in your res. Happy Gardening!
I have a 800gpr and I have 15 buckets running on a .25 black line with drippers package from amazon. But even with that much push per hour the water can’t make it around the square it only covers 9 buckets and that is at a very small drip. I though smaller the line the stronger the pressure. But I can’t even make it to Th e other buckets
Yeah, we did not like this bucket system and have gone back to deep water aquaponics. Check out MHPgardeners channel for bucket system tips. He does hydroponic tomatoes in buckets real well.
*_HI MY FRIEND ... YOU COULD PLACE MORE A BUCKET WITH BELL SIPHON AND THAT SIPHON WOULD DO THE FUNCTION OF FILLING AND EMPTYING ALL THE OTHER BUCKETS ... AN EFFECT OF TID ... WITH THE BUCKETS LINKED DOWN ...ONLY A IDEA...CONGRATULATIONS AND LIKED...CHERRS!!!_*
Thanks for the video. I am looking into doing a small set up outside without a greenhouse. Do you see a problem with doing the Dutch bucket system without the control of the greenhouse? I am planning on burying the hydroponic tank halfway underground. No fish, just hydroponic system.
The Melonhead Teacher It is doable depending on where you live and what type of shelter from the elements you use. If you do it outdoors you will have to contend with rain diluting your solution, more bugs and possible freezing if you have cold winters.
You should experiment with perlite. You will be amazed at what will root just by sticking a cutting in it. Rocks; not so much. P.S. Aquaponics is a great concept, but in practice, it is too hard to maintain a balance. Too many fish or not enough plants or its too hot or cold. Stick with hydroponics. It will save you a lot of headaches and money.
don't know if you have problems with your PH level? but certain types of rocks raise it. I think you can test your rocks by placing a couple in vinegar and seeing if they let off bubbles, if they do, than you might need to find a different rock or keep fighting PH good luck
The best way to do it is to consider a few buckets like a big gravel bed and put them a auto-siphon to empty them when full. Also, the fill is better to be done withh a larger pipe above the buckets with holes in it for each one in part. Then you will have a big gravel bed, divided in a certain number of buckets wich fill and empty together at the same time and no more clogged pipes...
Great set up! I used 5 gallon round buckets, but your setup is almost exactly like mine. Only thing that I did differently is that I used T-siphons instead of stand pipes. Using the 1/4" line it takes about 20 minutes to fill the bucket and about 1.5 minutes to drain. You might consider doing this as well, I have noticed that my PH stays around 7 and my plants seem to thrive better with my setup this way.
I've been tossing the bucket system around for my aquaponics system. Don't see where they would work any differently than grow beds and would be easier to manage. They could be set up around the perimeter of a small greenhouse.
paint the buckets black to keep the alga down also put lids on the buckets or cut out lids from some of the foam you have there. that should help on the hot rock problem
you might need a swirl filter or a radial flow filter to take out the solids from the system. also consider having your current fish tank as the sump tank and adding another tank as the fish tank.
I suggest that you stagger your veggies to avoid blights. Place 1 tomato than 1 cucumber. Also don't plant them so close to each other pests and diseases can spread like wild fire in the greenhouse
Why did you take the Mittleider system out of the hoop house? I hope to one day reproduce what you are doing, although we most likely not be able to move to Washington until next year.
We really wanted to try this bucket system and to us, aquaponics is the easiest and most sustainable way of growing food. No watering and no weeding or fertilizing. Just plant the seeds and feed the fish.
I aw this Dutch Bucket system on the computer and was thinking the same thing if it could be used with Aqua ponics.This is like 2014 when you posted it l was also wondering how is it now was it a success .?Have you made a new video of the system ?
on the buckets with a stand pipe, as you call it, i would like to suggest putting the 1/4 feeding tube doown into the bottom of the bucket. so the oxygen in the water reacherd the bottom root zone. if not, the oxygen will hardly get down there, if at all.
jooster Yeah, having the drip line right over the standpipe caught my attention and I figure bad things to happen in the bottom of the buckets with little to no water exchange..
The cycling of water provides the needed oxygen, as well as, the open root system the dutch bucket provides. I drip mine over the top so that I can also monitor flow. Roots tends to grow up into the line if you bury them.
Captain Tim Actually, A friend offered me a whole bunch of free wood which was perfect for building raised beds so we decided to relocate the mittleider outdoors and use the hoop house for other things.
Water temps have been slowly dropping down from about 78 degrees last week to around 68 this week probably due to the cool night time temps which have been in the mid 50's. Daytime temps have been in the low 80's. We are watching the water temp closely as we are at a good temp now and don't want it to go too much lower. Maybe 65 degrees. We will roll the sides of the hoop house down very soon to keep it warmer inside. Plant growth has not been any different in the buckets between the higher stand pipes, mid pipes and no stand pipes but we did have roots growing down the high stand pipes which clogged up. It was easy to remove the roots but it could be a problem if you don't catch it. Can't tell if roots are clogging the other buckets but since they are not filling with water I have to assume the pipes are clear.
Here is a tip - I did dutch buckets for 3 years and found that, every time I changed or added nutrients, I would have 8 or 10 gallons of "old" nutrients left in the buckets which ends up contaminating the new mixture. So, what I did was put the 1" hole in one corner of the bottom of the buckets using the same grommet/half inch PVC pipe and they would completely drain each bucket after each cycle (I feed three times a day for 30 minutes). This eliminated the problem of left over nutrients contaminating new new mixture and the plants don't seem to mind the new configuration at all. The only problem I had/have is growing full size tomatoes - cherries grow great with abundant fruit production - but full size tomatoes just don't want to produce here in Hawaii - I'll get four or five big beef, rutger's or beef steak max.
+WhatAmI “TheKingdomeWithin” IsItInMe Actually we had excellent plant growth and the nutrient readings were spot on. The buckets were just 3 gallons so the total system water was around 500 gallons. We are powering our DWC system with less fish (in weight) and that system is around 1100 gallons. It's surprising how little amount of fish you actually need to run a low density system. Low density is definitely the way to go. Less food, less air needs = cost savings.
nice system, nice video, add a swirl filter after the water comes out of the fish tank and before it goes into your bucket system and i bet you'll be very happy with the results... you can also take the removed solids you get from your swirl filter and use it to fertilize other plants outside your greenhouse or even setup a bit of a vermiculture or "feed" it to your trees
How did this work for you? I put in a dozen buckets last summer, filled them with a mix of coir & perlite in paint strainer bags. Cost about $3 to fill all 12 buckets, recylcled the medium again this year, dropped the costs to $1.50 ea. The only difference is that I put the elbow pointing down as well as a drop tube to leave a 3/4" reservoir at the bottom. The coir mix wicks the fluid up into the bucket. I also have the pump set to turn on for 15 min @ 0600, 1000, 1400, 1800, 2200.
Hey bud that elbow and side of the buckets turn it upside down it works better and rocks can't cover it up a flow filter would help with the solids and if you added a subtank it would be cleaner for your pump to go in. you could have a your fish water and going up to the flow filter then go ahead and go down to subtank and you could either use gravity to go from the subtank to the Dutch buckets or your pump. I just thought I would suggest this to you and if you go with it cool if not at least you got the information
Great vid and sweet set up! Im really curious as to weather those 1/4 inch lines are clogging. I love that your set up can run on that one pump. If it is clogging have you figured a way to clean them? I would imaging taking each line section and T, then having to soak and then clear them with an air compressor maybe? Buying new ones periodically seems expensive in the long run and a waste.
Also i'm curious about the use of the rocks in the buckets. At probably the same cost as filling the buckets with medium you could use net pot lids with an 8 inch basket filled with whatever medium. I think that would allow for substantially larger root growth and the ability to entirely see the root structure of your plants. However you then would use more water... Curious as to what you think and how your set up is going. Thanks for sharin.
Nt
+N. Town Yeah, they clogged up and we went back to DWC. We just seem to like everything about deep water systems. They are so simple. I like your idea about the medium. We used river rock. It was fairly inexpensive. We were worried about limestone raising the PH but the rock seemed to be fairly free of lime.
Sorry it took so long to respond. You were flagged as spam for some reason.
did you consider clay?
this is amazing.am planning to do the same for growing 5000 cherry tomatoe plants under greenhouse.am concerned about using perlite or some gravel or charcoal as medium.any advise on it and also about the nutrients that i could give it through the water tank .thank you
This setup seems to be missing the solid filter tank between the return and the pump out to the buckets. No idea why. That prevents waste from the fish getting into the water pipes.
Do you have to feed the fish with fish food?
+Mr3kiwis We feed our fish flake fish food. Some people use catfish nuggets but we found that when we used the nuggets it created a lot of undigested waste as well as uneaten nuggets. The flakes are much cleaner.
How many fish do you run in this setup?
+Damian & Kelly We probably have around 75 bluegill in the hoop house system. It's hard to tell since they are in the ground and it's hard to see them because of their color. We've had them for about 3 years since they were fingerlings (1 inch) and they are now between 4 and 6 inches. The pond holds around 300 gallons and the troughs hold 800 gallons for a total of 1100 gallons. Our dome system is around 600 gallons. We have around 100 goldfish ranging in size from babies (1 inch) to about 5 inches.
Will the plants get root rot since the roots are always in the water? Love the set up but I am afraid that you will get root rot...
I'm sure by now you have figured out that the buckets holding over 2 inches of water especially the fuller ones is causing your rock to heat up due to stagnant or old water is pooling in these buckets and collecting heat. Not good for everything including fish, also promotes algae. I use the double dutch bucket method with a 3 and 5 gallon buckets with mini lava rock and love the result. Maybe consider putting a fish filter in your res. Happy Gardening!
C
The inlet tube is smaller than outlet pipe then the water will not fill up the bucket I guess.
I have a 800gpr and I have 15 buckets running on a .25 black line with drippers package from amazon. But even with that much push per hour the water can’t make it around the square it only covers 9 buckets and that is at a very small drip. I though smaller the line the stronger the pressure. But I can’t even make it to Th e other buckets
Yeah, we did not like this bucket system and have gone back to deep water aquaponics. Check out MHPgardeners channel for bucket system tips. He does hydroponic tomatoes in buckets real well.
Hi new subscriber here nice set up may I just if you have siphon on each bucket or just draining continuously thank u for reply
continuous drain and flow
Thanks I'm working on setting something like this up on our farm. Subscribed!
It is a year later give us an update does it work or did you make modifications, thanking you in advance
We took it down and went back to troughs with rafts. It seemed to take up a lot of space.
*_HI MY FRIEND ... YOU COULD PLACE MORE A BUCKET WITH BELL SIPHON AND THAT SIPHON WOULD DO THE FUNCTION OF FILLING AND EMPTYING ALL THE OTHER BUCKETS ... AN EFFECT OF TID ... WITH THE BUCKETS LINKED DOWN ...ONLY A IDEA...CONGRATULATIONS AND LIKED...CHERRS!!!_*
Thanks for the video. I am looking into doing a small set up outside without a greenhouse. Do you see a problem with doing the Dutch bucket system without the control of the greenhouse? I am planning on burying the hydroponic tank halfway underground. No fish, just hydroponic system.
The Melonhead Teacher It is doable depending on where you live and what type of shelter from the elements you use. If you do it outdoors you will have to contend with rain diluting your solution, more bugs and possible freezing if you have cold winters.
You should experiment with perlite. You will be amazed at what will root just by sticking a cutting in it. Rocks; not so much. P.S. Aquaponics is a great concept, but in practice, it is too hard to maintain a balance. Too many fish or not enough plants or its too hot or cold. Stick with hydroponics. It will save you a lot of headaches and money.
don't know if you have problems with your PH level? but certain types of rocks raise it. I think you can test your rocks by placing a couple in vinegar and seeing if they let off bubbles, if they do, than you might need to find a different rock or keep fighting PH good luck
The best way to do it is to consider a few buckets like a big gravel bed and put them a auto-siphon to empty them when full. Also, the fill is better to be done withh a larger pipe above the buckets with holes in it for each one in part. Then you will have a big gravel bed, divided in a certain number of buckets wich fill and empty together at the same time and no more clogged pipes...
cover each bucket with a white cover,that should block so much heat in the bucket.
Great set up! I used 5 gallon round buckets, but your setup is almost exactly like mine. Only thing that I did differently is that I used T-siphons instead of stand pipes. Using the 1/4" line it takes about 20 minutes to fill the bucket and about 1.5 minutes to drain. You might consider doing this as well, I have noticed that my PH stays around 7 and my plants seem to thrive better with my setup this way.
Nice. I will look in to it. Thanks.
That is awesome. Really nice setup. Loved and Subbed.
I've been tossing the bucket system around for my aquaponics system. Don't see where they would work any differently than grow beds and would be easier to manage. They could be set up around the perimeter of a small greenhouse.
matt murdock is that you?
paint the buckets black to keep the alga down also put lids on the buckets or cut out lids from some of the foam you have there. that should help on the hot rock problem
Wouldn't some chemicals be leached into the plastic and therefore your plants? I'm concerned about painting my buckets but don't want the algae.
How about burnt coal for substrate
Good idea will try this
How many watt water pumps have you used here?
how can we do it in out door '' i hade a small brick pond where i hade put 200 catfish can i do on it ''
Nice set up. Quick question. Was the shade cloth alone sufficient enough to keep the stones cool enough so the roots and fish don't get burnt?
It worked for us in our climate.
You can also place a piece of screen over the return elbow to keep rocks from falling in and clogging the pipe.
you might need a swirl filter or a radial flow filter to take out the solids from the system. also consider having your current fish tank as the sump tank and adding another tank as the fish tank.
I suggest that you stagger your veggies to avoid blights. Place 1 tomato than 1 cucumber. Also don't plant them so close to each other pests and diseases can spread like wild fire in the greenhouse
anotherdamnyankee m
Why did you take the Mittleider system out of the hoop house? I hope to one day reproduce what you are doing, although we most likely not be able to move to Washington until next year.
We really wanted to try this bucket system and to us, aquaponics is the easiest and most sustainable way of growing food. No watering and no weeding or fertilizing. Just plant the seeds and feed the fish.
I aw this Dutch Bucket system on the computer and was thinking the same thing if it could be used with Aqua ponics.This is like 2014 when you posted it l was also wondering how is it now was it a success .?Have you made a new video of the system ?
We took it down when we moved and have stuck with DWC at our new place. Deep water troughs seem to be the simplest to use and we like them best.
Nice set up folks..
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on the buckets with a stand pipe, as you call it, i would like to suggest putting the 1/4 feeding tube doown into the bottom of the bucket. so the oxygen in the water reacherd the bottom root zone. if not, the oxygen will hardly get down there, if at all.
jooster Yeah, having the drip line right over the standpipe caught my attention and I figure bad things to happen in the bottom of the buckets with little to no water exchange..
The cycling of water provides the needed oxygen, as well as, the open root system the dutch bucket provides. I drip mine over the top so that I can also monitor flow. Roots tends to grow up into the line if you bury them.
so why did you switch from Mittlieder? Are youhaving better results with aquaponics?
Captain Tim Actually, A friend offered me a whole bunch of free wood which was perfect for building raised beds so we decided to relocate the mittleider outdoors and use the hoop house for other things.
Any trouble with algae?
Inline filtration system.
I look forward to an update on this dutch bucket system, and the results of the different water heights as well.What are your daytime water temps?
Water temps have been slowly dropping down from about 78 degrees last week to around 68 this week probably due to the cool night time temps which have been in the mid 50's. Daytime temps have been in the low 80's. We are watching the water temp closely as we are at a good temp now and don't want it to go too much lower. Maybe 65 degrees. We will roll the sides of the hoop house down very soon to keep it warmer inside.
Plant growth has not been any different in the buckets between the higher stand pipes, mid pipes and no stand pipes but we did have roots growing down the high stand pipes which clogged up. It was easy to remove the roots but it could be a problem if you don't catch it. Can't tell if roots are clogging the other buckets but since they are not filling with water I have to assume the pipes are clear.
Thumb up bro.
Here is a tip - I did dutch buckets for 3 years and found that, every time I changed or added nutrients, I would have 8 or 10 gallons of "old" nutrients left in the buckets which ends up contaminating the new mixture. So, what I did was put the 1" hole in one corner of the bottom of the buckets using the same grommet/half inch PVC pipe and they would completely drain each bucket after each cycle (I feed three times a day for 30 minutes). This eliminated the problem of left over nutrients contaminating new new mixture and the plants don't seem to mind the new configuration at all. The only problem I had/have is growing full size tomatoes - cherries grow great with abundant fruit production - but full size tomatoes just don't want to produce here in Hawaii - I'll get four or five big beef, rutger's or beef steak max.
Good job
hydroponic supplies
Think about using some Bell Siphons in some of the buckets..
Make an external siphon, can be applied to multiple buckets
Hi, why do they call these Dutch Buckets?
Good question. I googled it but couldn't find any answer. I do know it is also called a bato bucket or ebb and flow system.
I would assume that you don't have enough fish to feed all the plants? maybe 30-50 500g fish to feed them all, and tank too small for that.
+WhatAmI “TheKingdomeWithin” IsItInMe Actually we had excellent plant growth and the nutrient readings were spot on. The buckets were just 3 gallons so the total system water was around 500 gallons. We are powering our DWC system with less fish (in weight) and that system is around 1100 gallons. It's surprising how little amount of fish you actually need to run a low density system. Low density is definitely the way to go. Less food, less air needs = cost savings.
ghog63 I am amassed, good job!
+WhatAmI “TheKingdomeWithin” IsItInMe amazed*
jooster lol yes that too:0)
Nice job!