HydroRed's DIY Bubble Cloner (under $35)

Hydro

PICK YOUR OWN
PARTS LIST:

(1) 10 Gallon Rectangular Tote with locking lid
(Approx. dimensions 21" x 16" x 9") -$6.00

(4) 14" Aquarium Bubble Stones -$10.00

(1) 20-60 Gallon Dual Outlet Aquarium Air Pump -$9.00

(1) 1/2" ID Rubber Grommet -$0.29

(1) 1/2" Barbed 90* Fitting -$0.59

(1) 12" Piece of 1/2" Clear Tubing -$1.00

(1) 25' Length of 1/4" Silicone Tubing -$3.00

(1) Ebay Digital Aquarium Water Thermometer -$3.00

(13) 2" Neoprene Plugs -$6.00

(2) 1/4" Barbed "T's" -$1.00
1.JPG

2.JPG

NOTES:

All parts can be aquired at your local home improvement store/Walmart & Ebay

Be sure to pay attention to the top of the lid for the tote.
It's shape affects its function so look for a tote with a locking lid that is recessed down
lower from the edge to the center -keeping water from dripping out from the sealing edge of the container and lid.
(Use picture of tote for example)





TOOLS REQUIRED:

3/4" Hole Saw Spade Bit

1-3/4" Hole Saw

Tape Measure

Marker

Drill
tools needed.JPG
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DIRECTIONS:

-Mark out your desired neoprene plug destinations on the lid.

-Drill out the holes for the 2" neoprene plugs with the 1-3/4" Hole saw.
4 neoprene holes.JPG
-Drill hole in the side wall of your tote near the bottom for your drain/sight tube
with the 3/4" hole spade bit. **Careful not to put the hole on/near any curved part of the tote
as this will make sealing the grommet virtually impossible.
(Note the ideal placement of the hole in the picture.)
5 fill tube.JPG
-Apply the rubber grommet to the 1" hole.

-Apply the 1/2" barbed 90* fitting into the 12" sight tubing, then apply the barbed fitting into the rubber grommet.
(This will be a bit tight and hard to get in, but you want this for a good water tight seal.)

-Attach 2 airstones together with the 1/4" barbed "T" fitting as shown.
qtr in barbed tees.JPG
-Connect each set of air stones to the air pump and align them in the bottom of the tote after feeding them through
the neoprene plugs in the lid. Feed the probe for the temp gauge & the air pump tubing through the neoprene plug.(As seen in picture.)
assembled cloner.JPG

inside assembled cloner.jpg



You can drill some 1/4" holes in the lid and feed the air tubes through that if you dont want to give up any spaces
for your clones. I only run 10 clones at a time so I dont mind giving up 3 spots for the tubes and probe.

-Fill reservoir up to approx 1" under the bottom of the cuttings and mark your sight tube so you know where to fill
to in the future and this also alerts you as to when your reservoir levels are low. Trim the sight tube to size.
cut sight tube.jpg
-Let the airstones soak in the water for an hour BEFORE tuning on the air pump. Your stone will work much more
effectively if you do this first.

-Your bubble cloner is now ready to root clones.
With this set-up, you should have huge roots in 7-14 days.
Keep in mind, you can apply this build to any size tote you choose and have as many sites as you care to fit on the tote you use.
 
Last edited:

WhyteWidow

Led Tech
Thanks Whyte. I am still using the same one today that I made yrs ago. Just an FYI - I had made a smaller one (4 gal I believe), but found the water to get cloudy much quicker than in the 10 gal one.
Yeah the oxygen probably repeats faster in less water. Might be why it gets cloudy faster. I have a 10gal from a previous DIY I just bought a new lid yesterday for it. I used the old one for my wifes flowers. We did Orange Malaysian Spike Orchids last year in it. Kinda like drain to waste hydro. They were super super pretty.
 

Inf Flux

Alchemist
I built a larger version of this and love it. Since I'm not constantly cloning it ended up in the kitchen and has all kinds of herbs and veggies in it. Works so good I built one for my lady friend to have at her place.
Only thing I'd do differently is add a drain spout.
 

Rivendell

Member
I built a very similar one with a 2.5 gallon bucket. I only need a few clones at a time i'm so small scale.

Instead of air stones, I used a length of refrigerator ice maker line and a tee barb fitting to make a circle and poked holes in it with a hot needle. I have had the blue stones crumble after a while in water and wanted something that would last pretty much forever once I hot glued it down.

Just tossing it out there for other small scale farmers that don't need a ton of clones and need to save a bit of space. You can downsize this with no issues.
 

Armdog

RDWC GROWER
I made a similar version of this and added a monifold with spray heads. Best of both worlds. 1 minute on 5 minutes off and air stones running in between. Used 10 gallon tote that is a little deeper than yours. Only 8 sites with 2" inserts. Works great.
 

Hydro

PICK YOUR OWN
Figured i toss up my lil bubble cloner. Just took some candyland clones. I got more clones than my lil bubbler can handle. lol Im gonna either go with the root riots in a dome or maybe i will dig around and see if i got stuff to make a bigger one for the rest.
Those work great too. A gromie of mine uses the bucket with sprayer heads on pvc connected to submersible pump. He gets good results from it as well.
 

Cob_nUt

"Justa Ganja Lover"
Those work great too. A gromie of mine uses the bucket with sprayer heads on pvc connected to submersible pump. He gets good results from it as well.
This is my cloner. 2.5 gal bucket,pvc manifold,sprayer heads and a pond pump from harbor freight.

20 sites,if more are needed....2 clones per collar bam! A 40 piece. I never need more than 5 or 6 at a time tho.
Great thread Red.Props.
 
Last edited:

TheSpaceFarm

DopeCaveDave
I'm getting ready to put one of these together, just wondering what you use for a dome with this? I could individually dome each cut with plastic bottles but I'd rather have 1 dome for the whole cloner. Any suggestions?
 
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