I’m wanting to incorporate a water level indicator for my hempy buckets; I’d like to keep it simple and cheap. I was thinking of using a 1/2 inch pvc pipe and maybe a wine cork attached to a light piece of plastic …like two straws glued together. What works best and has enough buoyancy. I generally use 5 gallon buckets.
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Why not just make a sight glass on the exterior wall of the buckets?
A couple of 90° fittings, some clear 1/4-1/2" tubing, and some hose clamps should do it! 
You could take it a step further and put some sort of colorful and buoyant bead in the tube also. That way you’d see the water level at a glance. 
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I did what @Taproot is showing for round buckets. Ideally you want it to be a blue pipe to stop light from getting into the solution that is in the pipe. I also can take samples for PH readings through it
In my bin builds I use a plastic straw glued into a foam ball as a floating indicator and it’s guided through the lid via a metal bubble-tea straw.
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Your a very smart guy ! Great idea !
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How do you take samples? Bend it down to squirt water out or something?
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I like the “float” style that came with my octopots over the “sight” style popular in DWC buckets. My buckets from PA Hydro started to leak after a few runs.
It’s basically a little run of PVC pipe with a float in it and a long indicator that runs the length of the pipe. The pipe goes in the res down into the water, water level pushes the float up, little indicator pops out of top and falls with water level.
Imagine a popsicle stick taped to the top of a ping pong ball … when the water is high the ball is at the top so it pokes the stick high out of the res. As the water falls so does the ball, so does the stick.
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Sea Fishing cigar float in a tube
Each level painted a different contrasting bright colour so no squinting at that red dot and fine lines in octo float , know level instantly at a glance 
or fancy web cam
: )
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I like the indicators in the gro-buckets. Just a little float. Would be very easy to rig up something similar.
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@leetdood a bastor from the dollar store! I jam the nozzle into the top part of the pipe with the bulb already collapsed so it’s all negative pressure pulling from the tube.
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Ohhh makes sense.
I’ve done it before, unless you use bulk head fittings they tend to leak and those fittings are expensive. Do you have a src for cheap bulk head fittings? Also, I like your idea on the buoyant bead, most beads I see have a hole in the middle.
When I did the sight glass on the side I used some stiff clear tube from home depot and I didn’t have any issues with mold or anything; I did put a little hydrogen peroxide into the mix when feeding. Was the foam ball just Styrofoam?
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I was looking these and the pencil floats.
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Yes, a “crafting foam ball” from the dollar store.
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How do you like those things, how do they perform. I’m looking at them on amazon now and they are a little expensive. It says self watering but it looks like a one/two gallon pot upside down in a 5 gallon bucket.
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I bought them almost a year ago and just popped it open the other day. I also bought the float valve kit which was like another 80 I think. So far, I absolutely love them, but it’s been like four days. I love SIPS in general and I think I’m really going to like them. Build quality seems good for what it is and fit and finish is pretty great. I bought a 10 pack of them and am going to run a bunch of veggies in the other six this season so I should have a pretty good idea of how they hold up soonish
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Found the indicators only. Do you know what size the tube is, hopefully I could just get some cheap pvc from home depot?
https://www.amazon.com/GroBucket-Water-Level-Indicator-Funnel-Kit/dp/B089YW7P4W?th=1
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I’ll measure it for you when I get home and let you know
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