Topping off ur nutes
- Thread starter AZ007
- Start date
I am no hydro guy but I am pretty sure the reservoir is changed when the nutrients change during the feeding cycle.
Hi,
is depend on the side of your reservoir,
I have 90gal. res. so I top up the ro water every 3 days with 250 ppm of cal/mag and flush and change the whole res. every 2-3 weeks
but if you have small res. like 5gal. bucket dwc then I rec. you to change out your res. every week.
hop this help
is depend on the side of your reservoir,
I have 90gal. res. so I top up the ro water every 3 days with 250 ppm of cal/mag and flush and change the whole res. every 2-3 weeks
but if you have small res. like 5gal. bucket dwc then I rec. you to change out your res. every week.
hop this help
I grow hydro in two separate systems for my veg and flower rooms, Drip for veg and E&F for flower, both organic.
I change both res once a week and top off the res with just water when the level drops too much and may expose the pump.
Since the drip system doesn't use too much water at any one time (small hoses, hence low volume of water circulating) I have a 10 lt (2,6 gl) which is enough for me since I don't grow a big volume.
The E&F system uses much more water because basically a big volume is transferred from the res to the flood table. So I have a 20 lt (5,2 gl) res. This feeds 4 plants during flowering cycles.
I make a full water change once a week but I top off with plain water mid week when the levels in the res have drop just above the level required by the pump (sometimes I have to top off twice, girls get greedy sometimes, hehe).
Remember that the bigger the res, the more nutrients you have to use, hence it's gonna be more expensive.
What are your system specs?
I don't use nutes when topping off the res because water evaporates but nutes do not, so if I use nutes when topping off the water level then I'll get a concentrated solution that may harm the plant (not sure if nute lock happens with organics but is better be safe than sorry)
To Jungle: 90 gl? really? that's a res 60"x20"x20" how much do you grow if you don't mind me asking.
I change both res once a week and top off the res with just water when the level drops too much and may expose the pump.
Since the drip system doesn't use too much water at any one time (small hoses, hence low volume of water circulating) I have a 10 lt (2,6 gl) which is enough for me since I don't grow a big volume.
The E&F system uses much more water because basically a big volume is transferred from the res to the flood table. So I have a 20 lt (5,2 gl) res. This feeds 4 plants during flowering cycles.
I make a full water change once a week but I top off with plain water mid week when the levels in the res have drop just above the level required by the pump (sometimes I have to top off twice, girls get greedy sometimes, hehe).
Remember that the bigger the res, the more nutrients you have to use, hence it's gonna be more expensive.
What are your system specs?
I don't use nutes when topping off the res because water evaporates but nutes do not, so if I use nutes when topping off the water level then I'll get a concentrated solution that may harm the plant (not sure if nute lock happens with organics but is better be safe than sorry)
To Jungle: 90 gl? really? that's a res 60"x20"x20" how much do you grow if you don't mind me asking.
- Thread starter
- #5
Yea man sure helps, i have a very simple, very small setup, all it is is just a 5gal dwc bucket, that i wanna make a monstrous plant out of. now heres another question to either one of u guys, is it normal to have to regulate ur ph EVERYDAY on just a bucket setup like mine? because another problem im having is i have to constantly add ph down and it look like i might have a ph deficiency now on the plant because of that. But if my ph constantly increases then i have to bring it down somehow right? so its what ive been doin
GreatLife4All
New Member
With a small bucket system like that - yes, it is very normal for the pH to fluctuate. Increasing everyday is actually a good sign. For a small DWC system like yours, you will want to select a pH range, and then keep the system within that range at all times.
A good pH balance point is 5.8. If the system is increasing everyday, then I want to start a little bit lower than my balance point and allow it to rise up to it. Once I go over my balance point - I wait until I hit about 6.0 before I use pH down to adjust back to 5.6. The cycle then repeats. This will keep the plant in an ideal range at all times for a hydro setup.
GreatLife4All
New Member
But there are many advantages as well. The more water volume - the easier it is to stabilize the pH and PPMs in the system - thus giving the plant a better environment. Another advantage of a larger reservoir is that you will never have a nutrient deficiency because the plants used all of any one thing as there are lots of everything floating around relative to the plant's needs.
I have done both - small and large hydro reservoirs. The larger ones are just easier to maintain over time.
It is true that water evaporates and leaves behind nutrients.
But it is also true that the plant uses both water and nutrients daily in a process called transpiration. So the level of actual nutrients should drop or stay level in the solution over time. Evaporation from the surface of the solution is very small relative to the amount of transpiration that the plant does. Transpiration is similar to circulation in our bodies - the plant must do this at all times or it will quickly die. The difference is that we recycle our water - whereas the plant sucks in new water (with nutrients) from the roots.
So if a plant is not sucking water through it's system every day - the plant is not healthy by definition. When this happens, the pH of the solution will typically fall on a daily basis - rather than increase. You can use this as a predictor for coming trouble in a hydro system.
- Thread starter
- #8
right.. Because what i was doing was, lets say i set my ph to 5.6, and a day later is at 6.4, i would add a heavy dose of ph down to try, and bring it back down to 5.6, and it looks like that was damaging my plants..so the trick is to bring it down slowly over the course of the day?
GreatLife4All
New Member
I have played with pretty much all schedules now.
I started by changing the nutrient solution every week. Works very well. I am using Blue Planet Nutrients for the first time - and I am changing weekly for that grow to get a feel for the nutrients. Great for beginners in hydro - if you screw something up it quickly gets corrected. Because of the repetition, it also teaches you how to manage the nutrient solution. If I am changing the nutrient solution every week, I would just top off with pH balanced water during the week to keep the solution in balance.
I then found that you could do it every two weeks. I ran this way for many years - in fact I have more experience doing it this way than any other. I would argue that it doesn't hurt the plants to do this. But it is no longer sufficient to simply top off with pH balanced water. You can lose most of your major nutrients in the first week of the solutions life. N, P, and K are known as mobile nutrients which are quickly absorbed. In other words, the plant takes as much of this as is available and stores it for later use - which means you quickly have no N, P, or K in the nutrient solution. The process of storing and then recycling nutrients costs the plant some energy - it will enhance yield to have N, P, and K available in the nutrient solution at all times. So under these conditions, it is better to use a nutrient solution to top off with. I use a nutrient solution that is approximately 3/4 of the ppm of the original - and I lower the pH of the refill solution slightly so that I don't have to use pH Down after topping off on a daily basis.
There are also two other methods that I have tried - never change the nutrient solution; change when you have replaced an amount equal to the original. The one that I favor is changing when you have replaced the original amount. Works very well and minimizes the use of nutrients. It is a variable schedule though - because as the plants grow they use more and more water on a daily basis... thus the schedule gets shorter each time. I would only recommend doing this if you are experienced at hydro and have the basics down. Things can go south very quickly in a hydro system using this method - and you need the experience to know when to move.
I have one tent that I am doing the never change rule on now - it is about four weeks from finish. It is even easier to run from a maintenance point of view. But again, I would not recommend this for beginners. It is far better for a beginner to use a maintenance schedule that avoids problems - rather than encourages them.
So my recommendation would be to start by changing every week and replacing lost water with pH balanced water - add in weekly cleaning and disinfectant of the system and you will never go wrong. After you have a few grows under your belt - try going two weeks and supplementing with a 3/4 nutrient solution. You will get better growth and use less nutrients. Once you can do this without burning your plants - then you can move on to some of the more advanced techniques.
- Thread starter
- #10
Whats a good trick to keep the water temp down? Because im afraid my water temp might be a lil high, i noticed a bit of mold on the tip of a root, nothing major..yet, but its there u know..
- Thread starter
- #11
sounds really nice, really good info thx for ur input man. I will practice
GreatLife4All
New Member
pH Down should never hurt your plants. If you are using the commercial versions - they are mostly phosphoric acid - with a little citric acid added. If you are using something other than a commercial pH down - then it might be an issue.
The pH swing that you are seeing is excessive for a daily basis. You should expect maybe a 1/2 point a day change (from 5.6 to 6.0 is good). You must have some other issue causing such a large variance - identifying that issue will be the hard part.
GreatLife4All
New Member
Freeze a bottle of water and throw it into the reservoir. Do this on a daily basis. The size of the water bottle determines how much cooling power you have. For five gallons, start off with a 20oz bottle of water daily. If the temps are still too high - get a larger bottle of water. If it drops the temps too much (I won't believe this!) - then go to a smaller bottle of water.
GreatLife4All
New Member
And if you have mold on the roots - it is time to dip them in a hydrogen peroxide solution to kill the mold.
If you do a search on this site - you will find threads with instructions on how to do this.
If you do a search on this site - you will find threads with instructions on how to do this.
- Thread starter
- #15
Yea.. i have no idea what it might be, im just regularly running my bucket with fresh water and full dose nutes in it, but the ph will fluctuate from 5.4-5.5 to 6.2-6.3 in a matter of 24hrs, idk if it might be the hydrotons im using, because right when i got it i accidently dropped some in the water and ph went sky high..couldve been cause it wasnt washed yet idk..
- Thread starter
- #16
i will look around thx, yea i think the cause of that is maybe my water is a little warm, so u know what i thought about doin? might sound retarded or maybe i was too high, but i thought about putting my airpump directly in front of my ac vent, so it sucks in really fresh cold air, maybe that will cool down the water by a few degrees no?
- Thread starter
- #17
do i just add and mix that solution with my water n nutrients in the bucket?
To Jungle: 90 gl? really? that's a res 60"x20"x20" how much do you grow if you don't mind me asking.
Hi Rodrigo,
Lowes store where I live they sale Toter 96-Gallon Greenstone Indoor/Outdoor Garbage Can on wheel, that I use for my res. to fill up all my 15 plants 5 gals bucket each.
Hi Rodrigo,
Lowes store where I live they sale Toter 96-Gallon Greenstone Indoor/Outdoor Garbage Can on wheel, that I use for my res. to fill up all my 15 plants 5 gals bucket each.
I was having serious problems with my 2 x Active Air 8-nozzle pumps running so hot it would melt the rubber feet and over the course of a few hours skate so far the hose would disconnect. I had to solve it by literally placing a decent size fan on high blowing right at it. it dropped my res temps by around 5 degrees. this way the pumps weren't sitting in their own "hot air" the cases were putting off and fresh cooler air was circulating.
btw - on top of the suggested peroxide wash you can totally add a small bit of the stuff to your standard nute mix - I do and no ill affect. my res temps run around 76 - 78F and have had no issues (knock on wood) with root mold. i also religiously use rhizotonic (3tbsp/16Gal x 8) so that could be why as well
at any rate... hope this helps
As far as the mold on the roots... just checking here, but are you sure it's mold? Roots at their healthiest will look "fuzzy" at the tips. I'm more concerned if you have brownish color or slime. If it's just "fuzzy" for example, you might be doing the plants some injustice with a h2o2 dunk. I've seen super healthy roots confused with unhealthy "mold" in the past. Good idea to treat them if they are slimy or brown, however.
