This is interesting! I think both can be references AT the same time. I think GGs idea is great when you are working with few plants of the same strain or with plants in a system that lacks a recycling rez. Where silents process may make sense in a multi-plant single reservoir. Both in combo could make sense with MANY readings and an analysis of data. Could be very easy to make a Constant if there really is consistency over time and thisconstant would likely change if in flower or veg.
Rising ppms usually indicates a soup that's to hot. It can also indicate your temps are a bit on the hot side. The plant will transpire extra water making your ppms increase.
Why would it be 600 when you do a res change? 300ppm is quite high and it may be worth you getting a reverse osmosis filter. Its sort of borderline so maybe worth trying first
I think he meant he adjusts his water to 300 originally, then now he is worried he is gonna burn them up cause the water out of the tap is already 300 ppm. But with out knowing what kind of nutrients are in the tap he won't know how to amend the water.
Oh right that makes sense. In that case I would carry on as normal, but maybe try 400 first and see if it rises or falls. A couple of weeks of vegging will have it taking up a stronger solution anyway so it shouldn't be much of an issue for anything other than seedlings and clones
@GG... How much air should I pump through an 12 gallons of solution (45 liters) per minute? I will have 4 tubs. I am designing my dwc now. It will be my first run at any hydro besides COCO. Could you recommend an air pump for this size setup?
Maybe you'll know Gold My liquid nutrient is pH perfect and the big bud powder is not. Going to be feeding them both tonight, and I'm wondering if I had the pH perfect bloom to the water first then the powder or the other way around?
Add the powder first then the perfect bloom, it will adjust itself. Worst case it may not bring it to perfect range but close and you can then ph adjust accordingly.
ActiveAqua has some good brands in varying sizes. You could get by with a 2lpm/gal or 1lpm/2litres. It works out about the same. That's a minimum though. Extra oxygen in the reservoir is beneficial. It's good for the roots and it helps ward off nasty things like root rot. I had a 70lpm 8 port pump running 5 buckets with about 3.5g of water each or about 17.5g total off that 1 pump. What should have worked fine on paper I found to be lacking in application. It just didn't cut it.
MULTIPLE QUESTIONS... What are all the benefits of having large containers for DWC vrs. 5 gallon buckets???? For example, I got 18 gallon Rubbermaid totes when I was in a hardware store the other day... Does their large size benefit me in any way or are they overkill? My DWC plants won't be HUGE at harvest. I don't plan to do much training either. I would like to set it and leave it. Is 15 minutes a day on a 4 bucket system realistic? Plus an hour once a week. About the air per gallon, is it safe to say how you want a minimum of 1/2 the volume of air pumped through your solution every minute?
What Letter3 said Sorry man, I have never used those nutes but I wouldn't think it would make any difference which order you put them in
A bigger body of water will be more stable when it comes to ppm, pH, temperature, and oxygen content so those are the most obvious advantages. But also a bigger reservoir will need topping up and refreshing less often so it's generally less work in the long run. 15 minutes of what? An hour once a week? Have I missed something there? Lol. Yeah that's what I like to stick to. 1 litre of air per minute for every 2 litres of nutrient solution. Or as Letter3 said 2 lpm for each US gallon. But regular gallons have an extra litre compared to US gallons
I am busy all the time and will be running my coco grow at the same time. Will 15 minutes a day be enough time to maintain my dwc grow. I know there will be things like reservoir changes and such that will take more time. Would an hour on the weekends allowfor this? How much time should I plan to spend running the grow... realistically.
There are basically 3 things that have to be done. *Adjusting pH and ppm *topping up *refreshing the reservoir Adjusting pH and ppm. About 5 minutes a day to adjust the pH and ppm until it's nutrient strength plateaus. You can skip a couple of days here and there without problems mind. Once you get to that plateau, and the ppm remains stable you can leave it a week if you need to as long as your reservoir is big enough. Topping up. A full 4'x4' tent can take up around 70 litres per week if growth and health is good. Topping up takes about 10 minutes. It's a matter of pouring in a couple of buckets of water and then adjusting ppm and pH. I do this about twice a week when in full flower, but may not need it for over a week when the plants are small. It depends on the size of your res. Refreshing the reservoir. A reservoir change for me happens around every 4 weeks roughly, it depends how fast it's taking up the nutrient solution. Small plants can go for longer. Again, it depends on how big your reservoir is. I use a 70 litre reservoir usually. But when I do a reservoir change. I pump out the few litres that I have left in the res, fill back up with a hose and then add nutes and some pH down. This takes about half an hour. DWC when set up like I do is very low maintenance, it's the main reason why I choose to do it this way