New grow, nutrient question / help

They tell you that to sell nutrients. I was told just a few weeks ago to NOT dump out your nutes weekly, just monitor your pH levels. I check mine daily. I start out my solution at 5.5 pH then once it gets to 6.5-6.7 (about a week or so), it's time to top off my solution. Top off, set to 5.5, then let it go. I started my solution at 1/8th strength (week old seedlings) and only went to half strength before I noticed some tip burning. Topped off with water, set my pH and let it go to get rid of the tip burn. Btw this is my first grow and first time with RDWC so I'm learning as I go.1st pic is about the 3rd day in my system. Second pic is today around 4 1/2 weeks later (today actually). Sorry the second pic is sideways.

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First off I'm not expert on this I'm just giving my opinion. It is recommended to completely change out your reservoir every 7-14 days and absolutely change from veg/bloom/flush. I change mine every 7-10 days. You should also clean out the reservoir and have a tds/ec meter to monitor your nutrient levels. The reasons for the change out is to prevent an issue, plants don't uptake all nutrients the same and not changing it could cause a nutrient imbalance and possible toxicity. I've heard of people never changing it or only a few times and not had issues, I'm not risking it personally. I bought an extra 5 gal bucket and got it set up like the other ones with it's own air stone and sight tube with air hoses having couplings on them at the bucket. So I just swap the tops over and plug in the air hose and ready to go. I would rather spend an extra few dollars in nute changes then have problems personally. Also, like butterdiesel said start low like 1/8-1/4 strength and work your way up to about a 1/2 strength and see how things are. My last grow had slight nute burn at 1/2 strength and another grew perfect at 1/2 strength. You may want some cal/mag and hydroguard or the like as well. I used to have some cal deficiencies in all of them until I started adding a little and root rot is no good so better safe than sorry imo. I run cal/mag at 1/8th strength with no problems now and I run hydroguard full strength. Everything seems happy to me the way I have it.

 

You're nutrient strength shouldn't be monitored by ph. While you do want a good ph of 5.5-6.5, I keep mine close to 6.0 it won't tell you nutrient strength. You will want a ppm/ec meter to monitor that. Glad you have some calmag I always put a tad of it in. To be on the safe side you may want to look into some hydroguard or if you want to stay with AN products they have Sensizym to protect those precious roots.

 

That's good sounds like you're on the right track. AN makes good products and I've heard there more geared towards the growing we do. I've personally never used AN but I've heard good things. I use GH trio micro, gro, bloom which is basically a different companies version of what you are using. Those will contain the main building blocks of growing. I also always have cal/mag supplement, ph up/down and hydroguard at all times. Hydroguard is to help in building a good root system and preventing possible root rot by adding good bacteria to rid bad bacteria. Which could be caused by many things and is more common in hydro. Not changing your res often enough, not having enough air in the grow water (clogged air stone is a popular one), higher temps and humidity can all cause it.

 

If you are "not married" to AN, do know they certainly are not the most economical solution of many qualifying solutions . You are paying for that marketing and cool packaging. I spend less than $2 on nutes each grow to produce an I b . What's in your wallet?