Hi all, I am brand new to hydroponics and I chose to start a Recirculating DWC as my first system. I have read everywhere I can find and still havent come across a good article explaining how to change the water in a dwc system without killing the plants. How long can the roots remain in the air while the old water is drained. Does the new water have to be heated to the old waters temp first or is cold water okay? Does all of the old water need to be replaced? Are there any tricks to changing the water? Also, I am planning on starting some clones in rockwool then transplanting to a netpot filled with expanded clay on my dwc system. How far should the water level be from the bottom of the rockwool at first? Do I Set the rockwool right on the net pot and cover with expanded clay, or do I put some clay down first? These might seem like dumb questions but I just need to clarify. Thank you
LOL, I just had a stoner moment a few days ago of this type. I was up in my garden and a friend stopped by. I had drained and balanced my solution and was about to pump it back into the res . I never leave a pump unattended so i figured id wait to refill the res when he took off. Well we went out for a beer. I remembered 1/2 way through my second beer, and forgot by my 5th. I got home piss jrunk, passed out and woke up the next morn. and went to work. I got home and went upstairs for my daily solution balance and BAM! my tub was full and the buckets were empty! I shit you not 24 hours with no water in my buckets and the plants looked soooo goood. I think it actually helped but i dont know. I dont think a few hours will hurt. The roots regularly dry our in the ground to some extent. I checked the root balls and they were still moist so its not a big deal. I just syphon(before i put drain pipes in the buckets) the solution out of the planter into another bucket of the same size or bigger, mix and balance with new water and neuts, pump back into the res. its that easy.
The way that i change my fluid is witha second bucket. I have a bubbler in a 5gal pail, and a have a spare pail, when i need to change i mix up a full solution in the new pail, and then you just switch the plant to the other pail, lid and all and then use the bucket you tool the plant from next time again after a good scrubbing.
Thanks for the advice! I still cant figure out how close to the rockwool the water should be in the bucket, and how deep should the expanded clay be before I put the rockwool on and bury it.
From what ive read, and what ive been doing is keeping the water up to and slightly above the bottom of the net. The water is highly oxygenated and they love it.... With the clay, I put enough so the rockwool is slightly under or level to the the top of the net. Just the way I do it, dont know if its right, but it works
this guy has a step by step its pretty big but you can always size it to your needs http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=26343
DUDE I just did that an hour ago and I was like damn Im on to something haha really thought so until I read your post ....Peace
Just place a small layer of clay pellets at the bottom of your new pot. Place the rockwool cube in the pot and surround it with more clay pellets. As far as flushing: I flush weekly, and the easiest way for me to do it is to have another 10 gallon tub ready to go with ph balanced/nutrient balanced water. I simply just remove the lid/airstone from the other container and switch them. All in all the plants are out of their environment for 10 minutes. -C