10 Gallons per plant: do I really need to swap the res every 7 days?

[Delps8]

I'm trying to understand why a res should be changed vs when it should be changed.
Two things driving this question - I have a 35 gallon res (28 gallons of nutes) in a 2' x 4' tent so that means 2-3 plants or 14-9 gallons per plant. With all of that nutrient water available to the plants, why would it need to be changed on the same schedule as, say, one plant in a 5 gallon pot?
It's a hassle to deal with 28 gallons of water and 28 gallons of nutes is not cheap, so I'm questioning exactly why do I need to change out the res every 7 days.
I appreciate peoples' thoughts on this.

Another way of looking at it would be - if you don't change your res on a set schedule, how can you tell it's time to change the res?

 

[Enjoil]

When shit starts growing in it then you wanna kick yourself in the head for being lazy and not cleaning your gear properly.... or every 7-10 days. You are talking about a recirculating system for a ebb and flow right?lol

 

[4u2envy]

105 gallon system here, im not planning to do any changes, only topup whit full strentgh of what they drinks. But im a pretty fresh grower, so better if some one else give you advice

 

[Buds Buddy]

Your nutes will get full of algae if you don't. Just in my little 1 gal. bubble cloner the water turns green in 7 - 10 days if I don't change it. That's with 2 ml. of Hydro Guard added to the water. Can you imagine all your roots turning green ?

 

[4u2envy]

Your nutes will get full of algae if you don't. Just in my little 1 gal. bubble cloner the water turns green in 7 - 10 days if I don't change it. That's with 2 ml. of Hydro Guard added to the water. Can you imagine all your roots turning green ?

How can it turn green whitout light?

 

[Buds Buddy]

How can it turn green whitout light?

Never thought about light causing it to be honest. So maybe, since cloning is new to me & I've been removing the lid a lot to check for roots.

 

[4u2envy]

Never thought about light causing it to be honest. So maybe, since cloning is new to me & I've been removing the lid a lot to check for roots.

For me, dumping 105 gallon whit ph perfect line is a big no. Algea aint building up, salts can though. Im using em one clayballs, that shoud prevent that issue, first try , time will tell

 

[Buds Buddy]

For me, dumping 105 gallon whit ph perfect line is a big no. Algea aint building up, salts can though. Im using em one clayballs, that shoud prevent that issue, first try , time will tell

When I did DWC I used Mega Crop because it was too expensive with other nutes. Ran about $10 total in nutes from start to finish. But I only did 3 - 5 gal. buckets & changed nutes every 7 - 10 days by swapping out the nute buckets.
But yours is equal to 21 - 5 gal. buckets so that's quite a bit more. Does your res. actually have to have 105 gallons or can you cut that down to 1/2 the amount ? I'm not sure how RDWC works since I didn't like all the work DWC required & went back to soil. I didn't like being tied to the house so I could check pH, water level & temps all the time. With soil, I can feed & take off for 2 - 3 days & not worry much at all. I like that convenience so I settle for a little less yield.

 

[4u2envy]

When I did DWC I used Mega Crop because it was too expensive with other nutes. Ran about $10 total in nutes from start to finish. But I only did 3 - 5 gal. buckets & changed nutes every 7 - 10 days by swapping out the nute buckets.
But yours is equal to 21 - 5 gal. buckets so that's quite a bit more. Does your res. actually have to have 105 gallons or can you cut that down to 1/2 the amount ? I'm not sure how RDWC works since I didn't like all the work DWC required & went back to soil. I didn't like being tied to the house so I could check pH, water level & temps all the time. With soil, I can feed & take off for 2 - 3 days & not worry much at all. I like that convenience so I settle for a little less yield.

8 totes and one controll bucket, one 220 liters whit flote. The totes is 60 , have around 35 l in each. Rdwc is less work then dwc, when its all set its easy. Big water volume gives much more stable ph

 

[Buds Buddy]

8 totes and one controll bucket, one 220 liters whit flote. The totes is 60 , have around 35 l in each. Rdwc is less work then dwc, when its all set its easy. Big water volume gives much more stable ph

That sounds like a pretty good set up. Do you have a journal going I can check out ?

 

[4u2envy]

Buds buddy....saw your grows now. Can only say wow! Impressive!!!

 

[4u2envy]

That sounds like a pretty good set up. Do you have a journal going I can check out ?

I hade a grow going, stopped that one couse i got cold feets, a new one and better is going as we speak. Sorry for jacking this thread

 

[4u2envy]

You can check me out at Introduce yourself. I maybe poste my new setup there

 

[Buds Buddy]

You can check me out at Introduce yourself. I maybe poste my new setup there

I'll take a look. Thanks.

 

[1ne eye]

When i was using the ph perfect nute i thought it said somyhing about they only stay in the perfect range for 7 days. Not sure but changed mine weekly. Ive heard of other people going much longer between changes but they didnt use the ph perfect line.

 

[Michael Hunt]

I can only speak from personal experience since i am on my 3rd DWC grow. But i doubt you'll be able to keep even 100+ gallons PH stable through out the life of an entire grow. Let alone 30-40gallons. No matter what nute line you use, I'm willing to bet none of them stay stable indefinitely.

What will likely happen (again, my amateur opinion). You will be fine with normal top offs for the first 7-10 days maybe longer. Eventually you will get a ph swing, up or down, and it will probably be big. It will likely require a good bit of buffer solution to get it back into a safe range. In turn raising your PPM. This will most likely happen a few times at least throughout a grow. If your newer, count on it happening more frequently. By the end, you'll have so much PH solution in there that you wont know how much is actual nutrients and how much is buffer. Its a whole lot easier to keep track of the amount of food in your bins if you are starting with a base line every 7-10 days.

If you were running a "drain to waste" style system then you could probably get away with never draining and refilling the res since the old water is either being used by the plants or, drained off. In recirculating, you are playing with every mistake you've made until you drain the system and refill.

Lets not even mention those "stoner mistakes" we all make from time to time. Grabbing the wrong bottle of something and adding ENTIRELY too much of it before realizing your mistake. Best to play it safe and refresh. If wasting too much water is an issue, maybe downsize the containers a bit.

Since nobody touched on the actual act of draining I'll add something there as well. You can hand pump it out using a siphon ball and hose like the ones used on outboard boat motors, i have a "liquid transfer pump" with a large handle. Or you could get a small sump style pump to drop in and suck it all out. I use gravity to drain through a hose attached to a fitting at the bottom of the res. You can also use a shop vac to suck out what can be pumped. I use mine to suck the water out of all the drain and feed lines as well when changing water. Takes all of 5 minutes and then just gotta drain the vacuum later.

Sorry all for the long rant.

 

[Enjoil]

Lets not even mention those "stoner mistakes" we all make from time to time. Grabbing the wrong bottle of something and adding ENTIRELY too much of it before realizing your mistake. Ha ha! Right! Whoops!

lol, I started using different colors buckets for nutrient solution. Cuz I have several different sets of plants all eating differently....

 

[Michael Hunt]

Lets not even mention those "stoner mistakes" we all make from time to time. Grabbing the wrong bottle of something and adding ENTIRELY too much of it before realizing your mistake. Ha ha! Right! Whoops!

lol, I started using different colors buckets for nutrient solution. Cuz I have several different sets of plants all eating differently....

Anything to keep it organized . I'd venture to guess it's the #1 challenge on here. Whether we would like to admit it or not Now where'd that damn lighter go!?

 

[4u2envy]

I can only speak from personal experience since i am on my 3rd DWC grow. But i doubt you'll be able to keep even 100+ gallons PH stable through out the life of an entire grow. Let alone 30-40gallons. No matter what nute line you use, I'm willing to bet none of them stay stable indefinitely.

What will likely happen (again, my amateur opinion). You will be fine with normal top offs for the first 7-10 days maybe longer. Eventually you will get a ph swing, up or down, and it will probably be big. It will likely require a good bit of buffer solution to get it back into a safe range. In turn raising your PPM. This will most likely happen a few times at least throughout a grow. If your newer, count on it happening more frequently. By the end, you'll have so much PH solution in there that you wont know how much is actual nutrients and how much is buffer. Its a whole lot easier to keep track of the amount of food in your bins if you are starting with a base line every 7-10 days.

If you were running a "drain to waste" style system then you could probably get away with never draining and refilling the res since the old water is either being used by the plants or, drained off. In recirculating, you are playing with every mistake you've made until you drain the system and refill.

Lets not even mention those "stoner mistakes" we all make from time to time. Grabbing the wrong bottle of something and adding ENTIRELY too much of it before realizing your mistake. Best to play it safe and refresh. If wasting too much water is an issue, maybe downsize the containers a bit.

Since nobody touched on the actual act of draining I'll add something there as well. You can hand pump it out using a siphon ball and hose like the ones used on outboard boat motors, i have a "liquid transfer pump" with a large handle. Or you could get a small sump style pump to drop in and suck it all out. I use gravity to drain through a hose attached to a fitting at the bottom of the res. You can also use a shop vac to suck out what can be pumped. I use mine to suck the water out of all the drain and feed lines as well when changing water. Takes all of 5 minutes and then just gotta drain the vacuum later.

Sorry all for the long rant.

3 dwc runs, and a Wall of text

U maybe right, but i know many growers that been ok whitout full change.

Check out Em1 muddballs
8)

 

[Michael Hunt]

3 dwc runs, and a Wall of text

U maybe right, but i know many growers that been ok whitout full change.

Check out Em1 mudballs
8)

Haha yeah man i have a tendency to ramble a little. I'll have to check that out. Would love to learn the secret to not dumping so much water. If such a secret in fact exists