How often to check and rebalance reservoir?

[OLAK]

Recently gave up soil growing after a disastrous grow with crappy bag soil I bought, washed my plants roots off and plunked them into dwc tubs. Now things are growing awesome! I love being able to test nute levels and determine ph. So much more definite and exact than soil. The scientist in me loves it lol
I have changed water once and am wondering how often to test and rebalance ph and nutes+ water level? I seem to be good for a couple days at this point. Will it likely get to the point that I need to test every day? What can I expect?

 

[Bill284]

Recently gave up soil growing after a disastrous grow with crappy bag soil I bought, washed my plants roots off and plunked them into dwc tubs. Now things are growing awesome! I love being able to test nute levels and determine ph. So much more definite and exact than soil. The scientist in me loves it lol
I have changed water once and am wondering how often to test and rebalance ph and nutes+ water level? I seem to be good for a couple days at this point. Will it likely get to the point that I need to test every day? What can I expect?

Good morning @OLAK hope you are well.
From what I have read members monitor their mix daily.
I know a hydro guy ill call and he can give you the better idea what to do.
@Rexer good morning. What do you recommend for this gentleman?
Bill

 

[Stoned Ape]

So u have a pH and EC pens.

 

[Ycfro]

Good morning, I've been running a RDWC set up for a couple years now, and i'm lovin it.. My setup holds just shy of 25 gallons, with a 25 gallon tote that will add water to the system using a float valve.
Once I get my PH and PPM where I want it and the system is full, I fill the "feeder" tote with 25 gallons of R/O water,(so this water is diluting my mixture as the plants use it) once the plants use all or most of the that fresh R/O water it time to change and re do everything.
I do use a water monitoring system, so all readings that i need are on the screen 24/7, I generally change everything once a week.

 

[bluenoserjoe]

My system is a little smaller. I run four plants in a five gallon recirculating system. I change out the res. once a week and do a ph check daily, twice a day during late veg and through to late flowering. With four plants feeding from that little water you have to be vigilant. Years ago I ran two hundred plants with a five hundred gallon res. recirc. system, exact same procedure.

 

[Rexer]

Yup RDWC is much easier to maintain (less lifting), and if you like hydro- it's not a huge build to go the extra step and plumb in an external reservoir (will also allow to add a chiller if desired).

I've never done straight DWC, however I'd check at least once daily. Do a PH and EC/PPM check and adjust if needed. This chart is a excellent guide.

Once every 7-10 days dump out and reset.

 

[sneekymofo]

Excellent chart @Rexer! If you top off freshwater you don’t have to do much, imo other than pump and dump every 7-10 days. I run a RDWC at 40 gallons or so and it takes at least a week with 4 plants to get ‘out of whack’ unless I’ve got something else going on. I generally test a lot at first, then ‘test with my eyes’ looking for signs of stress but generally don’t test regularly unless I see a need for it. It’s more of a comfort thing for me

 

[Smokey0418]

If you have it perfect which a lot of people struggle with then you may be able to go days.
But in a perfect world one would want to keep there ph in check and if that’s not perfect each time then definitely a rebalance would be in you best interest to keep it in the zone , unless of coarse you into throwing your nutes and water away each week.