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TheFrizz
Well-Known Member
Thanks guys!
Yes Latitude, I do use city tap water, and I will tell you guys my secret....I use crushed up Vitamin C tablets to neutralize the chlorine in the water (250 mg per 5 gallons, overkill but I hate chlorine with a passion
). As far as avoiding root root, well, it started off as sheer laziness. I delayed a nute change in my first grow and nothing bad happened!! So then I thought...what if I go another week without changing the water? Just topping off with what was needed. Maybe another week? etc etc...Surely the dreaded "root rot" will show up at some point.... but it never did!
Why can I go months without changing the res and not get root rot? First off, bacteria and fungi are EVERYWHERE, trying to keep a perfectly sterile res is not realistic for most growers nor beneficial for plant development. Getting root rot just means the "bad guys" are winning the war in the res. Therefore, the solution is to simply introduce massive amounts of the kind of bacteria and other critters that feed on root rot and have a mutualistic relationship with the plant.
My first grow I used Hydroguard, this grow I am using Great White. Now, I can't say for sure that these products prevented root rot, because I haven't done a side by side.
But I CAN say that I have done everything "bad" that is supposed to result in root rot: res temps in the 80s and 90s (1st grow), not changing out res for weeks/months (all grows), adding organic matter to the res (current grow), touching the roots with my hands (ooh la la!), the list goes on and on... and never had problems with root rot. 
Now to be fair, at the times when my plants show stress, I have done partial res changes to restore balance to the res. I did this after adding way too much humic acid the 1st time this grow, and the pH got up to 7 ish. The plants were literally turning yellow. So I removed 5 gallons from the res and replaced it with 5 gallons at a pH to bring the res back down to ~6.
But if the plants are growing well and the roots are healthy, I can find no compelling reason to flush the res. Especially considering, you have this beautiful culture of friendly bacteria built up, this army defending your plants roots. In many aquarium setups it can take weeks for a really solid bacteria culture to take hold. Why would you want to flush all those valuable troops down the drain? Not to mention saving money on nutes, and manual labor of hauling buckets and the pollution from dumping nutes.
Also, I don't know if this affects the roots but it certainly helps with the top growth in terms of mold prevention: The relative humidity in my grow tent ranges between 30-40% which is pretty low. This helps prevent moisture accumulation in the canopy and keeps away nasty things like powdery mildew.
So yeah, let me know if you guys have any more questions. Like I have said before, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". But definitely keep a watchful eye and be ready to swoop in if needed. Think of it like parenting
very poetic, I will have to re-read it tonight after a 
) You just need lots of oxygen, so that there is no deadly algae growing in your reservoir. We got so dirty and over fertilized (read too much detergent and shit from house waste) reservoir, dead fish everywhere. They tried to dug out the mud and put lime on top. That helped for a while. They solved it with hoses of air bubbling under the water. Oxygen is the key I think. I'm with you on the microscope, it is such a pleasant thing to have. Especially some decent one even for both eyes. I want to build a kind of a fountain for oxygenating my water, with a venturi injector to suck in some air. Some fancy laboratory glass or homemade thingy. That would be just pure awesomeness. You can make living hydroponics with fish tank. I was also thinking about some kind of mineralizing water cycle system, where you make yourself small mountain creek with rocks and very soft (low ppm) water. That way you can get your P and K (plus all the other elements) into the water (not so soft after awhile) and the N just comes from fishpoop. So you can have your water and nutrients in natural cycle and have the plant inside with the desert lights 
Well, I inspected everything and noticed that her drain tube was pinched off, which means that nutes are going in, but not draining out. This means her ppm was continuously rising and causing nutrient accumulation and lockout as a result. The drain tube probably kinked when I was moving around the buckets to clean the floor of the tent. 
