How often to clean out res and change nutes

[refer24]

Hi all was wondering how long you can use your nutes for.

 

In my dwc [20lt bucket] i change every 7 days

 

But was wondering if i could stretch my feed to waste 20ltr res changes out a bit more as its only feeding 1 plant in 50L of clay balls 5 times a day.

Thought 2 weeks atleast but im unsure

 

Any thoughts would be great.cheers

[bufo marinus]

Rule of thumb in my opinion change your nutes out when you've topped the res back up with half the res volume with water(low nutes if you know what your doing)

If the water is oxygenated enough and your using good quality nutrient suited to a recycling hydro system, depending on the size of your res you could get up to a month before a res change.

Edited December 13, 2012 by bufo marinus

[refer24]

I add nutes every few days when the ec level drops

[bufo marinus]

Depends what your aiming for I guess, some people like to fine tune the amount of nutes to be as economical as possible and as you'd be aware by now the dwc method chews through the nutrient so the 'replace after 1/2 the res in fresh water has been added' idea is one way of achieving that.

Sounds like your handy with the EC stick and mixing nutes correctly so keeping the nutrient at a constant EC of around 1.0 seems to be where it's at as your no doubt aware... with the temps at 20 - 22'C via a decent water chiller,... this is what dwc growing does to you though it's bloody addictive, heaps rewarding.

I reckon the plants do better with the system up and running by itself for a couple weeks, to rid the water of chlorine etc and more importantly build up natural bacteria, which sort of eliminates the need for the expensive 'healthy bacteria' additives... run it for a couple weeks with veg nutrient, add the plants, they should settle quickly, a week later dump most, not all, of the solution and change to flower nutes refilled with bubbled, chlorine free water. The existing healthy bacteria will have the solution up to healthy bacterial strength in no time. That mix will last 4 weeks, topped up with only fresh water. Change out the same way and the next mix will last another 4 weeks. You'll see how long the nutrient is lasting by the health of the leaf, no blotches means the nutrient is going the distance.

 

[nici]

Healthy looking clones there bufo

[refer24]

once my dwc plant is finished ill be keeping with the feed to waste system untill it cools back down again.

 

I run my feed to drain at 1.8 ec atm sounds like it will be right to change every 2 weeks instead of everyweek.

Yea i run dwc at 1.0 ec but dont have a chiller will just wait till its winter

[merl1n]

Hey Reefer,

I go recirc in 50ltr perlite and clayballs. I top up me resi daily, first water then check EC then top up the nutes then check EC and pH.

I flush each fortnight. So I dump the nute (on the wife's herb garden) Refill my resi with straight water, check the pH and let the system run for an hour or so. Dump that and repeat till my salts are around 0.4. Refill my resi, dose with nute and check EC and pH. Good for another fortnight with daily top ups.

 

Thats wot I do

 

Merl1n

[Naycha]

With DWC I have done weekly res changes, and I have also topped up with nutrients throughout the whole grow cycle only emptying the system out when changing to flower nutes, when adding pk 13/14, and when doing the final flush.

 

I prefer the latter method or similar.

 

Naycha

[nici]

I just do a weekly res change and fortnightly flush. Not too concerned with how long I can go between res changes.

[refer24]

Hey Reefer,

I go recirc in 50ltr perlite and clayballs. I top up me resi daily, first water then check EC then top up the nutes then check EC and pH.

I flush each fortnight. So I dump the nute (on the wife's herb garden) Refill my resi with straight water, check the pH and let the system run for an hour or so. Dump that and repeat till my salts are around 0.4. Refill my resi, dose with nute and check EC and pH. Good for another fortnight with daily top ups.

 

Thats wot I do

 

Merl1n

 

Cheers guys

 

Merl thats basicly exactly what i was doin but changing nutes every week.When you say recirc is that much diff to feed to waste?

 

Thanks