DWC questions.

[Tym]

I'm new to DWC, I'm used to dirt.. lol

Anyways, I'm wondering why you have to change the water every 1 - 2 weeks? Is it because the nutes get all used up? Or is it cause the water actually goes bad or something?

I'm asking cause I have my plants in there, they were put in as seedlings so the nutes were 1/4 strength. Now I'm about ready to bump it up to half strength, can I just add another 1/4 strength of nutes? Or is it recommended that I change the water out all together? And why? Thanks in advance guys!

 

[highsiden]

salt build up and plant waste........good luck on your grow

 

[Devildog93]

salt build up and plant waste........good luck on your grow

Bingo. Simple answer. lol

i wish you good luck as well.

 

[Tym]

Oh, cool.. Thanks. Didn't even think of that.. Lol. Not a problem with dirt hehe.. I like DWC so far, but so far, it's not as easy as dirt. Except when it comes to watering the plants

 

[Pipe Dream]

You now when u water your plants that dirty warter that comes out the bottom well DWC hno way of flushing. Also I imagine the PPM and ph would fluctuate as water and nutes are used up, never done it personally though.

 

[TaoWolf]

Generally you'd want to use an EC/ppm meter to monitor the solutions strength if you are going to add-in nutrients when topping off. And then only if your nutrient solution is pretty much completely spot-on with the ratios of the different elements that the plants are taking up... Otherwise it would just become a guessing game about how strong or weak the solution in the reservoir is the longer you go; or if any specific elements are being taken up at different rates resulting in some elements being deficient while others may not be - depending on how much the plant has consumed (or not consumed).

I've read of people that didn't do any reservoir changes or cleaning for the entire grow - but they all had things really well dialed-in w/ their nutrient lines and they used ppm meters to monitor... no personal experience trying it (I completely clean my buckets out weekly anyway, so I just replace the reservoirs totally).

 

[Tym]

Generally you'd want to use an EC/ppm meter to monitor the solutions strength if you are going to add-in nutrients when topping off. And then only if your nutrient solution is pretty much completely spot-on with the ratios of the different elements that the plants are taking up... Otherwise it would just become a guessing game about how strong or weak the solution in the reservoir is the longer you go; or if any specific elements are being taken up at different rates resulting in some elements being deficient while others may not be - depending on how much the plant has consumed (or not consumed).

I've read of people that didn't do any reservoir changes or cleaning for the entire grow - but they all had things really well dialed-in w/ their nutrient lines and they used ppm meters to monitor... no personal experience trying it (I completely clean my buckets out weekly anyway, so I just replace the reservoirs totally).

Awesome, thanks for the info man! +Rep for the help.