Hydroponics newbie question

My first attempt at hydroponics seems to be going well. I am using a 5 gallon bucket DWC system that does not have a reservoir. I seriously underestimated how fast things grow with this system and ended up with one plant almost entirely filling up a 36"x20"x60" grow tent. It seems to drink up about a quarter to half gallon of water daily which I replace daily. My question is how often should I replace the water entirely with a fresh mix of nutrients given that it is flowering now and it is that size?

Your question has several correct answers,some growers change their rez as often as every 5 days while others never change the rez & simply top off the water daily & adjust npk levels as they go.

Im on a break from growing flood & drain right now but when i was still running the tables i used 50 gallon rez's,the 1st few yrs i cleaned & changed all 50 gallons in the rez every 7 days & had fantastic growth.

As yrs drug on i got lazy & started changing out all 8 rez's every 14 days, health wise the plants were perfect but i did notice roughly a 10%-15% weight loss at harvest from topping off the rez's with guesstimated nutes vs a total rez change every 7 days with perfect npk ratio nutes.

So you see you can change the rez as much or little as you like but for best harvest weights your best off doing a total rez change once a week,im starting back up soon & promised myself i'll stop being lazy & dump the rez's every 7 days to max harvest weights.

thetester said:

My first attempt at hydroponics seems to be going well. I am using a 5 gallon bucket DWC system that does not have a reservoir. I seriously underestimated how fast things grow with this system and ended up with one plant almost entirely filling up a 36"x20"x60" grow tent. It seems to drink up about a quarter to half gallon of water daily which I replace daily. My question is how often should I replace the water entirely with a fresh mix of nutrients given that it is flowering now and it is that size?

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Best advise on this - buy a EC / PPM meter so you know what your nutrient levels are at any given time. This way you know how much plain water or nutrient solution to add.

There is no right answer on when to change the reservoir solution, only the right answer for your style. I've seen people change every 7 days, every 14 days and I've seen a few that never change the reservoir, they just add/adjust nutrients based on the reading from the EC/PPM meter.

I'm a newbie too I been changing and cleaning my res every 7 days. I don't have an EC meter so If it used a gallon of water I add a gallon of water with however much nutes 1 gallon would be and mix less than that in the gallon and added it that way. This was suggested by a member on here bc I don't have a meter. Other people said just top off with tap water and when change your res start fresh. I'm at 33 days in veg and feel they are responding better and growing like crazy when I top off with the nutes. Seems like there is no right or wrong just gotta feel the babies out and don't over feed. I have no nute burn or lock out as long as my pH is on point. EC meter seems to be the best but funds are low

Thanks for the information everyone. Unfortunately, a meter isn't in the budget at the moment. I've been using a liquid ph test kit for fresh mixes.

If your doing hydro, no reason not to have one, here under $8 and free shipping if in the US (assuming since you used inches)

http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Tester-Quality-Purity-Filter/dp/B007VK4YY0/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1417653426&sr=8-7&keywords=tds+meter

Being new to Hydro, I also hate dumping my solution after a week. Been letting it go 10-14 days if my ph/ppm stay at reasonable levels, and have had no slime issues.

panhead said:

As yrs drug on i got lazy & started changing out all 8 rez's every 14 days, health wise the plants were perfect but i did notice roughly a 10%-15% weight loss at harvest from topping off the rez's with guesstimated nutes vs a total rez change every 7 days with perfect npk ratio nutes.

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Been there, got a t-shirt.

thetester said:

Thanks for the information everyone. Unfortunately, a meter isn't in the budget at the moment. I've been using a liquid ph test kit for fresh mixes.

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Once you have a GOOD meter ($200 min) you will wonder why you ever messed with strips.

At least once every two weeks. Although ive had a situation where my plants were drinking 3 to 4 gallons every 2 days so i never had to empty them out because theyd just drink it all lol

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