Question on putting water and nutes in DWC system

I have a 10 gallon DWC system I just bought and the company said i put 10 gallons of water in and the nutrients and then empty it after 7-10 days and put fresh water and nutes in. My question is, I have read on here where peole top off there tanks with fresh phed water like once a day to lower the ppm and also because the plants drink the water and it evaporates. The company said that was not nessacary. What do most people with DWC systems do?

Does anybody else use a DWC system and Do you top it off with regular water? or how is it supposed to be done?

Well thats what external reservoirs are for, to keep pumping in fresh water/nutes. You dont want to have to change the water in the aqauriums that often, would disturb the plants.

After reservoir runs dry, clean it out and put freshly mixed nutes/water in it. Make sure neither water in aquarium or reservoir is touched by light so you dont end up with algae.

I don't think the above guy is talking about DWC since bubblers don't use external reservoirs.

Here's what I do with a similar setup. Keep in mind I'm a newb and still learning but so far so good with excellent results thusfar in the last 6 weeks. I use GH nutes and the new lucas formula.

I use four 12.5 gallon rubbermaid tubs, each housing 3 plants for a total of 12. I have each plant in a 5" net cup, and a 5" round airstone under every plant. To make the nutrient solution, I put in 9 gallons of wal-mart distilled water in the tub. I then add 45 mL (5 mL/gal) of Micro, stir, then add 90 mL (10 mL/gal) of Bloom, stir, then add 9 mL of Superthrive, stir, 75 mL of Hygrozyme, stir, a pinch of roots oreganum XL, stir, then 6.5 mL of pH up, stir, and my pH and ppm come out to 5.6 and 610. My pH is constantly becoming more basic, and about once a day the pH goes over 6.0 and I'll adjust it back down to 5.5.

I started off thinking that weekly changes were the way to go but after researching I decided that it's not necessary to change the water that frequently (at least not for the early veg stage I'm in) and I now completely dump out the nute solution every 14 days and start over.

I top off with distilled water only, and adjust the pH as needed when I do so. I don't add nutes in between the 14 days unless total ppm goes below 500 in which case I usually toss in a few mL of Superthrive. When I didn't have roots coming through the net cups, I added a gallon of water every time the water level dropped below the bottom of the net cups. Now that there's lots of dangling roots I plan on letting them drink up and will add 2 gal of water once they've drank 2 gal to encourage further root growth.

Hope that helps.

BeverlyRollins69 said:

Here's what I do with a similar setup. Keep in mind I'm a newb and still learning but so far so good with excellent results thusfar in the last 6 weeks.

I use GH nutes and the new lucas formula.

I use four 12.5 gallon rubbermaid tubs, each housing 3 plants for a total of 12. I have each plant in a 5" net cup, and a 5" round airstone under every plant. To make the nutrient solution, I put in 9 gallons of wal-mart distilled water in the tub. I then add 45 mL (5 mL/gal) of Micro, stir, then add 90 mL (10 mL/gal) of Bloom, stir, then add 9 mL of Superthrive, stir, 75 mL of Hygrozyme, stir, a pinch of roots oreganum XL, stir, then 6.5 mL of pH up, stir, and my pH and ppm come out to 5.6 and 610. My pH is constantly becoming more basic, and about once a day the pH goes over 6.0 and I'll adjust it back down to 5.5.

I started off thinking that weekly changes were the way to go but after researching I decided that it's not necessary to change the water that frequently (at least not for the early veg stage I'm in) and I now completely dump out the nute solution every 14 days and start over.

I top off with distilled water only, and adjust the pH as needed when I do so. I don't add nutes in between the 14 days unless total ppm goes below 500 in which case I usually toss in a few mL of Superthrive. When I didn't have roots coming through the net cups, I added a gallon of water every time the water level dropped below the bottom of the net cups. Now that there's lots of dangling roots I plan on letting them drink up and will add 2 gal of water once they've drank 2 gal to encourage further root growth.

Hope that helps.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you are getting a good start in your DWC grow.
Got any pictures or a growlog?

I could be wrong, thats what my friend calls his setup lol. I dont do hydro.

xKaminAx said:

I could be wrong, thats what my friend calls his setup lol. I dont do hydro.

Click to expand...

The why do you hang out in the hydro forum giving bogus advice?

GROWFAQ

It appears SOME people do use external reservoirs. But I do apologize for trying to help.

Thanks for that info..that did help alot

i always top off with nuted water works good only if you are using well balanced nutes

i like general Hydroponics flora series


you need a ppm meter that will tell to put more nutes in if the ppms are dropping over a 24 - 48 hour period or if the ppm level is rising after 24 - 48 hours then u have too much in there

if the ppm level stays the same after a 24 - 48 hour period then u got the magic amount of nutes in there

^Definitely right about finding the equilibrium. That "magic level" for my plants in their 5th week of veg is 600.

I just keep topping off the resevior, however, I use lower than the recommended amount of fertilizer (about 2/3rds) and also run a a little higher pH (about 6.6). A little lower level of fertilizers is less of a hassle and the elevated pH protects against pH drop if the plants consume water out of the solution faster than expected.

Watch for the roots curling up, that along with spotted necrosis in the leaves is a sign that your pH is to low. If you're using the General Hydroponics brand of fertilizers, the solution will cloud up if the pH is to high.

I haven't used a TDS meter in about 10 years; the exact color of the solution can be used an an indicator of fertilizer levels.

EXACT COLOR LMAO GET EM EARL....

EXACT COLOR LMAO GET EM EARL....

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that if the solution is clear then the nutes are to low or if it's a deep pink then it's to high.

I am sure you can judge your nutes by the color.

You are a shaman

I don't believe in magic,
so I use a calculator,
Milwaukee, Hanna, and PinPoint.

Here is DutchMaster nutes at 70% or 1070ppm


Here is AN nutes at 600ppm, with Tarantula and Pirahna


And here is AN nutes at 800ppm with fulvic and sensizym


You have good eyes.

I'll keep using the meters.

and

If U Used Ppm And Ph Meters U Wouldnt Have To Wait For The Signs Of Something Wrong.

What I do is use a small clear plastic cup, draw in some solution and hold it up to a light and check the color. Keep in mind, however, I tend to run lower TDS levels and bump the pH slightly to avoid any problems. I've been doing this for 10 years now with no problems.

An interesting thing to keep in mind with TDS meters is that with different brands of fertilizers you can (and likely will) get different readings on a TDS meter for what may be the same true ppm levels. Different types of salts in the fertilizers will have different levels of conductivity in the solution and different manafactuers have different recipes. It's essentially pointless to have more than two significant digits of accuracy in these cheap TDS meters for this reason.

Thanks for your help. I love this site I guess I will start with my PPms low to start with and gradually work up until I see a slight tip burn then I will know my plants limits and back off the ppm. I would rather have no problems with low ppm instead of having problems with high ppm

Yeah, and one thing to note is that by running my pH at 6.5 and I can get away with lower TDS levels. Most people run around 5.5 but notice in the link to the chart below the nutrient avaliability levels for different salts (this is valid for both soil and soiless). By running at the optimal pH, particularily for phosphorus (most important for flowering), I can run my TDS levels at about 2/3rds what most people do and get the same results with no over fertilizing problems (important for taste).

Chart of the Effect of Soil pH on Nutrient Availability

....and this is what I'm talking about. This is water compared to the 2/3rds solution that I use. Any darker and I add water I I don't worry if it's a little lighter. After 10 years it's like using pH paper and not having to refer to the strip chart, as an analogy.