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Thread: RDWC & How and when to change water

  1. #1

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    Default RDWC & How and when to change water

    Hi, Im new to the hydroponics system and my plan was to change the water every week. I have a rdwc system. I have an issue though with changing the water out. I can drain about 80 percent of the water through the resivoir but it still leaves a lot of water in the buckets themselves.I would say if you add up the six buckets it probably has a total of a gallon left over or more that i cannot get out. The new water would obviously come in and rinse it out but that would be left over residue from the old water before. Would this be ok if i can not get this water out? and continue to do the water change with this left over water at the bottom of the buckets. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!

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    What is your total system capacity? Generally you want to top it off daily. Once you have added your starting amount, time to do a res change. Example, if your system has 6 plants, 10 gallon res, 5 gallon buckets and plumbing, you have about 45 gallon capacity. Once you have topped your system off with 45 gallon of water and extra nutrients, dump it all and redo it. I dont see 6 plants using 45 gallons of water every week.

    Another example is my system. It has 6 netpots in a single 30 gallon tote. I made the batch of nutrients on August 29th. I have only had to add around 14 gallons of ro water total so far. I keep my ppms low, so im topping off more frequently than others.

    As to the water left in the buckets, its fine. Just make sure you get all the sediments out of it before you top it off, if there is any.

    I wont ever dump and refill my entire system due to having a larger holding capacity. I can veg for 2 months with this tote by simply topping it off. I can also flower for 2 months in my new system since it has almost triple the capacity of my veg.

    Think of it this way, the larger your system capacity the less you have to do res changes. If you were in solo dwc buckets, you would be dumping and changing weekly during flower due to plant uptake, yet since your rdwc, you dont need to.

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    whoa this is way more confusing than i thought. Is there any where on here that will describe how these things work

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cashmeh View Post
    What is your total system capacity? Generally you want to top it off daily. Once you have added your starting amount, time to do a res change. Example, if your system has 6 plants, 10 gallon res, 5 gallon buckets and plumbing, you have about 45 gallon capacity. Once you have topped your system off with 45 gallon of water and extra nutrients, dump it all and redo it. I dont see 6 plants using 45 gallons of water every week.

    Another example is my system. It has 6 netpots in a single 30 gallon tote. I made the batch of nutrients on August 29th. I have only had to add around 14 gallons of ro water total so far. I keep my ppms low, so im topping off more frequently than others.

    As to the water left in the buckets, its fine. Just make sure you get all the sediments out of it before you top it off, if there is any.

    I wont ever dump and refill my entire system due to having a larger holding capacity. I can veg for 2 months with this tote by simply topping it off. I can also flower for 2 months in my new system since it has almost triple the capacity of my veg.

    Think of it this way, the larger your system capacity the less you have to do res changes. If you were in solo dwc buckets, you would be dumping and changing weekly during flower due to plant uptake, yet since your rdwc, you dont need to.

    Hey thanks man for your reply. So Im understanding this correctly your saying once I fill up the buckets and the res with water I shouldn't have to ever fully drain the whole system and add new 45 gallons for example. I jus top off whatever water i lost to 45 gallons

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    Quote Originally Posted by Cashmeh View Post
    What is your total system capacity? Generally you want to top it off daily. Once you have added your starting amount, time to do a res change. Example, if your system has 6 plants, 10 gallon res, 5 gallon buckets and plumbing, you have about 45 gallon capacity. Once you have topped your system off with 45 gallon of water and extra nutrients, dump it all and redo it. I dont see 6 plants using 45 gallons of water every week.

    Another example is my system. It has 6 netpots in a single 30 gallon tote. I made the batch of nutrients on August 29th. I have only had to add around 14 gallons of ro water total so far. I keep my ppms low, so im topping off more frequently than others.

    As to the water left in the buckets, its fine. Just make sure you get all the sediments out of it before you top it off, if there is any.

    I wont ever dump and refill my entire system due to having a larger holding capacity. I can veg for 2 months with this tote by simply topping it off. I can also flower for 2 months in my new system since it has almost triple the capacity of my veg.

    Think of it this way, the larger your system capacity the less you have to do res changes. If you were in solo dwc buckets, you would be dumping and changing weekly during flower due to plant uptake, yet since your rdwc, you dont need to.
    One more question Im using aqua flakes from house and garden where there chart is based on adding nutes every week. How would I go about doing this if the res never fully gets empty and Im not starting from a fresh res?

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    Some dwc growers borrow a trick from aquarium keepers and change 10% of the res volume once a week.

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  13. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Farmer Geddon View Post
    Some dwc growers borrow a trick from aquarium keepers and change 10% of the res volume once a week.
    It really helps prevent full res changes, I suggest doing this too.

    To his question, yes if ur system holds 45 gallon, rule of thumb is your allowed to top off the system with up to 45 gallon.

    It should be a per gallon additive. If you had to top off your batch with 2 gallons, well add 2 gallons worth of nutrients, it's not all half the suppliers recommended dose.

    I added 5 gallon to my system the other day and only put in about 1/6th the nutrients I did when I first made the batch.

    You will first top off with water, then add nutrients until you reach you target ppm. Then ph the entire thing again.

    Good luck sir

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