Res changes

[Monty Bong]

Hi all, looking for some advice please.
I’m currently on my first hydro grow, running an OxyPot XL, about 2 weeks in. I’ve bought a submersible pump for when I need to change the res but I’m unsure on the following.

When I pump all the water out I’m still going to be left with puddles at the bottom and probably some residue that’ll need cleaning up before refilling. While the plants are in early veg I can simply remove the lid of the res with the plants still in it and I suppose place it above 2 buckets for the roots to sit in, but what do I do when they’re in flower and too big to move?


Is it essential that I remove every sing drop of water before refilling? Can I just leave the plants where they are, lift the edge of the lid, suck the old water out and re-fill.

Do I need to make up 70 ltrs of correct EC and PH ready to fill the res or can I just put plain water in then adjust PH, add feed, check EC?

How many res changes am I looking at doing from start to finish, I guess roughly based on 4 weeks veg 10 weeks flower?

I’ve noticed the hoses going to my air stones float, (obvious really, don’t take the piss I’m new to this!) later on are these going to get entangled with the root system? Do I need to be weighting them down with washers or nuts so they run along the bottom of the res?

Thanks in advance

MB

E2A forgot pic

[Farmer Geddon]

Any residue at the bottom can be ignored. Rinse it out between grows. If it really bugs you, change to nutes that don't have much residue.

Best to get everything correct before changing the res. That way, the roots only come into contact with nutes in the correct range.

Measure a length of string and that's how many res changes. There are workarounds. A common one, borrowed from fish keepers, is to replace 10% of the res every week. No full res change necessary. If that is not stable, then change more than 10% a week.

Duct tape will hold down airline in a res.

[Monty Bong]

Thank you once again Farmer G. Love your no nonsense approach to giving advice, accurate and to the point.

[enoki]

Hi all, looking for some advice please.
I’m currently on my first hydro grow, running an OxyPot XL, about 2 weeks in. I’ve bought a submersible pump for when I need to change the res but I’m unsure on the following.

When I pump all the water out I’m still going to be left with puddles at the bottom and probably some residue that’ll need cleaning up before refilling. While the plants are in early veg I can simply remove the lid of the res with the plants still in it and I suppose place it above 2 buckets for the roots to sit in, but what do I do when they’re in flower and too big to move?


Is it essential that I remove every sing drop of water before refilling? Can I just leave the plants where they are, lift the edge of the lid, suck the old water out and re-fill.

Do I need to make up 70 ltrs of correct EC and PH ready to fill the res or can I just put plain water in then adjust PH, add feed, check EC?

How many res changes am I looking at doing from start to finish, I guess roughly based on 4 weeks veg 10 weeks flower?

I’ve noticed the hoses going to my air stones float, (obvious really, don’t take the piss I’m new to this!) later on are these going to get entangled with the root system? Do I need to be weighting them down with washers or nuts so they run along the bottom of the res?

Thanks in advance

MB

E2A forgot pic

I have 2 submersible pumps in my 40 gal hydro reservoir. One pumps the nutrients to the plants, the other I use to empty the reservoir because, as you said, it's not good to be moving them once they're in flower.

When you're changing nutrients pump out as much as you can before refilling. I keep one side of my reservoir a little higher than the other so I can get as much out as possible. A little left in the reservoir won't make or break things. Add your nutrients as normal then adjust as needed. It doesn't effect my grows, but you have a smaller reservoir so be sure to get out what your pump can reach.

Don't worry about the tubes floating it won't hurt anything. You can pull them out after you harvest the plants

Good luck!

[enoki]

Oh yeah, how many changes of nutrient you need depends on a variety of factors like size of reservoir plant stage of growth, how big you want your plants, temperature. It's best to keep an eye on your numbers (pH, ppm, etc.) to determine when to change your reservoir.

In my experience, your pH may fluxuate during the nutrient uptake cycle, and when you top off the reservoirs with fresh water. It will settle out and generally stop moving once all the nutrients are used up. Nothing is left but waste at that point and you're probably a little past where you need to change nuts. I also keep an eye on the ppm and EC to get an idea of when the nutrients are used up. You'll see a pattern in your setup as you do it more often and it will just become second nature

[Monty Bong]

I have 2 submersible pumps in my 40 gal hydro reservoir. One pumps the nutrients to the plants, the other I use to empty the reservoir because, as you said, it's not good to be moving them once they're in flower.

When you're changing nutrients pump out as much as you can before refilling. I keep one side of my reservoir a little higher than the other so I can get as much out as possible. A little left in the reservoir won't make or break things. Add your nutrients as normal then adjust as needed. It doesn't effect my grows, but you have a smaller reservoir so be sure to get out what your pump can reach.

Don't worry about the tubes floating it won't hurt anything. You can pull them out after you harvest the plants

Good luck!

Oh yeah, how many changes of nutrient you need depends on a variety of factors like size of reservoir plant stage of growth, how big you want your plants, temperature. It's best to keep an eye on your numbers (pH, ppm, etc.) to determine when to change your reservoir.

In my experience, your pH may fluxuate during the nutrient uptake cycle, and when you top off the reservoirs with fresh water. It will settle out and generally stop moving once all the nutrients are used up. Nothing is left but waste at that point and you're probably a little past where you need to change nuts. I also keep an eye on the ppm and EC to get an idea of when the nutrients are used up. You'll see a pattern in your setup as you do it more often and it will just become second nature

Thank you enoki, that’s great. Hope it isn’t too long before it becomes second nature for me.

[sixsixsix]

I don't empty the reservoir unless pH stars going down rapidly, because that means something is wrong. When in need to change nute mix (e.g. going from veg to flower), I just let them uptake what's already inside, leaving maybe 10-15%, and top off with freshly mixed solution. By discarding the contents of the reservoir you are also discarding beneficial microbials inside, the effects of which can be particularly felt if using organic nutes. If pH is ok, and EC is not wild, why discard it? It will just unbalance little ecosystem inside. Bennies are the solution, not the problem
There is no way I would start a hydro grow again without adding bacteria&fungi powder. In that way I ensure that no baddies can populate the reservoir, regardless of the temperature, and that the waste is taken care of. Yeah, you get some residue at the bottom of reservoir, but it doesn't do any harm really.
From my experience, "non-sterile" system >>> "sterile" system, by a long shot. Quotes are here because hardly any system is perfectly sterile. You introduce all sorts of bacteria just by aeriating water.
Good luck with the grow!

[Monty Bong]

That’s interesting 666 thank you. Sounds like I was worrying over nothing. I had it in my head that when it comes to flowering, at some point I would have to dump the grow nute solution and refill with bloom nutes, but it does make sense to just let the level drop and then introduce bloom when the plants start showing pre-flowers, hopefully about a week after I flip them.

So ideally I could go the entire grow without doing a res change at all, but as this is my first hydro grow….unlikely.

Got this drill pump delivered today, hopefully won’t need it.



May have to find another use for it… Bong Competition possibly

[Blue61]

Hi all, looking for some advice please.
I’m currently on my first hydro grow, running an OxyPot XL, about 2 weeks in. I’ve bought a submersible pump for when I need to change the res but I’m unsure on the following.

When I pump all the water out I’m still going to be left with puddles at the bottom and probably some residue that’ll need cleaning up before refilling. While the plants are in early veg I can simply remove the lid of the res with the plants still in it and I suppose place it above 2 buckets for the roots to sit in, but what do I do when they’re in flower and too big to move?


Is it essential that I remove every sing drop of water before refilling? Can I just leave the plants where they are, lift the edge of the lid, suck the old water out and re-fill.

Do I need to make up 70 ltrs of correct EC and PH ready to fill the res or can I just put plain water in then adjust PH, add feed, check EC?

How many res changes am I looking at doing from start to finish, I guess roughly based on 4 weeks veg 10 weeks flower?

I’ve noticed the hoses going to my air stones float, (obvious really, don’t take the piss I’m new to this!) later on are these going to get entangled with the root system? Do I need to be weighting them down with washers or nuts so they run along the bottom of the res?

Thanks in advance

MB

E2A forgot pic

You want to add your nutes before you ph. The nutes usually drop the ph so you want to know what it is before you ph.

[bigbadbillybob]

change the nutrients out religiously every 7-10 days, unless you want a build up of salts and plant lock out issues.
dont worry about the hoses getting tangled in roots, theres nothing you can do about it really, the airstones will still work fine
And if the bit at the bottom of the res bothers you, cut an old milk carton at 45 degrees and use it to bail out the last little bit, but most dont bother.
also, avoid putting anything organic in there, unless you like problems.

just my 2p from using these systems for 10+ years