How often do I have to replace the water

A question from a fellow grower:

With the hydroponics system, 60 gallon tank, how often do I have to replace the water with 6 plants and LED lights in a tent?

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Some people never change a reservoir that big.

It is recommended that you change out you nutrient solution every 10-14 days.

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Late wood how sophisticated growing in hydro and scrogging ? My only concern is being able to drain the reservoir during the grow ? And where does the run off goes after dripping .

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What?, and What?

runoff either goes; Drip to watse, or drain to recirculate.

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Okay maybe I should speak more specific . I have a 5 gallon bucket DWC net basket set up , air pump , rock stone , and tubing . Now I’ve seen some on YouTube with the tubing on the side for measuring water levels and draining reservoir . My bucket setup don’t have that side tubing . But if I used that bucket , will I have to manually drain the bucket itself every ten days , or do use a complete separate reservoir to circulate and pump water into the bucket I have through a drip irrigation system sort of speak . I’m completely clueless on how to set up a hydro grow with a scrog screen , due to the fact I remove my plants every time I water or feed . I never leave runoff water inside catch pan after watering , to help prevent humidity especially in flowering . So basically I’m asking what would be idiot proof to start a hydro grow setup to maximize my growing techniques . The most I gotten out of 2 plant in my tent size was almost 11 oz , but if I was to hydro and scrogg I’ll definitely reach a full 1lb easy .

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Yoshi,your setup is the same as mine,it’s a stand alone system where you have to dump the whole bucket when you do a reservoir change,you can have a setup with a separate bucket for a reservoir but you will need to pipe it in to your grow bucket with pvc or tubing.also you could build your scrog screen off of the net pot bucket lid so when you need to change the reservoir you can lift the net pot lid off the bucket and the screen will move with it

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Thanks cash , I’ve never done hydro , until I can successfully grow in hydro , I cannot consider myself as a real grower . But over all , I’m gathering all the 1 liter bottles of the Advance Nutrient grandmaster level , and since it’s supposedly ph perfect , I believe I’ll have a better chance of succeeding in hydro with those nutrients . Now compared to my soil grow with 2 plants , I seen guys double my amount with one plant screen scrogged in hydro , so I must venture out and experiment until I get the hydro growing dialed in and completed from seed to harvest .

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Yea I’m trying to do the same,just started ny first hydro grow a week ago and I had all the same questions before I started.what I do is I have 2 buckets so when I need to change the reservoir I pull the net pot bucket lid up with all the roots and set it in a dry bucket while I clean the other bucket and change out my solution,I’m not Scrogging yet but I seen a guy build his off his bucket lid so it was really easy to do a nute change and check his ph or top off

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You have no idea how much extra work you are talking yourself into! All you have to do in order to easily replenish fresh nutrients, is to have a 2nd bucket. Make your nutrients in 2nd bucket, then when time to refresh nutes, take bucket top, plant, air stones and all, and transfer to 2nd bucket. This works for as many plants as you are growing. One 2nd bucket can be alternated throughout a grow room, until you have replenished all bubblers. K.I.S.S.

One final note on this tube idea. Some growers like this system. It takes a lot of tweaking. It is also hard to keep PH the same bucket to bucket.

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Yeah I figured it will be a whole new frustration curve , instead of learning . I’m gone need a few good bag seeds for this experiment . Don’t want to risk bought genetics of great quality on a whole new method of growing , just in case I fail tremendously . I have not yet killed a plant learning , but I have stress one to the point of one main leaf left , that took 3 months of spring to recover . I’m almost certain in hydro , that much stress it will die quickly . I’m still researching options . I did see a grow box that’s built for a perpetual hydro grow with lights , filters , reservoir , and drip irrigation , and built in controls , and they have support to help , but if I’m not mistaken the system was like $1499 call the roommate grow box . So before such big investment , I need to learn how to measure ppm , ph , and temps in a hydro reservoir . That’s why I’m considering advance nutrients ph perfect technology.

Yoshi you check ph,tds and temp the same way you do soil,make your solution up and then dip your pen in,nothing different besides checking it everyday

I’m getting ready to give a try , waiting for the rest of my advance nutrients grand master level to arrive , once I finished this soil run , I’m gone dive right in to the hydro scrog screen grow .

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That is a great system. Have not looked at those in a while, but if I had known how good a deal they were when I started, I would not have built all my systems…err, maybe. :smile:

There is no reason to be afraid of growing using hydroponics or any method, as long as you make a plan, and know what you need to get started.

You need:
OK. That hydrofarm.
‘A PH pen
A TDS pen ( I use a Milwaukee sm802 multi meter )’
PH down
A reverse Osmosis unit. (provides clean neutral water, and aloows you to know exactly what you are feeding your plants)
A nutrient system. Keep it simple.

If you can get your head around the idea of learning and following a few simple steps, and are willing to monitor your system daily; I have all the confidence in the world that we can have you growing large beautiful plants from here on out. :smile:

I’m willing to try , will I need some way of heating the water in winter ? Because I won’t be able to start until mid November . I should have some auto strains in the mail that have not made it yet , but it has not been 21 days to get concerned . I do have Roberts nutrients , I have 2 ph pens and TDS meter , with also the drop manual ph kit . My plan was to grow an auto if they make it with no hassles , and by first spring start a hydro run , one plant main lined , LST trained , and screen scrogged , since I only have room for one plant that would be that big . But I’ll let you know right before , and hopefully I can get a few instructions and go for it .

Trust me. If you get the things you need, apply patience, and a sound schedule, you will be able to grow quality “Meds”

I wish you luck with the winter grow. Keep your water in the 65-70 f range. :slight_smile:

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Hopefully it won’t be to hard in my small space , but yeah hopefully if I can control water temps , I’ll do fine I’m guessing .

60 gal is a bit extreme and my expertise is in coco but I have used dwc on numerous ocasions and if it has plenty of air and circulation once every three weeks is plenty as long as u use hydroguard and don’t over nute.

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I also am trying hydro myself. I have a single bubble bucket set up. I set mine up for about a week ( no plants ) to see how the PH and PPM did. No change.The only thing I did find was some slim. Is that what hydroguard helps with?

Also, I have always used rain water. PH and PPM was more stable. When I changed out the bucket to get it ready for the first grow I had to use Tap water (no rain in a mouth). I let set a couple of days. The PH was way off. Nice to have Hydro store near by, they had both PH and PPM Cal liquid. PH meter was .5 off and PPM was ok. Cal PH meter, now PH is ok. I am using General Hydroponics Nut mix. I have been using for some time in soil and worked good. They give you 5 mixings for the entire grow. With the rain water PH and PPM where right on. But with the tap water the PPM is low 412. I under it should be 500-600. Would Cal-Mag fix this? If not how do I get the PPM up.

I have a similiar question. I have a single water farm and the smaller reserviour from GH totalling 10 gal of nutrients and a 13 gallon fresh water reservoir for a single plant. I was also planning to use pH stabilized nutrient solutions.

Im trying make as low maintanence system as possible.    The priority is lowering the maintance  and noise  levels over yields.      

What the maximum amount of time between water changes? If possible I was hoping to do three total flushes, one for each phase, And starting the seedling with plain water.

Thoughts ?

Also I’m looking for a quieter pump, not happy with the noise the kit came with. Recommendations are appreciated.

hi when i change the water? what do you recommend for a cleaning agent? for example should i use dish soap, rubbing alchol, do i just dry the the reservoir with a paper towel and call it good? thankyou