Oh damn, I don’t think it’s worth it in my case to use such a large bucket. I’m using a 4.5litre bucket with one plant, I will change to a bigger one since she’s getting bigger every day. But if I use a 10 litre bucket for example do I need to change the water every week?
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I would change out every week to week and a half no matter the size of the reservoir
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This is important to know because as that plant grows and begins to consume more PH fluctuations can happen very quickly in small buckets.
That’s true, is a 10 liter bucket enough you think? And what type of water you use?
This is the basic reason that people eventually either turn away from or never try hydro to begin with.
The hope is that they can find something that is self sustaining for longer than a day or two but when they find out that they will always have to be adjusting and checking PH the tendency is too shy away from it.
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Sorry, I have trouble wrapping my mind around metric numbers.
In my experience anything less than 4 gallons and you could have massive PH fluctuations overnight.
I personally would not go any less than three gallons, how many litres is that? 12? I think you will be happier with 4 gallons or more if your looking for stability.
As far as the water I use? I use tap. Now I let it sit out for about a week to a week and a half with a bubbling airstone in it, this helps remove the chlorine the city adds. As soon as I do a reservoir change, I fill 5 gal buckets up with more tap water and begin the bubbling process. When the time comes for another reservoir change, my water is sitting there ready to go.
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You will need to get somebody else that has grown in something this small, personally, I don’t think you will ever find PH stability over any length of time with this setup, especially once your plant gets bigger.
I do want you to know there could be a way to do this successfully, idk, but from my experience I feel like I would always be wrestling with PH here.
4 gallons would be 15 liters, I bought a distiller machine but I’m having doubts if it is worth it to use. It makes 1 liter an hour but then of course I need to add back calmag, and the one I use (sensei calmag) you must add 2ml per liter, do you know about another brand of calmag which is more potent thus reducing the dosage to use? I can’t use tap water in my country, the ppm is around 950 out of tap 
Wow, holy smokes. Ya that distiller will probably come in handy unless you have another source of good water somewhere.
Do some reading on Epsom salts. I always use cal mag so I don’t know Epsom salt dosages per liter, but it’s an alternative to cal mag
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1 more thing I do. My PH normally will only fluctuate one direction, and if I know my target range which for hydro is 5.6-5.9 depending on who you talk to, I can use this information to determine what part of my target range I want to adjust my PH to.
If my PH is always dropping, then I will make my PH adjustments towards the top end of my target range and sometimes taking it just past it, say to a 5.98, that way, as it fluctuates it has to go completely across your target zone.
If you PH to a 5.65 then when it fluctuates it will quickly be out of your target range.
Of course this is only a viable option if your fluctuations are predictable in the directions they will fluctuate
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This won’t get rid of all 950ppm but it can lower it substantially
Brita Large 10 Cup Grand Water Pitcher with Filter - BPA Free - Violet
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I also seen a thread on here about removing fluoride, I’ve never done this and never noticed my plants being affected negatively from fluoride.
Checked my pH again both with the Apera meter and the drops, it’s stuck to 5.2, that’s the main cause of problem I’m having, tomorrow I go buy a 4 gallon bucket. I have one exactly like that my dad co-workers have it to him yesterday hahaha, is it any good didn’t have time to open it yet.
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A deficiency can look like an excess in hydro as well but it all comes down to ph.
The only way you can achieve stability is to change the alkalinity of the medium instead of the ph. As the plant is consuming and depositing minerals, changing the solution, this will always be a running target. The larger the reservoir the better. Hydro nutes are supposed to be somewhat buffered to hold near a target ph so it might be worth a chemistry experiment.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Compact-Reverse-Osmosis-Aquarium-Tropical/dp/B00A4EP2BO/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8 What do you guys think is it worth it?
Will definitely change the bucket to a larger one. He’s right, I was amazed how it went down to 5.2 pH damn
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@Laqwanies, the R/O unit ought to work but perhaps standard filtration will work for you. If a large component of your water hardness is temporary hardness it’s more than likely calcium sulfate or gypsum. It might actually act as a buffering agent…
A lot of hydro guys have a reservoir for exactly this reason. It can be as simple as a large cooler and a pump. This would help hugely.
Most of my tap water tds is limestone and iron, I contacted the local company to confirm that, even when I open the distiller machine it smells literally iron and the walls are covered with limestone. The total ppm is 1300, that’s ridiculous, shame on my water treatment facility
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What country you live in?
I can’t specifically say due to safety reasons (not legal here) but in Europe
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