Measuring nutes intake?

you use a meter, ppm or ec. if ppm goes up the plants are taking more water than nutes, back nutes down 20%. if ppm goes down plants are taking more nutes than water, add more nutes in 10% increments. the key is to find the sweet spot where ppm stays even as plants use the mix.

When you have filled your system to the amount you want, record everything. I will use 500ppm for a figure. Now, tomorrow, when you top up your system to the same level with water, take a measurement and record everything again. This will give you the true reading of what your plants are doing. Once topped up, if you get a reading of 460ppm, it will then tell you your plants uptake was ~40ppm! Not rocket science by any means, and letting the ppm's and PH drift a bit is a good thing if you ask me.

PPM before and after

Originally Posted by drolove

PPM before and after

This tells him what exactly? Troll much?

Originally Posted by ^Slanty

When you have filled your system to the amount you want, record everything. I will use 500ppm for a figure. Now, tomorrow, when you top up your system to the same level with water, take a measurement and record everything again. This will give you the true reading of what your plants are doing. Once topped up, if you get a reading of 460ppm, it will then tell you your plants uptake was ~40ppm! Not rocket science by any means, and letting the ppm's and PH drift a bit is a good thing if you ask me.

Make sure you check tapwater ppm, if its anything like mine you could be fooled into thinking the ppm is rising when its actually falling. Not a problem if you`re using r/o.

Originally Posted by Atomizer

Make sure you check tapwater ppm, if its anything like mine you could be fooled into thinking the ppm is rising when its actually falling. Not a problem if you`re using r/o.

Not true. What ever your tap water is, mine is ~200ppm, is the base line! So, for me to run 500ppm in my system, I must keep it at ~700ppm. Now, when that number fluctuates, it is still based on my 200ppm base line! So even though I am adding water that is 200ppm, it does not matter. If it did, I would be seeing huge deficiencies in my plants, because I haven't changed the res in over 3 weeks and have been keeping my ppm's close to 700 and they are growing like mad!

You are trying to measure the elements that you are actually adding to your solution and the plant is consuming. Granted, the plants will use some of the stuff in your water, but by you topping up with that same water, those ppm's will just level back out to what you started at!(for me ~200ppm) Get my drift?