Complete reservoir changes

Just curious as to when, and why you make complete res changes! Any info., thoughts, ideas, etc. are welcome.

ive heard res changes every coupler weeks!! not-so dirty um and for what its worth you res is the $$$maker at the end nail that and lighting ventilation temps/humidity etc you'l be in for a treat!!

depends on how there doing...
never more than 10 days between changes
if they are huge and numerous then every 7 days or sooner

I'm an organic Bubblehead and I get away with changing my buckets (rezes) every two weeks.

Longer than that and there is just too much organic matter build up along the bottom for the airstones.

Ok, so you all feel they are necessary but no particular reason other than possibly sediment affecting airstone operations.

meh i read an article/thread once explaining how important it is.. it had fair reason something to do with foods breaking down etc..

To a new hydro user every week would be best, then once you have a stable res IE nutes good air you can go
Every 2weeks

I change out my reservoir when I have replaced just over half my water . In my case , I use 16 gallons .... so I replace when I have replaced about 10 gallons.By doing this , my reservoir stays clean . No build up of any kind in my pumps , hoses , ect. I also know that my nutes will always be fresh so as bad as it might seem , a neewbee like me doesn't really need any meters except a PH meter. ( drops ). It might cost me a few more dollars a year but I don't have any problems with build up , bugs , spider mites , mold , or feeding defiencies. Just a clean room and big fat buds.

Well said bru!

Hmm, my flower res hasn't been changed in 6 weeks and the girls are doing fine.

Dadio hit the nail on the head. Plants use different nutes at different stages. So if you have a few older plants feeding along with newer ones of the same res, the bigger/older plants are going to steal all the valuable nutes (nitrogen/mag/cal) If you start out with say a ppm of 900, then after a few days your water levels drop 2 gal and your ppm is at 1100, you add 2 gal of water to bring your res to level and your ppm is now say 750. After a couple of days doing this your res has barely any usable nutes at all. Your ppm's are just that of whatever is in your water (calcium, iron, etc) Rule of thumb is what Dadio said, when you add half your res in water time to change.

I too have same problem, After initial setup cost, all your hard earned money goes to nutes. I'm trying something new with mine for this very problem. I have a 10 gal res, Every couple days I add a gal of water to keep levels optimal. About a week into or after I added about 6 gal water I let res level drop to 5 gal then add 5 gal of fresh nutes at 75% of original strength. I still completely change my res about every 3-4 weeks but I am saving money. I dont suggest this, Its something im trying. But I also use H2O2 and I know that has something to do with it

25 years away said:

Just curious as to when, and why you make complete res changes! Any info., thoughts, ideas, etc. are welcome.

Click to expand...

I change mine about once a week. The reason being that when i fill it up, i let them drink it down to about an inch, to hell with daily topping up, and at that point it's easier to just dump and start fresh than to faff about with an ec meter. In terms of my veg times related to other folk with the same cut, i seem to get exceptional yields so i never bothered to change my method.

If you top off and adjust TDS levels daily the only risk you incur is a concentration of one or more element (as long as you don't have any nasty shit growing in your res). TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids so if your girls are using one element more than another you could have a buildup. My first grow went 12 weeks and I only changed the res once and got a good yield. Would have had more if I wasn't such a noob lol. Canopy control is of the utmost importance!

I change my res when my ph starts to drift,keep res temps below 70 deg. and lots of bubbles,its usually around 2 weeks or so before I have to change it out

I normally go 2 weeks.

800w dwc, res change when i switch to flowering, would prolly do it more often if i wasnt so poor

I change my rez's every 2-3 weeks.
I top off with tap water as needed then adjust ph.
The reason is like what Eternalghost said
you can get bad ratio's causing lock outs and
dead plants.

If you are tired of spending stupid amounts of money
on nutrients, Dynagro (nod to Homebrewer)
and the GH Maxi Series, both are
mad cheap and go forever.
Ionic ain't to shabby either.

Eternalghost said:

I too have same problem, After initial setup cost, all your hard earned money goes to nutes. I'm trying something new with mine for this very problem. I have a 10 gal res, Every couple days I add a gal of water to keep levels optimal. About a week into or after I added about 6 gal water I let res level drop to 5 gal then add 5 gal of fresh nutes at 75% of original strength. I still completely change my res about every 3-4 weeks but I am saving money. I dont suggest this, Its something im trying. But I also use H2O2 and I know that has something to do with it

Click to expand...

Use cheaper and more efficient nutes

All hail the search button. It took a while but my question has been answered.