NeonTetra
Member
Hey all,
Wanted to share a technique I've found to be very useful. I'm a little lazy when it comes to keeping track of my numbers, so I made a spreadsheet to help. This spreadsheet also acts as a calculator, telling me how many nutrients to add to obtain a desired TDS.
This spreadsheet can certainly be used as-is, but really it ought to be modified to suit your purposes. In my personal spreadsheet I keep track of my reservoir temperature and water depletion rates as well. Also in this spreadsheet I'm using the GH Flora series plus CalMag and Armor Si. You can change those in the spreadsheet to be whatever you like.
I'm sharing a trimmed down version that focuses only on the formulaic fields, and only has one week of entries available. You can copy-and-paste that first week to however many weeks you'd like. Also, you're going to want to use different ratios throughout your grow, particularly when switching to flowering--it might be best to duplicate the worksheet accordingly.
This is really meant to be an example rather than a reusable tool, and I recommend taking this as inspiration and generating your own sheet. Maybe over time we can get some additional contributions or improvements and create a truly general purpose spreadsheet.
Instructions:
1.) This is meant to be used to directly dose your reservoir rather than to create a top-up solution. You will always be dosing a full reservoir, so either have your reservoir continuously topped up using a float valve or make sure to fill it up before dosing. Make sure it's always filled to the same volume.
2.) You will first need to determine your system's unique concentration constant (mL/ppm). This is a pretty simple procedure. Note your starting PPM, add a small (yet significant) amount of nutrients (I add 23 mL to a 15 gallon res) in the correct proportions. Note the final PPM. Use this formula:
concentration constant = (total nutrients added in mL) / (final PPM - initial PPM)
Enter your concentration constant in the appropriate field in the spreadsheet. This serves to calibrate your spreadsheet for your particular system.
3.) Ideally, you will monitor your TDS and pH daily. Enter your TDS in the Initial TDS field. Once a week or whenever you're ready to dose, enter in the Desired TDS. This will trigger the formula to calculate how much of each nutrient solution to add to your system. Record the Actual TDS that you achieve.
You will find that the numbers given by the spreadsheet for how much to dose are not convenient. Unless you have a micropipette, it will be hard to dose exactly 22.3 mL for example. I usually round everything down, which is why you'll need to record the Actual TDS.
I've attached a photo of my personal sheet as inspiration. Let me know if you have any questions, opinions, etc... on this technique. Enjoy!
General purpose sheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kky7p20pyr5t3ug/DroGro Nutrient Tracker.xlsx?dl=0
My personal sheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivje7vkbtynx0i3/Nutrient Dosing Chart.xlsx?dl=0
Wanted to share a technique I've found to be very useful. I'm a little lazy when it comes to keeping track of my numbers, so I made a spreadsheet to help. This spreadsheet also acts as a calculator, telling me how many nutrients to add to obtain a desired TDS.
This spreadsheet can certainly be used as-is, but really it ought to be modified to suit your purposes. In my personal spreadsheet I keep track of my reservoir temperature and water depletion rates as well. Also in this spreadsheet I'm using the GH Flora series plus CalMag and Armor Si. You can change those in the spreadsheet to be whatever you like.
I'm sharing a trimmed down version that focuses only on the formulaic fields, and only has one week of entries available. You can copy-and-paste that first week to however many weeks you'd like. Also, you're going to want to use different ratios throughout your grow, particularly when switching to flowering--it might be best to duplicate the worksheet accordingly.
This is really meant to be an example rather than a reusable tool, and I recommend taking this as inspiration and generating your own sheet. Maybe over time we can get some additional contributions or improvements and create a truly general purpose spreadsheet.
Instructions:
1.) This is meant to be used to directly dose your reservoir rather than to create a top-up solution. You will always be dosing a full reservoir, so either have your reservoir continuously topped up using a float valve or make sure to fill it up before dosing. Make sure it's always filled to the same volume.
2.) You will first need to determine your system's unique concentration constant (mL/ppm). This is a pretty simple procedure. Note your starting PPM, add a small (yet significant) amount of nutrients (I add 23 mL to a 15 gallon res) in the correct proportions. Note the final PPM. Use this formula:
concentration constant = (total nutrients added in mL) / (final PPM - initial PPM)
Enter your concentration constant in the appropriate field in the spreadsheet. This serves to calibrate your spreadsheet for your particular system.
3.) Ideally, you will monitor your TDS and pH daily. Enter your TDS in the Initial TDS field. Once a week or whenever you're ready to dose, enter in the Desired TDS. This will trigger the formula to calculate how much of each nutrient solution to add to your system. Record the Actual TDS that you achieve.
You will find that the numbers given by the spreadsheet for how much to dose are not convenient. Unless you have a micropipette, it will be hard to dose exactly 22.3 mL for example. I usually round everything down, which is why you'll need to record the Actual TDS.
I've attached a photo of my personal sheet as inspiration. Let me know if you have any questions, opinions, etc... on this technique. Enjoy!
General purpose sheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kky7p20pyr5t3ug/DroGro Nutrient Tracker.xlsx?dl=0
My personal sheet:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivje7vkbtynx0i3/Nutrient Dosing Chart.xlsx?dl=0
