Coco perlite Hydro combination - Drain to waste with recycling nutes. How long before draining ?

C

CBS2020

Member
I have coco with 30% perlite and have automated halo rings watering 2x day until 20% runoff. I have now started collecting this water and then pumping it back into my res. How often can i reuse this fluid before the sodium and potassium build up? I run a air pump, and add in some H202.

Using Canna A + B at 1000 Ec (filtered base water pH 6 and around 180Ec)
Add Cannazyme and Cannaboost to bring it up to 1200-1300Ec (do i need these?)

And some days drop the Cannazyme and boost and just add Cal/Mag so Ec is around 1200-1400.

Thanks for the help !
 
UpstateRecGrower

UpstateRecGrower

Well-Known Member
I wouldn't reuse it.. you could water less so you only get a very small amount of runoff and then flush once a week if you suspected you were getting any kind of buildup, or take a runoff sample every few days and just flush as needed (when you see a rise in EC)
 
C

CBS2020

Member
UpstateRecGrower said:
I wouldn't reuse it.. you could water less so you only get a very small amount of runoff and then flush once a week if you suspected you were getting any kind of buildup, or take a runoff sample every few days and just flush as needed (when you see a rise in EC)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. The Ec of the run off is within 100Ec or less. A 2 Gal pot is getting around 500ml 2x day.
I may see if i can test hardness of the water to see how much reusing it effects additional Na and K buildup.
Hoping to see what other people do with similar setup :)
 
C

CBS2020

Member
C

CBS2020

Member
Read that link but no info yet on how long you can recycle coco DTW nutes before they need fully draining. Any way to test? Hardness strips?
 
C

CBS2020

Member
Failmore said:
Switch over to clay pebbles if this is what you want to do.
Click to expand...
thank you for being helpful, i should have started like that...

I started with drain to waste but wanted to know if i could use coco instead of clay when recirculating runoff. Rather than change the grow and risk damaging the plants i was hoping others had used coco like the above picture instead of clay. With 30% perlite is it not that similar? It would allow me not to have pumps running all the time and drain to waste completely once a week (or what ever the time frame i was hoping to get input on).

Can i use pool salt strips to determine when to fully drain? After this grow i will most likely switch to clay and go full hydro but for now can i make coco work with recirculating nutes?

Thank you !
 
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
yes you can recirculate with coco

but you need a coco specific line

formulated especially to use in recirc with coir, like canna coco

run to waste is a non sense

coco is a very nice medium, be sure to rinse your medium each feed by giving a big runoff
this way you will keep the medium ec/ph in range at all time
 
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
rkymtnman said:
huh??
Click to expand...
huh ?
i can formulate it again for you

be sure to rinse your medium each time your pump turns on by giving a big runoff (ex: you need to water 1 minute until the water drain under the pot, add 1 extra minute to get a big runoff and reset the ph/ec inside the coco)

recover the runoff in a second reservoir
adjust the ph/ec value of the reservoir and transfer it to the main reservoir

do this until the end of the grow

beware, with this method you dont have salt accumulation so you need to feed higher EC
i use 2.2mS for grow period and 2.5 to 3.0mS in bloom with co2
 
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
you must have problems to read properly

not a drip of water is lost with this system
large runoff everyfeed, everything is recovered

main reservoir --> room -->2nd reservoir-->main reservoir-->room ...

top feed, or even flooded if you want .. no run to waste here

run to waste is a disaster for environnement, plus it produce no benefit over recirculation ..

please read again
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
kingromano said:
plus it produce no benefit over recirculation
Click to expand...
completely false. i can think of 3 off the top of my head: pH is always the same, EC is always the same, NPK ratios are always the same.

@kingromano how do you know what your NPK ratios are 3 days after you've reused your nutes? how do you know how many ppms of Nitrogen for example are in what you're feeding on day 4?? how do you know you don't have too much K on day 5?

like @gr865 said above, you can run coco recirc but you are asking for way more trouble than it's worth.
 
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
you would be surprise what kind of plant you could get with recirculation
ph is always stable because the pump is in the first reservoir. the runoff from your room flow to the second reservoir.
the runoff never flow in the reservoir where you pump.

periodically you transfer the second reservoir solution(ph/ec adjusted) to the main one.

during flowering you top your reservoir so often with fresh nutrient that it never comes out of balance

canna aqua is designed to work in this configuration .. you will never see deficiencies .. in fact the ph is even more stable because the solution is buffered

no professional use run to waste anymore, its a shame

and i speak informed because i ran drain to waste for years
 
D

DaFreak

Well-Known Member
I don't think many people would be surprised by what kind of plants you can get with recirculating systems, but a fresh batch is always better. Besides if you are worried about waste, then take some notes and feed only till a little run-off and get your plants dialed in and there won't be much waste. You could waste maybe a few gallons per plant over a whole grow. That's where I put my energy into, not recirculating it.
 
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