First time Hydro setup, looking for a couple of answers

I am setting up my first hydro garden, a combination deep water culture/drip system (similar to what Stealth Hydro is marketing.) I am using a 31 gallon Rubbermaid container and 6in net pots with a spacing of 9 inches one way and 13 inches the other (between centers.) My biggest question at the moment is how full should I fill the reservoir? Should the solution come all the way up to the bottom of the baskets, or should there be some air space there? Seems like I read somewhere to leave a few inches, but I'll be damned if I can find anything related to it now that I really need the info.

Also, I'm guessing that I will be looking at somewhere around 20 gallons of nutrient solution in the tub, how important is changing the water weekly if you keep a check on the pH and TDS/EC?

Thanks

Yeah looking for a needle in a haystack sometimes. As long as you have enough air getting into the water from pumps you should be able to leave some space beteen the net pot and the surface. I asked the same thing recently. The air bubbles bursting on the surface work just fine to moisten the medium you are growing with/roots later on. Dont have the water touch the net cups, this would be bad.

Thanks for the info. I have two 12 inch air stones as well as two 4 inch round air stones (pump has four outlets, so why not use them?) so I'll have plenty of bubbles in the water. I was pretty sure when I did my initial research it said to leave some air for additional O2 uptake, just was not sure. I found where it told me to run the drip tubes to the baskets continuously until the roots made it down to the nutrient solution (then cycle the drip on and off), just could not find the rest of it (I did not have this much trouble researching my doctorate in quantum group theory!)

ĢreensŤheorem(∫)IPT;853186 said:

Yeah looking for a needle in a haystack sometimes. As long as you have enough air getting into the water from pumps you should be able to leave some space beteen the net pot and the surface. I asked the same thing recently. The air bubbles bursting on the surface work just fine to moisten the medium you are growing with/roots later on. Dont have the water touch the net cups, this would be bad.

Click to expand...