Need help flushing

whats up guys i'm running an ebb and grow 18 bucket system and the time for flushing is upon me. But I have a problem I drained the res and refilled and the ppm was still too high so i did it again and again and my ppm is still going up. How do I properly flush, whats the best thing to add to lower ppm. I was going to add advanced nutrients final phase but I dont know if that lowers the ppm or not. Any ideas or methods will be greatly appreciated. This is my forst grow with this bucket system so....I'm a little lost I dont understand why it keeps going up? Thanx

thebest1 said:

whats up guys i'm running an ebb and grow 18 bucket system and the time for flushing is upon me. But I have a problem I drained the res and refilled and the ppm was still too high so i did it again and again and my ppm is still going up. How do I properly flush, whats the best thing to add to lower ppm. I was going to add advanced nutrients final phase but I dont know if that lowers the ppm or not. Any ideas or methods will be greatly appreciated. This is my forst grow with this bucket system so....I'm a little lost I dont understand why it keeps going up? Thanx

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Haven't used final phase, I used Botainicare's Clearex to leach mine but yes it will help you clear the medium (though some say a lite nute solution, say 1/4 strength, works just as well.. idk). I have found with my multigrow that flushing isn't complete unless I raise the brain a bit so that the flush solution covers the top of the medium OR I manually flush each bucket from the top. If the plants are mature then raising the brain till the medium is flooded is BY FAR the easiest of the two. But if the plants are still small and don't have well established root systems they tend to want to shift positions in the buckets when the hydroton starts floating....
*DH created a wooden platform at the proper height that I just place under the brain if I want to flood the top of the medium, if you use this method stay right there until you get the proper height woked out because if it is too high it WILL flood the room.
* Also, as you know, the extended flooding required by the flushing agents is not good for plants in this system, but I've found that 15 on/15 off x 4 with the raised brain leaches it out really well and the girls are no worse for the wear.

I love this system... but thorough flushing is a pain in the arse. I don't think it's really necessary unless you have nute buildup causing problems/ changing to flowering/ or doing final flush so it's not really that bad.... but I am new to growing and have seriously overnuted many times so.... lots of flushing experience.
Hope some of this helps and hope someone more experienced comes along with something better for ya.

Have a safe grow!