No Res change question?

Hey there, I am currently doing a hydro run and put it together kinda fast. The res sits between two table and i cant really move it now lol. I did once at the flip and that was it. So far ive been following the ppm's and ph and adjusting as necessary. So everyother day im topping up with water and nutrients. which brings me back to my target ppm's and also lowers the ph.

Is there any problems with this. I let the ph rise and ppm's drop and so far its been stable. I havn't been pushing them too hard and everything looks fine. Just wondering about other peoples experience with no res changes. Any tips or downfalls etc let me know plz

Thanks

it depends on how big your plant(s) are relative to your res volume. the problem is that the proportions of the different nutrients will change from your initial nutrient solution so having a certain ppm doesnt really tell you that the nutrients are in balance. If your plants are growing well and look healthy, then so be it, but ive always thought that reservoir changes are the mainstay to prevent nutrient deficiencies. you can bail or siphon for at least partial changes, Im sure.

cant speak directly to the n-p-k regemin you are running but:
for many yeas i ran no-dump DWC. using gh nutes (lucas ) and the addback formula originally proposed on CW by samsara.
1-(current/target) x 8 x res size = ml of micro
double it for the macronutes.
heres a calc
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bxw_zEr6WOSsNTYzNTBiN2ItNDZjZi00NTQzLTk4YjktN2ZmMmVlZTJjMjFl/edit

my suggestion is that you run a completely dead rez. bleach/zone/H2o2/whatever
the risk of pythium is severe in a no-dump grow.

been 10 years since i have messed with no-dump, but it can certainly be done...and you will learn alot about your plants, and what they need to be happy.

foaf hit the nail on the head. Hows your plants lookin'? If they look all fucked up swap out your res. If they don't...keep on truckin'. I ran they way you did...didn't fair so well in late flower so regular res. swap outs were nessesary. I don't buy the "strain depentant" bull shit. I've got clone plants that take anywhere from 500ppm to 1400 ppm to keep them healthy n' happy....and their all off the same mom. Good luck.

foaf said:

the problem is that the proportions of the different nutrients will change from your initial nutrient solution so having a certain ppm doesnt really tell you that the nutrients are in balance.

Click to expand...

This is why I've always run Lucas in everything. You'll get the longest runs before imbalances start showing up.

Think of the nutrient solution as a plate of food. When cannabis eats from the lucas plate... it eats equal amounts of everything. When the N is gone... so is everything else.

Adding more nutes in the same balance doesn't create a "nutes you just added" + "uneaten elements from the last feeding" ppm solution. That's what happens when you use some other ratio of elements.

8/16 with Flora will give your plants a huge range of ppms where it won't burn. Maxibloom is not as close so it will give you less of a range before 'burning' tips show up.

Should I grow again.... (other than spinach and lettuce and such) I'm actually leaning toward going back to GH Flora. LOL

Stay Safe!

Thanks for responding guys, I dont seem to be having any problems as of yet and im on the start of week 7 of flower.
I have not had any problems so far everything has been going steady. I never push them to hard and have not seen any visual cues pointing to nutrient stress or deficiencies. They have been very steady. ppm's go down ph rises. Addback water and nutrients ph gets lowered and ppms go back to my target number. Nothing has been outta wack such as ph going crazy or ppms rising.
I just wanted to know if i might be missing out on something here. Is it really better to dump out water and nutrients once a week regardless of whether or not things are in balance? It's only one strain as well so they are all feeding the same.
Generally in the past i have ran smaller rez's and changed once a week because by the end of the week there were definately imbalances starting. I only topped up with water and let the ppms drop from target # down to the lowest my meter will read lol.
These days i tripled the rez size and am always adding nutrients and water and havn't had any problems so i guess to each is there own and this seems to be working. Ideally in the future i will position things better cuz i do like to clean things up on a regular basis. Im not sure which method is superior yet. It just happened this way because of circumstances so I'm going with it.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I run a RDWC system. I never change my res, I have a living colony of bacteria in the roots. As long as your plants look good, especially at 7 weeks flower, I wouldn't be worried.

You've already got it figured out. It works just fine. It's a matter of treating your grow tank like an aquarium tank. You'd NEVER dump a full tank of aquarium water--it would likely kill the fish to not have the beneficial bacteria that usually takes a couple of weeks to build up.

And you're smart to not push the plants! I've had excellent grows for the last decade by starting with 1/3 strength Lucas formula plus some added Epson Salt for Mg. I top up with RO water and then just toss in the same 1/3 strength formula and Epson once a week until the last two weeks when they get only the plain water. Super simple!! Result is beautiful grows every time even without PH meters, etc.!

I was proud to be something of an innovator at OG many years ago. Discovered just recently that I got a (one and only??) mention on WikiPedia for my "no dump method". It works! LOL