How to spike res for zero changeout's?

[TreehouseJ]

Couple queen questions, Bear with me here..

1. I'm running 4x7gal bio buckets hooked up to a 30 gal res auto topped with RO via float valve.. My tap comes out pretty alkaline at around 350 ppm, so I've opted for RO despite everything Bigtoke preached and the calmag issues I've run into.. The system wastes a lot of water, so I really want to start flowering with 0 res changes, I've been using gen 3 part plus additives (diamond nectar, floranectar, calmag, armorsilica) so I guess my main question is, if it is so crucial that all the nutes be mixed in the right order, (armorsi, calmag, micro, grow, bloom, flora nectar, diamond nectar) what's the best way to spike my res? Logic tells me "mix up a couple gallons seperately at full strength and then add back to res to be safe", but in a 35 gal system, this doesn't do a whole lot to bump up the ppm.. So getting a little more ambitious now, I'm wondering how concentrated I can mix my "add back gallons" before the nutes start locking each other out, or if I can simply add back (lightly) diluted nutes to the res straight from the syringe without causing more harm that good to my solution.

2. Will I run into calmag issues if I have my controller hooked straight into a RO system instead of to a res full of calmag enriched solution, or.. should I just mix up a res full of 50-75% strength nute solution to avoid the heartache of "spiking"? I'm running a water chiller, but I still like the idea of my controller being hooked up to a "tap fresh/cold" line since ultimately, I want to make 0 changeouts, save for in between crops, so if a res is avoidable, that'd be sweet.

3. Is there a different product line that might make the whole 0 changeout thing more attainable without sacrificing quality?


I posted this in the newb section with no luck, sorry for the repost, but I've been searching high and low for this info for quite awhile now.. That's all for now folks!

 

[TreehouseJ]

Am I just a dummy or what's really going on here? I feel like I've gone through volumes of threads on this one.. I know I've started 3-4 threads on the topic with no replies.. Am I just doomed to keep changing out my res every 5-10 days? Is there anyone else here who goes without change outs?

 

[Mrrite008]

Check out the PPK threads...no res changes nescessary!

 

[TreehouseJ]

I've been meaning to check out the ppk threads, but I've been stumped for a couple months now rereading big tokes stuff trying to figure out how to "bump" my ppms up instead of dumping my res, which seems to be some pretty ambiguous stuff, I guess. I was going to make the switch to jacks hydro next round, just because I'm tired of dealing with all these bottles, but I'll def go ppk if that's the best way around res dumps.

 

[greaseman]

i know this is my first post but heres what i do and my ladies are doing great.
your post is a little confusing but i will give you my experience with my bios with no dumps.

im not using RO but my tap is between 75 and 125 PPM @.5 so i do know where you are coming from with RO add back and cal problems.

im like you i have sat and read tons and coming from RDWC to what i now know as bio was the best thing for me i ever did.
i have been running my 12x5 (12 bucket) 27 gal rez with no change outs start to finish in 1 room and continuous flower in another.

the best advice you can ever get is to listen to your girls.

1. i let my add backs go about 3 days. straight tap to rez with float valve. i usually see about a 15% drop in my ppms over this course of time. i feed straight into rez. when i used AN 3 part and other stuff i just added straight to rez each in order til i had reached the range i was shooting for. i use only maxibloom and a little calnit now and every 3 days i just drop 2 grams of calnit then add my maxi til i have my ec/ppms back in range. i do however beyond popular belief by many range my ph on the low side. my low point is 5.4 and by the time i add my nutes it has drifted to 5.8. my girls don't mind and they are all happy with this swing. my rez temps stay right around 72.

. 2. with AN 3 part and all the other stuff i did not have issues except nuke burn trying to find that happy medium. with maxi bloom yes i did hence why i add a little cal nit with each feeding

3 .running both AN products and now maxi bloom w/calnit i personally have not noticed any difference in veg other than the simplicity of maxibloom. in flower maxi really shines and i do see the difference with it being a bloom formula to start with.

when i went on vacation for 3 weeks i added a little rez with 5 gallons of pre mix nutes(strong side w/low ph) and put on a 7 day timer and set up run time on 160gph pump thru 1/4 hose to my rez to add back once per week of the nutes i needed. when i got back home ph was in range and ec/ppm was in range. the tap add back continued as normal.

in short everybodys set up and strains are different and will react differently.

just find that happy medium that makes your girls happy and they will take care of you in the end.
i hope you can get something from what i do and it helps you

 

[TreehouseJ]

i know this is my first post but heres what i do and my ladies are doing great.
your post is a little confusing but i will give you my experience with my bios with no dumps.

im not using RO but my tap is between 75 and 125 PPM @.5 so i do know where you are coming from with RO add back and cal problems.

im like you i have sat and read tons and coming from RDWC to what i now know as bio was the best thing for me i ever did.
i have been running my 12x5 (12 bucket) 27 gal rez with no change outs start to finish in 1 room and continuous flower in another.

the best advice you can ever get is to listen to your girls.

1. i let my add backs go about 3 days. straight tap to rez with float valve. i usually see about a 15% drop in my ppms over this course of time. i feed straight into rez. when i used AN 3 part and other stuff i just added straight to rez each in order til i had reached the range i was shooting for. i use only maxibloom and a little calnit now and every 3 days i just drop 2 grams of calnit then add my maxi til i have my ec/ppms back in range. i do however beyond popular belief by many range my ph on the low side. my low point is 5.4 and by the time i add my nutes it has drifted to 5.8. my girls don't mind and they are all happy with this swing. my rez temps stay right around 72.

. 2. with AN 3 part and all the other stuff i did not have issues except nuke burn trying to find that happy medium. with maxi bloom yes i did hence why i add a little cal nit with each feeding

3 .running both AN products and now maxi bloom w/calnit i personally have not noticed any difference in veg other than the simplicity of maxibloom. in flower maxi really shines and i do see the difference with it being a bloom formula to start with.

when i went on vacation for 3 weeks i added a little rez with 5 gallons of pre mix nutes(strong side w/low ph) and put on a 7 day timer and set up run time on 160gph pump thru 1/4 hose to my rez to add back once per week of the nutes i needed. when i got back home ph was in range and ec/ppm was in range. the tap add back continued as normal.

in short everybodys set up and strains are different and will react differently.

just find that happy medium that makes your girls happy and they will take care of you in the end.
i hope you can get something from what i do and it helps you

Thank you! Very helpful. Just to further clarify, say I go 3 part+calmag.. Fresh nute solution at say.. 1200 ppm, and 3 days later I'm at 1000 ppm (auto topped via float valve) and its time to bump my ppms up, I am in the clear to (slowly) add back undiluted calmag, micro, grow, and then bloom (respectively) to my res, or should I really premix a 5 gallon jug full of full strength solution and use that to spike? I've been led to believe by the instructions on all these bottles (particularly calmag and silica) that they must be mixed in a certain order and only into fresh water, as if res "spiking" with un diluted nutrients was out of the question.. Sorry if my posts are a bit confusing, I've been known to over analyze and over complicate things, and this is all fairly new to me.

 

[greaseman]

yes i add nutes right into rez. i dump powders and or shoot liquid right into the return waterfall. with my return and pump running i know in my system what little nutes i am adding is diluted pretty fast. personally i have tried adding nutes to add back water and for me i had a harder time trying to get things back into the range that i wanted without diluting the entire system too much or frying everything.

i am sure you see all over this site and many others. very rarely does anyone follow MFR directions.

i over thought things way to much and when i finally just made it simple everything came together for me.


Good luck and hopefully all the little things smooth out for you.

 

[greaseman]

as a note 5 gallons of mixed nutes vs approx. 87 gallons of system water IMO much less likely to lock things up. (my system)

 

[sdd420]

The main thing is to ph correctly so maximum up take is achieved and you need a fluctuation from 5.8 to approx 6.3 this enables uptake of calmag efficiently . So if you monitor both your ph should rise and your ppm also meaning uptake of nutes and water peace sdd

 

[gregor_mendel]

Mrrite008 wasn't trying to tell you to switch to ppk's

The reason he said check out those threads, is that all ppk's run a zero change rez during flower.

I will tip you off with out you having to read any of the threads.

Rather than topping off the system with water via float valve, they top off the system with nutrient solution.

The trick is much like what was described above - figure out at what strength to run the top off reservoir.

 

[RockinRobot]

If you know what your original concentration of nutes was then a little math gives you your add back amounts.

so lets look at an example

I use Lucas Formula with GH and a cal/mag suppliment but it works the same no matter who's nutes you use.

when I mix fresh water I use the following in RO water
5m/gal Micro 10m/gal Bloon 5m/gal Cal/Mag for veg this puts me at about 1200ppm starting so to calc addbacks. This gives me a starting ppm of 1200ppm@700

If starting PPM = 1200 and PPM at addback = 1000
then you need to add back 200ppm of nutes. to do this correctly divide addback amount by desired amount and you get percentage.

200\1200=.1666

so you need to add back .1666*the original quantity of nutes.

Myltiply that by size of res in my case 12 gal res

.1666*12=2

This is the addback Multiplier.

Now simply multiply 2 times each of your initial amounts to get your addback. In this example I would add back

2*5m=10m micro
2*10m=20m bloom
2*5m=10m Cal/Mag

This will pretty reliably bring you back to within 10ppm of your original target.

I run like this and only change out res between crops.
so every 8-10 weeks the Res gets changed. Has saved me a TON on nutes.