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What I would do is mark my full level, and replenish to that level
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That's good advice. It's also exactly what I do. I have marked the inside of all my reservoirs with a permanent marker, including how many gallons the mark is, so I wont forget. That way I can replace the water without diluting the solution by adding too much, also so I know when to add more water so it doesn't become too concentrated because the water was used up or evaporated.
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Plus...get a TDS meter, it'll let you know how much of your nutrients are used. Mark your starting number, and check it each time you top off your res.
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That would certainly let you know how fast they were being used up, but so far I haven't been able to afford a TDS or PPM meter. These plants are still young and aren't taking up much nutrients in relation to the amount of
nutrient solution I have for the system. That's mainly why I let it go for 3 weeks before the first change. This set of nutrients I will let go only 2 weeks and the next one, but after that I will probably be changing it every week depending on how big they are. I mark the calender every time I change them to keep track. I can tell by the color of the plants pretty well if they are not getting enough nutrients, also I notice a slowdown in growth. I have also noticed that the nutrient solution gets lighter in color as the nutrients are being used up, I don't know if it's that way with all brands of nutrients but just something I have been observing. Especially with the broccoli plants now that they are almost full size, I think they are heavy feeders.