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Old 03-23-2010, 03:55 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Lake Havasu AZ.
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What would happens if the nutrients and the PH goes a little crazy during that time?
That would depend on how crazy it got. With the float valve setup (assuming the water is the right temp and pH) the only real hazard would be the solution getting diluted, or it not functioning correctly while you were gone. I'm not sure if you are going to have the line to the valve come from a household tap, or another container (secondary reservoir) with the water in it. If you use a separate container you can fill that container with just fresh water at the right pH, or if your concerned about diluting the main reservoir you can fill the secondary reservoir with a diluted solution of pH balanced fresh nutrient solution.

That way the water that is replaced wont dilute the main reservoir as much. But you will need to make sure that the diluted replacement nutrient solution is not too strong, or it will make the solution in the main reservoir too strong. I would probably make the replacement nutrient strength about 1/4 strength. If the water line to the float is coming directly from the household tap/line, you wont be able to do anything about adding replacement nutrients or pH levels of the replacement water. You can check the tap water and see what the pH is usually (ours changes from time to time).

Also, if possible you can add extra nutrient solution to the main reservoir. That way it wont get diluted as much when fresh water is added, because there is more nutrient solution (buffer) to dilute. Also you can set the float at a level so it will only add fresh water when the nutrient solution goes below a certain point. Like say it drops by 3 gallons (depending on the size of your reservoir), then it will start adding fresh water. That way the nutrient solution becomes a little more concentrated before the float opens and fresh plain water starts diluting it.
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 03-23-2010 at 04:10 PM.
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