Newbie here saying hello

[newhydro16]

Just wanted to say hi, my first day here. From N.E. Pa.
Brand new to this, and am trying my hand at hydroponic lettuce, as my wife has stage 3 kidney desease, and she eats a lot of it.
Probably have a lot of questions here for a long time, looking forward to advice from the you more knowledgeable folks.

[GpsFrontier]

Hello newhydro16,
Welcome and sorry to hear about your wife's stage 3 kidney disease, that must not be easy to go through. Feel free to ask all the questions about hydroponics that you need, and well be happy to help.

[newhydro16]

Thank you, shes doing ok, has a very strict diet, thus the lettuce.
I hope I can make this dwc work, hope I'm not in over my head, as the nutrients, ppm, and ph seems a bit overwhelming. Hope I don't drive you folks nuts while I try and get a sense of this. Have a happy Holiday.

[GpsFrontier]

Hello newhydro16,
Don't worry about it, it's very easy. Most people do so much research they over think everything, but it's not complicated at all. First don't worry about PPM/EC/TDS or buying a meter to measure it. You don't even need a meter to measure pH. You do need to measure pH, but all you need is pH drops. In fact not only are the pH drops much cheaper, but more accurate as well. Electric meters can give false readings, but pH drops never will.

As for measuring PPM/EC/TDS, you don't need to. It's very easy to know what your nutrient strength is by fallowing the nutrient manufactures mixing directions. Nutrient manufactures will give directions on how much to use per gallon of water. That amount is for full strength nutrients. From their you can use it full strength or easily dilute as needed. Seedlings don't need nutrients at all until they develop their first set of true leaves. Once they do the nutrients should only be mixed to between 10% and 25% strength. Then when they get a little bigger increase it to 25% to 50% strength. Then once thy start to really start growing increase it to 50% to 80%-100% strength. No measuring of PPM/EC/TDS needed.

Most lettuce plants are a light feeder, so I wouldn't give them more than 75%-80% strength. Even though you don't need to measure PPM/EC/TDS, the PPM/EC/TDS charts can come in handy to determine if the plants you want to grow are heavy or light feeders, or somewhere in between. By comparing the PPM/EC/TDS values of plants that like higher nutrient strength, and those that like it on the lower end, you can easily determine if your plants are heavy or light feeders, or somewhere in between. Thus decide whether you should mix your nutrients full strength for heaver feeders, or on the light side for light feeders.

Now with that said and at the risk of making it more complicated for you, the water volume of your reservoir is important too. The bigger the plants get the more water volume they need as well. Mainly because bigger plants consume more nutrients, thus will deplete the nutrients in that water faster. The more water volume there is, the slower the plants deplete the nutrient levels in that water. That will affect how often you would need to change the nutrient solution to maintain a complete balanced nutrient. I wrote this article to help explain these factors. What size reservoir do I need

P.S.
While you may get varying opinions, don't worry about asking to many questions, that's what forums are for.

[newhydro16]

Thanks for all the advice.
Hope I didn't goof up, as my lettuce that are started in the tank are not seedlings but 2- 3 inches tall, and Ive started then in 100% solution.
Do you think they will be ok?
Its 10 gal. tank, with 8 plants.
They look ok so far, but its only day four.
Also, after I test ph, Ive been pouring the little vial with test solution back in tank, is that ok, or should I toss it?

[newhydro16]

Also, Should there be a lot of bubbles from air pump under each plant, or does a few suffice?
Have Eco Air2 pump (126) minute, and three small air stones. About half the plants seem to be getting more bubbles then the others. I started with two stones and it seemed like there were more bubbles all around. Should I go back to just two?
Thank you, much appreciated.

[newhydro16]

And while I'm pestering you. I didn't reailize I was supposed to rinse clay balls that are in pots. Wii it be ok, only the bottom few are wet. Thank you.