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#1
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Reservoir size related to anything ?
I'm working on constructing a home hydro system, ebb and flow design.
Is there a way of determining or some kind of established rule about how the size of the reservoir and the amount of plants ? I have an 18 gallon tote now and was thinking that might be about 9, from what I've seen seems right. Wanted to throw this out though. I just don't know enough. Reading, searching. By the way I'll be starting with lettuce, progressing though as I go. TIA Stuart |
#2
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As a rule of thumb, I figure the size of my E&F tray and make the res 2 to 3 times larger. My E&F tray will hold about 5 gallons with the growrocks in it, my res is an 18 gallon tote. I add about 15 gallons of water to it.
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#3
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Great , that helps. Thank you.
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#4
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The idea is the bigger the res the more buffer you have.
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#6
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As the plant uses nutes it may use more of one mineral and less of another so the more you have in the res the better you are.
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#7
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The water buffer makes sense. One of my concerns is how much water will I need on a regular basis with solution changes and other events. My plan is too use distilled water , store bought. I'm not going to deal with our tap water. I had a few moments of thinking that perhaps with a good pump and a T adapter I could feed 2 trays off the 18 gallons. |
#8
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There are also other things to take into consideration like how big the plant is (seedling/full grown), air temp, type of plants etc.. The type of plant can play a big difference in how much water it drinks. A full grown strawberry plant wont drink as much water as a full grown broccoli plant will. The air temp and humidly affect how fast it will evaporate also. Amigatec's suggestion is a great place to start, although careful observation is important also. I would suggest marking the inside of the reservoir with a permanent marker at a known level, or in increments to be able to keep track. Also when adding water to bring it back up to the right level, don't add full strength nutrient solution. Either just plain water or a light diluted nutrient solution should be added. There is no formula to figure out how much to dilute it that I know of. Some people use a PPM or TDS meter to judge how strong there nutrient solution is and make adjustments by its readings. I personally don't have one. I change my nutrient solution every one or two weeks. I never add any diluted solution the first week but I will probably add some the second week, and depending on how much water I have needed to add during the first week I will decide how much I need to add for the second. Quote:
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-13-2010 at 08:20 PM. |
#9
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I have had people say when you 1/2 of the water back to change it, some people say when you a full amount back change it. I change mine every couple of weeks, and only add water in the mean time. I have a meter and watch the pH and ppm closely, when the water is being used the ppm stays the same or changes very little you have the mix about right. I always start with a weaker mix than the bottle calls for.
My pH seems to go up every day almost a full point. As far as using distilled water you may have more problems doing that. Tap water has calcium and other minerals in it and will help your plants. You will have to watch the pH very closely, my tap water has a pH of 7 and I have to adjust it down daily. |
#10
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#11
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I'm very paranoid about what is in the water these days, from pharmaceuticals to toxic waste turned fluoride synthetic. |
#12
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By dumping out the old nutrients and replacing them with fresh ones you can insure that they are balanced again. If these nutrients go too far out of balance the plant will wind up with nutrient lockout (kind of like going into shock), and you can have a perfect nutrient solution but the plant wont be able to absorb any of them. With plants that are heavy feeders they use the nutrients they need faster than plants that are not. So the nutrient solution will go out of balance faster also. This is where the buffer comes into play. Say you have 4 plants feeding off one nutrient reservoir and it has a 5 gallon reservoir. Now let say you have another identical system except it has 10 gallons in the reservoir. The plants in both systems are taking the same amount of each individual elements, but the elements will not be as far out of balance as fast in the system with 10 gallons in the reservoir because of the extra 5 gallons of nutrient solution. This works the same for plants that are not heavy feeders, it's just more important to the ones that are. Quote:
P.S. I have found that the best information on using hydroponic nutrients is from the manufactures themselves. Just either e-mail or call them, tell them what plants you are growing, what stage they are in, and ask what they would recommend. Most hydroponic nutrient manufactures want you to be successful, so they will be happy to help. After all, if you are successful you are much more likely to continue to buy their products. Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-14-2010 at 04:26 AM. |
#13
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Also in one book I'm reading it speaks about breaking up the Macro / Micro's so you would have 2-3 different solutions. The author (Keith Roberto) feels the all in one solutions are not as good. Not sure if that is the general opinion of the community or not. The PH I get, along with PPM. I know those are key to successful gardening. Quote:
What I'm really interested in are the machines that make water out of the atmosphere. One model makes about 7-8 gallons a day even in a dry climate. I haven't researched it yet but wonder how those machines might work with hydroponics. |
#14
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-14-2010 at 05:00 PM. |
#15
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I have used 1 part nutes and did not have good luck with it. I am using the FloraNova nutes now, and adding Floralicious Plus, FloraKleen, and have some Vegan Compost Tea, and well KoolBlooms. I will using the Koolblooms with the Floranova Bloom soon. |
#16
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-15-2010 at 02:23 AM. |
#17
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I use it with the nutes.
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#18
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I knew that the Florakleen was meant to be used to flush the salts out between nutrient changes but was not sure if it should be used in the nutrients. So I figured I would e-mail them the question.
I asked this question: "Hello, I believe the FloraKleen is supposed to be used between nutrient changes to help flush away the buildup of the dissolved salts. I just read in a hydroponics forum where someone is using it in with the nutrients themselves. I was wondering if this was safe and was a good idea, or will it affect the nutrients and how the plants take up the nutrients." This was there response: "FloraKleen used with nutrients won't provide the flushing quality necessary to effectively cleanse the root zone. The concept behind flushing is to provide ample amounts of fresh water/flush solution to the roots to cleanse them of toxic salt build-up, which leads to nutrient lockout. Use FloraKleen with Plain water at a mild strength (according to label) to flush plants mid-cycle. Always flush plants before harvest. Hope that helps!" So I take that to say it's safe to use in the nutrients, but it's not very effective that way. Last edited by GpsFrontier; 01-16-2010 at 04:16 AM. |
#19
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OK I will just use to flush.
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