Relationship between Reservoir size and nutrient concentration

kunkgrow

kunkgrow

Active Member
Relationship between Reservoir size and nutrient concentration

Hello growers.

I'm on my first hydroponic (rDWC) journey and still have many questions and problems arising, learning every step of the way.

Lets picture the following scenario to better understand this questioning:
Imagine two systems
One that holds 40 gallons in total with only 4 plants.
One that holds 20 gallons in total with only 4 plants.

Now lets say you run your nutrients with 500ppm on each, same dilution.

Is it possible to assume that the 40 gallon system will potentially burn your plants when the 20 gallon system doesn't ?

Ok, you have the same concentration on both, but on the 40 gallon the plant has more available due to the larger volume, and even though it drinks at the same concentration, it drinks more and more without ever bringing the EC/ppm down due to the higher availability.

Do you see where I am going? Does it make sense?
 
dirtWeevil

dirtWeevil

Well-Known Member
if the concentration is the same the effect is the same, by your thinking big commercial operations reservoirs would be extremely toxic to plants. The general rule is the bigger the res the easier to control the variables and ph swings. The plant will take what it needs as long as the ec and ph are good. The reason higher concentrations burn plants is because they cause a toxic environment, like fish that have soiled their water. The moral is keep your numbers in the sweet spot and things will go very well, let them wander and they'll derail. Test meticulously twice daily your ph
 
kunkgrow

kunkgrow

Active Member
dirtWeevil said:
if the concentration is the same the effect is the same, by your thinking big commercial operations reservoirs would be extremely toxic to plants. The general rule is the bigger the res the easier to control the variables and ph swings. The plant will take what it needs as long as the ec and ph are good. The reason higher concentrations burn plants is because they cause a toxic environment, like fish that have soiled their water. The moral is keep your numbers in the sweet spot and things will go very well, let them wander and they'll derail. Test meticulously twice daily your ph
Click to expand...
Good point, but notice here the key point is not only the reservoir size, but having too large reservoir for too little number of plants.
 
Creature1969

Creature1969

Well-Known Member
You have the same ppm per gallon. Number of gallons make no difference nor does number of plants. Water from 1 gallon and 100 gallons would read the same ppm. The ONLY difference as dirtWeevil has said is that a smaller tank would swing to extremes faster than a large tank. You're overthinking and second guessing. I know this because I do it ALL the time.
 
WeedFreak78

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
diogodasilva said:
Good point, but notice here the key point is not only the reservoir size, but having too large reservoir for too little number of plants.
Click to expand...
Reservoir size doesn't matter in regard to nutrient strength, just in the ability for the nutrient to self buffer. 1000 gals at .5ec isn't any different than 1 gal at .5ec, except the 1000 gal will stay at a more stable ec and ph for longer.
 
U

upnsmoke13

Well-Known Member
I completely agree with the ph stability but is there a point at which you should be concerned with how long your nutes are mixed? I mean, can you have nutes mixed too long, with bubbling?
In both scenarios, it'd take a while to use the solutions - be a waste to throw away your nutes.
Edit: useless question for rdwc! I'm using coco.
 
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