What's the point of a reservoir? Why can't I just measure nutes every day?

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absolute moron

Member
I was told that I need to get a fish tank pump, a 50 gallon tub and a garden hose. I was told that I need to premix my chemical nutes (I'm using GH nutes) and that the nutes would last just for two weeks with the fish tank pump on all day every day.

I'm only growing 6 plants. Can't I just measure out nutrients: water in a bucket and water the plants with a plastic cup or some shit lol?

What's the point of a reservoir? Is it literally just told hold nutrients so you don't have to measure as often?

Thank you.
 
TintEastwood

TintEastwood

Well-Known Member
absolute moron said:
Thank you. So literally the only point of all that complicated shit: a water pump, a hose, etc. is just to avoid mixing nutes as often?

In other words, I don't need to aerate the water and so forth right? Just mix up the nutes in water and feed the girls?
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Some folks like to hand feed, while others may want to automate.

Using airstones is not necessary.
 
Cinco

Cinco

Well-Known Member
absolute moron said:
Thank you. So literally the only point of all that complicated shit: a water pump, a hose, etc. is just to avoid mixing nutes as often?

In other words, I don't need to aerate the water and so forth right? Just mix up the nutes in water and feed the girls?
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Yes, pretty much, at least in in DTW. It makes more sense when there are lots of plants getting watered, mixing daily for more than a handful of plants is time consuming. I did it for a while, not again.

I still do my veggies by hand. I mix a bucket every other day and just use a watering can.

Then again a basic irrigation setup is not complicated at all. Much easier and less mess than hand watering. $20 pump, $15 manifold, and $8 of hose, does 8 plants.

I don’t use airstones in my DTW systems at all. Just moving the water around and having it pour out of the drip heads aerated it enough.
 
spliffendz

spliffendz

Well-Known Member
Don't quote me on it, but I'm sure I was going through 4/6 litres per plant in coco in flowering, it was a bitch but I wanted the water at room temp and not from the tap, all that bottle filling was a c00nt
 
A

absolute moron

Member
Thanks guys. I ended up picking up some 1/2' plastic tubing at walmart and a 160 gph submersive water pump.

I was thinking use the tubing as a hose and the water pump just to give the water enough movement to let the hose suck it up. So, handwatering with assistance. Am I missing something or should this work OK?

Thanks.
 
Cinco

Cinco

Well-Known Member
absolute moron said:
Thanks guys. I ended up picking up some 1/2' plastic tubing at walmart and a 160 gph submersive water pump.

I was thinking use the tubing as a hose and the water pump just to give the water enough movement to let the hose suck it up. So, handwatering with assistance. Am I missing something or should this work OK?

Thanks.
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You mean using the pump and hose to water from a bucket or something? Sure that’ll work just fine. I did that for a while too. Be careful, you’ll shoot water across the room eventually :P

Stick one of these on the end of your tubing and run some 1/4 tube off of it to each pot, and you have almost exactly my setup. I got mine from Home Depot.

Amazon.com : Orbit 69000D 8-Port Drip Manifold with Adjustable Flow : Garden & Outdoor

Amazon.com : Orbit 69000D 8-Port Drip Manifold with Adjustable Flow : Garden & Outdoor
www.amazon.com
 
Cinco

Cinco

Well-Known Member
I also don’t do anything fancy with it after it leaves that manifold. It literally just pours into the pot. No clogs, no worries

So my setup is just pump -> 1/2 hose -> manifold -> 1/4” hose -> plant

You already have like... 3/5ths of that if you ever did want to go with something automatic.
 

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A

absolute moron

Member
Cinco said:
I also don’t do anything fancy with it after it leaves that manifold. It literally just pours into the pot. No clogs, no worries

So my setup is just pump -> 1/2 hose -> manifold -> 1/4” hose -> plant

You already have like... 3/5ths of that if you ever did want to go with something automatic.
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thank you so much! So just to clarify (check username hehe) this is roughly how you role (or failing that, how I could role):

5 gallon bucket
daily watering, ie, add water, check ph, mix nutes
turn the pump on which is submerged in the bucket
water automatically goes through hose, into manifold, into 1/4' hose, then plant. Your watering consists, therefore, of mixing the nutes and turning the pump on.

Is this right?
 
Cinco

Cinco

Well-Known Member
absolute moron said:
thank you so much! So just to clarify (check username hehe) this is roughly how you role (or failing that, how I could role):

5 gallon bucket
daily watering, ie, add water, check ph, mix nutes
turn the pump on which is submerged in the bucket
water automatically goes through hose, into manifold, into 1/4' hose, then plant. Your watering consists, therefore, of mixing the nutes and turning the pump on.

Is this right?
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Yes sir, you got it. That is exactly it. Mix the nutes, and then plug the pump in. It pumps to the manifold, and out to the plant. I just unplug it when I have good runoff which is just a couple of minutes later in 5gal coco coir.

I have a big enough bucket (just a 25 gal tote) I only mix every other day. No air pumps or stirring pumps or anything.
 
A

absolute moron

Member
Cinco said:
Yes sir, you got it. That is exactly it. Mix the nutes, and then plug the pump in. It pumps to the manifold, and out to the plant. I just unplug it when I have good runoff which is just a couple of minutes later in 5gal coco coir.

I have a big enough bucket (just a 25 gal tote) I only mix every other day. No air pumps or stirring pumps or anything.
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You have no idea how helpful you have been. You answered what I've spent hours trying to get a mental picture of.

Thank you again so much.
 
Cinco

Cinco

Well-Known Member
TintEastwood said:
$10 recycle bins from homerdepot make good res.
Float to prevent overfill with RO.
View attachment 4631636
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That’s a great idea. What float are you using to cut off flow?

I am playing with an RV pump and cheap Chinese float switch to evacuate multiple drain buckets right now. I have not started to work with the float switch yet.

TintEastwood said:
Using airstones is not necessary.
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Also 100% agree. I think a lot of growers chase issues caused by airstones. I have no issues with dissolved oxygen just from the act of moving the water to the plant in a DTW setup. If I did, I’d probably run a stirring/lift pump or Venturi over any air pump. I’ve played with using a Venturi to inject air after the pump into the manifold and that works well too. But unnecessary ime...

But, it’s a debate I’ve been reading since long before RIU existed, so I’ll leave it to the reader to research and decide.
 
TintEastwood

TintEastwood

Well-Known Member
Cinco said:
That’s a great idea. What float are you using to cut off flow?

I am playing with an RV pump and cheap Chinese float switch to evacuate multiple drain buckets right now. I have not started to work with the float switch yet.



Also 100% agree. I think a lot of growers chase issues caused by airstones. I have no issues with dissolved oxygen just from the act of moving the water to the plant in a DTW setup. If I did, I’d probably run a stirring/lift pump or Venturi over any air pump. I’ve played with using a Venturi to inject air after the pump into the manifold and that works well too. But unnecessary ime...

But, it’s a debate I’ve been reading since long before RIU existed, so I’ll leave it to the reader to research and decide.
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Many options for cutoff floats.

I use waterfall when recirculating. Air can F with ph and inject co2....possibly.

Waste water....Some guys use 12v bilge pumps with auto activate...
 
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