How often do I need to change the water in my reservoir?
- Thread starter Fecal_Feaster
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- ebb & flow help hydro new at this
I've never really looked in to DtW but, I checking out on article on it and it sounds like a really good approach. How many gallons of nutes would a 2' x 4' go through in a week?
Redlig
Well-Known Member
Depends on the plants...i can use almost 10 gallons a week during flower
J. Rocket
Well-Known Member
my max is around 3 gallons per plant each week in 6x6x6 rockwool blocks drip irrigation dtw.
That's very reasonable for a 2' x 4'. ATM, my two autos (in a 28 gallos res) are taking up about 1.5 gallons per day 10 gallons per week would be fine by me.
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
kinda depends on a lot of variables. # plants, container size, and media. i'm doing coco which requires a decent amount of runoff per feeding while something like promix doesn't need all that runoff. and then in veg i only do 1 feed a day and in bloom i bump it up to 3 to 4 feedings a day.
I can see a lot of advantages to DtW.
It's painful to read grow journals from soil growers who water their plants improperly or who buy low quality soil and they end up with tons of problems. On the other hand, DWC "has a lot of moving parts" and requires more organization and an ability to follow process than growing in soil.
pH can drive hydro growers insane. I read a thread another forum where the grower was never able to figure out why his pH was plummeting into the 4's overnight. It was brutal. Lots of people with solid experience chimed in to try to help but he never figured it out. For me, I followed pH down the rabbit hole until I realized/learned that sometimes pH drops and that doesn't necessarily mean that there's a problem. Switching to Jack's for the past couple of grows was the right move. I use 3-2-1 for RO and been amazing - pH drops very slowly for the first few days and then is rock steady.
It seems like DtW avoids a lot of issues. It sounds like it's more complex than soil, equipment-wise, but less so than DWC. I guess the trade off comes in floor space. My grow is in a garage in SoCal (longing for the good old days when I had a three story home by the greenbelt in Broomfield) and my 2' x 4' tent is a tight squeeze. If I had to add more room for a separate res, I really don't know where I'd put it. Overall, DtW sounds like it solves an awful lots of problems.
Thanks for the insights, everyone. Maybe I'll give DtW a shot when I finally manage my escape from California!
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
i even ran GH waterfarms dtw. if you are familiar with them, i top fed them daily until water started coming out the blue tube on the side. it was a big waste of water but it was great knowing they were getting the perfect mix every day