cleaning out buckets

i know you are supposed to replace nutes every week but how often is it necessary to clean out your buckets and reservoirs? the reason i ask is i cant picture what i am supposed to do with a lid with a giant plant attached to it while i clean the bucket. i cant imagine it is too healthy to leave your roots exposed like this for very long as well. with a scrog it seems damn near impossible. another problem would be cleaning the small parts of a recirculating system. how do you guys manage this?

What I do is just put them in a separate empty bucket ( the roots enjoy the air ) if you are super anal you can mist the roots with PH water take a chill pill she will be alright. you can even take them out the light for a couple min while you clean your buckets and refill with water and nutes. I take my sport coolers to the tub and just rinse with hot water wipe with clean rag thats all you .. Refill adjust res temp add nutes and its all done.

I been doing this the whole grow and have about 2 weeks of flower left my buds are amazing!

cool i take it you dont glue your airstones to the bottom then. another question what brand are your 5 gallon coolers? the ones ive seen so far dont have flat lids so it makes it difficult to fit a netpot into.

khakiman said:

cool i take it you dont glue your airstones to the bottom then. another question what brand are your 5 gallon coolers? the ones ive seen so far dont have flat lids so it makes it difficult to fit a netpot into.

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Nope dont glue air stones no need to when using buckets.. Yes I bought igloo coolers and they arent flat but I traced a circle using the net pot and took a jig saw to the lid. A couple guys on here saved the lids and used 2'' thick styrofoam from Lowes or home Depot and used those but I wanted to use the lids and using the lids helps maintains res temps to a perfect 68 degrees.

Christ that's a lot of work! I use 35 gallon reservoirs and never have to change my soup throughout the whole grow (constantly monitor water usage and PPM).

HydroScience said:

Christ that's a lot of work! I use 35 gallon reservoirs and never have to change my soup throughout the whole grow (constantly monitor water usage and PPM).

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Have to use coolers here in the desert the insulated sport coolers keep my res temps nice for a solid week . Never move and never do I need to worry about high temps leading to root rot.

BeaverHuntr said:

Have to use coolers here in the desert the insulated sport coolers keep my res temps nice for a solid week . Never move and never do I need to worry about high temps leading to root rot.

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Ahhh, opposite problem here in the Arctic! 4" of insulation between res and floor and water temps stay at 65F