Never changing the reservoir

I have grown a few times now and I initially made sure to change my reservoir every 10-14 days as so many here have suggested.

I then went to changing it once a month (basically 1 change on an 8 week flowering cycle).

This last time I didn't even change it at all.

I did not notice any difference at all between changing the water/nutes every 10 days and this last time where I didn't change it at all.

My PH never fluctuated much and I would just add water and more nutes as I needed to. Adjusting on the fly.

I saw absolutely no benefit to changing the reservoir so often and I am still wondering if I am missing something here? I yielded just as much in all instances.

Now a person might ask why I wouldn't bother to change it, but I have one huge reservoir and its not only difficult to change, but very costly as well. So I am asking again, why is it that we should be changing it? I would like some sort of a logical reason for doing so before wasting my time, water, and nutes.

ty

mine stinks after a week.. I cant imagine not changing it ever..

I haven't changed mine at all either. 3 months. Only top her off when I feel like it.
It does smell like roots pretty strong when I open her up though lol

OK. so at least i am not the only one.

no smell in mine though. well nothing too bad at least. havent noticed it

Yeah my water stinks after 7 days, and everything is slimy, the pumps the hoses the tubs, I even went out and bought long handled nylon brushes to scrub my tubes out. I place the pumps in lightly chlorinated water and wipe them off every week.

What strain are you growing that is so forgiving with it's feedings?

I could not imagine what the reservoir looks and feels like in 8 weeks let alone 12 weeks.

If it works for you great, less work but I don't think I could bring myself to it lol. Best of Luck.....JR

I use the lucas formula, I top off daily but only change out my whole res @ flush.

jrinlv said:

Yeah my water stinks after 7 days, and everything is slimy, the pumps the hoses the tubs, I even went out and bought long handled nylon brushes to scrub my tubes out. I place the pumps in lightly chlorinated water and wipe them off every week.

What strain are you growing that is so forgiving with it's feedings?

I could not imagine what the reservoir looks and feels like in 8 weeks let alone 12 weeks.

If it works for you great, less work but I don't think I could bring myself to it lol. Best of Luck.....JR

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...this may have something to do with your res temps, or light getting into your res., or even not cleaning off your rocks well enough. Hygrozyme works wonders if you've never looked into that stuff.

trichlone fiend said:

...this may have something to do with your res temps, or light getting into your res., or even not cleaning off your rocks well enough. Hygrozyme works wonders if you've never looked into that stuff.

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No not at all, I run coco mat (which I think is what does it), my temps of my water are only high 60's it's aerated all day, Cover is on all the time and my reservoirs are outside my grow room. I was not the only one to say my water is gross after 7 days, Thanks for lookin out though.....JR

DWC here in 5 gallon buckets. I don't do a res change in the strictest sense. I do an adapted technique used by aquarium people.

Basically, for every 2 inches of water my girls drink up I drain 1 inch and replace with 3 inches of nutes/pH adjusted water. I find this helps with salt build up from selective nutrient uptake.

In such small res buckets my girls usually ask for magnesium and other trace nutes if I don't flush out a bit of old water and replace with fresh in a timely manner. I don't think an entire res change is necessary, except when treating pathogens, but an open loop is definitely beneficial.

Also, if I smell anything in my res I do a flush, wash the roots in diluted hydrogen peroxide, and if it happened to me again I'd probably upgrade my aeration yet further. I don't think healthy roots are supposed to produce any smells at all... at least my girls don't (when they're healthy).

jrinlv said:

Yeah my water stinks after 7 days, and everything is slimy, the pumps the hoses the tubs, I even went out and bought long handled nylon brushes to scrub my tubes out. I place the pumps in lightly chlorinated water and wipe them off every week.

What strain are you growing that is so forgiving with it's feedings?

I could not imagine what the reservoir looks and feels like in 8 weeks let alone 12 weeks.

If it works for you great, less work but I don't think I could bring myself to it lol. Best of Luck.....JR

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White Berry, OG #18, SLH right now, but I have grown quite a few others as well.

My reservoir is well over 100 gallons. Light proof. And more bubbles than you could imagine. but it does get a little bit nasty by the time its all done. not really slimy though. it's just a real pain to change it mid cycle. i couldnt possibly lift the top off, so its hard to drain the water out.

with the SLH this time i think i will be forced to change it at least once. the White Berry has always been super fast, but this SLH will take 3-4 more weeks. dont think i can push it that long

trichlone fiend said:

I use the lucas formula, I top off daily but only change out my whole res @ flush.

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i've heard about this Lucas Formula.. going to look into it now. i use the full line from GH. the gro/micro/bloom as well as kool bloom/floralicious/florablend/floranectar

the only other nutes i have tried were advanced nutes.. IMO the GH line is better (and cheaper).

searching that lucas formula now. care to add anything about it? ty

Cissy said:

i've heard about this Lucas Formula.. going to look into it now. i use the full line from GH. the gro/micro/bloom as well as kool bloom/floralicious/florablend/floranectar

the only other nutes i have tried were advanced nutes.. IMO the GH line is better (and cheaper).

searching that lucas formula now. care to add anything about it? ty

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I've done the GH micro/bloom Lucas Formula, I think you're better off with the full GH line. Though Lucas Formula is popular it's really a minimum requirements kind of thing, not ideal, just easy and it works every time.

The main premise of Lucas Formula it is that light and environment is more important then nute selection, which is true IMO, but nevertheless the GH micro/bloom formula is not an ideal food source compared to the full line up.

vh13 said:

I've done the GH micro/bloom Lucas Formula, I think you're better off with the full GH line. Though Lucas Formula is popular it's really a minimum requirements kind of thing, not ideal, just easy and it works every time.

The main premise of Lucas Formula it is that light and environment is more important then nute selection, which is true IMO, but nevertheless the GH micro/bloom formula is not an ideal food source compared to the full line up.

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ty for the reply.

i am not a cheapskate so i want to use whatever is best. i only grow on occasion, but when i do, i go big. that way i dont have to grow again for awhile. either way though i prefer the best, not merely the cheapest

ty

im curious to why you guys dont use self contained units? i heard from a good source that your suppose to drain and fill once a week....i know of people maintaining and topping off without having to do that until harvest then they just clean it out very well and re-use

interesting, gunna watch the replies for this

hydrozyme blows, that shit ruined two of my grows, it goes bad fast....

dude, i've gone 4 months without changing the water.

it's still good. notice no difference. i'll continue to do it this way since it makes no difference. why make my life more complicated?

still smells like alfalfa sprouts.

I drain and clean my reservoir every 2 weeks. I could go 3 weeks, but longer than that and the hoses get super slimy and the tank is smelly.

I'm running a 110 gallon reservoir with excellent aeration and light proof.

dipstick said:

hydrozyme blows, that shit ruined two of my grows, it goes bad fast....

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By the looks of it, it's the you that keeps fucking up, c'mon get a fricking clue.

My first dwc... Im on week 11 from seed ( 4 weeks grow and 7 weeksflower ) havent flushed or changed the res yet ...no smells ...clean roots...GH nutes...I keep PH at 6.0 , no light leaks, PPM about 1300 max...and a chilly 62-64 degrees water temp ... 64-81 air temp in room night to day... my shit is LUVIN it !

I'll only flush for harvest....or if I end up with an issue of any sort....I personally think the cool water, and simple GH nutes, and Keeping PH precise, and NO light leaks... is the key to not having some of the problems mentioned ..... Oh yeah ...Im using tap water.... from a garden hose (PPM 109 and PH 7.8 ) and I have a 20 dollar chlorine filter made for RV use that's supposed to be good for a year .

I have to add about 1/2gal water per day to each bin with 2-3 plants in it...and I add nutes according to PPM (and MIx the growth , flower ,and Micro nutes generally as prescribed by GH ...but Not exactly ,cause Im only topping off....but I try and use them somewhat like GH reccommends (3 parts FL, 2 parts Micro, 1 part flower during Growth.... 2/2/2 in the Middle stages.... and 1 part grow, 2 parts Micro, and 3 parts Flower in the later Flowering stages)

all is good ....