Coco perlite Hydro combination - Drain to waste with recycling nutes. How long before draining ?

kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
small runoff is the best way to get salt accumulation in the medium .. bad taste on final product/ bad performances

only a large runoff every feed will for sure refresh the solution in the medium

and man .. why to waste even a gallon on a grow ? do you know the pollution you create by dumping this in your sink
 
D

DaFreak

Well-Known Member
No, adding too much salts to begin with is a good way to get salt buildup. Sure, more run-off is safer.

And yes, I know what kind of damage it does to the environment......and I don't give a flying F. Same damage that comes from food grown in the stores but on a much much smaller level. If you're using salts you're using salts. Giant algae bloom across the Atlantic. We all know.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
th
kingromano said:
periodically you transfer the second reservoir solution(ph/ec adjusted) to the main one
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that's my point: if you don't dump that 2nd res, how do you know what your nute ratios will be? it may have hardly any N and way too much P. or no Ca and way too much Mg.

i run drain to waste in DWC and would never go back to a recirc system.
 
Doug Dawson

Doug Dawson

Well-Known Member
This topic reminds me of tribes that do what they call second harvest. They dig through their waste and the waste of animals to get seeds and such that didn't get digested the first time. I am pretty happy to not have to reuse my waste for lack of resources for my plants or myself. Recirculating your waste in coco is just asking for trouble in my opinion as your nute ratios will be off but hey, do as you see fit. I personally wont be drinking Black Ivory coffee.
 
gr865

gr865

Well-Known Member
I just ran a 6 plants SCrog, DTW in coco/perlite, I run little run off per cycle, 4 cycles in flower @ 50 seconds. My 27 gallon rez last 7 days with about a gallon remaining. I use a Less is More fertilizer program.
The 7th day there is around 1 to 1.5 gallons of nute solution, I add 3 gallons of RO with Drip Clean, this lowers the ppm to around 325, and pH to 5.95. Then the last cycle of their day I do a mini flush, 3 to 4 one minute cycles. I hold a gallon back and the final water is done by hand with around .75 tsp of Great White.
Been successful for me!
 
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
Doug Dawson said:
This topic reminds me of tribes that do what they call second harvest. They dig through their waste and the waste of animals to get seeds and such that didn't get digested the first time. I am pretty happy to not have to reuse my waste for lack of resources for my plants or myself. Recirculating your waste in coco is just asking for trouble in my opinion as your nute ratios will be off but hey, do as you see fit. I personally wont be drinking Black Ivory coffee.
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right
but not with canna coco which is designed to recirculate in coco
 
Doug Dawson

Doug Dawson

Well-Known Member
kingromano said:
right
but not with canna coco which is designed to recirculate in coco
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I get what you are saying, it is totally possible to do. As a small 4 plant grower I don't feel it's worth it. The advantage of DTW is you can fine tune your nutes and be consistent. Recirculating takes that ability away. Since plants take up nutrients at different rates it is impossible to be totally accurate once you start recycling. That does not mean with all the steps used to recirculate you cannot make a decent feed solution, just not as accurate as the one I have with DTW. So for that reason I won't do it, to each their own. I am certainly not saying it is not possible.
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
People that use dwc/nft/recirculating pebbles etc don't throw out nutrient after each cycle it's more a weekly job afaik.

I collect my run off re ph/ec and feed it back from 2 gallon drum once every 4/5 days, after the 2nd time I ditch it,
I'm only wasting a fraction of what I used to.
My current grow is in re claimed coco + some run off fed.
It's looking good.

Before I used it on my crop I'd been experimenting with runn off only on 2 test plants they didnt look look at all different or I wouldn't have used it on my crop.

I was was sick of wasting it and asked about uses for run off, it was other members that gave me the idea, I've not completed the crop but I've absolutely no concern about using it. (I reserve the right to change my mind at a later date:-) ) time will tell.
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
kingromano said:
canna aqua
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I ran Canna Aqua for a couple of cycles, and it was dropping my Ph super low during the mix. I was having to use ridiculous amounts of PH Up, and oddly the drop increased when I upped the nutes during flower. It would plummet into to low 4s, and was very stubborn to raise with the PH Up. Is that normal or did I just buy a funky batch?
 
Star Dog

Star Dog

Well-Known Member
My canna ab coco drops to 4.5/5.0 when it gets much below 10 ltrs in tank.
With any reasonable amount of nutrient it's stable as?
 
lusidghost

lusidghost

Well-Known Member
Star Dog said:
My canna ab coco drops to 4.5/5.0 when it gets much below 10 ltrs in tank.
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No, I mean the PH dropped when I would mix up a fresh batch. New water / new nutrient. I would have to bring the PH way up to begin watering.

Usually in early veg I have to add a fair amount PH up, but as the nutrient levels rose over the course of the cycle, I have to use less and less. The Canna Aqua wanted insane amounts of PH up all the way through the cycle.
 
kingromano

kingromano

Well-Known Member
lusidghost said:
I ran Canna Aqua for a couple of cycles, and it was dropping my Ph super low during the mix. I was having to use ridiculous amounts of PH Up, and oddly the drop increased when I upped the nutes during flower. It would plummet into to low 4s, and was very stubborn to raise with the PH Up. Is that normal or did I just buy a funky batch?
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you must have soft water
under 0.2mS
canna line is made to work with hard water, around 0.4mS.
the harder the water the more bicarbonates in it
these bicarbonates buffer your water and increase the ph
 
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