Ebb and Flow Reservoir and Maintenance???

Can anyone tell me about reservoir maintenance? I know it needs to be changed every 7-14 days (1-2 weeks). What I don't know is if I also have to clean and sterilize the buckets the plants sit in at the same time.

If you do, your system is probably suffering from other problems, like not enough oxygen or too might light causing algae. Look at the buckets, if they don't look really dirty, I wouldn't piss with them. Ideally, you should only have to clean your system between harvests - some people go nuts with hydroton / rockwool though and will have algae growing over everything.

Clean thoroughly between harvests with bleach or h202, rinse well.
Keep all light out of your Res as it encourages algae.
Algae problems can be remedied with an air pump/stone and/or h202.
Either empty and replace nutes at 7 days or top-up with halfish-strength nutes as levels drop (a ppm meter helps perfect this process) and completely replace at 14-days (more economical)
Occasionally flush with clean water between res changes for 15 mins (washes salt build-up out). I do this between veg/flower change and again at week 5 of flower.
Don't see how it's possible to clean buckets (not that I use them, I plant straight into the table) without causing damage to roots.

I have enough oxygen and I have no algae at all. The buckets do not look dirty at all and the girls look very healthy. I was just worried if I needed to clean between reservoir changes in case there is something to worry about that I cannot see with the naked eye. This is my first ebb and flow grow so I wanted to make sure i don't run into any problems.

...you fill your res with water first, add your fertz to desired EC/ppm, then adjust your pH.....you'll need to check your water levels and pH daily....I add water only as the plants drink up until res change (every 2 weeks)....I only clean my res at the end of the grow.

...your res should stay clean if you focus on keeping your res cool, keep the light out of your res, and keep oxygen in it....h2o2 will help keep the pathogens down if you can't keep your res temps cool. hth

@cues. I have the 10" net pots filled with hydroton clay pellets that sit in 3.5 gallon buckets. Last time I changed the reservoir, I got all the 3.5 buckets and cleaned them with very diluted bleach water. I did that because they were filled with the red colored powder from new hydroton clay pellets. I don't have to worry about the red stuff now since the water has thoroughly cleaned them before the first res change.


So I should have nothing to worry about in between reservoir changes? (as long as I follow your directions?)

@trichome. I have no problems with res temps. I have my res heater set to operate during the lights OFF period since that's when it gets cold (66 degrees). It is set to 71.4 degrees, so it will not heat it above that temp. I have a 600gph (100 gallons of air every 10 mins) pump so oxygen in the water is good. Using advanced nutes and supplementing co2.

Will I have to worry about any pathogens if I wait until harvest to clean the reservoir?

Thanks for all the help everyone. I really appreciate the love. We all should smoke a stogie...lol. I don't smoke though.

Cannabis Philsopher said:

Will I have to worry about any pathogens if I wait until harvest to clean the reservoir?

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...I've ran the whole grow without changing the res before, I noticed a little brown slime in the res but no ill effects on the garden.....I use the Lucas formula, have been for years, so I just kept my ec around 1.6 up until flush time...it worked great.
...one thing to consider doing this though, although I knew my ec, I didn't actually know what the N/P/K was....changing out your res every couple weeks keeps things a little more balanced...but, as I say, you can do it.

Cannabis Philsopher said:

Last time I changed the reservoir, I got all the 3.5 buckets and cleaned them with very diluted bleach water. I did that because they were filled with the red colored powder from new hydroton clay pellets. I don't have to worry about the red stuff now since the water has thoroughly cleaned them before the first res change.

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...if your plants go into it, I wouldn't use bleach for nothing, just my opinion...I do clean my walls/ceiling/floor with diluted bleach water, but not my pots/tables/res.....biodegradable dish liquid and a green scrub pad does my cleaning of pots/tables/res.

...if you plan on reusing your rocks, just bake'em in the oven inbetween crops.

@trichome. Thanks. That's very valuable info.

Cannabis Philsopher said:

@trichome. Thanks. That's very valuable info.

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...no problem bro...you can follow my hydro grows on Al B. Fuct's thread -> https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/399206-its-fuct-world-67.html

Why worry about heating your res at night? If it's not set to flood (which it shouldn't be), what's the point?

@Cues. The whole purpose: During the lights on segment of the day the water temp is maintained at the room temperature the lights cause. At night without the lights the temp drops, therefore I heat during the night to maintain a water temp as to where my roots don't get shocked by super cold water temps. When the lights come on the heater is scheduled off since the lights keep the room at 72-75 degrees and is maintained at that temp. If the water is already at that temperature when the lights do come on then there is no need for me to wait hours for a 55 gallon reservoir to reach room temperature. It will already be at room temperature and avoids all shock to roots when the first fill and drain of the day is scheduled.