Recycle water and nutrients or drain it off

Hello I have a 96 site rockwool set up split into two separate rooms of 48 sites each. Each of the rooms has thier own 125 liter reservoir and I am at the point I'm the drainage system building were I can either design it to drain off or be routed back to my reservoir to re-use the water. My previous grow I recycled
The water to be re-used and even this way I was re-filling the reservoir every three days due to evaporation but I also had the pumps running 24/7 which I found a little excessive even though they did grow like crazy. I was wondering if any body might be able to tell me a good watering cycle if I were to drain the water off? Any body beileve that it is a waste to drain off the water and nutes and that recycling is better bang for your buck? People claim to have problems keeping ph steady with rockwool and recycling water and some peole claim that if you prepare the rockwool properly by soaking it in adjusted ph water for 24 hours before use than this is not a problem. My water pump is a 1056 gph pump so running it for one minute a day would drain half my reservoir. If I were to drain should I get a valve to slow it down and water multiple times a day or just one giant watering? Any opinions or suggestions would be much appreciated!!
 

asaph

Well-Known Member
well, obviously, recycling costs less. But on the other hand - once the nute solution goes through the roots, it changes its balance as plants and other elements near them uptake the minerals. If a recycling system can take that into account and make up for the change in the balance of minerals, then this would be perfect, and no need to waste the solution.

But this is not possible for most growers. Then again, it is not really necessary - plants also adjust to some extent to their solution, and as long as you can keep your plants happy and healthy with recycling, I wouldn't think the yield benefit for running to waste would justify it in terms of $$. Of course, every week or two any res needs to be emptied and refilled.
 
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