Reservoir Fatigue

Man... I love growing! 90% of the time... the other 10% is the reservoir changes/cleans and the trimming. Trimming is easy to crowd source but the constant drudgery of cleaning the reservoir is exhausting.

Getting out that last bit of the water the pump could reach, then scrubbing off caked on organic goop for 20 minutes, rinse, empty more scrubbing, more rinsing, more emptying in the frigid Australian winter... its getting old. I've got a 200L tank and I can't fit anything larger without getting creative. I get about 4 days per tank depending on where I am at in the cycle.

How can I free myself from my brutal overload: The reservoir? Is there such a thing as a self cleaning reservoir (that doesn't have lots of zeroes).

drain to waste seems like its right up your alley

also look into waterfalls for oxygenating your reservoir, stuff shouldnt be growing in there. How long in between cleanings?

I am doing drain to waste! I've got a 4 hose bubbler going in it. Its empty after 4 days and I clean it every second time its empty. The clean I do is solid, done with hydrogen peroxide.

My hydro shop guy tells me its the organic nutes. Its not growth its just transitioning from liquid suspension to solid gunk. I had a small pump circulating at the bottom but it didn't have much impact. I get a dry build up on the side as the water level drops and finally a pretty heavy gunking across the bottom. I've actually had to discontinue using my chiller as it was clogging up completely.

the only way to free yourself from that is to get rid of the organics...because that's what organics do.
that is why nearly every commercial greenhouse in the world runs sterile reservoirs, and uses chemical salt nutes.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

the only way to free yourself from that is to get rid of the organics...

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Exactly what I was gonna say. I wholeheartedly concur.

Ok... make sense. Kind of obvious actually :facepalm:

Cheers

Not sure what brands you have available to you down there, but I hear a lot of people talking about how clean floraflex nutrients are, and supposed to be affordable. They come as powders which is good it means your not paying for any water like with other bottles. I use Advanced nutrients just cause that's what I've always used lol. I'd say u could get longer between cleanings maybe a couple weeks depending on how clean you want the rez with AN if the other I mentioned isnt available.

I used to use advanced nutrients but they've become to hard to source. I tried importing them directly and customs intercepted my 5L Big Bud Coco order lol.

They have Canna at my local shop. I believe that range is synthetic.

worldspawn said:

I used to use advanced nutrients but they've become to hard to source. I tried importing them directly and customs intercepted my 5L Big Bud Coco order lol.

They have Canna at my local shop. I believe that range is synthetic.

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I have had excellent results from GH Flora three part since 1989. Can you get that stuff locally?

Roger A. Shrubber said:

the only way to free yourself from that is to get rid of the organics...because that's what organics do.
that is why nearly every commercial greenhouse in the world runs sterile reservoirs, and uses chemical salt nutes.

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Renfro said:

Exactly what I was gonna say. I wholeheartedly concur.

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It's definitely organic that causes these issues be it nutrients small amounts of root decay etc etc. There is an alternative solution. I run a canister filter for a couple reasons 1 it traps tiny organic matter. 2 it's provides an ideal home for my beneficial bacteria. No different than an aquarium. The media I use in it is filter sponges ceramic media and filter floss which you can just buy as pillow or quilt stuffing.

Denitrifying bacteria are important in my view for a couple reasons. They are responsible for breaking down organic nitrogen like decaying roots etc and are very effective at it. Without the bacteria you have no way to break down organic matter. By doing so they consume the food source for other bacteria and nasties such as pythium essentially not allowing them to gain a hold. Treatment for pythium actually requires different bacillus strains but preventing is what I'm looking at.

It also provides mechanical filtration removing organic particles and trapping these particles in the filter and thus providing food to keep the denitrifying bacteria population healthy but in one place... The filter. This keeps pumps, hose and other submerged equipment much cleaner and far far less maintenance is required.

In fact the only thing I do between run is clean my pump. Other than that a quick wipe of mineral build up around the rim of my res and buckets with a damp cloth is it. I don't wipe anything below the water line.

Also helps aerate my res and gives me an easy way to pump out my system by having couplings on my return from the pump. I just hook a long hose and run to my drain and it pumps it all out.

Just a quick note these bacteria take time to delvop usually 4-6weeks and need a food source such as ammonia/ammonium unless seeding from an established source but can be cultivated easy in a 5 gal pail

Moving away from organics will help you tons buddy...I use Floranova in standalone 5 gals, and even with it being so horribly sludgy looking, I have no issues at all with build up letting each 5 gal standalone bucket go 2-4 weeks between res changes. I just throw in some bennies and good to go. Now, in a recirculating system of any sort, I would NOT recommend Floranova simply because of it's sludgy nature. But it's simply not pheasable to do organics in hydroponics without having an extra work load. If you wish to continue using organics, there is no way around using beneficial microbes alongside them. I didn't see whether or not you said you were OP, but if not, then they will help immensly with breaking down organics. But my advice would still be to drop the organics and get some synthetic nutes...and still using bennies with those, as they help break down broken off roots and leaf material that commonly gets into res's and would otherwise cause bad bacteria to breed. If your PH and PPM is totally stable running the synthetic nutes, I personally don't even worry about res changes...only when things start to get out of balance. Good luck!

Logan Burke said:

Moving away from organics will help you tons buddy...I use Floranova in standalone 5 gals, and even with it being so horribly sludgy looking, I have no issues at all with build up letting each 5 gal standalone bucket go 2-4 weeks between res changes. I just throw in some bennies and good to go. Now, in a recirculating system of any sort, I would NOT recommend Floranova simply because of it's sludgy nature. But it's simply not pheasable to do organics in hydroponics without having an extra work load. If you wish to continue using organics, there is no way around using beneficial microbes alongside them. I didn't see whether or not you said you were OP, but if not, then they will help immensly with breaking down organics. But my advice would still be to drop the organics and get some synthetic nutes...and still using bennies with those, as they help break down broken off roots and leaf material that commonly gets into res's and would otherwise cause bad bacteria to breed. If your PH and PPM is totally stable running the synthetic nutes, I personally don't even worry about res changes...only when things start to get out of balance. Good luck!

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i use 3 ml per gallon of 34% h2o2 every other time i water in hempy buckets. it keeps the "res" clean, and breaks down dead roots material.
3-5 ml per gallon in your hydro res would do the same, with a small top off every couple of days. i'd try 5 ml per gallon on refill, and add...2 ml per gallon every other day? and see how that goes. i try to use the least amount i can to get the results i want, start a little low and work up

Have you tried using a pressure washer?

Roger A. Shrubber said:

i use 3 ml per gallon of 34% h2o2 every other time i water in hempy buckets. it keeps the "res" clean, and breaks down dead roots material.
3-5 ml per gallon in your hydro res would do the same, with a small top off every couple of days. i'd try 5 ml per gallon on refill, and add...2 ml per gallon every other day? and see how that goes. i try to use the least amount i can to get the results i want, start a little low and work up

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Yes if I wasn't using bennies I'd be applying h202 without a doubt...my first run in hydroponics I tried going sterile with h202 and I got root rot relatively fast. I'm not sure why, but I'm sure it was a result of my own incompetence haha. So these days I just stick with my good ol' great white...but at some point in the future I wouldn't mind giving the h202 another run!