Grow Mediums doing this correctly

[Jtrainor87]

Can someone tell me if im doing this correct or what way makes the most sense

Weekly Water Change in Hydro
Example purposes
Day 1 Bubblebucket EC 1.0
Day 3 Plant drinks 1 gallon EC 0.8 (Refill back 1 gallon with full strength 1.0 EC) Averages 0.9EC
Day 7 plant drinks 2 gallons EC 0.7 (dump rez, clean) Refill 3 gallons Ec 1.2
Is that how you would do it in that scenario
The opposite being
Day 1 Ec 1.0
Day 3 1 gallon drank Ec 1.2 (refill half nutes (0.5EC) bringing down to 0.8ec)
Day 7 2 gallons drank ec0.9 (dump rez, clean) refill 3 gallons with 0.8ec

Or do most people do this during each stage
Beginning of week 1 EC 0.5
Halfway Ec 0.3 Refill with 0.6
End of week 1 Ec0.4 Refill 0.7
And continue with this until you reach transition stage then Dump refill Half grow half bloom with corresponding Ec
Then 2 weeks dump refill with bloom at corresponding EC and follow until the end.

I just get confused as there are so many different ways to do this. I use Tap water right now with a Ec of 0.4 and I just didn't know if it makes it easier to dump and refill every week/10 days or only during each phase change. Then If shes drinking the EC down to refill with the full strength I started that week with or to increase the EC a little higher then I did at the beginning of the week.
main reason is by the begininf of flower i have massive roots and picking her up out of the bucket is a pain.
can i just drain the bucket eith a siphon and refill or does the whole bucket need to be cleaned then refilled

 

[Animatey]

Hey buddy, your examples where you try to average out the EC with water coming in, based on the change in EC in the rez are a pretty standard way of doing things. This is the way I run recirculating systems and I learned to do that from a few members on this site.

Not the only way of doing it, like you mentioned... People do have different methods and a lot of people ignore EC and just top up with plain water until it's time for a rez change.

As far as when to change rez:

Some people will say you can change out the rez after 1 day for every gallon. So if you have a 5 gallon rez they would change it out every 5 days. This is how I would do it. I was changing out my 10 gallon flood and drain system every 10 days. My 16 gallon every 2 weeks etc.

Others say you change out the rez after you have added back water equal to the rez amount. So after you add back 5 gallons to a 5 gallon rez, it's time for a full rez change.

Might be able to get away with that, but personally I'd change a 5 gallon rez every 5 days regardless of add back.

I'd personally say keep doing like you are in your examples and do a full rez change every 5 days if you have a 5 gallon dwc. IMO you don't need to rinse it, just drain it and fill it with fresh solution.

Thoroughly clean the bucket after each harvest.

Hope that helps, good luck