this may seem like a silly question but my grow space is in the loft and any water i get has to come from a bathroom dowstairs and im using a GT424 tank but my question is how many times will i need to change the water in the tank during a grow?
how do i flush or change the water in the tank if i dont have a tap in he loft? will i have to squeeze my plants through the small loft hole and run them under a tap? help

do you have a tank up there that supplys water to your house? if so you can syphon water over from that, but need to be careful about back-syphoning.... dont wana be brushin yer teeth with nutes

No tank up there im afraid

then use a pump and some hose.. i bought a bilge pump from the boat marina for £12, but some fowks find the pump from the hydro sytem works ok.

or ol skool it with buckets man...

i used nft pump to pump down into buckets


then ran house from bathroom to loft


tidy away wen u done

can someone clarify how many times the water needs to be changed?
do i need to fully empty the tank every week or what? and what about when i flush 2 weeks before i chop, how do i get round that one?
in other words when i first fill the nft will i then have to top up every day or change the water completley?

BUMP

every 5-7 days mate.

Replace all the water every 5-7 days? or just top it up?

depends on how much they drink, personally all hydro mediums ive used in the past work best if the water is completely replaced every week during that period i top up with water. although its personal preference and how dirty the water seems to get.

How do you replace the water? where do you put the plants and roots while you replace the water?

how will i... any water i get will have to come from a bathroom below...by hand, and what do i do with the plants and roots when i need to get a bucket in there to replace the water?
thanx for the help
ps
i have a GT 424nft tank

I have just bought my 1st system which is an nft 640 and am also planning to grow in a loft.
Athough i have not kicked off yet,i have already thought about the water problem,so heres what i did.
Get yourself down to wilkinsons and buy 1 of those 20ltr home brew kegs.They come with a screw on sealed cap and have 2 handles which make it easy to haul ass up into your loft.
Next you need to fit a tap and length of hose to the keg"this will make it easier to drain newts into your NFT rez"you can find these d.i.y plastic tap kits at any garden centre along side the water butts,hose pipes etc,they come with rubber washers and all you will need to attatch to your keg.
I also find that these kegs are great for mixing up newts as they are marked up to 20 ltr measurments and using the tap makes it easy to add and drain water as you like.
I hope this is of help to you and wish you all the best with your grow.

Fellow NFT noob...

so get my self a big container with a lid/cap and use that to get new water into the tank.

What i dont get is that the roots will be sitting on the tray... so do i just take out the tray with the plants on it and plonk it to the side while i gain acsess to the res to get the old water out?
and ive read (maybe wrongly) that regarding the flushing 2 weeks prior to the chop that i will have to run the roots under a tap? i hope not because i cant see flowered plants getting through my loft hatch and then back up there again

cheers mate
2Roach

Doesent your system have a small access hatch to resovoir at one end and a water pump which pumps water/newts from the rez onto the tray?
IF so you simply take the water pump and pump out the old newts into a hose or bucket.As for flushing you just gradually lower newts,ec levels in your rez over 7 days until all you have running through your system is pure water,this process flushes out all of those nasty tasting newts from your plants fruits so that all your left with is sweet tasting natural budd.

oooooh yes i have a gap and pump..i never knew you could just pump the old stuff out into a bucket and thats good news to hear i can lower the nutes to flush the ladys
ta fella you have put my mind at rest

dont smoke newts

ill try my hardest not to

Didn,t you get a piece of hose with the nft kit? you remove the black spout on top of the pump that feeds the tray,then fit the hose to your pump then empty into buckets. I also grow nft,i top off the rez with ph adjusted water as needed through the week,then a full rez change after 7-10 days. When it comes to flushing,just empty the rez and give ph adjusted water for about 5 days. This is what i do and never had any probs and the harvest tastes great and smokes smooth,no nasty nutes spoiling the taste or burning the throat. More experienced members might know better methods but thats wot works for me