Longest time between full reservoir clean/refresh..

[Slippy One]

Hi to all coco auto feed crew out there, what's the longest you've gone between a full clean down/refresh? 

 

I almost made it to 4 weeks by just topping up every 6 days, wondered if anyone has gone longer?

 

I know we're supposed to completely refresh every week, but I've had a mad month and topping up suited me. Plant's are happy as Larry, maybe I got lucky. Very salty in the res, maybe I need a bigger circ pump..

 

[badbillybob]

who said you're meant to clean out every week??

i did my last grow i never cleaned any of the res out from flip, so 8 weeks, but it did run down a few times,

i should have cleaned it out though, as the  yeild suffeed as did the ec (way high)  and PH

Edited October 24, 2022 by badbillybob

[GSZZ]

 

1 minute ago, badbillybob said:

i should have cleaned it out though, as the  yeild suffeed as did the ec (way high)  and PH

 

This. The amount of times I've trouble shot rooms with seemingly "nothing wrong" only to find the pump is trying to pump through 6 inches of salt, or its been ran dry and not cleaned that many times, salt and carbonate is literally flaking off the sides into the water as it fills up  

 

 

Odd time here and there isn't going to hurt anything, personally speaking its a slippery slope though  I'd sooner clean it once a week, or at every tank change whatever comes sooner. Plus its physically less work to wipe it down once a week than it is to toil over it between cycles trying to get it clean! 

[badbillybob]

16 minutes ago, GSZZ said:

 

 

This. The amount of times I've trouble shot rooms with seemingly "nothing wrong" only to find the pump is trying to pump through 6 inches of salt, or its been ran dry and not cleaned that many times, salt and carbonate is literally flaking off the sides into the water as it fills up  

 

 

Odd time here and there isn't going to hurt anything, personally speaking its a slippery slope though  I'd sooner clean it once a week, or at every tank change whatever comes sooner. Plus its physically less work to wipe it down once a week than it is to toil over it between cycles trying to get it clean! 

i totally agree. i wont do it again, promise     its definitely not recommended, ill add.

i was just not in the right head place for the last grow or two.

clean it out regularly and you will have much less issues., as pointed out...

Edited October 24, 2022 by badbillybob

[Slippy One]

This got me thinking, what do the pros do reservoirs? I'm guessing super fine filters, RO water etc but do pro grow ops do a weekly clean? 

 

 

[GSZZ]

1 hour ago, badbillybob said:

i totally agree. i wont do it again, promise     its definitely not recommended, ill add.

i was just not in the right head place for the last grow or two.

clean it out regularly and you will have much less issues., as pointed out...

 

 we've all been there mate and I'm no saint, my tanks are clean but only you saw the state of the rest of the room!  

 

1 hour ago, Slippy One said:

but do pro grow ops do a weekly clean? 

 

Aye, loads of memes about "rezzy scrubbers"  

[BushDoctoR]

I've building casts for resin recently. Before we pour the resin in we give the cast a spray with a very fine layer of some sort of wax to help stop it sticking. Had me wondering whether something like that could work for salt build up to make cleaning easier

 

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by BushDoctoR

[JonDaMon]

On 24/10/2022 at 8:22 PM, Slippy One said:

This got me thinking, what do the pros do reservoirs? I'm guessing super fine filters, RO water etc but do pro grow ops do a weekly clean? 

 

 

 

personally I’ve been a full grow without cleaning down my reservoir. 
 

 

my res is 60L approx 55L when full as I don’t fill it right to the top. 
 

i have a circulation pump running 24h to create movement in the reservoir. 
 

At least once a week I add 60ml of 12% H2o2 to my reservoir and I add 25ml to every 25L top up that I do. 
 

i don’t use any screens in my inline filter as it’s there for quick disconnection when I need to remove the reservoir etc. 

 

my HX8810 has its own sponge filter for removing debris. 
 

 

i don’t consider myself a “pro” and what works for one does not always work for another. 
 

 

i use the following 

 

Dutch pro Coco Hydro/Grow A/B (sw) as my water is 0.2EC. 
 

i use plant magic MagneCal

 

Epsom salts 

 

Mono PotassiumPhosphate

 

pH down

 

Liquid Silicon

 

H2o2

 

And I also have Dutch Pro Keep it clean (although I have no proof this works at keeping lines clean)

 

Make of this what you will but unless you’re seeing issues with your reservoir such as bacterial blooms or algae growth etc then there’s really no need to strip it once a week to clean it all IMO. 
 

 

 

[stu914]

It's not only cleanliness but also the balance of nutes in the res...

Plants use nutes at different rates throughout the grow and if the res is continuously topped up there will eventually be a lacking in some elements

and a surplus of others which will cause discrepancies and lock-out...(this applies only to re-circulating systems and not drain to waste)

 

[JonDaMon]

Fully agree with @stu914 

 

Recirculating systems are whole other question.  
 

as Stu has said the recirc will cause issues as uptake happens and doesn’t return an exact amount of everything back. 
 

 

with @Slippy One talking about coco auto feeding I just figured DTW as I wouldn’t really want to recirc coco unless other things were being done to mitigate the way coco holds on to certain elements. 

[Surfer Joe]

On 24/10/2022 at 7:49 PM, badbillybob said:

who said you're meant to clean out every week??

i did my last grow i never cleaned any of the res out from flip, so 8 weeks, but it did run down a few times,

i should have cleaned it out though, as the  yeild suffeed as did the ec (way high)  and PH

Lol...I guess you answered your own question, eh?