Flushing your hydro setup?

[Tokenblack]

Quick question guys: I have been completely changing out the water in my 150 gallon setups every 7th day and cleaning out the whole hydroponic system so that i can flush nutes every seven days.

Now given the fact that my product has been heavenly as if i was smoking candy and getting cavities off of its great flavor and smoothness, im wondering if im over working in the method of flushing my phosphates.

Should i continue to flush the whole system every seven days or should i just wait till 2-3 weeks before harvest and just run some "Final Flush" before clipping and drying?
Im asking BEFORE I do it only because i have such a feeding frenzy with my medicine right now in the ways that ive been doing it but my water bill and the constant upkeep of the RO water and pH balancing of buckets for the transportation of each plant while i scrub out 2, 18 bucket, 8 gallon hydro setups is a pain in the ass and i was wondering if i was in turn creating work when it wasnt need from before.

"I WELCOME ANYONE AND EVERYONE TO CHIME IN WITH ANSWERS, OPINIONS AND ANY OTHER INFO!!!!"

THANKS!!

"TokenBlack"

 

[iscrog4food]

I think your overworking. If you are gonna flush once a week that is fine but you really only gotta clean the system once a grow IMO

 

[audius]

ya your overdoing it just a touch. if my ppms are in ck, i just stack . i only do 1 compleate clean & flush during a run.

 

[BakedReality]

I think you're overworking Bro! been running hydro for sometime. Started with the every week flush too much time and water as you mention. I flush mine about every other week but very hard water here and I like to do it to avoid lockout.

Token...I have to ask why such large ressy's? I run my hydro systems no matter what style so they just barely make the 7 days for the change....think about this if you are dumping a lot of water you are also dumping lots of nutes. A large ressy with a lot of water left over weekly is usually added to, like the Lucas. Are you only running buckets?....break it down to 2 large flood tables and cut like one big table a month. Only ask cuz 1 - 150 gal res...I could run 10 - 2 x 4 tables or about 7 - 3 x 3 tables.

Another question....You mention always adjusting PH. What type of PH up/down do you use? I used the concentrated AN for years PH would be good for the whole week...switched recently trying to go back to basics. SHIT...was adjusting my PH daily...back to the AN and PH is good for a week now.

Peace Baked

 

[Tokenblack]

My resevoirs (not my control buckets, just in case were on the same page) are large because i keep my plants underground and the humidity adds to the uptake of the water, therefore the saturation of the nutes needs to be adjusted weekly to keep the uptake.

Im running 2 setups of 16, 8gallon buckets from Current Culture then my reverse osmosis resevoirs are filled for topping off the system because getting water in my underground facility is kinda a hard task. Therefore simple water being added to the systems has to be pre-prepared, pH balanced and TDS set before i introduce it into the setup. (i dont have the option of a float valve connected to a simple hose with the valve open :)

 

[Tokenblack]

Good looking out, I just want to give each grow the same sterilized start as the first grow ya know. "Im in love with my Sensi-tive ladies" and want to keep them in the same startup states that i have always done. That and I fear Algae growth even with it being light sensitive. When running live microbes algae can get enough sustenance from the same nutes youve added to your plants ya know?

But hey, glad for the reponse, i was thinking i was all alone in this site down here in the 805.

 

[Tokenblack]

How do you clean your setup?
-Break it all down and soak in a mild bleach bath, scrub and dry?

or do you got any better tips?

 

[Tokenblack]

Final flush at the FINAL moment or weekly?...

Im throwing this out there to the wolves only because "in theory" if a final flush is applied just before harvest to flush out the bitter salts and phospates, what would be the harm in running a mild (very mild) final flush every 2 weeks instead of just water rinsing without nutes?

Is it possible that the constant "bi-weekly weening" of phosphates from your plants every couple weeks would thereby condition your plants into having less TOTAL phosphates throughout its growth, only THEN when you do your two week "final flush" you plants would almost be completely void of ALL phosphates and bitter salts..........which in turn, ups the flavor and cleaner burn, high and potency?

*Be nice, im not trying to be a noob. Im just posing some theories that we could bounce off each other, try, and then see what the outcome is with the correct application.

(My goal is to create a better growth schedule that gives the tasty flavor accustomed with organics, but has the potency and dankness of scientificially sythentics)

We all know that "Flushing and Curing" is the money maker to a good product, yet the "hand-holding" of its growth must be very sensitive as a child (yall know what i mean). So if we can give the correct building blocks, what necessarily could we do to stop the flow of (forgive the analogy) the plants so called "heart-disease" from arterial blockages....(i hope i havent lost anyone in my analogy *no im not high while typing this...haha*)

 

[BakedReality]

when I flush every 2 weeks...I only do it for about 1-2 hours dump and then refill with nutes. Never had def problems doing this. I use FloraKleen as it is not as abrasive as others...this just to knock off any C build-up that may even go unseen...

The cleaning process you mentioned is how I've done it for years....have heard good/bad opinions about it tho too.

Are you doing a 2 week final flush? Never done it in Hydro...only in soil...I go 7-10 days of flush in Hydro.

This is a good topic...I am sure someone will dime in about flushing soon

 

[danseven]

A method I use only 1 time in my grow is to empty my res of nuetreint water and fill with clean PH water with some flush product in it and then either pump or use a watering can dump or pump fresh water over the tops of the cubes. I grow in rock wool, F&D trays. I only do this when I go from Bloom to Flower. I just pump the flush water to the toilet and fill and re-nuetreint for flower. 2 grows so far using this method and seems to work for me.