How much water to keep?

Clyde4210 · Oct 14, 2022

I want to do a fresh bucket but not interested in waiting days for it to start working. I'm curious how much should I keep out of 3 gallons of water for active enzymes?

Thanks.

smokedareefer · Oct 19, 2022

Clyde4210 said:
I want to do a fresh bucket but not interested in waiting days for it to start working. I'm curious how much should I keep out of 3 gallons of water for active enzymes?

Thanks.

My system (rdwc) holds about 50 gal and i will keep back maybe 1/2 gal to keep my colony going but i don't think the amount matters.

@Moe.Red would the one to ask.

Clyde4210 · Oct 19, 2022

smokedareefer said:
My system (rdwc) holds about 50 gal and i will keep back maybe 1/2 gal to keep my colony going but i don't think the amount matters.

@Moe.Red would the one to ask.

Sounds about right I read 20%. I saved around that and changed water.

Thanks.

Moe.Red · Oct 19, 2022

I’m a little confused here. I’m guessing that this is a dwc bucket that is live?

You mentioned active enzymes but I don’t follow. Enzymes do not grow like bacteria, you have to add them. Perhaps you are referring to beneficial bacteria?

What products are you using and what is your system?

Generally a very small population of bb is floating in the water column. They attach themselves to every surface. If you are saving water for bb it is not necessary as long as you dump and refill quickly before any surface can dry out. But it won’t hurt either. If you are trying to save enzymes then yes they are in the water.

Clyde4210 · Oct 19, 2022

Yeah I was talking about hydroguard. I refrigerate my water so I assumed the bacteria would be dormant or slow until they warmed up. Keeping some I assumed would keep things rolling till the cold bacteria woke up or started moving. I thought that's what they were saying by keeping culture, keeping some bacteria.

I'm only doing single bucket DWC, very simple setup.

Zill · Oct 19, 2022

I’m following moe.red.

Clyde,
You never ever want to water your plants with 2-8C water. Not sure you are. But chilled roots do not transport anything except water until they warm back up.

Zill.

Moe.Red · Oct 19, 2022

Have you ever run an aquarium? Familiar with the N cycle?

Fish cause ammonia. Nitrosomonas bacteria are required to break ammonia down to nitrite. Then nitrobacter convert nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate is safe. Ammonia and nitrite are not.

It takes about 45 days to fully establish the bacteria colonies to support fish life and keep ammonia unmeasurable.

We have the same situation in hydro. The bacteria are very similar.

Now this is a guess but I’ll bet 95% of total bacteria in our systems are not in the water column but are attached to every surface instead. And it takes at least 15 days to get a colony started and over a month for full protection.

Saving 20% water is not really buying you much if you have an established colony.

Zill · Oct 19, 2022

Bang!

Clyde4210 · Oct 19, 2022

Thanks, I try for 68 in bucket but idk takes forever to get temp maybe 10 minutes or so, I just refrigerate. I'll stop doing that. My cold tap was 74 and why I started refrigerating, well spring water.

Clyde4210 · Oct 19, 2022

Moe.Red said:
Have you ever run an aquarium? Familiar with the N cycle?

Fish cause ammonia. Nitrosomonas bacteria are required to break ammonia down to nitrite. Then nitrobacter convert nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate is safe. Ammonia and nitrite are not.

It takes about 45 days to fully establish the bacteria colonies to support fish life and keep ammonia unmeasurable.

We have the same situation in hydro. The bacteria are very similar.

Now this is a guess but I’ll bet 95% of total bacteria in our systems are not in the water column but are attached to every surface instead. And it takes at least 15 days to get a colony started and over a month for full protection.

Saving 20% water is not really buying you much if you have an established colony.

Ah ok gotcha that makes sense. Never ran an aquarium but ran huge tanks of minnow's, I owned a bait & tackle shop and I sold wholesale minnow's long time ago. There i just kept water dripping with a surface drain, add drops a few sucker fish and you may have to clean the tank twice a year if that. The drops handled the ammonia. I'm talking huge fiberglass tanks though and a couple aluminum ones. I'm kinda familiar with what you're talking about but I don't have a clue about aquariums.

How much water to keep?

How much water to keep?

Clyde4210

smokedareefer

Clyde4210

Moe.Red

Clyde4210

Zill

Moe.Red

Zill

Clyde4210

Clyde4210

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