Using Hydro Buddy

[Crysmatic]

Wow...all the things we wanted - and more! It'll be much more powerful. I can't wait to play with it :)

 

[Crysmatic]

i just realised that solubor is boric acid. something inside hydro buddy keeps messing up with boron. i found that solving 400L of direct add salts is better than solving for 4L of 100x concentrate. i've been adding 3.33 ppm when i wanted 1.33 ppm - not a danger to plants, but my pound of boric acid will last me longer now.

solubor is 17.5% boron. 1.33 ppm is equivalent to 0.76 g/L of concentrate.

it's always a good thing to figure stuff out by hand and double check numbers.

i've been using a formula that's pretty close to lucas...only because the choice of salts and my desire for high calcium. i'm sure i could find some more exotic salts and get potassium lower.

i also learned that seth green is only 5'4"!

 

[igeorge]

Hi all.

I like the idea of mixing your own nutes! Hydro buddy seems cool and...user friendly? I know mixing your own nutes has been going on for a while, I look at the threads here and there. I really want to try this! Is there a thread where everyone doing this is at? Is there a place where people have compiled a "cheat sheet" with popular recipes? ie; AN, GH... I read most of this thread a while back and will again. just want to start in the places where the most current conversations and being had.

Any info or advice is appreciated! Thanks in advanced!

 

[DySon]

It looks like there is an Update guys. V1.3..
I dont use hydrobuddy I use my own excel spreadsheet my partner made but noticed there was an update some of you might be intrested in..

 

[H3AD_CAS3]

how do you factor in organic products such as "Seaweed Extract" when using Hydro Buddy?

 

[budboy299]

You really cannot accurately figure components like that into the mix. There is no standard for it. It would be like having an ingredient (pretend one....sugar compound).

If a recipe called for that...you would always wonder, is it 90/10 sugar/water, or is it 10/90 sugar/water? Thats why one can really have a tough time with adding non-standardized ingredients.

When making a nutrient formula about all you can be sure of is the NPK. Chemical salts to make up the ratio are standardized with set amounts of each property in them. That is why you can easily formulate them. It is the additional things in the mix that can give headaches. Seaweed Extract, humic and fulvic acids, almost anything organic. Unless there is a set % listed than it is pretty tough to narrow it down.
The nice part is ALOT of times these "proprietary formulas" are not even needed, and can be simply omitted or added at a later stage.

Hope that made some sense??? Tough to explain it

 

[H3AD_CAS3]

thanks BB, that was a perfect explanation...

 

[cancerleo]

Great program, definitely keep up the good work, not to offend any nutrient companies, many of them offer solid products with strong concentrations and mass produced affordable over the counter in a pinch solutions.

PH and Lucas were going for Mel Franks targets, with this once we input the right salts, and add a variety of choices for making the formulation, then we should be able to hit those targets with more precision at home than most companies are willing to do for this medical movement. So since they won't prepare solutions that are at the correct ratio of 10-10-20, then we'll just have to make it ourselves.

There are many organic chelates available, citric acid, which is also a pH down, certain amino acids, humic/fulvic acid. and yes as mentioned above there is very little accounting for organics, as they breakdown in the matrix of the food web, where there is intense mystery, crop science is one of the most undeveloped fields on this planet in my opinion, they didn't know or they did know and acted without caring in over fertilizing and thus killing soil microbiology, but off topic, the issue with organics like kelp for example and alfalfa and such which have beneficial chemical compounds in them is if you're not running a biofilter in hydro, which is being explored by GH Europe, I suggest you read all about it, then the trick is to use one a little amount.

For Kelp I use Floralicious Plus, not that you can't get the same for less, but it's a nice package of fulvic/humic and kelps micronutrients (the exotic ones, platinum,gold, silver, etc) and cytokinins a type of plant growth hormone that can cause some types of kelp to grow over three feet in a single day.

I'll keep up with this thread as I'm excited to see where this goes.

 

[cancerleo]

Lucas MaxiBloom as substance calculated for 20 gals = 131 grams = 6.54665 grams per gallon

Values calculated for the preparation of 20 gallons

GH MaxiBloom 130.933 13.1

N (NO3-) 77.825 -22.20% +/- 0.1%
N (NH4+) 8.647 0% +/- 0%
K 200.986 0.50% +/- 0.1%
P 113.21 13.20% +/- 0.2%
Mg 60.531 0.90% +/- 0.1%
Ca 86.472 0% +/- 0%
S 69.178 0% +/- 0%
Fe 1.729 0% +/- 0%
Zn 0 0% +/- 0%
B 0 0% +/- 0%
Cu 0 0% +/- 0%
Mo 0 0% +/- 0%
Na 0 0% +/- 0%
Si 0 0% +/- 0%
Cl 0 0% +/- 0%
Mn 0 0% +/- 0%

EC=1.2 mS/cm

 

[1971]

although I am completely overwhelmed, I am determined to learn how to use Hydro-buddy in order to not give my hard earned money to the nutrient companies. :)

a few questions:

I tried inputting fatman's recirc veg formula and the numbers for the weight of salts didn't come out the same. of course I may not have properly selected everything.

I am curious, if I didn't want to make a concentrate, how do I allow the program to suggest salts that are better suited versus concentrates?

 

[gswcalidos]

Hydro buddy is the name of the nutrient calculator designed by Daniel Fernandez. it's available here:
http://allhydroponics.blogspot.com/2010/06/first-free-hydroponic-nutrient.html
it works in windows and linux...just unzip and run!

if you have desired nutrient profiles, hydro buddy will tell you how to mix up your own nutes. it will not tell you if it's a good mix. my point is, you need a good mix to start off, and you need to use the calculator properly.

if you want to copy a specific commercial nutrient, download the nutrient profile calculator from
http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/articles/profiles.htm
input NPK CalMag ratios, density, and application rate(s). it will give you ppm - which you then input into hydro buddy.

imho companies add dozens of different salts to confuse us, and make it difficult to make an exact copy. they also design several products to work together. you can make a complete 2 part formula with a handful of salts that works very well.

part A will have calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate, ammonium nitrate (if used) and iron DPTA.

part B will have magnesium sulphate, potassium phosphate, and the micro nutrients (suphates).

you can use chelated micros, however, crop king warned me against using EDTA, as it's toxic to plants.

hydro buddy seems to have tabs out of order, imo. definitely read his instructions, and using it is what taught me the best. note that hydro buddy uses salts available, but not exclusive to, crop king.


first, under 'nutrient salts used' click on 'potassium monobasic phosphate' and 'iron edta', and click off 'calcium monobasic phosphate' and 'iron sulphate'. the other default salts are fine. i've had errors when i start messing around with the other salts.

under 'desired formula' you have to set up your res volume, 'concentrated A and B (1:100)', 'calculate weights for specific stock solution volume' (and your preferences) and input your target ppm. click on 'calculate formula!'. if your target ppm are the same as the calculated ppm - which appears next to them under 'calculation result summary' and you get the message 'Calculation executed successfuly, no apparent errors found :o)' then you're done!

all the weights are on the 'calculation results' tab. a digital scale good to +/- 1g is good for macros, and +/- 0.1g for micros. of course use only deionised water. use it at 5 ml/L of A, and 5 ml/L of B.

note that when i add ammonium nitrate (or yara calcium nitrate), i play with the ammonium target ppm until the 'calculation result summary' gives my my desired ppm. e.g. i had to input 18 ppm for the calculator to show 30 ppm - 30 ppm is the real amount.

there are other capabilities, like tracking pH and EC in a recirculating system reservoir, and troubleshooting nutrient ratios. Daniel also plans to add more features. check for updates regularly!

Hello Crysmatic! Are you still around? I would love to have a chat about hydrobuddy. Been trying to figure out mixing my own fertilizer but my end results seem to be always off. If you are still around please let me know. Thanks

 

[Crysmatic]

Hello Crysmatic! Are you still around? I would love to have a chat about hydrobuddy. Been trying to figure out mixing my own fertilizer but my end results seem to be always off. If you are still around please let me know. Thanks

I'm not on here anymore. just happened to find a thread related to something I'm researching and saw an alert.

read my post again. follow it. do it many times. try out different things. maybe you're asking hydrobuddy something invalid? what ppm are you targeting, and what is the result? what are your salts composition? post a screenshot or two.