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Ok I'm going to explain a more complex way of maintaining our systems for those looking to use best practices (IMO only) There are many ways this can be done but I feel this gives the most stability for PH, PPM, NUTRIENT RATIOS (super important) especially in systems with a low water volume.
So we all do our res changes at various times and I won't get into that here. But what about between them? How can we best keep our PH, ppm and nutrient ratios as close to our goals as possible?
How i do it is by steering them with my top ups. This is nothing new but I see many asking these questions or missing the benefits of this method.
How do we do this?
Well as complicated as it may sound, its actually quite easy but first let's make sure we are getting accurate info to use in how we calculate this. Garbage info in equals garbage info out.
We want the total volume of water in the system (Not the volume the system or containers are labeled as) This is important as the closer we get the better the calculations work. Now it's not the end of the world being a bit off.
Things to consider.
Amount of water in each site (this will change as the roots grow and displace water)
Amount of water in the res (if you have)
Root displacement of water
Ok thats about that lol.
Now let's get into the calculations step by step.
1. Take the PPM reading after filling the system up. Write this down.
2. The first top off will be done with just water. After filling take the PPM reading. Then take your original res PPM from step 1 and minus the reading from step 2. This will give you a ppm difference that will show how many ppm of nutrients the plants have consumed.
3. Now for every top up following.... We take the volume of water of the system filled and divide it by the amount of water we need to add back to reach filled. Then we multiply it by the difference found in step 2.
4. Add the desired ppm of the system.
this will give you exactly how much ppm you need to add of your nutrients to the volume added back to get the system back to its original PPM.
EG 1 first calculation after only water top up.
We have a system that holds 20gal of water, we want 600ppm for this stage of growth. It has 4 sites and the 4 plants are drinking 3.5 gal a day. The PPM difference from last top up with just water was 90ppm which means the system was at 510ppm and we want to bring this back up close to 600ppm using our 3.5gal top up.
So we take our 20gal(total water volume) divided by 3.5 (top up) gives us 5.7
We take that 5.7 x 90 (90ppm difference) gives us 513+600(target ppm) =1113ppm
So we if we take our 3.5 gal of top up water and add 1113ppm of balanced nutrients to it. Then top our system up we should be close to our 600ppm starting point and we have added back balanced nutrients to help combat any ratio changes in the system.
TLDR:
(Total volume of water) divided by (top up volume) multiplied by (ppm difference after last top up) plus (target ppm)
Aqua
So we all do our res changes at various times and I won't get into that here. But what about between them? How can we best keep our PH, ppm and nutrient ratios as close to our goals as possible?
How i do it is by steering them with my top ups. This is nothing new but I see many asking these questions or missing the benefits of this method.
How do we do this?
Well as complicated as it may sound, its actually quite easy but first let's make sure we are getting accurate info to use in how we calculate this. Garbage info in equals garbage info out.
We want the total volume of water in the system (Not the volume the system or containers are labeled as) This is important as the closer we get the better the calculations work. Now it's not the end of the world being a bit off.
Things to consider.
Amount of water in each site (this will change as the roots grow and displace water)
Amount of water in the res (if you have)
Root displacement of water
Ok thats about that lol.
Now let's get into the calculations step by step.
1. Take the PPM reading after filling the system up. Write this down.
2. The first top off will be done with just water. After filling take the PPM reading. Then take your original res PPM from step 1 and minus the reading from step 2. This will give you a ppm difference that will show how many ppm of nutrients the plants have consumed.
3. Now for every top up following.... We take the volume of water of the system filled and divide it by the amount of water we need to add back to reach filled. Then we multiply it by the difference found in step 2.
4. Add the desired ppm of the system.
this will give you exactly how much ppm you need to add of your nutrients to the volume added back to get the system back to its original PPM.
EG 1 first calculation after only water top up.
We have a system that holds 20gal of water, we want 600ppm for this stage of growth. It has 4 sites and the 4 plants are drinking 3.5 gal a day. The PPM difference from last top up with just water was 90ppm which means the system was at 510ppm and we want to bring this back up close to 600ppm using our 3.5gal top up.
So we take our 20gal(total water volume) divided by 3.5 (top up) gives us 5.7
We take that 5.7 x 90 (90ppm difference) gives us 513+600(target ppm) =1113ppm
So we if we take our 3.5 gal of top up water and add 1113ppm of balanced nutrients to it. Then top our system up we should be close to our 600ppm starting point and we have added back balanced nutrients to help combat any ratio changes in the system.
TLDR:
(Total volume of water) divided by (top up volume) multiplied by (ppm difference after last top up) plus (target ppm)
Aqua
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