The Amnesia Experiment

Built an expandable custom 1-4 Dutch Bucket system utilizing 5 Gal storage bins located at Lowes, a 10 gal storage bin from Walmart for the res, ecopump 396, 6" riser, 2 riser adapters with 1/4" drip outlets, 1/2" ball valve, 1/2" threaded pvc elbow, various lengths for 1/2" pvc, 1/4" drip line, 4 pvc elbows, 2 - 3/4" grommets, perlite (use chunkiest possible), hydroton on the bottom of the buckets to keep the perlite from draining down into the reservoir. I made a hose out of 1/2 vinyl tubing to attach to the ball valve to empty reservoir for changes/maint. I purchased everything from local hardware stores, nothing from the hydro store except the hydroton. I am using Masterblend Professional dry hydroponic tomato and Vegetable formula, along with dry Calcium Nitrate, and dry Magnesium Sulfate. My listed measurements are actually grams per gallon. Trying the most economical way to grow hydroponically and for 6 gal res fill up and changes, it only cost $0.17 per reservoir change or $0.0283 per gallon. I do use RO water and I will be doing bi weekly hydroponic tea additions to the reservoir. I am not running any type of chilling equipment, I have faith in my hydrotea. For lighting I purchased 2 x QB288 with the heatsinks straight from HLG and purchased a meanwell 320H-1750A driver capable to power a 3rd panel if I need more light for flower. For Veg I am running at 60w per panel and will bump to 110w per panel for flower. These things are seriously bright. Day 5 moved the girls into their new home. Day 6 added hydro tea to res Day 7 I am a moron, in the midst of setting up, I forgot to rinse my perlite. I opened my res today and sediment everywhere and it wasnt the nutrients. It was also coating the bottom of the buckets. So I cleaned out the buckets, dumped and cleaned the res and refilled it back up. The ball valve worked like a champ to pump out the res into a 5 gal bucket. Instead of pure RO, I went with 50/50 tap and RO to make my base water 150 ppm. Upon further research, I was creating a calcium and magnesium deficiency and I do not want to have to add supplements or additional Epsom salts to keep this as KISS as possible for a hydro grow.