Quote Originally Posted by rustafa
Like i said im a bit new to hydro but what does topping mean as well as rezing im guessing rezzing means completely changing out the water. Topping im also guessing means when water runs low you fill it back up to a stable level:confused in the bucket if i am wrong please let me know. Also what is a good scheduale to completely change the water of of the bucket. one more questions (by the way sorry for all the noob questions im just trying to get this down right) what is RO water. I will also be growing these plants from seed what should i start them in after germinating would rockwool be good i know usually people start from 2" rockwool cubes then transfer them in 4" till roots show them place them in bucket if this is right or wrong pls let me know.

Whew, you're asking more questions than you think.

Topping your reservoir means that you replace the water and/or nutrient solution that is evaporated or consumed by your grow. This is done between full reservoir changes. The frequency of full reservoir changes depends on how much activity is going on with the balance of water/nutes in your reservoir. 10 full sized plants growing from a single reservoir will require much more frequent top-offs and reservoir changes than 10 immature plants would require. Most reservoir changes never exceed 14 days and the typical reservoir change is around every week to 10 days depending on the plant's demands from the reservoir. RO water is hyper filtered water and is free of contaminates. The benefits of RO water are endless. Aside from having good drinking water around the house, using RO water prevents contaminates from raising your PH levels inside your reservoir. Don't think that any filtered water will do, Reverse Osmosis is a very specific process that eliminates particles at the micron level. Well worth the investment.

What you start your plants in depends a lot on what you'll grow them in afterwards. Rockwool is very versitile as it will allow you to transfer it to almost any medium after germination. You could put the small rockwool cube into a larger cube for a drip system. You could also place the rockwool cube inside a netpot filled with hydroton for a DWC system. Be aware, rockwool needs to be treated (soaked in PH adjusted water) before you start growing in it.

You've still got some research to do, but you're asking all the right questions. The only stupid question is the one you didn't ask. If you can describe the type of system you plan to grow in, we can advise you better on the variety of methods you could use with that system.