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aerie said:
What is confusing to me though and even after asking a lot of people I don't know how much has been diluted or how powerful the nutrients will be after a while. So like after a week if there's 10% of what I put in originally how do I know because then things start to become a game trying to weigh in how much of this or that is left. Then if I add more of something that was low and it had another ingredient that was also key would it be diluted at the same rate or would I just be adding to something that didn't need it while refilling the other lacking nutrient. I hope that's not too confusing. I was told that I could buy a PPM meter that looks like my PH meter but I'm not sure how that works.

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I know it's very confusing and I had a lot of trouble understanding it myself at first. Unfortunately it's going to be a bit of a learning experience. Here is my understanding of things:

Many people will tell you to buy a TDS meter, which is good too but bear in mind it was never created for horticultural and hydroponic applications. An EC meter is made specifically for measuring hydroponic nutrients in water. So I would recommend that instead, but really it doesn't matter too much.

Essentially, an EC meter puts a numerical value on how diluted your water is with chemicals and nutrients. This is CAN be useful for different things.

Here's a good but sort of silly example: I've filled up my reservoir with water, but I don't know exactly how much water is in there. Ah, but I know my plants perform the best at an EC of 1.8, so therefore I can apply nutrients into a reservoir without having to know how much water is in the reservoir. Otherwise, you would be SOL.

The tool lets you know exactly how much you've altered the solution numerically. So really, an EC meter is there to help you diagnose possible problems and to place numeric values on nutrient concentrations in your water, which are useful to YOU because then you can know what EC your plants perform the best at for example. The device gives you more control over your nutrient solution.

However, the device will not tell you WHICH nutrients you are deficient in for example. This can only be done as far as I know by looking at the plants themselves.

NOW HERE IS WHERE THIS STUFF IS IMPORTANT:
Some hydroponic growers believe it is best to empty out your reservoir and refill the whole things every 7-10 days. This is when an EC meter isn't overly useful.

However, if your working with say a 40litre tank like I am and at the end of 10 days there's still half of it left, it doesn't make a lot of financial sense to me to dump that shit once a week - hydro nutes are expensive and I also use stuff like subculture which is suppose to stay in your water for 6 weeks. It is not an option for me to dump my res. Apparently, your reservoir should always have a good amount of solution in it anyway to prevent drastic PH and temperature fluctuations. So, let's say my target EC is 1.8. Using an EC meter I can safely add more nutrient solution into the reservoir, without screwing up the concentration.

Does this make any sense?

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aerie said:
How can I drain this bad boy? I'm under the impression I am supposed to drain all the water out every couple weeks to start fresh? The guy at the hydro store said I just added new stuff each time things got low. He said that middle hole where the 3 holes are on one side I can use as an access and cap it when not doing anything so I'm a little confused.

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Chemical nutrients wont and are the easiest to use and lowest maintenance. I tried organic and It doesnt work well in dwc. For my drain, I just bought a 1/2" ball valve and gromet and drilled a hole low in the tub. Here's a pic of that...

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Not when you use flora nova....

That was from furrowedbrow's grow, shit is amazingly goopy.  It is inorganic as well.