HydroBuddy Tutorial
In this tutorial, I will describe how use many of the features of hydrobuddy. This will not comprehensively cover every feature of the program, but the way in which I commonly use it. Once you understand the tutorial, it is simple enough to figure out the other features, such as ‘Copy Commercial Nutrient Formulation’ on your own.
We’ll start out on the main page:
Select the main page tab. Then you want to fill in your target ppm values for whatever you want to mix. I have pulled up the targets for the current mix that I am using. When you enter your targets, you can save that formula by entering a name in the box, and then clicking “Add Formulation to DB”. I have done that for “LHS Coco S2 v1”, and now I can recall it by using the dropdown box.
Once you have targets, you need to fill in how much of this mix you want to make. This is the “Volume” section, where I have set it to make 15 gallons.
Next, you need to select which salts you want to use to try and make this formulation. To do this, you click on the “Substance Selection” button. It will open a window that looks like this:
To make this recipe, I have selected some salts to use. Most standard salts are provided by default in the list on the left. You may notice that I have selected several salts that are not in your list. It is simple to make your own, based on the specifications on the label information.
To add your own, such as “Haifa Grow Clean”, you just need to find a product label that shows how much of each nutrient it provides. Then, you will click “Add New” to add it to your options.
When you click the button, it brings up a window like this:
Here, you fill in the % of each nutrient that it provides. Note: in the US, these percentages are usually specified for “K2O” and “P2O5” rather than K and P. Other countries may use the P/K convention, which has a conversion factor. You need to select the correct one from the dropdown when you enter those numbers.
Here is the label for Haifa Grow Clean. It shows NPK of 5-31-40, and also lists the numbers in parenthesis as 5.5-13.6-33.5, using P/ K instead of P2O5/K2O. As you can see in the image above, P shows 13.6%, and if you change the dropdown to P2O5, then it will show 31.
When you have entered all of the nutrients that the substance provides, save it to the database, and you will see it added to the list of options in the left box.
To select a salt to use, select the one you want on the left, and click “Add to used”. It will move to the right hand box, and now it is used by the program when it calculates your formula.
Continue to select the salts you will use. Make sure that you have provided all of the nutrients that your formula requires. Otherwise, the program will indicate this problem when you attempt to calculate.
I have selected everything I need in order to make the recipe. I close the substance selection box, and back on the main page, click “Carry out calculation”. If the program has all of the nutrients it needs to create your formula, then it will indicate success.
Navigate to the “Results” tab. It will look like this:
On this page, we can see the actual numbers that it was able to create from the salts that I specified. The “Gross Error” column shows you how far off the ppm that it reached is, compared to the ppm that you requested.
In the bottom right, it shows you a predicted EC. This is the EC that is estimated that results from the recipe that it made. You can click the + and - next to the EC box to adjust your formula up or down as desired, keeping the ratios of all of your nutrients the same.
At the top is the specific amounts of each nutrient that you use to make the formula. Usually I will edit these values by hand, so that I can use real decimal values that I can actually measure.
There we go. Just double click in the boxes to edit the values. Noticed it changed the numbers slightly, but good enough.
Sometimes it is useful to check ratios of some nutrients. Click ‘Nutrient Ratio Analysis’ and it brings up a box like this:
I often like to check cation ratio K:Ca:Mg, so I select those in the bottom boxes, and it calculates it and adds it to the display.
If you wish, you can also export your results to a CSV file so that you can reference it later. It is useful for saving your recipes.
Last, if you wish to check how much of each nutrient each salt you used provides, then you can click the “Detailed Per Substance Contribution Analysis”. It opens a window like this:
This is cool, because now I can see directly where everything came from. As we can see at the top, my 27.5 grams of Epsom (Magnesium Sulfate) into 15 gallons is providing 47.75ppm Mg and 63ppm S.
There are more advanced options on the first page, but I have described 95% of how I use hydro buddy.