If you're running automated dosing with peristaltic pumps, you're not pouring nutrients straight from the bottle into the reservoir. You're making stock solutions — concentrated mixes in 5-gallon buckets that your pumps pull from. The pump runs for a few seconds, doses a precise amount of concentrate, and your reservoir gets exactly the right ratio of nutrients.
The trick is getting the concentration right. Too dilute and your pumps have to run forever. Too concentrated and you risk precipitation — nutrients crashing out of solution and clogging your lines. Every nutrient brand is a little different in how concentrated you can push it, what needs to stay separated, and how the ratios change through the grow cycle.
This guide covers stock solution recipes for three popular nutrient lines: Front Row Ag, Athena Pro, and General Hydroponics Flora Series. Each section includes what goes in which bucket, the concentration ratio, and how TentPilot handles the dosing math.
Peristaltic dosing pumps like the Kamoer move small volumes precisely — a few ml per second. If you tried to dose straight from a bottle of nutrients at the manufacturer's recommended rate (say 4ml/gal), you'd need the pump to run for a very specific, very short burst. Stock solutions let you pre-dilute to a known concentration so the pump runs longer, more precisely, and more repeatably. Think of it as a gear ratio for your dosing system.
The Universal Setup
Regardless of which nutrient line you run, the physical setup is the same:
- One 5-gallon bucket per stock solution — food-grade, with a lid to keep out light and debris
- One Kamoer peristaltic pump per bucket — each pump has its intake line dropped into a bucket
- One Kasa smart plug per pump — TentPilot controls when and how long each pump runs
- Separate buckets for A and B — concentrated calcium and sulfate/phosphate don't play nice together. Always keep them apart.
- Separate buckets for pH adjusters — pH up and pH down each get their own bucket, diluted to a safe working concentration
TentPilot knows the concentration of each bucket, your target EC and ratios, and the volume of your reservoir. It does the math. You just keep the buckets topped off.
General Rules for Stock Solutions
Before we get into brand-specific recipes, some universal principles:
- Never mix Part A and Part B in the same bucket. This is rule number one. Concentrated calcium (Part A) and concentrated sulfates/phosphates (Part B) will form insoluble precipitates — gypsum, calcium phosphate — that clog your lines and remove nutrients from solution. Always separate buckets.
- Stir thoroughly when mixing. Add the concentrate to water (not water to concentrate), stir well, and let it sit for an hour before running pumps. Check for cloudiness — if it's cloudy, it's precipitating and you need to dilute further.
- Use warm water (70–80°F) for mixing. Nutrients dissolve faster and more completely in warm water. Don't use hot water — it can degrade some chelated micronutrients.
- Label everything. Bucket, pump, line. "A", "B", "pH Down", "pH Up." When something goes wrong at 2am, you don't want to guess which line is which.
- Replace stock solutions weekly. Concentrated solutions can drift over time as some components settle or interact. A weekly mix keeps things fresh and accurate.
Don't pour pH Down into a stock solution bucket. pH adjusters are always separate. Adding acid to concentrated nutrients can cause violent reactions, precipitation, and will wreck your stock solution. Separate buckets, separate pumps, always.
Front Row Ag is a powder nutrient line, which makes it great for stock solutions. Powders dissolve into water to create a clean, highly concentrated stock. No extra water weight from liquid bottles. The line is simple: Crescendo (grow/base), Tote (bloom booster), and Finale (late bloom ripener), plus their calcium and magnesium supplements.
The two-part split for Front Row is straightforward — keep calcium separate from everything else.
| Bucket | Contents | Concentration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bucket A | Crescendo + CalMag supplement | 2 grams/L of water | Calcium-heavy — always separate |
| Bucket B | Tote (bloom) or Finale (ripen) | 2 grams/L of water | Swap Tote for Finale in final weeks |
| pH Down | Phosphoric acid (diluted) | 10:1 water to acid | Always add acid to water, never reverse |
| pH Up | Potassium hydroxide (diluted) | 10:1 water to base | Optional — most growers only need pH down |
Mixing the powder: Measure the powder by weight (a cheap kitchen scale works), add to warm water in the bucket, and stir for 2–3 minutes until fully dissolved. Front Row powders dissolve cleanly — if you see any residue at the bottom, stir more or add slightly more water. The solution should be crystal clear.
Phase adjustments: In TentPilot, you set up your grow phases and the system adjusts the dose ratio automatically. During veg, it's mostly Crescendo. Transition into bloom, Tote ramps up. Final 2 weeks, swap Bucket B to Finale. You swap the physical bucket — TentPilot adjusts the dosing.
| Phase | Bucket A (Crescendo) | Bucket B | Target EC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedling/Clone | Light dose | — | 0.4–0.6 |
| Veg | Full dose | — | 1.2–1.6 |
| Early Bloom | Full dose | Tote ramp up | 1.6–2.0 |
| Peak Bloom | Full dose | Tote full | 2.0–2.4 |
| Ripen | Reduced | Finale (swap bucket) | 1.4–1.8 |
Athena Pro was literally designed for automated dosing systems. It's a powder line built for commercial grows running Dosatron or peristaltic setups. That makes it one of the easiest to work with in a TentPilot stack. The line is two parts: Core (calcium/nitrogen base) and Bloom (phosphorus/potassium), plus Cleanse for maintenance and Balance for pH.
Athena publishes their stock tank concentrations directly, which is rare and appreciated. Less guesswork.
| Bucket | Contents | Concentration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bucket A | Core (calcium + nitrogen base) | 3.8 grams/L of water | Athena's recommended stock concentration |
| Bucket B | Bloom (PK + micros) | 3.8 grams/L of water | Same concentration as A for balanced dosing |
| pH Down | Athena Balance (or phosphoric acid) | Use as-is or 5:1 dilution | Balance is pre-formulated for Athena's line |
| Cleanse | Athena Cleanse (hypochlorous acid) | Use as-is | Optional pump — for line and res cleaning cycles |
Why Athena is easy: Both parts mix at the same concentration and dose at a 1:1 ratio across all phases. The only thing that changes phase to phase is the total dose — how much of each you add. That means TentPilot just adjusts the pump runtime up or down as you move through the grow cycle. No bucket swaps, no ratio changes. Clean.
| Phase | Bucket A (Core) | Bucket B (Bloom) | Target EC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seedling/Clone | 1:1 ratio, light | 1:1 ratio, light | 0.4–0.8 |
| Veg | 1:1 ratio | 1:1 ratio | 1.2–1.8 |
| Early Bloom | 1:1 ratio | 1:1 ratio | 2.0–2.4 |
| Peak Bloom | 1:1 ratio | 1:1 ratio | 2.4–3.0 |
| Flush | Cleanse only | — | 0.0–0.2 |
The GH Flora Series is the OG of hydroponic nutrients. Three bottles: FloraGro, FloraMicro, and FloraBloom. It's been around forever, it works, and half the growers alive started on it. The challenge for automation is that it's a three-part system with ratios that shift across growth stages.
For stock solutions, we split this into two buckets to avoid calcium precipitation. FloraMicro (which contains the calcium) always goes in its own bucket.
| Bucket | Contents | Concentration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bucket A | FloraMicro only | 50ml per L of water | Calcium source — always separate, always first |
| Bucket B | FloraGro + FloraBloom (combined) | 50ml total per L of water | Ratio of Gro:Bloom changes by phase |
| pH Down | GH pH Down (phosphoric acid) | 10:1 water to acid | GH pH Down is strong — dilute well |
| pH Up | GH pH Up (potassium base) | 10:1 water to base | Optional for most setups |
The Gro:Bloom ratio shift: This is where GH gets interesting. During veg, Bucket B is mostly FloraGro. During bloom, it's mostly FloraBloom. You have two options for handling this:
- Swap the Bucket B mix each phase — mix a new Bucket B with the right Gro:Bloom ratio when you transition. Simple, manual, works great.
- Run three pumps — separate buckets for Micro, Gro, and Bloom. More pumps, more Kasa plugs, but TentPilot can adjust all three ratios independently across phases without any bucket swaps. This is the power-user move.
| Phase | Micro (A) | Gro | Bloom | Target EC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seedling | 2.5ml/gal | 2.5ml/gal | 2.5ml/gal | 0.4–0.8 |
| Veg | 5ml/gal | 5ml/gal | 2.5ml/gal | 1.2–1.6 |
| Transition | 5ml/gal | 2.5ml/gal | 5ml/gal | 1.6–2.0 |
| Bloom | 5ml/gal | 1ml/gal | 7.5ml/gal | 2.0–2.4 |
| Late Bloom | 5ml/gal | 0.5ml/gal | 8ml/gal | 1.8–2.2 |
Dosing order matters with GH: FloraMicro always goes into the reservoir first, mixed thoroughly before adding Gro or Bloom. This prevents calcium from locking out with sulfates. TentPilot handles this automatically — it runs the Bucket A pump first, waits for circulation, then doses Bucket B.
How TentPilot Handles It
Once your buckets are mixed and your pumps are connected, the setup in TentPilot is straightforward:
- Select your nutrient brand — TentPilot has built-in profiles for Front Row Ag, Athena Pro, GH Flora, and others. The profile knows the recommended ratios, phase transitions, and dosing order.
- Tell it your stock concentration — TentPilot needs to know how concentrated each bucket is so it can calculate pump runtime. Enter the ratio you mixed (e.g., 3.8g/L for Athena, 50ml/L for GH Micro).
- Set your grow phase — or let TentPilot advance it automatically based on your schedule. When the phase changes, the dosing ratios adjust to match.
- Calibrate your pumps — run each pump for 30 seconds into a measuring cup. Tell TentPilot how many ml it pumped. Now it knows the exact flow rate and can dose to the milliliter.
From there, every time TentPilot fills your reservoir (or detects fresh water from a float valve top-off), it runs the dosing sequence: Bucket A first, wait, Bucket B, wait, check EC, adjust pH. The whole thing takes a few minutes and your reservoir is dialed without you touching a measuring cup.
Which Brand Should You Pick?
For automated dosing specifically, here's how I rank them:
- Athena Pro — designed for this exact use case. Equal concentrations, 1:1 ratio, no bucket swaps. If you're building an automated system from scratch, start here. Easiest to dial in, hardest to screw up.
- Front Row Ag — powders dissolve cleanly, simple two-part split, and the community is solid. You'll swap Bucket B once (Tote to Finale) during the grow, but that's it. Great mid-ground option.
- GH Flora Series — the most flexible and the most work. Three-part shifting ratios mean either manual bucket swaps or a three-pump setup. But if you already run GH and love it, TentPilot handles the complexity — you just need one more pump.
All three produce great plants. The difference is in how much the automation has to manage. Athena is cruise control. GH is a manual transmission. Front Row is somewhere in between. Pick the one that matches how hands-on you want to be.
Whichever brand you run, you don't need to memorize feed charts or do dosing calculations. Tell TentPilot what's in the bucket and what phase you're in. It reads the EC after dosing, compares it to your target, and adjusts the next dose if it's off. Over a few cycles, it dials itself in tighter than you ever could with a measuring cup.