First Time Going Hydro. Suggestions Needed

[tsunami]

Soo basically any nutes what are you growing in, what numbers you hitting per light with just a base and cal mag at half strength?

The 3 biggest factors are going to be 1, how much light they get( this is the biggest factor all things being equal) 2, PH management is so crucial, big swings in PH will damage leaves fast and 3, oxygenation keeps the bad bacteria from growing while enhancing growth of the plants ie bigger root ball bigger plant. I haven't gown much but i started with 5 gallon hydro buckets and found it hard to keep the PH stable when they were drinking 1-2 gallons a day. I moved to a General Hydroponics Rain forest set up and a chiller. This set up was idea, it was very PH stable and grew monster plants. This system is about 15 gallons of water total but is very easy to run and being on the larger size i could stretch my changes out to 10-14 days. It works well, the last harvest was 515gr from 4 plants under 480watts of Vero29 cobs in a 3x3 tent. I used General hydroponics nutes @ 50%

 

[straincreation]

So a gram per watt is pretty good, im wondering how your flowers came out smelling, tasting, and bag appeal. Heres my GG4, dosidos and, cookies with all that stuff you claim we dont need. I pull 2 to 3 packs a light depending on the strains. To each his own, but i feel like a+b and calmag will never achieve PR results.

 

[Simplicio]

Soo basically any nutes what are you growing in, what numbers you hitting per light with just a base and cal mag at half strength?

Difficult question to answer because I had some early over-feeding problems that stunted my last auto grow for awhile. This was my first time using this brand of fertilizer.
I grew 6 plants in 17 sq ft with about 600 W of QuantumBoards, COB, and Platinum grow light.
The total harvest was 32 oz dry.
The reason I say difficult to answer is because one of the plants yielded 12 oz, but took 17 weeks from seed, and was very weak herb. The early over-feeding harm seemed to persist thru harvest for this giant plant.
I used no CalMag at all in DWC with RO water.
Nothing but Greenleaf Megacrop, clorox to avoid root rot, and pH up/dn.

 

[AnselAdams]

So I just flipped my soil room and got all my clones. I have a small hydro setup I want to try next month, when I say small I mean. 4 one gallon dwc setup just to get the hang of things and then upgrade from there. I have my hydro nutrients on the way along with hydrguard. I know I need to keep the water temp as close to 70 degrees as possible. Is there anything else I need to buy or need to know to have a good grow? Thanks

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BHHP71C/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
along with a 500 gph pump.

 

[AnselAdams]

If you arent recirculating it take a page from salt water aquariums. The smaller your rez is the bigger the problems can be like PH swing ect. 10 gal might swing .2-.3 over a couple days. 1 gal might swing a whole point or 2. Same thing with PPM and nute ratios. Can be done but being a newer grower a bigger rez will keep things more stable and make your life easier. Also keep the temp a lot more stable. I wouldn't go anything smaller then 5 gals. That's kind of the bare min standard for single site dwc buckets. Not to mention 5 gals are pretty easy to find from multi places.

As someone who maintained a 300 gal saltwater tank for 10 years; i totally agree. The bigger you can afford the better.

I started with this and it worked quite well...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B014Q4NVOC/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

i now use it as my grow box and then at 4 weeks i move them to the SuperCloset. to finish.

 

[MeanGreen420]

I’m running one plant in 12 gal hdx tote with about 5 or 6 gal water in it. 6 inch net cup. Gonna switch to 55 gal for three plants next run

 

[Jhax]

Should you ever premix solution in your resivour?

 

[MeanGreen420]

Should you ever premix solution in your resivour?

I mix in my top off but I have added nutes and ph solution directly to plants tote. Ph at least once a day to plants tote. My roots make up 30-40% of my 12 gallon tote so far with a 50 day veg from seed and 8 days flower so far.

 

[MeanGreen420]

Should you ever premix solution in your resivour?

If your using dry nutes then I mix them in a cup or jug and then pour in plants tote. Liquid nutes I’ve just poured into plants tote no premixing

 

[AnselAdams]

I mix in my top off but I have added nutes and ph solution directly to plants tote. Ph at least once a day to plants tote. My roots make up 30-40% of my 12 gallon tote so far with a 50 day veg from seed and 8 days flower so far.

You may find that you get better results if you mix your nutes one at a time. I place the specified measure in a 1L beaker and mix with a cup or two of top-off water. Then dump in the res. give it 3 or 4 minutes to circulate (@500 gph, it doesn't take long on a 10gal tote). Generally by the time you measure & mix, your ppm's should have stabilized. Rinse and repeat.

The reason i do it one at a time is to prevent the chemical bonding of the nutes themselves. If you place them in direct contact with your res solution the concentrations of nutes may be high enough to cause the various contents to bond together and precipitate out of solution; thus becoming useless and a huge waste of money.

Somehow, it does not seem like a good idea to pour undiluted nutes on your baby roots that are having a hard time to begin with. I use the step-up method of adding & increasing nutes during weekly refresh. When i first put the seedlings in to the grow box; Cal-mag and cns-17 grow with a tad bit of +life are the only nutes the first week or so. After week 1, all of my nutes have been diluted and added one at a time @ 1/5 to 1/2 recommended strength. I continue to increase until week four.

It works for me; for now. :) always looking to do it better though.

I am in the process of working out a daily top-off of (1ml/gal); weekly feeding cycle with a 14% solution change (5gal) with a 5x nute recharge. 100% solution & nute change every 4 weeks. If anyone is interested, i'll start another thread.

My first hydro-growlog

 

[AnselAdams]

[QUOTE="I am in the process of working out a daily top-off of (1ml/gal); weekly feeding cycle with a 14% solution change (5gal) with a 5x nute recharge. 100% solution & nute change every 4 weeks. If anyone is interested, i'll start another thread.

My first hydro-growlog [/QUOTE]

*** to avoid hijacking this thread i have created a new post for those interested in continuing to discuss this. go-here ***

Thanks

The Flower res is 35 gal.

 

[Dirtbag]

You may find that you get better results if you mix your nutes one at a time. I place the specified measure in a 1L beaker and mix with a cup or two of top-off water. Then dump in the res. give it 3 or 4 minutes to circulate (@500 gph, it doesn't take long on a 10gal tote). Generally by the time you measure & mix, your ppm's should have stabilized. Rinse and repeat.

The reason i do it one at a time is to prevent the chemical bonding of the nutes themselves. If you place them in direct contact with your res solution the concentrations of nutes may be high enough to cause the various contents to bond together and precipitate out of solution; thus becoming useless and a huge waste of money.

Somehow, it does not seem like a good idea to pour undiluted nutes on your baby roots that are having a hard time to begin with. I use the step-up method of adding & increasing nutes during weekly refresh. When i first put the seedlings in to the grow box; Cal-mag and cns-17 grow with a tad bit of +life are the only nutes the first week or so. After week 1, all of my nutes have been diluted and added one at a time @ 1/5 to 1/2 recommended strength. I continue to increase until week four.

It works for me; for now. :) always looking to do it better though.

I am in the process of working out a daily top-off of (1ml/gal); weekly feeding cycle with a 14% solution change (5gal) with a 5x nute recharge. 100% solution & nute change every 4 weeks. If anyone is interested, i'll start another thread.

My first hydro-growlog

I like your thinking here. Take it a step further and when mixing up a fresh res, mix the nutrients into the straight water in order of acidity. For example, using a 3 part I will always add the bloom first as it lowers the ph the most, making the remaining additions much more easily soluble and less likely to precipitate due to high ph.