New To Dwc And Need A Little Help Please.

[CannaBlaster]

Im new to DWC and my plants seem to be adding nutes to the water rather than using them but they are growing like "weeds" lol. Pun intented. Im getting 2"-3" roots and an inch or more top growth a day. My roots are white and growth is green. Im in week two and week one I followed the GH nute chart and gave them half strength but got a little nute burn. This week I did 1 1/4ml per gallon which is quarter strength and they took off but the TDS is going up then when I add plain ph water the TDS stays higher than original solution. The ph is staying right at 5.8 and the solution is not getting cloudy. Basically everythings appears perfect but the plants dont seem to be using nutes and like I said seem to be adding nutes back to the water.

I use GH FloraSeries and all the additives like Floralicious Plus, Rapid Start, Florablend, ect. I do not use Calmag because I use spring water that has a TDS of 266ppm before nutes. It has a lot of calcium and magnesium already in it. This is very good local natural spring water that is human consumable.

Any advice would be greatly apreciated and I appologize for the long thread. I hope I put this in the correct place. Im new to this forum and DWC so please bare with me. Thanks!

 

[ken dog]

It's probably going up because your water is so high.

 

[CannaBlaster]

The

It's probably going up because your water is so high.

The plants wouldnt be growing like they are if they werent using nutes would they? Do you think the over abundance of nutes from the first week is being expelled from the plant now that its in a weaker solution and making the TDS go up but still using nutes that was already in the plants?

 

[ken dog]

No, I don't think they are expelling nutrients back into the water... I don't think you are diluting your solution when you are adding your spring water... I think you are increasing the TDS when you add your spring water.

 

[CannaBlaster]

No, I don't think they are expelling nutrients back into the water... I don't think you are diluting your solution when you are adding your spring water... I think you are increasing the TDS when you add your spring water.

Let me ask you this. The first week I added my nutes at half strength just as instructed on the chart and the ph was perfect, this week because of nute burn I did quarter stength and the ph came out 4.0! What would cause that? GH FloraSeries is PH balanced. I would understand if the PH was too high since I only mixed quarter str, but 4.0? That doesnt make any sense. I did the micro first and the hydroguard last.

 

[ken dog]

A pH drop usually means root problems.
Either way, I would adjust with pH up.

 

[CannaBlaster]

A pH drop usually means root problems.
Either way, I would adjust with pH up.

It doesnt drop when the plants are in it stays perfect, its just when I mixed my nutes this last time instead of mixing at 6.0 like it did the first time it mixed up at 4.0 and I didnt do anything different except use half as much nutes.

 

[ken dog]

That's weird... I'd check the pH of the spring water first.

 

[CannaBlaster]

Plain spring water 266 ppm and 7.0 PH. I ph to 5.8-6.0. I could not figure out why that happened.

 

[PhatNuggz]

TDS/PPM of 266 means it will be near impossible to use a premixed nutrient that has Ca/Mg in it, and therefor impossible to figure out what is wrong.

 

[CannaBlaster]

TDS/PPM of 266 means it will be near impossible to use a premixed nutrient that has Ca/Mg in it, and therefor impossible to figure out what is wrong.

Shit! So its probably best to use distilled water and a calmag supplement? On the GH Floraseries it says to use calmag if using coco coir or RO water but I imagine distilled water would be considered RO right? I mean since it has a ppm of 000-001?

 

[PhatNuggz]

Shit! So its probably best to use distilled water and a calmag supplement? On the GH Floraseries it says to use calmag if using coco coir or RO water but I imagine distilled water would be considered RO right? I mean since it has a ppm of 000-001?

Pure water can be attained by distillation, reverse osmosis, or deionization. However, all are energetically dead. To increase mixing, first structure the water then use a hand mixer and slowly add the nutrients. Do a YT for structured water. There are many simple DIYs

 

[jumpincactus]

Im new to DWC and my plants seem to be adding nutes to the water rather than using them but they are growing like "weeds" lol. Pun intented. Im getting 2"-3" roots and an inch or more top growth a day. My roots are white and growth is green. Im in week two and week one I followed the GH nute chart and gave them half strength but got a little nute burn. This week I did 1 1/4ml per gallon which is quarter strength and they took off but the TDS is going up then when I add plain ph water the TDS stays higher than original solution. The ph is staying right at 5.8 and the solution is not getting cloudy. Basically everythings appears perfect but the plants dont seem to be using nutes and like I said seem to be adding nutes back to the water.

I use GH FloraSeries and all the additives like Floralicious Plus, Rapid Start, Florablend, ect. I do not use Calmag because I use spring water that has a TDS of 266ppm before nutes. It has a lot of calcium and magnesium already in it. This is very good local natural spring water that is human consumable.

Any advice would be greatly apreciated and I appologize for the long thread. I hope I put this in the correct place. Im new to this forum and DWC so please bare with me. Thanks!

Are you "topping off" your controller bucket or rez every day? Your ppms will rise so you need to add fresh water to the system to allow for evaporation and plants feeding. As the water component evaps your ppm/ec will rise as the salt levels increase.

 

[CannaBlaster]

Are you "topping off" your controller bucket or rez every day? Your ppms will rise so you need to add fresh water to the system to allow for evaporation and plants feeding. As the water component evaps your ppm/ec will rise as the salt levels increase.

I add ph'd water when they use about a half gallon, roughly every other day. So they use about a qt a day.

 

[CannaBlaster]

Pure water can be attained by distillation, reverse osmosis, or deionization. However, all are energetically dead. To increase mixing, first structure the water then use a hand mixer and slowly add the nutrients. Do a YT for structured water. There are many simple DIYs

Would just rapidly stiring the water with a paddle to the point of a vortex for a while reionize the water?

 

[MI Jesse]

My ph is nutral when i water I use modularhydro with super soil and my ph goes up to 8 + on run off not sure why this happens but it's a bit different with soil it's similar system as dwc but in soil. Always saturated to bubbling dirt though

 

[ken dog]

Would just rapidly stiring the water with a paddle to the point of a vortex for a while reionize the water?

No.
If you reionize the water by stirring it in a container, one would use a brass or copper paddle... The metal will leach minerals into the water as the water will want to pick up more minerals.
I don't recommend using deionized water.

 

[CannaBlaster]

No.
If you reionize the water by stirring it in a container, one would use a brass or copper paddle... The metal will leach minerals into the water as the water will want to pick up more minerals.
I don't recommend using deionized water.

My stir paddle is plastic. If all that's required to energize the water is a circular or serpentine motion, why wouldnt my bubblers do the job? Hundreds of tiny spherical bubbles constantly AND my nutes are always rotaing in a circular motion. Thats why my roots get tangled up.

What kind of water should I use? My local spring water is 266ppm, my tap is 271ppm which also contains chloramines and flouride that does not evap with the chlorine. All thats left is distilled, RO, purified, and bottled spring water which are probably all deionized. Cant use rain water because of contaminates. People that use RO systems dont re-energize thier water, many are automatic and automix with nutes and is automatically introduced into the watering system or res.

My plants are gaining more than an inch of vegitation a day and 2"-3" of roots a day, will energized water make that much more of a difference? If it alone doesnt add atleast a half to one inch of veg per day im not sure I understand the bennfit.

 

[ken dog]

Just use RO water... It is not deionized.

 

[ken dog]

Deionized water in chemistry, means something different than what I think has been discussed here.