Dwc woes - constant failure

[hm7]

How much cal mag?

lol you and this calmag... I seriously can't tell if you're being serious or trolling me....

I made 12gal of nutes. Mixed in the following order:
- 1oz of calmag
- 2oz of Aquaflakes A
- 2oz of Aquaflakes B


My ppm was WAY too high (obviously, I put in way too many nutes). Came out to 570ppm. I ended up removing a little at a time and mixing in plain water until it dropped back down to 330/340 (where it currently is), then brought the PH down to 5.7. Hard to say the exact amount with me pulling water out and replacing it though, I know....

 

[smokedareefer]

lol you and this calmag... I seriously can't tell if you're being serious or trolling me....

I made 12gal of nutes. Mixed in the following order:
- 1oz of calmag
- 2oz of Aquaflakes A
- 2oz of Aquaflakes A


My ppm was WAY too high (obviously, I put in way too many nutes). Came out to 570ppm. I ended up removing a little at a time and mixing in plain water until it dropped back down to 330/340 (where it currently is), then brought the PH down to 5.7. Hard to say the exact amount with me pulling water out and replacing it though, I know....

Second plant needs cal mag imo, 1st plant not so much.

Start with new ro water, add cal mag to 125 ppm then add nutes to 300 and give them a week to start their thing.

 

[hm7]

Second plant needs cal mag imo, 1st plant not so much.

Start with new ro water, add cal mag to 125 ppm then add nutes to 300 and give them a week to start their thing.
View attachment 1288718View attachment 1288719

I went to redo the nute solution today, I thought I had everything squared away at 300ppm ... then I compared your pic of your BlueLab against mine and realized another one of my foolish noob mistakes - I've had my BlueLab set to TDS, not PPM.....

I switched its mode over to PPM, but now I'm up to 410. I'm assuming that's way too high, on a fresh batch of nutes too.

I'm assuming I should probably dump the entire batch and start over from scratch again - considering now I have no real idea what my basis was for each amount I added, nor what I was starting with. While I do have RO water, it's only a small drinking unit - it makes maybe 1gal an hour. It's not large enough to do 12gal with, and I don't have the space to install a full sized system in this house - tap water is going to have to suffice. For what it's worth, my tap water is sitting at 40 TDS, so ... it's not horrible, but certianly not as pure as straight RO.


Do I dump the entire batch and start back over from scratch now or what is recommended?

 

[Aqua Man]

I went to redo the nute solution today, I thought I had everything squared away at 300ppm ... then I compared your pic of your BlueLab against mine and realized another one of my foolish noob mistakes - I've had my BlueLab set to TDS, not PPM.....

I switched its mode over to PPM, but now I'm up to 410. I'm assuming that's way too high, on a fresh batch of nutes too.

I'm assuming I should probably dump the entire batch and start over from scratch again - considering now I have no real idea what my basis was for each amount I added, nor what I was starting with. While I do have RO water, it's only a small drinking unit - it makes maybe 1gal an hour. It's not large enough to do 12gal with, and I don't have the space to install a full sized system in this house - tap water is going to have to suffice. For what it's worth, my tap water is sitting at 40 TDS, so ... it's not horrible, but certianly not as pure as straight RO.


Do I dump the entire batch and start back over from scratch now or what is recommended?

Nope that perfectly fine as long as you dis the ratios correctly.

 

[hm7]

Nope that perfectly fine as long as you dis the ratios correctly.

It was made up of the following (mixed in this order):
- 12gal tap water (40 tds)
- 0.75oz CalMag
- 1.0oz Aquaflakes A
- 1.0oz Aquaflakes B
then ... ph'd down to 5.7. Currently sitting at 410ppm.



New pics ... they don't look real great. I tried to put some towels around the edges of the netpots to keep light leaks out.
Roots look like they're starting to die off. The older/worse of the two looks like her leaves are starting to twist up top too...

 

[hm7]

Not sure why, but the pictures make the roots look whiter than they are. In person, to my eyes at least, they still look slightly tan near the tops.

 

[Aqua Man]

Not sure why, but the pictures make the roots look whiter than they are. In person, to my eyes at least, they still look slightly tan near the tops.

Thats ok just let em do their thing and top feed often. Other than that just let em be and dont expose the roots to light checking on em.

for the next 5 days or so just top feed and walk away

 

[Aqua Man]

Remember the plants are on their time not yours and they will take their time

 

[hm7]

I thought I put a blurb about the temps/humidity, but it doesn't look like it took.

Lowering the intensity of the light dropped the temps significantly:

Currently:
73F
54% humidity

 

[geemonty]

I can’t go into too much detail of how im doing it. But after i get moved ill pick it back up and get working on production model for sale. It has the ability to increase the air above the water to over 90% oxygen and also is fed directly into the nutrient solution. This changes the equation of henrys law and raises the maximum saturation level of dissolved oxygen. Much like how we increase co2 in the atmosphere, I can do the same for the dissolved o2 in the rootzone increasing oxygen availability beyond our current limitations.

@Moe.Red is also taking advantage of this using fogponics with very high levels of o2 in the rootzone. Its all still in the early stages of development and while i was hooing to be ready by Christmas it may be a bit later before i have production models ready. He is also creating the tech to drive these systems and pretty dam close to be able to monitor and control all grow parameters. You may want to head over there if it interests you


Top feeding should only be about a week if they are kept healthy can add a week if they struggling a bit. Then like i say once a week to keep things in order. I think you’d be well served in trying to get a taller res to keep water level up to ideal levels. But thats not a must you just need to adjust is all.

The smaller bubbles themselves don’t equate to more air contrary to what many think and information on the web. They do provide better water column mixing though which aids in gas exchange.

Curious if its electrolysis.

 

[smokedareefer]

I went to redo the nute solution today, I thought I had everything squared away at 300ppm ... then I compared your pic of your BlueLab against mine and realized another one of my foolish noob mistakes - I've had my BlueLab set to TDS, not PPM.....

I switched its mode over to PPM, but now I'm up to 410. I'm assuming that's way too high, on a fresh batch of nutes too.

I'm assuming I should probably dump the entire batch and start over from scratch again - considering now I have no real idea what my basis was for each amount I added, nor what I was starting with. While I do have RO water, it's only a small drinking unit - it makes maybe 1gal an hour. It's not large enough to do 12gal with, and I don't have the space to install a full sized system in this house - tap water is going to have to suffice. For what it's worth, my tap water is sitting at 40 TDS, so ... it's not horrible, but certianly not as pure as straight RO.


Do I dump the entire batch and start back over from scratch now or what is recommended?

410 is ok, if they don't want it they won't eat it

Does your water have chlorine added? (City water)

 

[Moe.Red]

Curious if its electrolysis.

Nope that’s a non starter for a few reasons.

 

[geemonty]

They look like they are nutrient burned don't they? When I have overfeed a few times the leaves look like this, however, I haven't had it on a seedling so not too sure. I use well water which has a ppm of 200 and I add nutes to hit 230. I do this for 2-3 weeks. Your ppm is at 410 I think you said. For the experts isn't that too high for a seedling at this stage. The picks kind of look like nute burn right?

 

[geemonty]

Nope that’s a non starter for a few reasons.

just curious because @Aqua Man phrased it as separating oxygen. My follow up if it was, was going to be... how do you deal with the highly flammable hydrogen that is produced?

Look forward to hearing about it when AM is ready to part the curtains.

 

[hm7]

410 is ok, if they don't want it they won't eat it

Does your water have chlorine added? (City water)

Last year's water report said chloramine, this year's says chlorine. So, I'm not exactly sure which it is they are adding, but yeah, I'm sure one of the two is in there. It must not be very much as I can never smell it. Where I used to live, I could always tell - every time I took a shower, the entire house smelled like a swimming pool that was just shocked. I've never noticed it here, but ... maybe that might be due to a difference between chloramine and chlorine - I'm not sure.

 

[hm7]

They look like they are nutrient burned don't they? When I have overfeed a few times the leaves look like this, however, I haven't had it on a seedling so not too sure. I use well water which has a ppm of 200 and I add nutes to hit 230. I do this for 2-3 weeks. Your ppm is at 410 I think you said. For the experts isn't that too high for a seedling at this stage. The picks kind of look like nute burn right?

To me, it looks like root issues. I'm not an expert though, except for how to get root rot / have root issues. I've managed to make that happen without fail every conceivable way possible, ever single time now! I've had so many root problems and rot - and every single time the leaves look *exactly* like this.


---

Side note - should these fail, I've been kicking around the idea of converting this system over to a rdwc waterfarm hybrid. I don't think it would be too hard to do, and it might solve the bulk of my problems going forward. Basically, I would use another 2 bottoms from the buckets I'm using, drill lots of small holes in the bottom and fill them entirely with hydroton, then suspend them up at the tops of each bucket with a bubbler ring which would pull water from each bucket under it. I think that might work out well for keeping the root zone more in-check as long as I continue planting directly in the hydroton without starter cubes/rockwool. It would also eliminate the potential for any/all light-leaks too as an added bonus, while still allowing for easy refills/draining, cleaning, ph/nute adjustments, and the inclusion of the chiller.

I got the idea today, and was surprised to see there are other people who have done things similar to this with the actual WaterFarm systems (which don't appear to be made anymore).

 

[MIAquaFire]

Spu

I can’t go into too much detail of how im doing it. But after i get moved ill pick it back up and get working on production model for sale. It has the ability to increase the air above the water to over 90% oxygen and also is fed directly into the nutrient solution. This changes the equation of henrys law and raises the maximum saturation level of dissolved oxygen. Much like how we increase co2 in the atmosphere, I can do the same for the dissolved o2 in the rootzone increasing oxygen availability beyond our current limitations.

@Moe.Red is also taking advantage of this using fogponics with very high levels of o2 in the rootzone. Its all still in the early stages of development and while i was hooing to be ready by Christmas it may be a bit later before i have production models ready. He is also creating the tech to drive these systems and pretty dam close to be able to monitor and control all grow parameters. You may want to head over there if it interests you


Top feeding should only be about a week if they are kept healthy can add a week if they struggling a bit. Then like i say once a week to keep things in order. I think you’d be well served in trying to get a taller res to keep water level up to ideal levels. But thats not a must you just need to adjust is all.

The smaller bubbles themselves don’t equate to more air contrary to what many think and information on the web. They do provide better water column mixing though which aids in gas exchange.

I can’t go into too much detail of how im doing it. But after i get moved ill pick it back up and get working on production model for sale. It has the ability to increase the air above the water to over 90% oxygen and also is fed directly into the nutrient solution. This changes the equation of henrys law and raises the maximum saturation level of dissolved oxygen. Much like how we increase co2 in the atmosphere, I can do the same for the dissolved o2 in the rootzone increasing oxygen availability beyond our current limitations.

@Moe.Red is also taking advantage of this using fogponics with very high levels of o2 in the rootzone. Its all still in the early stages of development and while i was hooing to be ready by Christmas it may be a bit later before i have production models ready. He is also creating the tech to drive these systems and pretty dam close to be able to monitor and control all grow parameters. You may want to head over there if it interests you


Top feeding should only be about a week if they are kept healthy can add a week if they struggling a bit. Then like i say once a week to keep things in order. I think you’d be well served in trying to get a taller res to keep water level up to ideal levels. But thats not a must you just need to adjust is all.

The smaller bubbles themselves don’t equate to more air contrary to what many think and information on the web. They do provide better water column mixing though which aids in gas exchange.

Sounds like a nanopartical consept!

 

[hm7]

Wow, that GH dual diaphragm quad outlet air pump is no joke - I expected it to be strong, but yeah, it blows away the 10w air pumps I was using, seems to be much cooler running than those too, although definitely a bit louder. A fair tradeoff.


I've added a second large cylinder air stone to each bucket. Should I be concerned about this air pump being turned up all the way/damaging the roots? I've currently set all 4 outlets on it to be fully open.

 

[Aqua Man]

Wow, that GH dual diaphragm quad outlet air pump is no joke - I expected it to be strong, but yeah, it blows away the 10w air pumps I was using, seems to be much cooler running than those too, although definitely a bit louder. A fair tradeoff.


I've added a second large cylinder air stone to each bucket. Should I be concerned about this air pump being turned up all the way/damaging the roots? I've currently set all 4 outlets on it to be fully open.

can you take a video? how many stone are you running?

 

[hm7]

can you take a video? how many stone are you running?

Sure - good idea. I've got 2 large cylindrical stones in each bucket, and 2 in the main res which is located outside the tent. I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get another one of these GH dual diaphram air pumps, and put 2 more stones in the main res too - thoughts?