Ace Malawi And Cycloptics Greenbeams: Caught In The Under Current!

The EC will drop if the plants start feeding... You just have to get them in a situation where they are no longer locked out.

Lowering the EC like you just did, should stop the lockout.

Hopefully tomorrow or the next day or so, the EC will drop a little and you will need to add more nutrients to bring it back up to where you just had it.

I had over looked the fact that you're using the O2 Grow. I'm still not sold on its effectiveness in this application so it may be hard to determine if it, or other facors are lending to your issues.

I would suggest that is you make the recommended changes and issues continue you may consider the O2 Grow is a contributing factor. In theory the unit should be helpful.

One observation I made that made me a bit skeptical was that when running the unit I notive the ORP of the water dropping very low (less than 100). This seems counter intuitive given its raising the DO, but if true may be a cause of problems.

Other consideration is it may over oxidize your plants (much like using O3 in excess) and cause your plants stress. Seems like you're getting some solid insight from the squad. Good to see All4 chiming in as well.

Just to be clear UCMENOW, the O2 Grow is out of the system. Too many variables making it more difficult to troubleshoot.

So I just checked the EC and it is at .205 (100 ppm on the 500 scale) and pH is down to 5.9. Based on this I should:

• wait another day and see what happens or
• lower EC slightly as pH should have gone up?

The plants look better, though I think I see mag deficiency. I still have not added cal/mag as I keep thinking that Veg & Bloom doesn't require it. Anyone with experience with V&B please chime in here. Here's a couple of quick picks.

If you're noticing improvements in the plants I'd say keep it steady and continue making obsevations. If conditions are suitable you'll continue seeing the plants improve based on your recent adjustments. Good work.

Nice!:)

New growth is looking strong. Do your best to maintain your parameters and you'll soon be ducking under these plants :)

timmur said:

So can someone give a definitive answer on whether or not I need a cal/mag supplement? Veg & Bloom is not supposed to require it, but I'm looking for confirmation. Thanks.

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CalMag is definitely needed during veg & bloom. I'm going to assume you use RO water. Calcium and magnesium are naturally in water, when you hear people talk about hard water it means there is too much calcium and magnesium. Because you're removing it when doing osmosis you need to re-add it. 1/4 to 1/2 strength for UC.

UCMENOW said:

I had over looked the fact that you're using the O2 Grow. I'm still not sold on its effectiveness in this application

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CCH2O grow guide said:

More air is not necessarily better in the Under Current®. Too much air can destabilize nutrient solutions causing imbalances and pH swings. A maximum of 1.5 lpm (liters per minute) of air per gallon of water is recommended for supercharging your aeration system.
Note: When Supercharging your aeration system you will need to reduce your nutrient levels by another 50%. This may seem extremely low but the added O2 will help the plants uptake the minerals much more efficiently reducing the need for high levels of fertilizers.

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timmur said:

Finally they ate some food! The ec was at .16 when I got home today. I have my top off res set at .22 ec and pH slightly acidic at 5.8 and have it turned on to feed the epicenter. I'm going to bump them back to the same ec they were at yesterday and see how they do.

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Ideally your EC will stay the same while your water level decreases, this means your plants are using EC and water at equal portions. If your EC is decreasing while your water level lowers then you have too little nutes. If your EC is increasing it means you have too much nutes. Stable EC will help with plant health. Make sure you check that paragraph above I posted about dissolved oxygen.

Good point regarding getting the EC and the water level to drop at the same time... tough to get it right.

That's why I sometimes err on the side of having to raise the EC a little with each top off.

My goal is to get it correct.

A general starting point is to put your top off res at the next week's level of nutes with adjusted pH for pH drift in the system. Gradual pH adjustment from a top off res helps avoid nute lockout that can happen from shock when directly adding concentrate.

Gotcha. I'm not familiar with that line of nutes. I am a House & Garden man.

I just got off the phone with them and they confirmed that cal/mag is required. Shoulda called them sooner!

timmur said:

I decided to mainline all of the girls

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Did someone say mainline! :D

timmur said:

although the amount of growth so far made this a very difficult decision. The amount of plant material I removed was insane. I had about 10 -12 nodes of growth and the first topping

when mainlining is normally at the 5-6 node.

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You want to top at the 3rd node once the plant has reached node 5 and 6 as new growth at the top.

This is to help keep overall plant height low. While not wasting extra plant material and growth time.

I'm sorry to hear you lost that growth time.

But I'm glad to hear you got your system dialed in and are ready to rock now.

It was a good idea to make sure their healthy before stress training.

I love seeing other members mainline their plants. It allows me to live vicariously through them while I wait for mine to to be ready.

I'll be rooting for you.

Hope everything is going well! :-)... Looking forward to some updated pics.:)