1st Grow - Master Kush, White Widow, Ak48 Dwc

[ArmedGeek]

I ride that 2 extra gal out till end of wk.that way wen i change/clean my totes im basicaly empty..would b my best advice to giv anyone thats n multiple dwc..c wat they drink in plan around it...

Good post man, i've been wondering how to tackle that issue. I work in IT, as a kid they tell you if you want to be in the It industry and work with computers you need to be good at math. Pffff what a load of shit, that's why i have a subnet calculator. I'm horrible at math which is why i haven't even tried to learn how to do my nutes when the plants start sucking up water.

I have read that some people will top each res (in our case) with strait water until it's time to change nutes. This doesn't make much sense to me given it will weaken the PPM. In your case, it looks like you don't top anything and ride it out until the end of the week to change nutes? How is this working for you man? Honestly, this would defiantly simplify things but given how far i am, i will say i don't wanna have ass it even if i have to learn more.

If a plant sucks up a gallon of water, leaving say 2.5 i struggle with understanding how much nutes to add with water to put back in. I mean, if i was only using 1 or 2 nute bottles, i imagine this would be more strait forward. However, at specific stages i'll be adding up to 6 or so. Sure i can look at PPM....but to me this is a complete nightmare. If they made some type of instrument to figure out how much was used up specific to each nute you put in...someone would be a rich man. This part is what i have yet to tackle. I try not to think to logical about it, i'm looking for the best/easiest way to either top the res some or forget about it completely.

 

[EventHorizan]

Good post man, i've been wondering how to tackle that issue. I work in IT, as a kid they tell you if you want to be in the It industry and work with computers you need to be good at math. Pffff what a load of shit, that's why i have a subnet calculator. I'm horrible at math which is why i haven't even tried to learn how to do my nutes when the plants start sucking up water.

I have read that some people will top each res (in our case) with strait water until it's time to change nutes. This doesn't make much sense to me given it will weaken the PPM. In your case, it looks like you don't top anything and ride it out until the end of the week to change nutes? How is this working for you man? Honestly, this would defiantly simplify things but given how far i am, i will say i don't wanna have ass it even if i have to learn more.

If a plant sucks up a gallon of water, leaving say 2.5 i struggle with understanding how much nutes to add with water to put back in. I mean, if i was only using 1 or 2 nute bottles, i imagine this would be more strait forward. However, at specific stages i'll be adding up to 6 or so. Sure i can look at PPM....but to me this is a complete nightmare. If they made some type of instrument to figure out how much was used up specific to each nute you put in...someone would be a rich man. This part is what i have yet to tackle. I try not to think to logical about it, i'm looking for the best/easiest way to either top the res some or forget about it completely.

dang it guys! Your gonna make me teach math tonight huh? You use bakers math to figure out multiple nute add backs... Any of you familiar with this?

 

[fatawa]

I have read that some people will top each res (in our case) with strait water until it's time to change nutes. This doesn't make much sense to me given it will weaken the PPM.

i do use 2 straight water(tap)to top off n middle of week..your thinking of it wrong bro..your not feeding your plants.your just making the nutes available to them..if u guess wrong and go high on nutes,they will only drink water so your concentrate will b stronger..you dont need full blast nutes constantly..

 

[fatawa]

I start out at 1400ish(lil over) and my well water is 220ppm or some shit..so wen i throw that straight water in 2 days later im lowering it by 220ppm twice...understand?thats what drops me to that 900ish mark..if u wanna add back exactly what they drink u need "lucas formula" and 3part general hydro nutes..your best bet is c what they drink a wk(or 10days wenever u clean totes)and find a medium...i do use a 6or 7part nute so its not just 2 things im mixing.

 

[EventHorizan]

i do use 2 straight water(tap)to top off n middle of week..your thinking of it wrong bro..your not feeding your plants.your just making the nutes available to them..if u guess wrong and go high on nutes,they will only drink water so your concentrate will b stronger..you dont need full blast nutes constantly..

well hate to be a debbie downer,,,
but,,
I run 2 systems...
1 has a auto top off with just plain ro...
works great.
The 2nd one,, i have to top off every few days,,
works great.
point,, it all works great...
dont get lost in the subtleties..

I run them both at 1.6 ec, and I stay at 5.8 as much as possible...
Ive tried higher, and lower, and letting it swing..
All works great...

To me the genetics of your plants means alot more than these lil nuances..

 

[EventHorizan]

I start out at 1400ish(lil over) and my well water is 220ppm or some shit..so wen i throw that straight water in 2 days later im lowering it by 220ppm twice...understand?thats what drops me to that 900ish mark..if u wanna add back exactly what they drink u need "lucas formula" and 3part general hydro nutes..your best bet is c what they drink a wk(or 10days wenever u clean totes)and find a medium...i do use a 6or 7part nute so its not just 2 things im mixing.

A lot of ppl do use and a+b with other chems, kool bloom, floralicious, flora nectar, Si, Calimag, etc... so if you are adding back, esp in dwc, bakers math will simplify it...

But like I said above, you really dont have to get real petty, as most good genetics wont notice them as say, too warm of water in hydro, or too cold...

 

[EventHorizan]

I start out at 1400ish(lil over) and my well water is 220ppm or some shit..so wen i throw that straight water in 2 days later im lowering it by 220ppm twice...understand?thats what drops me to that 900ish mark..if u wanna add back exactly what they drink u need "lucas formula" and 3part general hydro nutes..your best bet is c what they drink a wk(or 10days wenever u clean totes)and find a medium...i do use a 6or 7part nute so its not just 2 things im mixing.

You know lucas formula is just a way of using just micro and bloom right? It does not explain bakers math...

Bakers math..

flora grow 5ml per gal
flora bloom 5ml per gal
calimag 2 ml per gal
kool bloom 1 ml per gal
flora nectar 5ml per gal

System holds 50 gal..

So i times all my nutes at 50 gal...

flora grow 250 ml
flora bloom 250 ml
calimag 100 ml
kool bloom 50 ml
flora nectar 250 ml
And we are gonna say that makes the ppm 1000
Now 3 days go by and you are now at 600 ppm
Bakers math is what we use...
We divide 1000 into 600, which gives us .6
that means we have 60% of our nutes left, which means we need to add back 40%
So you times each nute by 40%
.40 x 250 = 100 ml of flora grow
.40 x 250 = 100 ml of flora bloom
.40 x 100 = 40 ml of calimag
.40 x 50 = 20 ml of kool bloom
.40 x 250 = 100 ml of flora nectar..

This allows you to always add back precisely with what you started with... If you want to get scientific, this is how its done.

 

[ArmedGeek]

Day 7

It's been a long day but all seedlings are finally in their final home. Next week nute change won't take as long once I get a 55gal res to store water for these water changes.

PPM 200
pH 5.7
RH 48% (will raise when done working in room)
Temp 75

Thanks to everyone who has gave me a hand so far.

 

[ArmedGeek]

You know lucas formula is just a way of using just micro and bloom right? It does not explain bakers math...

Bakers math..

flora grow 5ml per gal
flora bloom 5ml per gal
calimag 2 ml per gal
kool bloom 1 ml per gal
flora nectar 5ml per gal

System holds 50 gal..

So i times all my nutes at 50 gal...

flora grow 250 ml
flora bloom 250 ml
calimag 100 ml
kool bloom 50 ml
flora nectar 250 ml
And we are gonna say that makes the ppm 1000
Now 3 days go by and you are now at 600 ppm
Bakers math is what we use...
We divide 1000 into 600, which gives us .6
that means we have 60% of our nutes left, which means we need to add back 40%
So you times each nute by 40%
.40 x 250 = 100 ml of flora grow
.40 x 250 = 100 ml of flora bloom
.40 x 100 = 40 ml of calimag
.40 x 50 = 20 ml of kool bloom
.40 x 250 = 100 ml of flora nectar..

This allows you to always add back precisely with what you started with... If you want to get scientific, this is how its done.

That's a good way of breaking it down, I can work with that. I imagine over the next day or two I'll have to keep pH in check about three times a day until it settles. AV pH perfect my ass, maybe if you use their recommended line up in a specific medium. Highest I've seen from 5.7 is 6.2 I imagine that will get higher with higher ppm.

I never realized how much learning and actual work this would take. I can't wait to smoke the first bud to truly appreciate this journey. Growing is addicting.

 

[EventHorizan]

That's a good way of breaking it down, I can work with that. I imagine over the next day or two I'll have to keep pH in check about three times a day until it settles. AV pH perfect my ass, maybe if you use their recommended line up in a specific medium. Highest I've seen from 5.7 is 6.2 I imagine that will get higher with higher ppm.

ph and ppm become a lot easier to control, the more water you have in the system,,, another benefit of rdwc... I dont use them nutes that claim that stuff... I just use GH flora series...

 

[EventHorizan]

That's a good way of breaking it down, I can work with that. I imagine over the next day or two I'll have to keep pH in check about three times a day until it settles. AV pH perfect my ass, maybe if you use their recommended line up in a specific medium. Highest I've seen from 5.7 is 6.2 I imagine that will get higher with higher ppm.

I never realized how much learning and actual work this would take. I can't wait to smoke the first bud to truly appreciate this journey. Growing is addicting.

we still got a long way to go... a lot of hurdles... but long as we get some bud we are succeeding! You will get better every run..

 

[ArmedGeek]

Everything looks good, but I have one slightly promlematic girl. Since I have two of each strain I call her ak48-2. She's the only one I transplanted who's roots didn't come out the rockwool. The odd thing is, she's already got new flowers growing and others had roots showing that we're much smaller. I think she will be fine in the long run, but looks awful compared to the others.

 

[ArmedGeek]

Got a circulating fan. I was able to rig it up so I can adjust it up and down. I picked up a co2 bag as well. My guess is they don't work all that great but every little bit will help. Not sure if I'll go through the trouble adding a timer to the fans to let co2 fall better.

Today I measured the temps inside each bucket and I'm sitting at 77f. A water chiller is out of the question right now. What can I do to help cool this down? Should I pick up anything to have on hand to combat against any issues I might run into from having higher water temps?

 

[EventHorizan]

Got a circulating fan. I was able to rig it up so I can adjust it up and down. I picked up a co2 bag as well. My guess is they don't work all that great but every little bit will help. Not sure if I'll go through the trouble adding a timer to the fans to let co2 fall better.

Today I measured the temps inside each bucket and I'm sitting at 77f. A water chiller is out of the question right now. What can I do to help cool this down? Should I pick up anything to have on hand to combat against any issues I might run into from having higher water temps?

View attachment 702665

Use hydrogaurd.....

 

[fatawa]

Should I pick up anything to have on hand to combat against any issues I might run into from having higher water temps?

kep them temps down brother...i kno u kno the right range.

 

[ArmedGeek]

Two girls are growing as expected, but the other four look unhealthy and are growing very slow.

The two that are growing well, i transplanted them into dwc 3 days earlier than the others because they showed roots coming out the rockwool first. When i transplanted, i gave those two plants nutes at 80 ppm for three days. I didn't do this for the other four plants. When i transplanted the rest of the plants into DWC, i didn't start them out slowly on nutes. I gave everyone 200ppm. So the two that are growing well, had nutes at 80ppm for three days before hitting 200. That's the only difference between the growth.

I germinated six more seeds in case a few of these don't make it or stop growing.

White Widow 1

Master Kush 1

AK48

This girl is the worst. I broke a leaf off adding in more clay pellets, she's getting pulled today.

 

[ArmedGeek]

Use hydrogaurd.....

Seems like a great product but i'm worried about using it with Piranha. It seems Piranha is also used to defend against root rot and other alga based issues. If i had it over again, i wouldn't have went AN. I called and spoke to the AN reps about "PH Perfect" for a better understanding of what they mean due to seeing PH fluctuations. They said PHing my RO water to 5.8 is fine, but once i add their product line i shouldn't adjust for any PH fluctuation what so ever. This basically goes against EVERYTHING i have learned about nutrient availability according to PH. For vegetation i want to keep my PH at 5.8 for what should be obvious reasons. During flower, i'll raise my PH to 6.2 so i get more phosphorus.

When i PH at 5.8, it fluctuates on it's own up to 6.1 and doesn't seem to go any higher which is great. But...i have a hard time believing that i should just trust the nutes and them they do their thing. AN swears to leave it alone.

 

[EventHorizan]

Seems like a great product but i'm worried about using it with Piranha. It seems Piranha is also used to defend against root rot and other alga based issues. If i had it over again, i wouldn't have went AN. I called and spoke to the AN reps about "PH Perfect" for a better understanding of what they mean due to seeing PH fluctuations. They said PHing my RO water to 5.8 is fine, but once i add their product line i shouldn't adjust for any PH fluctuation what so ever. This basically goes against EVERYTHING i have learned about nutrient availability according to PH. For vegetation i want to keep my PH at 5.8 for what should be obvious reasons. During flower, i'll raise my PH to 6.2 so i get more phosphorus.

When i PH at 5.8, it fluctuates on it's own up to 6.1 and doesn't seem to go any higher which is great. But...i have a hard time believing that i should just trust the nutes and them they do their thing. AN swears to leave it alone.

I dont know nothing about it brother... As for pH, 5.8......veg,bloom, whatever.... 5.8

 

[FennarioMike]

you need to make sure that the rock wool isn't staying wet. It needs to be high enough that it can drain and not keep the stem too wet causing damping off. Any type of absorbant material inside your hydroton can harbor pathogens which can cause root rot also if not up above the wet level enough to drain.

Also, especially with rez temps at 77 - are you using a rez sterilant or beneficials like Hydroguard? If not, root rot is going to happen if it hasn't already.

 

[ArmedGeek]

you need to make sure that the rock wool isn't staying wet. It needs to be high enough that it can drain and not keep the stem too wet causing damping off. Any type of absorbant material inside your hydroton can harbor pathogens which can cause root rot also if not up above the wet level enough to drain.

Also, especially with rez temps at 77 - are you using a rez sterilant or beneficials like Hydroguard? If not, root rot is going to happen if it hasn't already.

I'm using Piranha from AN, hope it's enough. I'm not sure how it would react if I use hydroguard as well, ive been trying to research the topic