Hi guys,

I ve done hydroponics 2 times before , and soil also, which has been going good

Now i try DWC, its my first time going bacterial/part-organic

problem : one plant was bad ( brown/dark spot , with drooping yellow leaves) and now almost all are getting bad

some info of my setup :

tent 120 x 120 , LED 400W ( 4/6 bar atm) full spectrum (samsung lm301h + osram 660nm) 18/6 autoflo x6 @60cm , good RVK extractor , one medium sized fan blowing 45° from top to bottom on LED + air pump 70L/min ( well my airstones output sucks a bit) + on plants, 22-25° air temp 50% hygro ( ultrasound humidifier set to 60% but i guess my extractor is too strong)

25L Bucket filled @20L , basket with big rockwool + clay pebble

rockwool and pebble with some trichoderma ( ghe) and trabe mycoplant ( endomyco = Glomus intraradices )

tap water 3 stage filtered @250ppm ( removing chlorine and calcium)

( ph is always 5.3 to 6.3 but target is 5.8)


So now what i did ... cause i did lot of shit ...

my first solution was : maxigro + ghe silicate + humus + tnc bactor + molasse + superthrive , started to have some brown foam a little stinky ( but not too much) and by following ghe maxigro chart i was already at ~1200ppm before additive, also my solution temp is at 23° , because i was scared it promotes anaerobic/root rots/slime, i removed 1/2 solution ( each bucket) and filled with my filtered water ppm went back to 700-900, foam disappeared and smell was ok

Later, when root started to come out the basket, , some roots died , so i thought i had slime then i noticed my air pump was turned off at night ( 6h for 5 days) , also my basket were shitty , was leaking some light so i 3d printed cylinders ( still working on it) to add more pebble ...

only one plant at this point was bad ( brown spot/drooping) so i started to think i was overwatering them. Since i dont have water pump with irrigation i was drenching one cup from time to time , also the rockwool was getting soaked from the bubble so i thought i was drowning them, also my mistake was that i layed the rockwool cube ( almost as big as the basket) at the bottom, without a bed of pebble, so i removed the rockwool cube to put back a bed of pebble ... breaking some roots



Yesterday i decided to start from scratch... cleaned the buckets with new solution, without bacteria/humus/molasse to keep it simple, used old nut i had from hesi ( TNT for soil/coco, roots, enzyme, super vit) and i was diagnosing calcium deficiency on this plant, started to had dolomite ashes ( even if i read somewhere, they were not soluble)

now tonight , my plant are like that :



all picture present on this post are from half an hour ago, i didnt take good pic sorry , but even if the last one look ok its start to loosing some green, other smaller loose green also with one having brown spot

I forgot to say roots are white with light brown stain, hanging over solution ( 3 on 6 out), with bubble weting them or bottom of basket, i stoped to water them from top also

over/under watering, some element locked like calcium ... i'm lost. They seem to go toward a certain death.

maybe i should go back to unfiltered water to have most of secondary/trace nutrients

Lowered light intensity to slow metabolism a bit , made a foliar spray of nettle manure/superthrive ( light)

Spent a shit-ton again, ordered new ring air diffuser from ebay x 6 ( for more DO ?) , RO system ( well 35e on ali) cause i think i have problem with my tap water, 250ppm is too much and i want more control

I'm brewing bacterial tea, it will be ready tomorrow.

if any of you have some advice or better understanding of my situation, i thank you

thx for reading
Anton