New to hydroponics, assistance needed

[Lynch_Ironside]

Good day fellow farmers. I have just started my first hydroponic grow... well technically my second, my first set of seeds was dead within 24 hours.
The rundown - white widow fem autos
Day 1
I started my seedlings in a paper towel
Day 3
Transfer of seedlings to pre-soaked rapid rooter cubes
Day 5
Taproot is visible from the bottom of the cube
Transfer to reservoir
Day 6
24 hours after transfer to reservoir
Leaves twisting

Parameters
Water temp in res - 76 f
Temp in tent - 72 f
Rh 55
Ph - 6.04
EC - .3 or a ppm of 170-180
Using RO water
Nutes are added at general hydroponics recommendations for seedlings
Calmag added at 1 ml per gallon
5 gallons in res
Southern ag added at 2ml per gallon
250 watt mh with a current lux of 13000 on an eighteen hour light cycle
5 gallons in res

Could the southern ag cause this? I may have way too much of that floating around in there... if anyone has pics of an ag overdose I'd like to see them.

I think that's everything, if I missed anything let me know. I would like to see these girls all grown up some day and your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[AnselAdams]

Good day fellow farmers. I have just started my first hydroponic grow... well technically my second, my first set of seeds was dead within 24 hours.
The rundown - white widow fem autos
Day 1
I started my seedlings in a paper towel
Day 3
Transfer of seedlings to pre-soaked rapid rooter cubes
Day 5
Taproot is visible from the bottom of the cube
Transfer to reservoir
Day 6
24 hours after transfer to reservoir
Leaves twisting

Parameters
Water temp in res - 76 f
Temp in tent - 72 f
Rh 55
Ph - 6.04
EC - .3 or a ppm of 170-180
Using RO water
Nutes are added at general hydroponics recommendations for seedlings
Calmag added at 1 ml per gallon
5 gallons in res
Southern ag added at 2ml per gallon
250 watt mh with a current lux of 13000 on an eighteen hour light cycle
5 gallons in res

Could the southern ag cause this? I may have way too much of that floating around in there... if anyone has pics of an ag overdose I'd like to see them.

I think that's everything, if I missed anything let me know. I would like to see these girls all grown up some day and your help is greatly appreciated.

Welcome to The Farm!!

Looks like you have a very good start. There is nothing wrong with your plants at all. The leaves will always twist and turn to get what they feel is the best light. If you were to watch a time lapse you would see that they are almost always in motion.

Don't rush it and let them grow. No nutes are needed other than calmag the first week or two. I and some others use a root stimulator during that two week period but usually not much more.

You're Looking Good! Keep it up!!!

 

[PhatNuggz]

what air pump/stones are you using?

It looks like at least 4" net pots. Because the top of the rapid rooter is almost even with the top, means the distance from the bottom of the rapid rooter and the bottom of the net pot is very long. Where is your water line in relation to the bottom of the net pot?

You will likely need to hand feed with an eye dropper, or a turkey baster until roots exit the bottom of the net pots

Are you using a circulating fan?

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Good day, thanks for the replies.
I'm running a whisper 60 air pump with 2 air stones 2"x4"
I also had a pump with a 4 way manifold to drip feed the seedlings until their roots make touchdown. However I just pulled it because it was clogged up with a brown slime. This is the second time my reservoir has produced this slime.
The first time I was cycling the water through the pump for about 4 to 5 days to ensure everything was working properly before I transferred the seedlings. Well I checked the res before the transfer and saw the slime. So I drained and cleaned the res with ro water.
The waterline is now currently about 1.5 to 2 inches from the bottom of the 4"pot with an air stone directly beneath each pot. Making the distance the root has to travel to hit the water about 3 or 4 inches.
I just emptied the res and put in seedling strength nutes again but this time only 1ml of souther ag for 10 gallons.
No fan yet but I'm running a huge exhaust fan that at half speed turns the air over about 7 times a minute. With the bottom vents open on the tent it draws a nice breeze around the plants. I have a clip fan on the way from Amazon as well.

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Welcome to The Farm!!

Looks like you have a very good start. There is nothing wrong with your plants at all. The leaves will always twist and turn to get what they feel is the best light. If you were to watch a time lapse you would see that they are almost always in motion.

Don't rush it and let them grow. No nutes are needed other than calmag the first week or two. I and some others use a root stimulator during that two week period but usually not much more.

You're Looking Good! Keep it up!!!

I was under the impression that the seedlings acquire their nutrients from the shell to start but after a few days deplete what was stored.
I have a handful of plants that I grew in coco and had some very slow growth in the beginning as I had not used any nutes for the first couple of weeks.

 

[AnselAdams]

I was under the impression that the seedlings acquire their nutrients from the shell to start but after a few days deplete what was stored.
I have a handful of plants that I grew in coco and had some very slow growth in the beginning as I had not used any nutes for the first couple of weeks.

Your impression is correct. I am using a product called
General Hydroponics HGC726855 RapidStart Rooting Enhancer Promotes Root Growth For Seedlings, Starts & Transplanting 275 ml

It helps stimulate root growth by adding helpful plant extracts, amino acids and minimum amount of nutrients. It is a stimulator that should not be used until after germination. I use a 10 mil syringe to add 5 mil per day to each root riot cube until i see roots coming out the sides. At that point i know the spray from my germ/clone rez will keep it moist and fed.

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Fantastic. Now I've heard and saw people transplanting at different times, some wait until there are a substantial amount of roots coming out of the cubes and some wait until there is a single root popping out of the bottom. Thoughts on this?
Also I was reading a post on here about silica...
Is it essential and at what stage should this be introduced?

 

[Growrx]

Fantastic. Now I've heard and saw people transplanting at different times, some wait until there are a substantial amount of roots coming out of the cubes and some wait until there is a single root popping out of the bottom. Thoughts on this?
Also I was reading a post on here about silica...
Is it essential and at what stage should this be introduced?

Just asked this on my thread, in for the info as iv never used silica before.
Not sure how much ppm to feed and what not.

 

[AnselAdams]

Fantastic. Now I've heard and saw people transplanting at different times, some wait until there are a substantial amount of roots coming out of the cubes and some wait until there is a single root popping out of the bottom. Thoughts on this?
Also I was reading a post on here about silica...
Is it essential and at what stage should this be introduced?

Yes Silica is critical. It is needed to add strength to the branches and stalk of the plant. I helps create the "straw" structure that you will see in a lot of photos of a plant just after a bud is harvested.

However; you don't need it this early. I wait until week 4 or so before i start adding silica.

As for transplanting; I wait until i have a good amount of growth coming out of the root riot in all directions. If the roots start to brown up, time to transplant. IMHO

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Thanks for the info and clarification. Any suggestions on a silica supplement? Like everything else there are so many choices.
Besides silica, calmag, southern ag and gh trio are there any other essentials I should pick up?

Apologies for all the questions, just want to make sure I've got all bases covered. I learned my lesson following a tutorial on coco later to find out it was missing a metric ton of information my plants and I could've greatly benefited from.

Any ideas on the brown slime? I've seen plenty of pictures of root rot but as I have no roots it begs the question can you get "root rot water"?

 

[Aqua Man]

Good day fellow farmers. I have just started my first hydroponic grow... well technically my second, my first set of seeds was dead within 24 hours.
The rundown - white widow fem autos
Day 1
I started my seedlings in a paper towel
Day 3
Transfer of seedlings to pre-soaked rapid rooter cubes
Day 5
Taproot is visible from the bottom of the cube
Transfer to reservoir
Day 6
24 hours after transfer to reservoir
Leaves twisting

Parameters
Water temp in res - 76 f
Temp in tent - 72 f
Rh 55
Ph - 6.04
EC - .3 or a ppm of 170-180
Using RO water
Nutes are added at general hydroponics recommendations for seedlings
Calmag added at 1 ml per gallon
5 gallons in res
Southern ag added at 2ml per gallon
250 watt mh with a current lux of 13000 on an eighteen hour light cycle
5 gallons in res

Could the southern ag cause this? I may have way too much of that floating around in there... if anyone has pics of an ag overdose I'd like to see them.

I think that's everything, if I missed anything let me know. I would like to see these girls all grown up some day and your help is greatly appreciated.

Southern AG fungicide is extremely concentrated and should not be dosed the same as hydrogaurd... as I suspect thats why the 2ml per gal.

Yes its the same bacteria but in a significantly higher concentration. 1ml per 20 gal is plenty.

 

[Aqua Man]

You will need to top feed once a day... until the roots hit the water. Keep water about 1 inch below the net pot as the roots aren't started in hydro they need to adjust. So don't raise water level over the net pot.

Don't overdo the light. If they stretch a bit you can adjust but if your to close you may cook them and if they survive will set you back probably close to 2 weeks.

RH 60-70% for the next week if possible. Not higher than 70% though.

Temps of 75-80f will help speed up the growth. But make sure you top feed once daily until roots hit the water or they will dry out and die.

 

[AnselAdams]

Thanks for the info and clarification. Any suggestions on a silica supplement? Like everything else there are so many choices.
Besides silica, calmag, southern ag and gh trio are there any other essentials I should pick up?

Apologies for all the questions, just want to make sure I've got all bases covered. I learned my lesson following a tutorial on coco later to find out it was missing a metric ton of information my plants and I could've greatly benefited from.

Any ideas on the brown slime? I've seen plenty of pictures of root rot but as I have no roots it begs the question can you get "root rot water"?

Personally I like botanicare. The brown root problem should resolve itself if you are using the AG as instructed (including @Aqua Mans' suggestion). I use hydroguard also by botanicare. The other "additives" you can experiment with later as you become more confident and familiar with the strains you choose to grow (each strain can have totally different growth requirements). remember the key rule here is K.I.S.S.

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Thanks for the advice Aqua man. Any ideas on the brown slime issue?

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Personally I like botanicare. The brown root problem should resolve itself if you are using the AG as instructed (including @Aqua Mans' suggestion). I use hydroguard also by botanicare. The other "additives" you can experiment with later as you become more confident and familiar with the strains you choose to grow (each strain can have totally different growth requirements). remember the key rule here is K.I.S.S.

I will top feed as instructed. I currently have 1 ml of ag for 10 gallons, do you think this will be ok or should I drain and refill?

 

[Aqua Man]

I will top feed as instructed. I currently have 1 ml of ag for 10 gallons, do you think this will be ok or should I drain and refill?

Honestly I wouldn't go over 1 ml per 20 gal of actual water.

Brown slime in res? Or on roots?

Could be diatoms or bacterial bloom from to much Southern Ag, few other things. Have some pics?

Would lean to bacterial bloom as if your using RO and bottled nutes they are not likely high in silica which can result in diatoms since that's thier food source

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Ok I'm going to drain and refill. Bacteria bloom makes sense, especially since I had an insane amount of ag this last time. However I did run into this with my first attempt as well and had not added any ag at that time. As a matter of fact I picked up the ag because of the first brown slime outbreak. I would assume that the nutrients have some sort of bacteria that when in a warm dark place can multiply rapidly? The slime was so bad it clogged my manifold. I removed the water regulator but as you can see it's still a substantial build up. Smells like a fish tank that is well overdue for a water change.
So the question is do nutrients contain enough bacteria to be the cause of this bacteria bloom and slime build up?
And if this continues on for the next few weeks before I start adding silica am I running a risk of stunting or harming the plants?

 

[Aqua Man]

Ok I'm going to drain and refill. Bacteria bloom makes sense, especially since I had an insane amount of ag this last time. However I did run into this with my first attempt as well and had not added any ag at that time. As a matter of fact I picked up the ag because of the first brown slime outbreak. I would assume that the nutrients have some sort of bacteria that when in a warm dark place can multiply rapidly? The slime was so bad it clogged my manifold. I removed the water regulator but as you can see it's still a substantial build up. Smells like a fish tank that is well overdue for a water change.
So the question is do nutrients contain enough bacteria to be the cause of this bacteria bloom and slime build up?
And if this continues on for the next few weeks before I start adding silica am I running a risk of stunting or harming the plants?

Thats a combo of bacteria and diatoms or brown slime algae. Its not uncommon and will go away. Its harmless unless ut masses on the roots themselves.

What nutrients again? Any organics going into that besides the AG?

 

[Lynch_Ironside]

Just general hydroponics trio ag and calmag. Ok sounds good thank you very much for your time and the information. I guess it's a waiting game now.

 

[AnselAdams]

Ok I'm going to drain and refill. Bacteria bloom makes sense, especially since I had an insane amount of ag this last time. However I did run into this with my first attempt as well and had not added any ag at that time. As a matter of fact I picked up the ag because of the first brown slime outbreak. I would assume that the nutrients have some sort of bacteria that when in a warm dark place can multiply rapidly? The slime was so bad it clogged my manifold. I removed the water regulator but as you can see it's still a substantial build up. Smells like a fish tank that is well overdue for a water change.
So the question is do nutrients contain enough bacteria to be the cause of this bacteria bloom and slime build up?
And if this continues on for the next few weeks before I start adding silica am I running a risk of stunting or harming the plants?

Note to self; You may want to change your chiller hose to a black hose. Light penetration will cause unwanted growth in your tubes which will cause problems as its density grows. Better to prevent it rather than to try to remediate.