Nutrient Precipitation/Fallout RDWC & JACKS

[sonmacharius]

Hey everyone I’m on my first grow, I’m trying to figure out what’s going on in my reservoir, I was hoping someone could help me out. My setup is PA Hydroponic’s Fallponics 8 gallon 4 site system. The girls have been vegging for a while and I was going to start flower but ran into this issue so haven’t flipped them.

I started my grow using Dynagro Foilage Pro and Protekt and had no issues with my nutrient solution staying stable.

When my bottles started running low, I decided to make the switch to Jacks(5-12-26)/CalNit and Protekt. Ever since I made the switch what looks/feel like fine sand(see pic) has been accumulating at the bottom of all my buckets. My best guess something is happening with the calcium, because some of the girls look like they might have a Cal deficiency(I think???).

I use my tap water(110 ppm @ .5), and I run it through a blue RV filter. Besides the nutes, I use Southern AG fungicide for root rot protection which I don’t add until new batch is in the system. I’m sure I’m mixing everything in the correct order thanks to this forum. I keep my PH around 5.8. Water temp @ 72 degrees. EC 1.2

I currently use this drill attached paint mixer to mix it for a few minutes i add silica first wait like 30min-1hr, then part A wait 10, then add part B and mix for another few minutes with the drill. I mix for 30 gallons and never see anything sitting at the bottom of my trash can when I mix.

I mix my nutes in a 32 gallon trash can before I transfer it to the system. As a test to see if it was interacting with my tap water, I made a solution with Jacks and let sit in the trash can for two days and there wasn’t any precipitation. I dumped my old solution and added the stuff from the trash can and within a hour I got sand again.

I also thought it could be the silica but I have tried using a solution without the Protekt and I still get sand.

I apologize for the long post, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Aqua Man]

You have to PH down after silica… if you measure the PH after adding silica you will see its well over 9 so when you add your other nutrients they precipitate out due to the high PH.

add silica, ph down to 6.5 then add the rest. There will usually be a little bit of sediment with jacks but should be very minimal

 

[sonmacharius]

You have to PH down after silica… if you measure the PH after adding silica you will see its well over 9 so when you add your other nutrients they precipitate out due to the high PH.

add silica, ph down to 6.5 then add the rest. There will usually be a little bit of sediment with jacks but should be very minimal

Thanks for the fast reply Aqua Man, i also have tried it without any SIlica in the mix, thinking that it was that. The sand still appeared after an hour or two.

 

[Smokey0418]

Looks like sediment from your stone. Did you wash off before use?

 

[sonmacharius]

Looks like sediment from your stone. Did you wash off before use?

Yes Smokey, i rinsed the hell out of it, probably too much lmao. I'm on week 8 of veg now, this just started to happen last week when i made the switch from DG Foilage Pro to Jacks.

 

[Cosmonut]

Looks like sediment from your stone. Did you wash off before use?

I believe this guy is correct. I run two of the same system and i get the same clay/ sand.

Just delt with a root rot issue though. Remember to top feed your root zone to get your beneficial bacteria started. I let this top zone dry out and we'll root rot. I added a drip irrigation system and it seems perfect now.