Rdwc help!!

W

Wonkyfunk303

Member
good morning,

I am a total noob with hydro (and pretty green with any growing tbf)....

I bought a plantit Aeros 4... (4 bubble pots and a master pot that recirculates)....

Planted my seedlings and messed it right up. They have been in about 2 1/2 weeks and haven’t really grown much, more so the roots just don’t seem to be growing quick.

So... last night I emptied the whole system as much as I could (there was probably (5 litres left)... I made up my nutrient solution using ionic hydro grow, I used 120ml of hydro grow to 70 litres of water (less than a 1/4 strength and used ionic hydro ph- to bring it down to 5.5 (knowing the remainder left over was about 6.3)... using my blue lab pen my reading were 1.2 ec. That was 6pm last night, this morning I checked at 6am and ph has risen to 6.2 and ec has gone up to 1.4, but my plants do not look happy.

I’m really struggling to get my head around this dwc business. Oh my tap water is 0.3 - 0.4 on ec....

Any more info please ask, but I don’t know if I’m doing it right or wrong!!B911B411-3B30-4953-82C5-15A7EE392D29.jpeg
 
kingtitan

kingtitan

Well-Known Member
Wonkyfunk303 said:
good morning,

I am a total noob with hydro (and pretty green with any growing tbf)....

I bought a plantit Aeros 4... (4 bubble pots and a master pot that recirculates)....

Planted my seedlings and messed it right up. They have been in about 2 1/2 weeks and haven’t really grown much, more so the roots just don’t seem to be growing quick.

So... last night I emptied the whole system as much as I could (there was probably (5 litres left)... I made up my nutrient solution using ionic hydro grow, I used 120ml of hydro grow to 70 litres of water (less than a 1/4 strength and used ionic hydro ph- to bring it down to 5.5 (knowing the remainder left over was about 6.3)... using my blue lab pen my reading were 1.2 ec. That was 6pm last night, this morning I checked at 6am and ph has risen to 6.2 and ec has gone up to 1.4, but my plants do not look happy.

I’m really struggling to get my head around this dwc business. Oh my tap water is 0.3 - 0.4 on ec....

Any more info please ask, but I don’t know if I’m doing it right or wrong!!View attachment 4102173
Click to expand...
What do the roots look like? Mix in some RO water with the tap to drop the EC, its quite hard, are you using a carbon filter or anything for the tap to get rid of chlorine/chloramine? run plain water for a couple days and mix in nutes very low to start, total ec 0.3 or less until problem is corrected. try to keep the PH at 5.7/5.8, its ok to let it drift to 6.2 or more but the hard water should be keeping things quite stable. Your ec going up is a sign of the plant releasing salts or something growing.
 
W

Wonkyfunk303

Member
kingtitan said:
What do the roots look like? Mix in some RO water with the tap to drop the EC, its quite hard, are you using a carbon filter or anything for the tap to get rid of chlorine/chloramine? run plain water for a couple days and mix in nutes very low to start, total ec 0.3 or less until problem is corrected. try to keep the PH at 5.7/5.8, its ok to let it drift to 6.2 or more but the hard water should be keeping things quite stable. Your ec going up is a sign of the plant releasing salts or something growing.
Click to expand...
The roots look healthier since I did the change although there isn’t a great amount in the actual bubbler yet, just a couple of bright white strings... one of the pots hasn’t even started showing roots yet which is odd.. if I’d known it was going to be this difficult I would of got another Wilma system as I seem to have been able t suss that one out.

And no carbon filter. Just leaving the tap water standing 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate.

Thank you for your reply.
 
W

Wonkyfunk303

Member
Ok so some more positive news, ec is 1.2 and ph is 6.1, just rechecked, also removing the pots and I can now see fresh root growth! Hopefully I’ve got this under control now, I’ll keep checking twice a day and adjust as necessary, it’s hard to find ro water so I’ve bought some de-ionised, however I’m aware this isn’t as good as distilled...
 
JSB99

JSB99

Well-Known Member
Keep an eye on the new growth (leaves, not roots). Old damaged leaves won't repair themselves, so your new leaves are going to tell you if your adjustments have corrected the issue.

I reefer you to the GrowWeedEasy site for some brain food :)
 
JSB99

JSB99

Well-Known Member
Wonkyfunk303 said:
The roots look healthier since I did the change although there isn’t a great amount in the actual bubbler yet, just a couple of bright white strings... one of the pots hasn’t even started showing roots yet which is odd.. if I’d known it was going to be this difficult I would of got another Wilma system as I seem to have been able t suss that one out.

And no carbon filter. Just leaving the tap water standing 24 hours to let the chlorine evaporate.

Thank you for your reply.
Click to expand...
This does not work, as most municipal water now contains chloramine, which is much more hardy than chlorine. Chloramine doesn't dissipate like chlorine, and it lasts much longer. An easy way to tell is to take a TDS measurement in a glass of fresh tap water. After 24 hours, check it again and see if the TDS has dropped.

If your water contains chloramine, then you need RO filters to remove it.
 
Gquebed

Gquebed

Well-Known Member
JSB99 said:
This does not work, as most municipal water now contains chloramine, which is much more hardy than chlorine. Chloramine doesn't dissipate like chlorine, and it lasts much longer. An easy way to tell is to take a TDS measurement in a glass of fresh tap water. After 24 hours, check it again and see if the TDS has dropped.

If your water contains chloramine, then you need RO filters to remove it.
Click to expand...
Isnt there an additive that can "nuteralize" it? Like sulphur or something?
 
SmokeyMcChokey

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
There are some aquarium supply stuff that says it'll nuetralize chloramines. The guy at my local fish shop says so at least. I dunno if I'd trust it. I know they supposedly make carbon filters that attach to garden hose that rid chlorine and chloramine. But again no first hand experience with them.
For what it's worth if you can stomach the waste water and your home water pressure isn't complete garbage just get a multi stage ro/di from Amazon. 80 gallons per day is what I have. It's fine. About 2 years old and still spits out at 5 ppm on original filters
"Reduces chlorine"
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-Water-Filter-with-Hose/14504321?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=635&adid=22222222228010681759&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=40839127952&wl4=aud-310687322322:pla-78652300112&wl5=9011276&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=14504321&wl13=635&veh=sem
 
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H

HydroEnthused

Active Member
Use RO water. .6 ec for new seedlings for the first 2 weeks (GH lucas or equivalent) and 1.2 ec for the next 2 weeks. I veg for 4 weeks in 4 gallon square buckets with a 4" round air stone that puts out roughly 4.5 lpm of carbon scrubbed air . No pipes connecting the buckets. Just air stones.But DWC nonetheless.
 
SmokeyMcChokey

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
As far as ec levels I use a cheap tdm pen. I generally go 300 ppm seedling working up to about 1000 ppm at flip. Give or take. Some strains like it some dont
 
W

Wonkyfunk303

Member
Ok so update :-)

Seems it’s stable in 24 hours ec hasn’t moved up or down, still at 1.2 on my blue lab pen.. ph has stayed at 6.13, have checked and now have new root growth and new growth on plants is healthy and green! Hopefully now it’s stable it will be easier to keep on top of :-) thanks for all your advice guys/gals! Let’s see how this pans out :-)
 
kingtitan

kingtitan

Well-Known Member
Chloramines are not usually "added" but is created naturally in the presence of Chlorine + Ammonia, like in a swimming pool or a hut tub that runs Chlorine as a sanitizer (not Bromine). What you need to do is check a full analysis if available, every major city should have it on their city website or on the water treatment site. Naturally you will find Chloramines <0.13 ppm.

If you for some reason live where they like to poison your water by increasing it to over 1ppm (I have heard 2ppm some places in the US!) it can be removed by RO, Catalytic Carbon,Cartridge Activated Carbon or standard Activated Carbon (from best to worst). Contact time is critical with carbon.

Easiest would be to get one of these, higher chloramine run it slower.
SP6-2.jpg

If you have an RO but want to keep the minerals then you can bypass the RO membrane and use the output after your sediment and carbon cartridges.

Catalytic filters are not normally found so skip that, if you got nothing then even a Brita is better than nothing.
 
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