Day 45: Things are looking good
Did another rez change tonight. I was able to get almost all of the water out of both totes thanks to my new bottom draw pump. I like this pump a lot! I had a bunch of hydroton dust sitting on the bottom and I cleaned all of that up proper. Both rez's were super clean before I started.
I took a close look at the girl under a CFL light and I couldn't believe how dark green she is. I saw this with Blue Planet Nutes before, but this was bordering on crazy. I decided to tone the nutes back a bit further.
Here was dinner, and running PPM totals as I added:
Starting point: 0 PPM
Shield (Silica): 25ml - 50 PPM
Calmag: 40 ml - 170 PPM
Micro: 20 ml - 270 PPM
Grow: 20 ml - 330 PPM
Bloom: 20 ml - 390 PPM
Vita Blue: 7.5 ml - 390 PPM (no change)
Easy Weed (Seaweed): 1 scoop - 390 PPM (no change)
PH came in at 6.2. Awesome! Usually, I would leave it at 6.2 and drop it by a 1/10th per day until 5.8 but today I added ~ 30 drops of PH down to get me right to 5.8.
I had premixed 1.5 tsp of great white into 1 gallon of RO water earlier in the day and added that at the very end.
I've started to make some changes here and there. My lighting schedule has changed. I've had the lights on 24 hours a day since day 1 but I switched to the 6/2 method yesterday. 6 on, 2 off, 6 on, 2 off, etc.. Comes out to 18/6 but more frequently.
I've removed both air stones from the main rez.
I've implemented my first venturi on the pump that sits in the control rez and just stirs. Will be exploring this further.
I've been experimenting with the top ring frequency. The last 2 days, I've had them on for 4 hours, off for 2 hours, repeat. Tonight, I changed it up a bit and have them on 15 minutes, off 30 minutes, on 15, off 30, repeat.
I replaced the pump for the top feed rings. It was a 180 gph and now it is a much more powerful 590 gph.
I also replaced the pump that pumps control rez water into the main rez via 2 lines....nearly tripled with a new 1056 gph.
I have to say...the increase is not as impressive as I was hoping
I ended up topping her Saturday morning. I've been on the fence about topping. I kind of did not want to top and with all of the side light I have was hoping that it would work well. But...in the end, I felt like I needed to top her. I also took 4 of the main large fan leaves off. I know, I know...shoot me. It is what it is. I thought it was needed, so I did it.
She's getting ready to respond to the topping so it's exciting!
Roots are still not where I want. When I pick the net pot up, the roots extend about 5 or 6 feet out of the bottom. So that's cool, but I'm looking for some more explosive growth out of the side. Fingers crossed
Room temps and humidity are really good.
Rez temps are 100% under control.
All in all, things are great!
Onto some pics