Phosphorus or Calcium?

[Tim1987]

Hi Geo

I may try some Epsom salt in the reservoir. Only 1% magnesium in your base after all.
That's what i would do.

The algae does need to go. Asap.
Did you take care of the light leak? Reservoir temperature?

Keep doing a rinse out and change every day if need be. Don't give the algae a second to recover.

 

[Geodawg22]

Hey Tim,

How much Epsom salt should I add?

Today I have .443 EC and 6.3 PH, I will bring the ph down to 5.8 again.

The light leak is taken care of with paint over lid. Reservoir temperature is at a steady 65 F due to chiller.

I assume without the light leak, some h2o2, hydroguard the algae will die out?

 

[Tim1987]

Hey Tim,

How much Epsom salt should I add?

Today I have .443 EC and 6.3 PH, I will bring the ph down to 5.8 again.

The light leak is taken care of with paint over lid. Reservoir temperature is at a steady 65 F due to chiller.

I assume without the light leak, some h2o2, hydroguard the algae will die out?

Hey Geo

Should do, yeah. If the algae is stubborn, just keep rinsing the roots, and net pots.

Depends on the capacity of your reservoir. But only a touch. Enough to reach 0.5ec maybe. If that.
If you go over, add more water, and base to bring the ec back down.
If you don't add enough, add a tiny bit more.

Good luck.

 

[polishpollack]

I can see how adding water would bring ec down, but how would adding base nutrients help? Wouldn't that be raising ec instead? If you add both water and base, aren't you creating a neutral condition where ec would essentially remain the same?

 

[Geodawg22]

Hey Tim, Polish,

The results are surprisingly better. I no longer see algae in the root chamber and new white roots are coming out.

I'm not sure which contributed the most but here's the list.
1. painted the cover so that no light gets to the roots
2. added the Hydroguard
3. flushing with plain ph water

EC .11
PH 5.8-5.9
Other: Hydroguard 2ml/gal, Drip clean .4ml/gal, ph down if ph goes to 6.2​

4. turned off swamp cooler to bring humidity down to avg of 50%
5. increased spray interval to 5 minutes off and 1 sec on (before 1 min off 1 sec on)
6. added a stainless steel mesh in the bottom so that roots don't sit in undrained water

-Geo

 

[polishpollack]

So this is a true aeroponic set up? The roots don't reach down into the water pool, right? I'm not sure that one second on of spray is enough to soak them but it that works (and I understand you right), then so be it. The number one thing to prevent algae is preventing light from getting to the water. It's not the roots but the water where algae grows. Those are nice looking roots; what do the plants look like?

 

[Geodawg22]

Hey Polish,

I try to get it to be true aeroponics but the roots get too long if hanging from the air. At the most they sit in less than 1 mm of water patches. It's never a pool because of my drainage.

I've been giving plain PH water past 4 days. I just mixed up 4 gallons of ro water + Dutch master A and B at 210 ppm(x700) 5.8 PH. 2ml/gal hydroguard and also .4 ml/gal of drip clean. I changed the system a bit by running drain to waste now due to some expert advice.

I'm glad there are no more algae issues. No light in definitely helped. Issue right now is maybe nutrient deficiency or I'm spraying too much. Right now it's on 1 sec on 5 min off cycle.

Auto white widow seems to be flowering

2nd AWW, had to trim a lot of damaged leaves away.

Big Bud, my most robust plant and biggest roots. I'm trying out a 12v dc fan blowing 30 sec every 3 min in this bucket to give it more aeration. All it does is create a positive pressure and force water to drain.

2nd BB mainlined, showing some issues.

 

[polishpollack]

Are you sure those pump run times are long enough. Those don't look good, like not enough nutrients.

 

[zypheruk]

Stop SPRAYING give them a week to recover