Athena nutes in DWC?
- Thread starter Jhef
- Start date
newbplantgrower420
Well-Known Member
should be good to go. its just salts and their cleanse is just pool shock that kills any bacteria.
they dont have any beneficial bacteria or organics to clog or dirty your hydro setup.
they dont have any beneficial bacteria or organics to clog or dirty your hydro setup.
Been talking with Athena for a few weeks now. Have the Pro line, and the Blended line, and having issues with both foaming. I do have Venturi circulators instead of air stones or waterfalls, but Athena is pretty much clueless as to what’s causing the issue in my system at the moment. I’ve spent the past 4 days adding everything 1 by 1, and have gotten the same result which is my buckets foaming up and ultimately some sort of weird “biofilm” buildup as Athena has called it. Gunks my system up pretty bad.
Are you adding power Si to your nutes? I use Athena Pro and it doesn’t foam unless I add power Si which I only use for foliar feeding now.
I used Power Si once as a foliar, but never put it in my system.
mr4tune
Well-Known Member
@RCatanese Power Si in any recirculating system is a no-go bro. They go over it on the Grandmasterlevel show on youtube with the owner from Power Si. It'll foam up and fuck your plants in rdwc/uc. It happened to that Lokigrown guy twice in his commercial systems. Crop failure twice in a row apparently. I called them to ask about running it in rdwc and the first guy said it was fine. Watched the show and called them again to ask wtf and then the story changed to "We suggest to only foliar if your in a recirculating system".
As far as Athena, I was looking for a line nutes for my UC systems that wouldn't stain the roots like Remo did. I'm in Canada so I wanted to find a product that mixed clear and was preferably granular to limit risk while shipping in cold winter months.
Called Athena and was far from impressed with the customer service. The first guy told us the granular was fine to use in undercurrent, then another guy told us it wasn't and said we had to use the liquid bottles. He then gave me the cell number for some manager that never answered his phone or returned my calls. I gave up on them.
We ended up going with the Floraflex Full-Tilt line. I'll never use anything else now..
As far as Athena, I was looking for a line nutes for my UC systems that wouldn't stain the roots like Remo did. I'm in Canada so I wanted to find a product that mixed clear and was preferably granular to limit risk while shipping in cold winter months.
Called Athena and was far from impressed with the customer service. The first guy told us the granular was fine to use in undercurrent, then another guy told us it wasn't and said we had to use the liquid bottles. He then gave me the cell number for some manager that never answered his phone or returned my calls. I gave up on them.
We ended up going with the Floraflex Full-Tilt line. I'll never use anything else now..
Thanks for the reply. I’ve only used the Power Si the one time as a foliar. I had already seen Athena talk about it numerous times on IG about only using as a foliar in RDWC.
I got the Pro line during their Black Friday sale with the 30% off, but I made sure to talk with them first to make sure it would work in my system and of course they said it was fine. Then after running into issues they told me to switch to Blended and gave me a 40% code. Purchased that and I’m still having the same issues. They told me yesterday I’m the only one that’s had this problem and supposedly the guy that’s familiar with DWC is going to call me, even though I was talking with him on IG already and he quit replying.
Ironically I already have a few unopened tubs of FloraFlex that I got during a ridiculous sale from one of our local hydro stores and I’m thinking of going that route also. I used Remo on my last grow lol.
Hydra Unlimted is the company that makes my system. I just switched from Current Cultures 13 gallon XL system to their Hydramax system, but I had heir HydraFlex system for 2 years. I used the HydraFlex circulators with Cyco, H&G, and Remo without any issues though, so I have no idea what’s going on with Athena. As far as the difference from the CC system to the Hydra system, it’s just size of the buckets, easy tear down of the system since they use a lot of quick connect parts, and it already comes with the Hydraflex.
I run sterile, and the only thing I’ve put in my system is Athena nutes. I spent last week taking videos of me adding each of their nutes 1-by-1 to my system 24 hours apart so we could see when things started foaming. Day 1 it was plain RO and Cleanse @ 5ml per gallon and the next day it was fine. So I added CaMg and the next say there was a little foam, but Athena said it didn’t look bad and to see how it looks with Grow A & B. Added Grow A & B, 24 hours later, foam and a day after that you could already see the layer of residue building up on the buckets and netpots.
I have both systems and Hydra Unlimited 6/2 is acting funny, my plants are not reacting the same way. They grow at a slower pace than my current culture, I like the fact that nutrients are distributed fast and directly on the hydra but I been seeing lots of comments on IG about the systems clogging late flowering(I’m on week 3 flowering). I think it has to do with the buckets having the drain in the bottom and the roots growing into the drain and clogging it, current culture has the side opening for recirculating. Depending on how things go with this grow, I was going to buy the Hydra 12/4 and another 6/2 but their high price and the fact that it might need a redesign it’s going to shoot me back into current culture again, I will have a better idea later on.
I haven’t made it that far with the Hydramax system yet, butI have been wondering about the drain hole for a few days now. I’ve been thinking of ways to put a screen over the drain if possible. I basically switched from the CC system because of the smaller buckets and the quick fittings for easier cleaning. It drains quick and that was always one thing I hated about my CC system because it drained so slow. I do still have my CC system that I’ve kept around just in case because I’ve grown some monsters in it, so I haven’t gotten rid of it until I know that I can get similar results in the Hydramax. I was actually their first small install for the Hydraflex. They didn’t even have a 4 bucket option at the time lol.
I can say that I’ve grown my biggest plants once I added the HydraFlex to my CC system. The very first grow I was able to get a 1lb auto. It’s posted on their IG page.
I have the 8 bucket system(24 plants) with the drain out kit. I empty it out within 30 minutes with my 1/2 HP pump, plug it and go mix my nutrients. I just flip my pump around when I want to fill it up. I have 3 55 gallon tanks outside of my grow Room with the hose to the pump attached. The last tank I mix my nutrients in, it’s really easy. Do the same with the hydra but only have to use one tank. I do like the Hydraflex system, I’ll think about adding that to my system.
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As for the drain screens, I purchased these at Lowes. Gonna put them on my next
Stainless Steel Drain Mesh
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I have the 4 bucket system with the drain out kit but I swear it took like 45 minutes to drain and I’m a bit impatient when it comes to that. I ended up purchasing a whole setup with a 55 gallon storage tank, a water pump, a new Bluelab Guardian monitor to premix the Pro line from Athena. Luckily I hadn’t used it yet and they told me I didn’t need it for the Blended line so I was able to return it in time to get my money back. If I had to run the 13 gallon buckets again though I would definitely go that route so the water could fill up quicker. I should’ve did it when I had the CC system setup but oh well. With the Hydra system my RO fills up in about an hour and a half, so it’s not as big of a concern. It drains in like 2 minutes though which is awesome.
I’ll have to get a few of those screens to try out if I can actually figure out what the hells going on in my system.
Alex from Athena called earlier and he’s pretty much pointing fingers at everything but the nutes. Asked about my chiller, my water, my water pump, and in the end he keeps saying he thinks it’s my water source because I live in Michigan and he knows we have bad water. I told him that would have some logic if it wasn’t the same water I’ve been using for 3 years without any issues. He’s also concerned about the Hydra pump since it’s so powerful, especially for a smaller system, but I told him I used the same HydraFlex setup for 2 years with other nute lines without issues.
I do have a solo CC bucket running just plain RO water and the Blended line with an air stone and no plants just to see what happens. So far the bubbles are collecting at the top more each day but the water is still fine and not murky like my HydraMax. So that tells me it’s not the water. He also told me flat out that he seen another guy in DWC with air stones and it foamed up like crazy. Told me he’s not concerned about the foam so asked what I was concerned about. I told him the foam isn’t really the issue, it’s the ridiculous amount of sediment/film that it’s building up within 2-3 days. So he wanted photos of everything and after I sent them he said my plants looked hungry and to give them some CaMg and Grow A & B. I let him know if I were to do that I would be draining and cleaning it again in 4 days. He asked me how I plan to feed them then and I responded “That’s the question we’re trying to resolve.” I’m not trying to have a dirty system after 4 days, it’s ridiculous. So basically it just sounds like they’re going to keep giving me the run around and say or do whatever they have to in order to avoid a refund. Me personally, I think their nutes are breaking down from the amount of oxygen from the Hydra circulators.
I’m going to drain and clean my system here in a few and fill it up with RO and the rest of the Remo nutes I have and see if they foam up because I know they didn’t the last time. We’ll see.
Hows is your system going? Are you still having problems?
mikerichmond
New Member
Wondering which system you like better Hydramax or Current Culture
Current culture. It gives me a bigger yield and my water chiller can keep up with my pump. The hydra pump is 2600 gph and you’ll have to buy an oversized water chiller.
CannaTech
Active Member
So Raquinotj, how did that harvest turn out? Are you liking athena? Do you use balance, stack and IPM too?
Considering giving the line a shot since no one local seems to want to keep cultured solutions in stock....
I got some gas from that run. I switched to Flora Flex Full Tilt, it’s easier to use, plants LOVE it in RDWC(they have a feeding chart for RDWC) don’t have to use cal mag and gave me the less problems, biggest yield and the best quality up to date.
Athena is a great brand but I wanted to find a simple line of nutrients. With Athena besides their powder you have to add in liquids(Balance/Cleanse/Calmag) with Flora flex Cal Mag is added to their powder, no balance or cleanse. I add Orca for beneficial along with their nutes. If you follow their schedule you barely have to adjust PH during the week, the most PH stable line I’ve used. As far as price goes I get a 30% off from the something I would only get from Athena on Black Friday.
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kak
Well-Known Member
Hey brother I'd love to know what feed chart your using for floraflex in rdwc if ya could .