burn at so low PPM

SamWE19 said:

My res is 300 gallons even if I bought the stealth 300 waiting 24 hours for enough water to fill my tank would probably kill my plants as they won't get any water sprayed on their roots until the res is filled above the pump

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You must have a huge setup to warrant using a 1150L res. If its not the size of a footy pitch, consider reducing the res size and use RO.

SamWE19 said:

The plants we are talking about at the moment aren't clones, most of them are huge, atleast 2-3 foot tall atm

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My mistake

Bloody ppm just went up to 290 from 270 this morning...

If light was the issue it probably would take a while for them to start eating again but who knows what will happen at this rate...
I'm tempted to try RO but 300 quid for an RO unit is pricey at the moment if I don't even need it

what light cycle are you running?

rkymtnman said:

what light cycle are you running?

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24 hour veg atm never had a problem with it before

i do the same. works fine. i was thinking maybe give them a foliar spray of some kelp or vitamins and see if that gives them a boost.

I just put in some new clones that just finished rooting... so I can see if there's a difference from
The start since I may have messed up with the light from the beginning.

Clones are perfectly green and fully rooted 280ppm should be fine for them... hopefully the larger plants will start to recover aswell.

This is unheard of as I just checked as many threads as I could find and usually ppm goes up and ph goes down but in my case ppm is going up and ph is also going up. My ph is now at 5.97 and 280ppm... I suppose I used equal parts foliage pro and silica so if they aren't eating the silica it could raise the PH

I also just ordered some ph calibration solution to see if that is my problem but I doubt it as I have bought two different ph pens since I had this issue and both said they were calibrated at factory

Hey bro just read some of what was posted and you think it was your lighting, technically no its not the lighting, very briefly here is what is going on your plants are smaller roots are not developed yet , so the plant needs high humidity to function under normal lighting , ex. you lowered your lighting less stress , humidity came up some and your plant is functioning better. your humidity should be 70% for the first few weeks anyhow then slowly bring it down 40% by flower.
Also I'd run the 18/6 unless you know the plant really well and know it likes straight 24 lighting better, but in most cases they like the break better. once you get this problem fixed then compare 18/6 to 24 lighting for growth rate, node spacing , stress etc.

It's a new system, I think there's a lot more going on here than just one issue.
Since I put my new clones in I immediately saw signs of overwatering so I think overwatering has been an issue from the start.

I am using a hybrid diy NFT kind of vertical system with netpoints mounted down the vertical PVC pipe and a rainbird sprinkler at the top shooting water down the pipe.

I thought the water would be oxygenated and not cause overwatering and been running it 24/7 and my hydroton is always wet...

I never thought it was possible to overwater with clay pebbles and roots hanging in the air but I guess I was wrong.. I've put my sprinkler on a timer of 2 hours off 15 minutes on to see if it makes a difference.

I assume if a plant is saturated with water it would struggle to uptake nutrients and it's all related.

I may have to increase the timer off time above 2 hours if the issue doesn't fix soon

Just reduce the watering some and try find the sweet spot.

Do the clay pebbles need to dry out completely?

I noticed I have some roots sticking out the bottom of net pots that dried up a bit before water turned back on but the clay pebbles were still damp. No signs of recovery yet, leaves still curled over really bad

I'm thinking that I should probably lift the netpots out of the stream of water slightly? Doesn't make sense as I thought even if the entire plant up to the stem was submerged in water as long as the water is oxygenated everything would be fine.

In NFT does the water stream ever hit the net pot?

Seems to have gone a bit dead here now but another update...

I'm kicking myself...
Another potential problem I've realised... I used ****ing Copper pipes! I didn't think they would cause a problem since we use them on our taps every day! I'm gonna have to dismantle the whole thing and start again which is gonna be a pain.

I will need to try and replace the cooper with plastic speed fit I'm an idiot

SamWE19 said:

Seems to have gone a bit dead here now but another update...

I'm kicking myself...
Another potential problem I've realised... I used ****ing Copper pipes! I didn't think they would cause a problem since we use them on our taps every day! I'm gonna have to dismantle the whole thing and start again which is gonna be a pain.

I will need to try and replace the cooper with plastic speed fit I'm an idiot

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Wait you're using copper pipes as an nft tube? How .uch money did you spend on this setup?!

No lol I should of explained it better.

It's not a traditional NFT its using wye pipes like the picture below but at the bottom I have plastic totes as a resevoir. I have several large totes connected together with tank connectors using copper pipes to increase my resevoir size

The copper has corroded on the pipe so it may also be a factor

SamWE19 said:

No lol I should of explained it better.

It's not a traditional NFT its using wye pipes like the picture below but at the bottom I have plastic totes as a resevoir. I have several large totes connected together with tank connectors using copper pipes to increase my resevoir size

The copper has corroded on the pipe so it may also be a factor

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Ah got ya. Nifty.

SmokeyMcChokey said:

Ah got ya. Nifty.

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I'm going to rip it all apart this weekend and replace with plastic pipes... don't know if it will
Make a difference but it's interested as for the first 4 weeks in this new system my plants flourished and then they just deteriorated... maybe the pipes took a few weeks to corrode and release poison into the res

Thoroughly wash or clean your medium (hydroton) before beginning your grow . Sometimes signs of unclean or unsterile medium doesn't show until Midway thru grow .

I'm not sure if you're still having this problem, but 30W/sqft of PAR is WAY too much for veg with 24/0. I don't even get close that high even in flower!

@SamWE19 , seriously, I know this is contrary to what everyone said already, but get your EC somewhere between 1.0-2.0. You don't have nute burn.

You'd be fine with 5W/sqft of PAR for plants under 18" in 24/0. Some people prefer to use 18/6, but they you need a bigger lamp.

I always thought copper would be bad for roots ?