Desperate need of answers for sick plants.

I have a few 5 week olds and I am having continually worsening problems. Over the past couple of weeks they began drooping at night, developing brown leaf tips, and the growing medium they came in( they were clones) has white spots which are now a full fledged mold and or fungus. They have been under a 400w hps at about 12 in distance on an 18/6 schedule. These are hydroponics, so I give them one 30 min ebb and flow cycle which I just recently purged of nutrients because I thought they had a nutrient overload. This was obviously not the case because they have gotten worse using only regular water. The temp stays between 65- 79 and the humidity between 45- 60. The first picture is them at their healthiest, what you cant see are the slightly burnt leaf tips, and the second picture is the mold problem. The 3rd pic is a far view of roots and medium. The fourth picture is taken after 16 hours of light and shows the drooping compared to earlier that day.

you say you give them only one 30 minute cycle of water?? Maybe I am not understanding..

pics are always helpful but if were hearin you right and your only giving them a 30 min cycle/day then they are in desperate need of water. and or the mold has gone too far and is slowly killing them

They are kept in a large rockwool medium inside a submersion table. My understanding was one possibly two 30 min submersion periods would be fine until they were larger. At this time they are approximately 14 inches high with about a foot curcumfrance. Also, I was watering them 3 times a day and that is when the drooping began. As for the mold it has only been there around a week and is only on the grow medium, could it really be having that detrimental of an effect this quickly. What is it and how to get rid of it would also be helpful. Thanks for any advice.

Those 6-inch cubes are not the best for flooding, but will work. You don't need to flood for 30 minutes though. I would flood once/day, about 1 hour after lights on, to a level of 1 inch and for only a few minutes. A good flush through from the top with plain water once a week would be good. Cover the top of the cube with panda plastic, white side up and the algae won't grow.

HTH

For future info what would be a better medium? Also, if you noticed the other posts they acted as though I was underwatering drastically, is this just due to confusion?

Ahem, you gave me negative rep for my last answer, and now you're asking another question? I guess you're not asking me.

Whoa! Man, I appreciated your advice so much I immediately gave you a positive rep. I'm new to this forum and must have made a mistake but damn I really thought I was uping your reputation. Please dont hold it against me, I could really use the help. We are all in the same fight.

Yeah, Man, don't sweat it, I was just having some fun with you. New kids have to take a little ribbing, it's part of the indoctrination to the team.

Flooding is better done with a loose media like rocks, with a lot of air spaces. For dense media like rockwool, a drip from a round drip ring would be better.

A dense media has tremendous wicking properties, so you don't have to flood more than an inch. That way too, the top of the media will stay drier.

And varied answers to your questions is part of an open forum. It's up to the discussion to filter out the good info, and up to you to decide what is best.

HTH

WHat's he using in the way of ventilation? There was no mention of that at all.

Oh, very old post. Never mind then.

I was running the flood table method and just got rid of it...I ran a DWC at the same time same clones and the clones in the DWC setup were double the size of the flood table ones...Heres a couple things I noticed. You should cover the table completely with the panda wrap, or your roots will never flourish, they will burn out and die once they breach the cubes. The light and air penetration just destroys them. also I would flood more often with shorter times to make sure you are keeping the cubes moist at all times. Hope it helps, feel free to fire any more questions my way mate, and good luck.