DWC setup in 27 gallon tote..Questions?? Virgin DWC guy

Hello everyone,

I have a few questions for the gurus here. I just added a GH 4 port air pump for more violent bubbles, big difference. I have 2 white widows, 2 super silver haze and 2 Himalayan gold in my system now. These babies were 12 days old when i moved them and the Rockwool cubes into the system, i put the rockwool into the 3" net cups first then filled Hydroton around it and covering the tops. The water is right up to the bottom of the cups, I asked the guy at a Hydroponics shop an hour away if i should add small amounts of nutes or just water being that they are so young. He said small amount of nutes, so i added less then what the manufacture said to give seedlings. The white widow's are doing great, the SSH and HG look droopy and the leaves are way less green and have some yellowing and not as much groth as the Widow. Anyone know what i may be doing wrong? My Ph is 5.8 - 5.9 and the water's ppm alone is at 265 and now with nutes stands at 465. Should i empty out the tank and just fill with water and ph it for awhile? Till the ladies get larger.

Thanks,

Its really not necessary to feed any nutes until the false leaves die off, roots hit the water, or about two weeks old. I dont own a ppm meter, But its to my understanding that you want to keep seedlings around 100-250, >10days= 500-600, >1months= 800-1,000, and under 1300 from Bud to Harvest.

50 views and no answers for ya eh! ill give yu my 2cents as i have many successful dwcs under my belt but im no expert
1rst-i would strongly consider a ro 265 is some nasty water and what i like to feed my seedlings once they ask for food about 2nd or 3rd set of real leaves so 400+ is prob to much. never used a brita or zerowater filter but it may help if u dont want to spend the $$ on an ro machine. but i see one in your future if u want to stick to dwc.
2nd- do u have roots yet? if so lower ur water level
3rd pics speak are like thousand got ne? would help alot both from what u said i would jusgt be feeding em water only maybe some bvitamin like thrive alive b1 orsuperthrive i use b52 l less is more in dwc and plants can get burned easily good thing u got 27gals to play with lol smaller rez faster the disaster and thats a decent size. alot of plants in there but should work. it would be alot less maitnence of u were to say grow 2 big plants in there my ffriend grows 2 in a 27gal and has the ability to leave his grow for 2 weeks with no maitnence. but 6 will be fine also its not great to mix strains like that especially the strains u picked lemme explain u got 2 indica dom in the him golds feeding off the same as the sativa dom sh not good at all they will not finish together f*cking up ur flush and they like different nutes as well ive grown both the hg is a heavy feeder and u will most likley have burnt silverhazes or underfed hgs both strains will not be happy.the ww are a good choice to throw in the mix as they are a hybrid and will adapt much better. depending on the phenos. but i still wouldnt reccomend mixing strains in one rez unless they are all very similar. tust me on that i learned the hard way and when u flush the -8-9wkers the ssh will let u know shes not happy and in my opinion shes the best out of the bunch. you will be able to veg em together like that but i would figure a better way to flower em maybe throw together a few 5gal bubblebuckets and let the 2 sh stay in the system u got thats what i would do. the plants will be happier. im sure youll love the ssh never tried the widow and the hg was a huge let down to me i also grew gh hawiansnow which was my fav
peace and goodluckfeel free to hit me with nemore? or prob u run into. as i had almost everything go wrong in my dwc projects when i started and can save u time money and aggrivation. this was one of my first dwc grows i dont remember how many gallons the tub was but its green house hawiansnow and i pulled somwhere near 2lbs off it now i use seperate 5gal buckets with great results. does ur system look ne thing like the first 2pics. i threw the lst 3 up so u can see what to expect once u start flowerin if everything goes well.
peace and good luck stoney

nice setup, looks great to me...

I totally agree about seperating the strains, you can feed indicas heavy 1400-2200ppm and they excel, sativas on the other hand max out around 900-1050ppm. because they take longer to flower they don't need as high of a ppm. 14 gal roughneck are great for 1-4 plants, and just fill your res everyday to keep the water level up when they get big. 1 gal per day is fine, and adjust every 3rd day....I have that air pump too and I use 4-12" air stones off of it and I power 4 tubs 1 in each and it is more than enough... Most important, try to keep your res temp down 68-70 MAX any higher and you run into problems, light proof and wrap foam sleeping pads around them or insulation(water heater wraps) work great. Once you nail DWC it is a lot of fun no doubt, I don't want to switch, the roots are as beautiful as the plants!!!!!!!

You'll find you don't need any nutes until your roots hit the water. You want to keep the plants in rooting stage and nutes will serve to begin the growth stage. Typically go with no nutes until you roots hit the water, then 1/4 strength for a week, and then begin working them up.

You'll find you don't really need nigh levels of nutes in any stage of the grow, I never go over about 950 ppm. I watch the ppm with my meter and monitor the nute uptake. You don't need to use any more than what they are eating. Too much and you risk burning them which will set you back quite a bit. Plus excess levels of nutes go right down the drain at the next res change. Check out some of Uncle Bens threads about feeding, he convinced me I don't need that much, I listened and will never go back to such wasteful practices.

i found a product in the home depot plumbing that i think is great to have if ur going with dwc to controle bucket temps it a reflective insulated tape.it has foil on one side and 1/4in of insulation on the other and sticks perfect to plastic keeps my temps 72-73 they were hittin 77-78 ands looks awsome as well

Well i went and took the rockwool out of the net pot too see what it looked like, the 2 Himalayan Golds are dead, i have this setup at a friends house and i was sick for 4 days, he was suppose to look after the plants while they were trying to root, well he is a Bullshit artist, he never checked on them and they were dry and these too were fallen over and the rockwool was all dried up, but i watered and then put them into the tank with the rest of them. I figured it couldn't hurt. The other 4 seedlings were also dried, but survived. The SSH is slow, but the White Widow is growing great. Checked again today, not much water missing and PH was still at 5.8 while my PPM hasn't changed. I'm waiting for my Diesel clones to spring roots, then into buckets and the large tank.

Ballpark idea, how long before roots hit water?

And, how do you know if and when your plants start eating? Yes i have a TDS meter and hard water that starts off at 265

your friend deserves a kick in the dick.

Your nutes don't go to waste till the end. Step your nutes start low, around 500ppm, everytime, or every week, you add 200ppm of nutes(I like the Lucas formula). If your grow is doing well You will need to add about 350-500ppm each time to get up to and past the pervious number. 500-650-750-900-1100-1300-1400-1500-1650-1700-0, keeps all deficiencies at bay since your adding fresh nutes every week. cut your Nitrogen at week 6-7 and they will use the rest and change the water at your flush. WATER is your medium thats it, no need to add "fresh" solution. If you change your water every week or so then 950ppm would be a max. If not go for the gusto!

DWC can be a part Aero, keep your water a couple inches below to draw your roots down into the water, the bubbles popping at the surface are great, then bring your water back up to keep the feeder roots from drying out.

Good luck. Sorry about your friend sucking. I am watching to learn, so make the mistakes so I don't have too!