( First Attempt At Hydro ) What Am I Doing Wrong ?

goten

goten

Well-Known Member
This is my very first attempt at hydro and im trying it out with a little diy dwc system that i made out of a container that i got from the dollar store

Im using bagseed to practice with ,

So far all i have done is soak the rockwool cube in water with a ph around neutral maybe slightly over .

Iv read that the ph in the res needs to be around 5.8 , but since i have not given any nutes i figured that the ph would be fine for now since im not giving nutes yet , then adjust the ph once i do start giving nutes

Is that wrong ? should i be giving like a 1/2 strength nute with ph water for the cube to absorb ?

My seedling is starting to turn yellow and i dont know why

I guess i should stick with soil lol

No roots are coming through the cube yet ,

It is currently under just one 26w cfl ( 6500k ) since its so little

The temp is 79 degrees and the humidity is 40%

Any help on this is greatly appreciated ..thank you
 

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U

usblues420

Member
Hey, well rockwool needs to be soaked around 5.0, you said it was slightly above neutral so you soaked the rockwool around 7.1-7.4? Your problem is probably not adjusting the ph and no nutes. Change the res and adjust the ph to 5.5 with 1/4 strenth nutes. Your plant doesn't look to late to recover its just going to take a few days to stat showing new growth. Just adjust the ph daily and you should be fine. One thing that I found very helpful with my first DWC was this thread https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html . The basis behind it is that you breed you own microbes in your res to prevent other bad microbes from establishing. Just an idea to look into, best of luck.
 
dbkick

dbkick

Well-Known Member
whats the water pump in the res for? that rockwool looks pretty dry and I bet you had your light right down on that seedling.They don't require that much light when that young. He's not even to the point of breeding and using bennies yet unless its a ready to use product like great white or voodoo juice. The day will come when you wanna use bennies though UNLESS that is you plan on keeping water temperature down where it should be. With that water pump in a small res you'll soon be experiencing root problems so keeping a sterile res OR using bennies are your options it looks like, but like I said you aren't to that point yet, just an airstone and pump won't wet that rockwool enough until roots break the pot ( I usually put sprayers in my coolers ) so you may wanna fill it up pretty good with water , basically just touching the bottom of the rockwool(or close depending on your airpump and the bubbles it produces) would be good in my opinion.ooops, forgot to plug igloo, lots of people use insulated res anymore(igloo coolers) you can come up with many many unique designs with these but most just keep them nice and simple dwc, works great and the ones with the hose fitting drain plugs are sweet and daisy-chainable!
 
goten

goten

Well-Known Member
Thanks you all

The pump in the res is pushing water through the pvc pipe out 2 little holes i drilled , water is being sprayed out the holes and back into the res aerating it

I have an air pump and air stone also , are you suggesting i use that instead ?

Also

As of now the net pot is not in the res yet , i just have it sitting under the light since the roots are not coming out the rockwool yet

i have been manually watering the rockwool cube , i will re water it with ph water and had some 1/2 strength nutes like you all said
 
J

jimmygreenfingers

Well-Known Member
Your seedling looks like you've had your bulb way to close or bad genetics. Seedlings dont need nutes for the first week or so so the ph is not the problem. You want your rockwool about 5.8ph so ph your water to 5.8 and keep the rockool moist until you add nutes and when you do start off at a low dose and work your way up. I run DWC and have done for a long time, i dont start off in my res until i see roots on the 4in cubes i use, i then stick my cubes into a net pot then into the res. Rig up your air pump and place the air stone under where the net pot will sit, you want the bottom of the pot just touching the bubbling water, when roots appear there gonna really take off.
 
dbkick

dbkick

Well-Known Member
goten said:
Thanks you all

The pump in the res is pushing water through the pvc pipe out 2 little holes i drilled , water is being sprayed out the holes and back into the res aerating it

I have an air pump and air stone also , are you suggesting i use that instead ?

Also

As of now the net pot is not in the res yet , i just have it sitting under the light since the roots are not coming out the rockwool yet

i have been manually watering the rockwool cube , i will re water it with ph water and had some 1/2 strength nutes like you all said
Click to expand...
Ah, holes work but I like misters, homedepot sells some that thread right into a hole drilled/tapped in the pipe.
 
goten

goten

Well-Known Member
I dont know what minsters are , i will google in a few lol

I also have sprayers that i can put into the holes , and i have the pump and air stone also

I made 2 tops for the tub , one top is for 1 plant and the other top is for 2 plants

In your opinion should i use the water fountain with the pvc pipe with the holes and / or sprayers ,

Or should i just use the regular pump with air stone ?

I also buried the cube under the pebbles and its soaking in ph water with barely 1/2 strength nutes , ( sorry i dont know how to flush the regular water out the cube ) thats why i got it just soaking ,

How long should i let it soak for ? its been soaking for about 45 mins , i keep checking on it to make sure the cube is still firm and not trying to dissolve on me

Give me a few mins ,

im gonna upload a vid so you can see how strong / weak the water pressure is through those sprayers and please let me know if its to weak or not , much thanks


Edit , here is the little vid , My voice is distorted lol


[youtube]vV6u9UInTf8[/youtube]
 

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dbkick

dbkick

Well-Known Member
hey, yeah misters are sprayers. those aren't really needed and that water pump is gonna heat things up quite a bit, if I were you I'd invest about 6 dollars in a bucket made just for dwc, you can get a 5 gallon bucket at home depot for like half the cost of one at a hydro store but the difference is gonna be the one from home depot won't be opaque and in deep water or any type hydro light and heat are not good in the res.Sure it will work fine, my first grow I did in home depot buckets with walmart airstones and pumps, went damn well, 4 plants came in at over 1.5 lb. haven't been able to do that since.
 
goten

goten

Well-Known Member
dbkick said:
hey, yeah misters are sprayers. those aren't really needed and that water pump is gonna heat things up quite a bit, if I were you I'd invest about 6 dollars in a bucket made just for dwc, you can get a 5 gallon bucket at home depot for like half the cost of one at a hydro store but the difference is gonna be the one from home depot won't be opaque and in deep water or any type hydro light and heat are not good in the res.Sure it will work fine, my first grow I did in home depot buckets with walmart airstones and pumps, went damn well, 4 plants came in at over 1.5 lb. haven't been able to do that since.
Click to expand...
I got a 5 gal bucket , but im doing micro grows so a 5 gal bucket wont fit in my cab

Small containers is all i have to make little set ups out of , that one i have is really the biggest i can go

Was the water pressure strong enough in that vid or to weak ?

How hot do you think it will make my res , maybe i could freeze bottles of water and use them like ice cubes

Or do you think i should just use the air pump and stone and not even bother with the fountain pump and pvc setup ?

Thanks for your help my man , take some love ( + rep )
 
dbkick

dbkick

Well-Known Member
100_1241.jpg100_1246.jpg100_1244.jpgPicture 1507.jpg
goten said:
I got a 5 gal bucket , but im doing micro grows so a 5 gal bucket wont fit in my cab

Small containers is all i have to make little set ups out of , that one i have is really the biggest i can go

Was the water pressure strong enough in that vid or to weak ?

How hot do you think it will make my res , maybe i could freeze bottles of water and use them like ice cubes

Or do you think i should just use the air pump and stone and not even bother with the fountain pump and pvc setup ?

Thanks for your help my man , take some love ( + rep )
Click to expand...
yeah with something that small I wouldn't even bother with a pump, it will heat up pretty good , I have a chiller in flower but in veg I rely on bennies because I can't keep my water temp down where I'd like it, I throw in a frozen blue ice like daily anymore and that keeps me at anywhere from 68-70 for most of the day, I have a pump in the res which is a igloo cooler so any heat the pump puts out is gonna stay in the res , so I cycle the pump with a timer at like 45 seconds on and 3-5 minutes off( I go longer off times when its hotter ) . The problem I'm seeing with such a small res is maintaining ph, thats gonna be a job I'd think but I dunno, and chilling with a frozen water bottle with that small amount of water may get too cold too quick.
I personally think you should kill the water pump at least after the roots have broken the bottom of the netpot and just go with the airstone and pump.I'm including some photos of my shit just because.
 
fabfun

fabfun

New Member
goten said:
I got a 5 gal bucket , but im doing micro grows so a 5 gal bucket wont fit in my cab

Small containers is all i have to make little set ups out of , that one i have is really the biggest i can go

Was the water pressure strong enough in that vid or to weak ?

How hot do you think it will make my res , maybe i could freeze bottles of water and use them like ice cubes

Or do you think i should just use the air pump and stone and not even bother with the fountain pump and pvc setup ?

Thanks for your help my man , take some love ( + rep )
Click to expand...
hey goten i think it was slimjim who made one from a one pound plastic coffee can would that fit and like others said i would use just the air pump till u get your feet wet lol

and i forgot to tell u rockwool has high ph and u use lemon juice with water to pretreat it to lower ph and rockwool doesnt need to be soaking wet just moist

how close is your bulb
 
goten

goten

Well-Known Member
dbkick said:
View attachment 1685268View attachment 1685269View attachment 1685270View attachment 1685271
yeah with something that small I wouldn't even bother with a pump, it will heat up pretty good , I have a chiller in flower but in veg I rely on bennies because I can't keep my water temp down where I'd like it, I throw in a frozen blue ice like daily anymore and that keeps me at anywhere from 68-70 for most of the day, I have a pump in the res which is a igloo cooler so any heat the pump puts out is gonna stay in the res , so I cycle the pump with a timer at like 45 seconds on and 3-5 minutes off( I go longer off times when its hotter ) . The problem I'm seeing with such a small res is maintaining ph, thats gonna be a job I'd think but I dunno, and chilling with a frozen water bottle with that small amount of water may get too cold too quick.
I personally think you should kill the water pump at least after the roots have broken the bottom of the netpot and just go with the airstone and pump.I'm including some photos of my shit just because.
Click to expand...
Fuck my man ,

I got a long way to go before i can even think of something like that lol

I will ditch the fountain and pvc pipe and just use the air pump and stone

Im gonna have to get a stronger pump though because that is one of those cheap $6 pumps from wal mart and it does not push that much air through the stone

i will post a pic of my little cab


fabfun said:
hey goten i think it was slimjim who made one from a one pound plastic coffee can would that fit and like others said i would use just the air pump till u get your feet wet lol

and i forgot to tell u rockwool has high ph and u use lemon juice with water to pretreat it to lower ph and rockwool doesnt need to be soaking wet just moist

how close is your bulb
Click to expand...
Whats up fab , glad you stopped by my man ,

Idk if that would fit or not ( probably though ) i got some butter containers that iv saved to make little dwc systems with lol

Also i have some G.H ph up and down my man

That container i have holds a gallon of water but i do not need to put that much in , maybe half a gallon would bring the water level to the bottom of the net pot

But would that be ok as long as the water is being aerated ?

Right now i just have a single cfl bulb over it since its so small , its about an inch or 2 above it inside that stealth dishwasher lol

I would put my hps over it but it would be to hot , plus i will be putting it in my micro cab under the t5s after it gets 3 to 5 nodes on it , ( if i make it that far before i kill it lol )

dbKick here is the cab that it will be going in , right now its in a dishwasher that im working on converting for a veg stealth cab , but it will flower in my micro cab

the first 2 pics is the dishwasher that its in and the 3rd is the micro cab i will be putting it in to flower

The dishwasher pic is an old one so the net pot was not in the pic ,

I hate to do this my man , but i need to go ahead and get off here now , i will talk witch ya tomorrow ...:peace:
 

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fabfun

fabfun

New Member
dbkick said:
Nice, a dishwasher! +rep just because I've never seen that!
Click to expand...
my man goten has all kinds of cool ideals and can turn anything into a grow
wonder what the wife thinks about him using her dishwasher lol
hey goten did u have to promise to wash all dishes by hand to get her approval lol
 
goten

goten

Well-Known Member
dbkick said:
Nice, a dishwasher! +rep just because I've never seen that!
Click to expand...
Thanks my man ,

its still a work in progress though ,

Im only gonna use it to veg in , then i will move it to my micro cab for flower , the micro cab is an old tv stand i got at a thrift store ,

I originally had my hps in it with a scrog net to try out scrog , but where i had it at , it was impossible to control the bugs and they were just eating my N.l all to hell

so i took the hps out and made a dresser cab and i put the N.l outdoors and she is now a monster bush ,

The dresser cab worked good but when i put it in my building where i had to have it the temps shot up past 110 degrees so i took it apart because i will only be able to grow in the winter with it

so now im back to my micro cab ill see if i still have pics of how it looked before i made a cab out of it , it was nice and shinny when i was done but its beat up now as you can see in the pic i posted in post 12


fabfun said:
my man goten has all kinds of cool ideals and can turn anything into a grow
wonder what the wife thinks about him using her dishwasher lol
hey goten did u have to promise to wash all dishes by hand to get her approval lol
Click to expand...
The dishwasher did not work anymore so she had no problem with it ,

she did not even know i did that , she came home from work and i told her to look around and see if she could spot a hidden cab in the kitchen ( she could not lol ) so i showed

She said ( you always have those wheels turning in your head ) lol

As for the kids , they dont know about it , i dont mess with it when their in the house ( maybe a quick glance just to check the temps ) but i only work on it ( well try to work on it ) on the weekends they go to their moms house , and i will work on it more when they start back in school

Their going to their moms this afternoon for the week because she gets a week during the summer while their out of school so i will mess with it more

I need to get an inline duct fan , im gonna run it out the top and out down the side between the dishwasher and the frig and let it exhaust through the floor underneath my house

Its really hard to get good airflow since its built in the the cabinets the way it is , but i will get it worked out when its all said and done

And yes i do a lot of the dishes , she does sometimes also though

OK back to the hydro

you never did say if i should just use the pump and air stone or not , or the fountain with the pvc hook up i made

Db you can click on these links to see how i made the micro cab and dresser cab

Theirs just to many pics to go through lol

Micro grow scrog/lst



Dresser Grow Cab Build / New Grow



T5 Micro Grow


The micro cab is the same cab as the t5 cab , it just need to be fixed up again


Anyway so what are you alls thoughts on which i should do with the little dwc tub ?

I have the net pot temporarily setting in this little tub until i the roots grow through then it will go into the little dwc

Should i put ph water with some barley 1/2 strength nutes in it in the little tub its in right now with the air stone untill i put it in the dwc container ?
 

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fabfun

fabfun

New Member
goten said:
Thanks my man ,

its still a work in progress though ,

Im only gonna use it to veg in , then i will move it to my micro cab for flower , the micro cab is an old tv stand i got at a thrift store ,

I originally had my hps in it with a scrog net to try out scrog , but where i had it at , it was impossible to control the bugs and they were just eating my N.l all to hell

so i took the hps out and made a dresser cab and i put the N.l outdoors and she is now a monster bush ,

The dresser cab worked good but when i put it in my building where i had to have it the temps shot up past 110 degrees so i took it apart because i will only be able to grow in the winter with it

so now im back to my micro cab ill see if i still have pics of how it looked before i made a cab out of it , it was nice and shinny when i was done but its beat up now as you can see in the pic i posted in post 12




The dishwasher did not work anymore so she had no problem with it ,

she did not even know i did that , she came home from work and i told her to look around and see if she could spot a hidden cab in the kitchen ( she could not lol ) so i showed

She said ( you always have those wheels turning in your head ) lol

As for the kids , they dont know about it , i dont mess with it when their in the house ( maybe a quick glance just to check the temps ) but i only work on it ( well try to work on it ) on the weekends they go to their moms house , and i will work on it more when they start back in school

Their going to their moms this afternoon for the week because she gets a week during the summer while their out of school so i will mess with it more

I need to get an inline duct fan , im gonna run it out the top and out down the side between the dishwasher and the frig and let it exhaust through the floor underneath my house

Its really hard to get good airflow since its built in the the cabinets the way it is , but i will get it worked out when its all said and done

And yes i do a lot of the dishes , she does sometimes also though

OK back to the hydro

you never did say if i should just use the pump and air stone or not , or the fountain with the pvc hook up i made

Db you can click on these links to see how i made the micro cab and dresser cab

Theirs just to many pics to go through lol

Micro grow scrog/lst



Dresser Grow Cab Build / New Grow



T5 Micro Grow


The micro cab is the same cab as the t5 cab , it just need to be fixed up again


Anyway so what are you alls thoughts on which i should do with the little dwc tub ?

I have the net pot temporarily setting in this little tub until i the roots grow through then it will go into the little dwc

Should i put ph water with some barley 1/2 strength nutes in it in the little tub its in right now with the air stone untill i put it in the dwc container ?
Click to expand...
well i would use the air pump and stone till bigger then use the aeroponics
 
goten

goten

Well-Known Member
I sure hope so my man

I just got finished blacking out this ice cream container , its not as long as that other tub but its a little deeper

I need to try and find something that is no taller then that is but longer and a little wider , so maybe i could make a 4 or 6 site tube that will fit in my micro cab lol

When i get some extra money i need to invest in a ppm meter ( i dont have one ) and my ph tester only shows like 5.0 then 6.0 , 7.0 ect

its not digital so i dont know whenever its like 5.8 ya know ,

Im just broke right and with the kids getting ready to go back to school im gonna have to start buying school supplies and cloths and shit

Oh Fab

I just wanted to thank you my man , you have been a good friend and if it wasn't for you i would not even be able to try to get my feet wet at hydro ,

much thanks my man ....:mrgreen:
 

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BendBrewer

BendBrewer

Well-Known Member
Maybe get one of those ph test kits that come with the drops. Pretty cheap alternative and it would be more accurate than what you have now. I think you can pick them up at the pet store.
 
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