green algae and growth

hi
looking for some help on transferring seedlings from under fluorescent light to 400 HPS..

using advanced hyroponics of holland 3 part feed.. grow , bloom , micro.. I had to shut my grow down for 6 or 7 years. The nutes Im using are around 7 years old.. would these nutes still be ok, or should I buy new..


seeds sprouted in paper towel. all sprouted ok..

transferred to jiffy seven shooters. roots were all sprouting from sides and bottoms of jiffy7 shooters. this was after 5 - 7 days under fluorescent light..

then transferred to 4" rockwool , stuck in my NFT system.. been over a week now and I dont see much of a difference. the lower leafs(the 1st serrated set) have turned brown.. I dont see any roots coming out of the bottom of the rockwool..

the 2nd problem I have is green algae. It is on top of the rockwool cubes ,, and a on the capillary matting under the cover at the top of the NFT system.

this is the 2nd time this has happened, the first time the plants just stayed the same for over four weeks ,, or kinda slowly died over 4 weeks.

Am i transferring them too quickly to the NFT system and the 400W hps ??

Is algae something I should worry about ?

how do i stop / kill algae?

thanx for taking the time to read. and any help would be appreciated ..

The Ectomorph

check res ph and temps ppms should be around 300 ppms for first two weeks then up it 100 a week ph around 5.5-5.8 water temp 67 air temp76 and put foil ,mylar around sream but over cube to keep light from it (nutes,water,light=algae) and they do sell product to kill algae in hydro shop and your nutes should be ok if stored proply

thanks for the quick reply. exactly the info I was looking for.

when u say round the seam. do you mean at the edge of the rockwool cubes ,, to stop light penetrating below them? as this is the only place light can get into teh capillary matting ..

will have to buy a ppm meter.. !! :/


will check res temps , my air tmp is a little high..

I mix up 20 litres at a time of nutes, I check the PH then ,, should I also check it in the res..?

cheers

Ectomorph

yes mylar on top of cubes put slot in from edge to middle so the stem is in middle of mylar piece and lay it down flat on cube to stop light penetrating and hitting cube r/o water is good distilled water and also rain water if you get a lot of rain where you are ,and is not bad do to pollutines anouther thing should only mix enough to use that day in hydro ppm tester is a must and if room is warm ill bet water is to which inturn makes waters ph high also tap water general is high in ppms to start with also rember to buy some mic nutes. hope this helps

bseeds said:

yes mylar on top of cubes put slot in from edge to middle so the stem is in middle of mylar piece and lay it down flat on cube to stop light penetrating and hitting cube r/o water is good distilled water and also rain water if you get a lot of rain where you are ,and is not bad do to pollutines anouther thing should only mix enough to use that day in hydro ppm tester is a must and if room is warm ill bet water is to which inturn makes waters ph high also tap water general is high in ppms to start with also rember to buy some mic nutes. hope this helps

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hi

thanx again for your help..

My NFT sys , holds around 30 litres of water. when u say only mix enough nutes for that day. should i only be giving them nutes on certain days? and ph'd water on others.. ? if so how many days in the week should I be giving them nutes. I was under the impression that they should always have access to nutes..

my res tmp was 67 - 69 when tested yesterday.

the PH has fallen in the res , down to 4.5 or 4.6. I think the nutes I use may have PH buffers as the PH was fine when i put it in 2 days ago.. any ideas on what could be lowering the PH after it has been put in the res?

tap water is high in PPM's ? is that all the crap that they put in tap water that pushes this up ??

what are mic nutes??

thanx again bseeds .