Hi All, long time lurker here firstly wanted to say thanks so much for all the great advice on here.
Im currently in the early veg stage of what is really my first hydro grow, have started plenty before but as you know how it can go, never really finished any off worth writing about.
To give some background which might help diagnose my problem... I have a small closet setup (2.5 x 3 x 7) well sealed for light and air besides intake with sectioned areas for cloning, early veg with 2 fluros and the main grow area has a 400W cooltube HPS. I have a 125mm centro fan mounted high blowing through the cooltube which sucks from the main grow area, intake is through the bottom of the cab. I have mylar on the walls, and a fan inside to blow air around. Im using a 12 gallon res which drip feeds 4 plants in clay balls (washed). Besides some initial overheating issues resulting in some slight leaf edge burn everything seems to be going well. Cab temp is fairly constant, between 23 26 during night/day periods and 40-50% RH.
Res is kept below 20 deg C and is aerated, nutes are kept at around 600-700ppm and I add a little peroxide every few days.
My issue is my PH seems to increase rather rapidly. I use filtered water (not RO yet) which is PHd between 6.5-7 at 30-40ppm. I have flushed a few times recently to try to rule out a few other things but I check daily and the PH which after nutes are added, starts at 5.6 creeps up to 6.5-7+ within a day. I would like to be able to leave the plants for a few days at a time as I go away for work so Im a little hesitant to trust it.
I know my res is a bit small and a larger res would keep things stable for longer however I would like to know what causes PH to rise in the first place when all other variables are taken care of?
I have just covered the clay balls so the light doesnt increase their temp which I thought could be causing the water to heat up before re-entering the res but besides this Im kinda clueless.
Also, is there any benefit of laying mylar over the grow medium to further reflect light to lower leaves? This stuff is so reflective, I highly recommend it over panda film etc... already lower growth has just taken off since I put it in. Would doing this just cause the underside of the leaves to become over-exposed, drying them out too much?
Sorry for the long post, I too suffer from OCD sometimes. Thanks for any input.
Im currently in the early veg stage of what is really my first hydro grow, have started plenty before but as you know how it can go, never really finished any off worth writing about.
To give some background which might help diagnose my problem... I have a small closet setup (2.5 x 3 x 7) well sealed for light and air besides intake with sectioned areas for cloning, early veg with 2 fluros and the main grow area has a 400W cooltube HPS. I have a 125mm centro fan mounted high blowing through the cooltube which sucks from the main grow area, intake is through the bottom of the cab. I have mylar on the walls, and a fan inside to blow air around. Im using a 12 gallon res which drip feeds 4 plants in clay balls (washed). Besides some initial overheating issues resulting in some slight leaf edge burn everything seems to be going well. Cab temp is fairly constant, between 23 26 during night/day periods and 40-50% RH.
Res is kept below 20 deg C and is aerated, nutes are kept at around 600-700ppm and I add a little peroxide every few days.
My issue is my PH seems to increase rather rapidly. I use filtered water (not RO yet) which is PHd between 6.5-7 at 30-40ppm. I have flushed a few times recently to try to rule out a few other things but I check daily and the PH which after nutes are added, starts at 5.6 creeps up to 6.5-7+ within a day. I would like to be able to leave the plants for a few days at a time as I go away for work so Im a little hesitant to trust it.
I know my res is a bit small and a larger res would keep things stable for longer however I would like to know what causes PH to rise in the first place when all other variables are taken care of?
I have just covered the clay balls so the light doesnt increase their temp which I thought could be causing the water to heat up before re-entering the res but besides this Im kinda clueless.
Also, is there any benefit of laying mylar over the grow medium to further reflect light to lower leaves? This stuff is so reflective, I highly recommend it over panda film etc... already lower growth has just taken off since I put it in. Would doing this just cause the underside of the leaves to become over-exposed, drying them out too much?
Sorry for the long post, I too suffer from OCD sometimes. Thanks for any input.