Hello folks,
I've been reading and futzing around with cloners and have been attempting various things trying to keep slime/rot away using readily available solutions without murdering clones in the process.
Lurking elsewhere has produced some information about the relative benefits to using H2O2 versus using chlorine. All this began as I dropped coin on an EZ Cloner hoping for a set-it-and-forget-it style experience over my usual rockwool cube cloning.
Not there yet, but I've been working off of a seasoned grower's suggestion to use:
1.0 ppm chlorine in reservoir for established plants
0.5 pp, chlorine in reservoir for starts
Here's where my math tenacity (not wizardry) gets shown, but I want your advice on some crucial steps in the math.
1. The bottle of household bleach I'm working with shows 7.85% available chlorine, meaning that in one mL of bleach I have 7.85 parts per hundred (per cent) of chlorine (Cl-).
2. Translating that into parts per million requires multiplying by 10,000, giving me 78,500 parts per million Cl- in 1 mL of bleach.
3. Since, we're diluting this, let's put it into one mL of H20. For the sake of the math, we'll assume it has no chlorine. So, for 1 mL of bleach added to 1 mL of H20 I have 39,250 ppm of available Cl-. (Tell me if this is right; it's kind of crucial to the rest of the steps. 1ml Bleach in 1 mL H20 produces a 2 mL solution)
4. Doing the dropper test I average 15 drops to one mL out of my dropper, which means that if I dial back from number 3's solution I get 2616 ppm available Cl- in one drop bleach to 1 mL H20 (i.e., 39,2500/15).
5. Now, I scaled up the H20 to lower the ppm. So, if I add one drop bleach to 1L of H20 the solution becomes 2.6 ppm Cl- (i.e., 2616/1000).
6. Doubling 5 one more time by adding one drop bleach to 2L H20 should get me 1.3 ppm H20 (i.e., 2.6/2).
7. And doubling once more produces .62 ppm Cl- in 4 liters H20.
The conversion rate is close enough to say that one gallon (1.06) is equivalent to 4 liters. And since we're splashing waters and judging water levels against markers while holding things unevenly anyway the point of chem. lab accuracy gets kind of lost in the mix anyway.
Does this math look correct to you?
Results:
1 drop Bleach/gallon H20 yields approx: .62 ppm Cl-
2 drops Bleach/gallon H20 yields approx 1.3 ppm Cl-
__________________________________________________________
Now for city water-related questions:
I have 'very' hard water (average level detected 9.22 pH). I normally have to add 1/4 teaspoon Ph-Down/ gallon to get 5.8 pH.
It also has chloramine (average level detected 2.58 ppm).
I am assuming that this re-chlorination process could work on 'aged' water, which would lose chlorine over time, right?
Am I wasting my time?
I've been reading and futzing around with cloners and have been attempting various things trying to keep slime/rot away using readily available solutions without murdering clones in the process.
Lurking elsewhere has produced some information about the relative benefits to using H2O2 versus using chlorine. All this began as I dropped coin on an EZ Cloner hoping for a set-it-and-forget-it style experience over my usual rockwool cube cloning.
Not there yet, but I've been working off of a seasoned grower's suggestion to use:
1.0 ppm chlorine in reservoir for established plants
0.5 pp, chlorine in reservoir for starts
Here's where my math tenacity (not wizardry) gets shown, but I want your advice on some crucial steps in the math.
1. The bottle of household bleach I'm working with shows 7.85% available chlorine, meaning that in one mL of bleach I have 7.85 parts per hundred (per cent) of chlorine (Cl-).
2. Translating that into parts per million requires multiplying by 10,000, giving me 78,500 parts per million Cl- in 1 mL of bleach.
3. Since, we're diluting this, let's put it into one mL of H20. For the sake of the math, we'll assume it has no chlorine. So, for 1 mL of bleach added to 1 mL of H20 I have 39,250 ppm of available Cl-. (Tell me if this is right; it's kind of crucial to the rest of the steps. 1ml Bleach in 1 mL H20 produces a 2 mL solution)
4. Doing the dropper test I average 15 drops to one mL out of my dropper, which means that if I dial back from number 3's solution I get 2616 ppm available Cl- in one drop bleach to 1 mL H20 (i.e., 39,2500/15).
5. Now, I scaled up the H20 to lower the ppm. So, if I add one drop bleach to 1L of H20 the solution becomes 2.6 ppm Cl- (i.e., 2616/1000).
6. Doubling 5 one more time by adding one drop bleach to 2L H20 should get me 1.3 ppm H20 (i.e., 2.6/2).
7. And doubling once more produces .62 ppm Cl- in 4 liters H20.
The conversion rate is close enough to say that one gallon (1.06) is equivalent to 4 liters. And since we're splashing waters and judging water levels against markers while holding things unevenly anyway the point of chem. lab accuracy gets kind of lost in the mix anyway.
Does this math look correct to you?
Results:
1 drop Bleach/gallon H20 yields approx: .62 ppm Cl-
2 drops Bleach/gallon H20 yields approx 1.3 ppm Cl-
__________________________________________________________
Now for city water-related questions:
I have 'very' hard water (average level detected 9.22 pH). I normally have to add 1/4 teaspoon Ph-Down/ gallon to get 5.8 pH.
It also has chloramine (average level detected 2.58 ppm).
I am assuming that this re-chlorination process could work on 'aged' water, which would lose chlorine over time, right?
Am I wasting my time?
