Mg deficiency ???

amneziaHaze said:

Leafs that where damaged will never get better.but new growth should be normal
I personally in hydro do 0.58-1g of epson daily with 300wLed

How foes the water smell is it disqusting or just root smell nozhing bad

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No foul smell from the roots or water for that matter

Yadam said:

Im following this guide for what and when in terms of a feeding schedule. From reading other posts on here as long as you’re using RO water PPMs don’t matter too much if you’re following the chart. I bumped it from half tsp to a full tsp because they were pretty light green, then added calmag+, just grabbed some calimagic, which I‘ll use during my next res change. When I bumped up the concentration to 1 tsp, my PPMs on a .5 scale were around 1120 and I’m not seeing any burning on the leaf tips.

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1120/500 is a little on the high side. I generally max out at 800/500.

EC vs PPM - EC is the value that the EC meter measures. It can be converted to "PPM" but there are three PPM scales those being where 500PPM=EC 1, 600, and then 740. EC is the standard but I measure in PPM (500 scale) because it's slightly more accurate and I admit that's just my personality personal choice and, in practical terms, doesn't make a difference.

I think the 500 scale is used primarily in the US, 600 in Europe, and 740 in Australia/NZ but am not sure about the latter two.

EC is universally understood.

Yadam said:

yes, I’m using the air pump and kit that came with the kit. Appears to be working really well.

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Yup, that'll do the trick.

Yadam said:

I think the roots are my problem, and I think it’s because my water level was too high. I looked at my roots and they had some darkish brown clumpy bits of roots that started easily falling off the I touched them. The roots weren’t black and they didn’t smell at all, so I’d be surprised if it was full on root rot. Anyways I gently ran my fingers through the clumps and got rid of anything easily falling off, then washed the remaining roots really well with RO water. I added 6 mls of hydro guard and did not top off my res. I was keeping 4gal of water in each 5gal bucket + external reservoir, which put my water level about 1/3 up on my baskets. I think I’m going to drop the water level to about 3 to 3.5 gal per bucket And try to maintain a 1.5-2” gap under the basket.

Fingers Crossed this works. If not im just going to take some clones, clean, and restart— paying more attention to my water level.

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I don't know that water levels can be too high. I've always run my water level at ½" below the net pot. Interestingly, in the videos for assembling the Fallponics systems, Gary says that, at the start, the water level should be almost to the top so that the roots of the seedlings are immersed in nutrient solution. That struck me as strange but that is advice from someone who builds and sells hydro systems so I've got to think that he's on to something.

It sounds like you had early stage root rot and that's usually because water temp was too high. They Hydroguard should take care of that. It's good that you caught it early.

I wouldn't drop water levels. I can't state why that is not a good idea (I'm a software engineer (30+ years) who has read a few books on plant bio but I'm not a plant biologist so I have to try to reason things through) but, when you reduce water levels, you reduce the area of roots that has access to the grow medium. That's not necessarily bad in small amounts but, unless there's not other option, I would not do that because I can't think of a reason why it would help the plant. The entire goal of hydro is to immerse the root system in the nutrient solution so having less of the root ball in the nutrient solution would seem to be counter productive.

Re. water level - Per above, I've run my water level ½" below the net pot and it's worked out fine. Root rot is a function of temps being too high. I don't see how it can be associated with water level. How about giving Gary (at PA Hydro) a call?

Delps8 said:

1120/500 is a little on the high side. I generally max out at 800/500.

EC vs PPM - EC is the value that the EC meter measures. It can be converted to "PPM" but there are three PPM scales those being where 500PPM=EC 1, 600, and then 740. EC is the standard but I measure in PPM (500 scale) because it's slightly more accurate and I admit that's just my personality personal choice and, in practical terms, doesn't make a difference.

I think the 500 scale is used primarily in the US, 600 in Europe, and 740 in Australia/NZ but am not sure about the latter two.

EC is universally understood.


Yup, that'll do the trick.


I don't know that water levels can be too high. I've always run my water level at ½" below the net pot. Interestingly, in the videos for assembling the Fallponics systems, Gary says that, at the start, the water level should be almost to the top so that the roots of the seedlings are immersed in nutrient solution. That struck me as strange but that is advice from someone who builds and sells hydro systems so I've got to think that he's on to something.

It sounds like you had early stage root rot and that's usually because water temp was too high. They Hydroguard should take care of that. It's good that you caught it early.

I wouldn't drop water levels. I can't state why that is not a good idea (I'm a software engineer (30+ years) who has read a few books on plant bio but I'm not a plant biologist so I have to try to reason things through) but, when you reduce water levels, you reduce the area of roots that has access to the grow medium. That's not necessarily bad in small amounts but, unless there's not other option, I would not do that because I can't think of a reason why it would help the plant. The entire goal of hydro is to immerse the root system in the nutrient solution so having less of the root ball in the nutrient solution would seem to be counter productive.

Re. water level - Per above, I've run my water level ½" below the net pot and it's worked out fine. Root rot is a function of temps being too high. I don't see how it can be associated with water level. How about giving Gary (at PA Hydro) a call?

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Gary just wants to build hydro systems not answer questions lol. Thanks Im good testing out the water level at 1/2” and see if it makes a difference. My water temps were high in my cloner before transferring into this system and I probably had them in there for too long as they were full on veg when I transplanted them. Maybe that’s where this issue initiated and caught up to me a few weeks later in the stirponics system..

I took down the margin of variation with my cooler to 2F and my water temps are stable at 68F. Do you think I should make my water temp even cooler given I’ve had these issues?

Delps8 said:

1120/500 is a little on the high side. I generally max out at 800/500.

EC vs PPM - EC is the value that the EC meter measures. It can be converted to "PPM" but there are three PPM scales those being where 500PPM=EC 1, 600, and then 740. EC is the standard but I measure in PPM (500 scale) because it's slightly more accurate and I admit that's just my personality personal choice and, in practical terms, doesn't make a difference.

I think the 500 scale is used primarily in the US, 600 in Europe, and 740 in Australia/NZ but am not sure about the latter two.

EC is universally understood.


Yup, that'll do the trick.


I don't know that water levels can be too high. I've always run my water level at ½" below the net pot. Interestingly, in the videos for assembling the Fallponics systems, Gary says that, at the start, the water level should be almost to the top so that the roots of the seedlings are immersed in nutrient solution. That struck me as strange but that is advice from someone who builds and sells hydro systems so I've got to think that he's on to something.

It sounds like you had early stage root rot and that's usually because water temp was too high. They Hydroguard should take care of that. It's good that you caught it early.

I wouldn't drop water levels. I can't state why that is not a good idea (I'm a software engineer (30+ years) who has read a few books on plant bio but I'm not a plant biologist so I have to try to reason things through) but, when you reduce water levels, you reduce the area of roots that has access to the grow medium. That's not necessarily bad in small amounts but, unless there's not other option, I would not do that because I can't think of a reason why it would help the plant. The entire goal of hydro is to immerse the root system in the nutrient solution so having less of the root ball in the nutrient solution would seem to be counter productive.

Re. water level - Per above, I've run my water level ½" below the net pot and it's worked out fine. Root rot is a function of temps being too high. I don't see how it can be associated with water level. How about giving Gary (at PA Hydro) a call?

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I thought 1120 was high too but I’ve not seen any nute burn so I dunno I guess if I’m not seeing any issues I’ll probably just keep on with those directions unless I start seeing some burnt edges then do a res change with a lower PPM.

Yadam said:

I thought 1120 was high too but I’ve not seen any nute burn so I dunno I guess if I’m not seeing any issues I’ll probably just keep on with those directions unless I start seeing some burnt edges then do a res change with a lower PPM.

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Agree. Once things are working, no need to change them. I'm a big believer in the RIU acronym of "LTFA".

If you think about it when the bottom of the root is in water the whole root is wet.its like thinking its better to have the whole pipe in the water then just the bottom, it all get sucked up the same.

As for the root rot you can do sterile hydroguard and pool shock.but i like trichoderma more.it will kill anything alive and plant can eat their dead corpses.it keeps the ph in a nice place and no need to put it in every day you do it one time and never do a full res change leave at least 10% and the colony will reproduce

amneziaHaze said:

If you think about it when the bottom of the root is in water the whole root is wet.its like thinking its better to have the whole pipe in the water then just the bottom, it all get sucked up the same.

As for the root rot you can do sterile hydroguard and pool shock.but i like trichoderma more.it will kill anything alive and plant can eat their dead corpses.it keeps the ph in a nice place and no need to put it in every day you do it one time and never do a full res change leave at least 10% and the colony will reproduce

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Is there a specific brand of trichoderma you use? I’m looking on Amazon but I’m only seeing products for soil, or is that what you are using?

amneziaHaze said:

If you think about it when the bottom of the root is in water the whole root is wet.its like thinking its better to have the whole pipe in the water then just the bottom, it all get sucked up the same.

As for the root rot you can do sterile hydroguard and pool shock.but i like trichoderma more.it will kill anything alive and plant can eat their dead corpses.it keeps the ph in a nice place and no need to put it in every day you do it one time and never do a full res change leave at least 10% and the colony will reproduce

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I’m just gonna go with hydroguard and lowering my water temps at the moment, but I’m good with trying trichoderma. Would there be any issues using both trichoerma and hydroguard?

For the pool shock, I’m not gonna go this route but if I did at some point in the future, how much would I add per gallon?

Yadam said:

I’m just gonna go with hydroguard and lowering my water temps at the moment, but I’m good with trying trichoderma. Would there be any issues using both trichoerma and hydroguard?

For the pool shock, I’m not gonna go this route but if I did at some point in the future, how much would I add per gallon?

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i think you wont have any problem hydroguard kills any life soo they will die too
i got the cheapest from amazon https://www.thenutrientcompany.com/tnc-mycorrhydro

if i remember correct 5ppms max

In Gary's defense I think he is bombarded with folks calling everyday with tons of questions. It's probably hard to get his work done. He does answer questions on email but probably wanting to limit them to the hydro system he builds & sells. I have one (13 gallon buckets) & he answered any questions I had.
As to the root submerged question "if you are suppling the roots with air from air stones, no need to keep water level down. I swear by hydroguard too. I leave problem diagnosis to the more experienced growers. Imo

OldDude420 said:

In Gary's defense I think he is bombarded with folks calling everyday with tons of questions. It's probably hard to get his work done. He does answer questions on email but probably wanting to limit them to the hydro system he builds & sells. I have one (13 gallon buckets) & he answered any questions I had.
As to the root submerged question "if you are suppling the roots with air from air stones, no need to keep water level down. I swear by hydroguard too. I leave problem diagnosis to the more experienced growers. Imo

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thanks man. And I think Gary is awesome btw, I was just kidding. He‘s doing a great job and I whole heartedly recommend pa hydroponics and his hydro systems.