New in hydroponics what is the problem(s)

sukalas

Member
You only have a 30L res... so if you want, buy a few jugs of distilled r/o water from the grocery store, and make a new res with general hydro grow/micro or dynagro grow.

That will take your tap water and canna nutes out of the equation.Honestly though.... stuff those in the garbage disposal and start new beans first.
I will try your advice.Are these damaged for life and they will not recover? I don't wanna start over again because i don't have time for it before the summer.I just wanna try my best on those if possible and make sure the next one will be a nice one.
 

Tattoodgirl

Member
I would start over with the basics. If you want to try and save them go for it. I would wash the res, make sure it's sanitized. Buy water add nutes to 200 ppm make sure water line is correct. Are these in rockwool? In one of the pics it looked like there was algae at the base of the plant. Trim those dead leaves and leave the ok looking ones as the plant will waste energy trying to fix the damage. Is your res water staying clear?
 

sukalas

Member
Okay, I bought 30 litters of spring water.I feel a bit ridiculous with the setup and all and having those small undead girls ;P but this is all i have so i will deal with it for the best. I am thinking to flush them for one night with spring bottled clean water only and no fertilizer at all but ph regulation. How long shall i keep them like that?

btw if i got the ppm system correct 200ppm is 6 ml for 30lt right?
 

Tattoodgirl

Member
Okay, I bought 30 litters of spring water.I feel a bit ridiculous with the setup and all and having those small undead girls ;P but this is all i have so i will deal with it for the best. I am thinking to flush them for one night with spring bottled clean water only and no fertilizer at all but ph regulation. How long shall i keep them like that?

btw if i got the ppm system correct 200ppm is 6 ml for 30lt right?
someone else can chime in about the flush but with ppm meter you take a reading of the plain water first then add the difference so if your water reads 110 ppm you add around a hundred to get your total. As far as how much to add it depends on what notes you use as well as your starting ppm read. Good luck hope they make it
 

Ninjabowler

Well-Known Member
Do you have a ppm meter? Thats the most important tool for dwc my friend. If you dont have one then you are very likely over or under feeding and causing this. Ph wont do this, thats total bs. I help care for dwc plants that run with starting ph of 8 and hit 9ISH and theyre.....huge ;) ive pulled great yields and never phd anything. If you have a ppm meter and its reading 250-300 in the rez right now which is where it should be then you have a problem with your nutrients. You could be using somthing with not enough N for them. Dwc is so simple its scary. I use AN sensi base nutes, and calmag, and superthrive, thats it. You did somthing really wrong here bro, its going to be tough to save them. Good luck. :):):)
 

sukalas

Member
Do you have a ppm meter? Thats the most important tool for dwc my friend. If you dont have one then you are very likely over or under feeding and causing this. Ph wont do this, thats total bs. I help care for dwc plants that run with starting ph of 8 and hit 9ISH and theyre.....huge :wink: ive pulled great yields and never phd anything. If you have a ppm meter and its reading 250-300 in the rez right now which is where it should be then you have a problem with your nutrients. You could be using somthing with not enough N for them. Dwc is so simple its scary. I use AN sensi base nutes, and calmag, and superthrive, thats it. You did somthing really wrong here bro, its going to be tough to save them. Good luck. :smile::smile::smile:
I ordered a tds meter and i am expecting to having it soon.48hrs already with bottle water and 1/6 of the recommended fertilizer dosage (30ml canna a+b for 30 lt) and they don't look to get any better.I think I will transfer one of them to soil to check if the panel is ok.I am almost out of ideas.If it gets better on soil without any fertilizer I will blame the canna base and i will try with general hydro.thank you all for the interest and i will let you know how it goes.cheers:bigjoint:
 

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
If you dont have one then you are very likely over or under feeding and causing this. Ph wont do this, thats total bs. I help care for dwc plants that run with starting ph of 8 and hit 9ISH and theyre.....huge
ive pulled great yields and never phd anything.
30 people say watch your PH, one person say's its bullshit lol, sorry Ninja! Stick with the proven methods of growing Sukalas. Not having a clue as to whats wrong with your plants I do know that they are now a lost cause and will probably not amount to much so start over, it'll be sad but quicker IMO :(! I would also not be to quick to blame the nutes as much as the proper amounts, as Ninja says get a meter, you need it! I have used a few different nutes and have not found a big difference in quality (plant growth) but have not found one that kills the plant either :). You need to start again, keep res temps down, feed at the recommended doasges, keep ph in the recommended (by the masses lol) range, and you should be ok. I just started hydro as well and have done rather well by following those rules, at least I try to follow them, not with out a couple af screwups lol.
 

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
30 people say watch your PH, one person say's its bullshit lol, sorry Ninja! Stick with the proven methods of growing Sukalas. Not having a clue as to whats wrong with your plants I do know that they are now a lost cause and will probably not amount to much so start over, it'll be sad but quicker IMO :(! I would also not be to quick to blame the nutes as much as the proper amounts, as Ninja says get a meter, you need it! I have used a few different nutes and have not found a big difference in quality (plant growth) but have not found one that kills the plant either :). You need to start again, keep res temps down, feed at the recommended doasges, keep ph in the recommended (by the masses lol) range, and you should be ok. I just started hydro as well and have done rather well by following those rules, at least I try to follow them, not with out a couple af screwups lol.
A TDS meter or a PH meter? Hummm... Let's see... if I could only choose one.... a meter that tells me how much nutes I'm giving my plants...or or a PH meter to give me the proper PH which will allow my plants to take in the right percentage of the nutes an minerals??? That's a tough one but in your case the lower leaves look like they have been severely burned by to many nutes. Your other plants look good but did you grow from seed or buy some plants and stick 'em in?

Buy a TDS meter and some PH strips if you can't afford both. I have used them with good results. The're not as accurate as a meter but will get the job done. Get a small bottle of PH 7 cal solution, dip a strip in to cal your eyes to the actual shade of PH 7.... then adjust the ph after you add your nutes.
 

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
If you have tap water with low ppm, I'd rather have a ppm meter. I'd probably choose the ppm meter over the pH anyway, but you should get a pH meter soon too.

With tap water below 50ppm, if you mix the nutes correctly and to the right ppm, pH will be between 5.5 and 5.8 without any pH adjustments.

If your ppm meter says your tap water is like 150+, you're going to need to figure out how much pH down to add to neutralize that.
 

sukalas

Member
A TDS meter or a PH meter? Hummm... Let's see... if I could only choose one.... a meter that tells me how much nutes I'm giving my plants...or or a PH meter to give me the proper PH which will allow my plants to take in the right percentage of the nutes an minerals??? That's a tough one but in your case the lower leaves look like they have been severely burned by to many nutes. Your other plants look good but did you grow from seed or buy some plants and stick 'em in?

Buy a TDS meter and some PH strips if you can't afford both. I have used them with good results. The're not as accurate as a meter but will get the job done. Get a small bottle of PH 7 cal solution, dip a strip in to cal your eyes to the actual shade of PH 7.... then adjust the ph after you add your nutes.
I have a digital ph meter and as you said without adding any ph- but only tap water and fertilizer mix I was at around 5.8 ph.The tds meter is coming soon.The other plants have been transplanted from soil to hydro at a very early age(embrya);it seems that they are immune to whatever kills my weed plants.Right now I am almost at 7 days with bottle water and minimum dosage of fertilizer.They look stable now but i can't afford to buy more bottle water i feel that it is a waste of money(the ph is the same as my tap water (7.8 )).The plant that I transplanted to soil looks slightly better than the rest. It's a bit more green.If it get's better and the rest not, I am almost sure that I either overdosed them at the very beginning or my canna base mix is for the garbage.
Now , If all of them stay like that, I guess it's too late for recovery and the advice you gave me, to get rid of them and start over was proper. As I said in previous posts it's too late now to start over and I am only trying to fix the problem for the next grow.

Only time can tell now.
 

superstoner1

Well-Known Member
I would choose the ph meter over the tds meter any day. Nute issues are much more easily seen and remedied by eye than a ph issuue.
 

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
If you have tap water with low ppm, I'd rather have a ppm meter. I'd probably choose the ppm meter over the pH anyway, but you should get a pH meter soon too.

With tap water below 50ppm, if you mix the nutes correctly and to the right ppm, pH will be between 5.5 and 5.8 without any pH adjustments.

If your ppm meter says your tap water is like 150+, you're going to need to figure out how much pH down to add to neutralize that.
My tap water's PH constantly changes through the year, up and down swings, from 6.9 to over 8 and my tap water was over 300PPM. I used a ton of PH down and the PH would quickly jump back up. I finally switched to RO water will never look back. Now find that I have to use just a touch of PH up to bring it close to 6. Then, as the Res level falls, the PPM raises and the PH LOWERS!

I don't know what caused the pot to get sick but the other plants grow well but changing to RO water may be a good idea.
 

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
I have a digital ph meter and as you said without adding any ph- but only tap water and fertilizer mix I was at around 5.8 ph.The tds meter is coming soon.The other plants have been transplanted from soil to hydro at a very early age(embrya);it seems that they are immune to whatever kills my weed plants.Right now I am almost at 7 days with bottle water and minimum dosage of fertilizer.They look stable now but i can't afford to buy more bottle water i feel that it is a waste of money(the ph is the same as my tap water (7.8 )).The plant that I transplanted to soil looks slightly better than the rest. It's a bit more green.If it get's better and the rest not, I am almost sure that I either overdosed them at the very beginning or my canna base mix is for the garbage.
Now , If all of them stay like that, I guess it's too late for recovery and the advice you gave me, to get rid of them and start over was proper. As I said in previous posts it's too late now to start over and I am only trying to fix the problem for the next grow.

Only time can tell now.
Another thought, you are using low power lights. I have read that you should use a lower PPM when not using HPS lighting. Maybe the other plants were able to utilize or thrive in the PPM level in lower light.
 

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
I would start over with the basics. If you want to try and save them go for it. I would wash the res, make sure it's sanitized. Buy water add nutes to 200 ppm make sure water line is correct. Are these in rockwool? In one of the pics it looked like there was algae at the base of the plant. Trim those dead leaves and leave the ok looking ones as the plant will waste energy trying to fix the damage. Is your res water staying clear?
I agree, the plants are damaged, not sick. Replanting them would be quicker then growing from seed if they have the proper environment.
 

sukalas

Member
Hello folks, here is an update.It seams that the flushing is working good and there all look like are recovering. The one that I transplanted to soil looks a bit better imho.Ph is stable at 5.5 and they are now 8 days with bottle water and minimum dosage of my cana base mix A+B. How long is it safe to leave them with that water? I guess I have to change it soon but I would like to see better changes to be sure that the problem was overfeeding.From daya to day i expect the ppm meter to test the tap water and everything.How shall i proceed now? Cheers.


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sukalas

Member
If you have tap water with low ppm, I'd rather have a ppm meter. I'd probably choose the ppm meter over the pH anyway, but you should get a pH meter soon too.

With tap water below 50ppm, if you mix the nutes correctly and to the right ppm, pH will be between 5.5 and 5.8 without any pH adjustments.

If your ppm meter says your tap water is like 150+, you're going to need to figure out how much pH down to add to neutralize that.
I have the ppm meter.My tap water is 280 ppm and the solution in the tank is 820 ppm. How should I proceed now ?
 

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
I have water over 300ppm too, actually it's around 500ppm. From my experience, phosphoric acid based pH down does a terrible job at neutralizing water high in calcium carbonate. Think about it, calcium phosphate is very insoluble, so using phosphoric acid doesn't really do anything to calcium carbonate. Nitric acid (HNO3) does however...

HNO3 + CaCO3 -> Ca(NO3)2 + CO2 + H2O

In other words, The nitrates of nitric acid substitute with the CO3 (carbonates) of the hard water, and the CO2 leaves the solution leaving you with calcium nitrate. Calcium nitrate is the main ingredient in all hydroponic nutrient solutions and is highly soluble in water. I do need to use a ton of nitric acid to get 500ppm of Calcium carbonate substituted with nitrates, but it's all food in the end. You could think of the calcium carbonate in the water as free food.

Try using nitric acid with your 300ppm+ water if your RO stops working.

My tap water's PH constantly changes through the year, up and down swings, from 6.9 to over 8 and my tap water was over 300PPM. I used a ton of PH down and the PH would quickly jump back up. I finally switched to RO water will never look back. Now find that I have to use just a touch of PH up to bring it close to 6. Then, as the Res level falls, the PPM raises and the PH LOWERS!

I don't know what caused the pot to get sick but the other plants grow well but changing to RO water may be a good idea.
 
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