So I should put enough nutes in to make the ppm around 350? I used tap it started at under 150 if i remember correctly. Dang man the more I read what u wrote this is gonna take alot of dedication and learning. I'm honestly shocked they look as okay as they do. I definitely need to go out and buy things like a meter that reads tds, water temp, and ph. Then I need to keep ny hands out of the reservoir. And make sure there's NO LIGHT LEAKS. I wanna deal with a dirty reservoir as less as possible. Ima put sticky notes up so I can remind myself of things. Like humidity range and what not. And a white board cause I was not keeping track of dates at all smh.
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- Thread starter que1995
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Wastei
Well-Known Member
Chlorine dilution calculator, 3-5ppm is recommended in DWC. Cheers!
Drop That Sound
Well-Known Member
TDS meters do read in PPMs btw. To avoid confusion though, its best to go by ec, as some brands use a different scale. Dont let that trick you up, because your ppm number could be different from someone else. 
Yea I would probably meet halfway then (or maybe dilute further with some filtered water), and subtract half the starting ppm away from the final target number. So maybe 75+ 3-350. Just go 400 for now, at least until you can determine they can handle more..which youll learn to figure out via some simple tests, like the water level, ph, and the EC/ppms.
You dont need much more than the cheap TDS meter, and PH test drops for now IMO. A cheap digi thermometer, and maybe a laser temp gun to read leaf and surface temps would be good to have..The fancy stuff can come later though.
Sometimes you just have to reach in the res for whatever reasons. Hopefully not to grab plant debris, now that you covered the holes. As far as being light proof, shine a powerful flashlight inside, and see if it glows through the container/lid easily. If so then cover it good.
For sure keep some bleach, or a small bag of pool shock on hand to mix your own solutions up. I recommend going ahead with using it at the recommended levels, unless of course you have chilled water, or stay under 68f most the time.
AHH gotta run, I’ll bbl. They look way better btw
Yea I would probably meet halfway then (or maybe dilute further with some filtered water), and subtract half the starting ppm away from the final target number. So maybe 75+ 3-350. Just go 400 for now, at least until you can determine they can handle more..which youll learn to figure out via some simple tests, like the water level, ph, and the EC/ppms.
You dont need much more than the cheap TDS meter, and PH test drops for now IMO. A cheap digi thermometer, and maybe a laser temp gun to read leaf and surface temps would be good to have..The fancy stuff can come later though.
Sometimes you just have to reach in the res for whatever reasons. Hopefully not to grab plant debris, now that you covered the holes. As far as being light proof, shine a powerful flashlight inside, and see if it glows through the container/lid easily. If so then cover it good.
For sure keep some bleach, or a small bag of pool shock on hand to mix your own solutions up. I recommend going ahead with using it at the recommended levels, unless of course you have chilled water, or stay under 68f most the time.
AHH gotta run, I’ll bbl. They look way better btw
warble
Well-Known Member
I clean my rez every week. My PH goes up. I PH down to 5.8, when it gets to 6.3, I PH down again. I use a PH meter I got on ebay. It was cheap and I buy a new one every year. I had a Bluelab meter and it lasted a couple years, cost five times as much. I have litmus paper when I notice something wrong. I have never used an EC meter. I use a TDS meter and start at 300ppm and move it up to 900 by the end of the grow. After a few grows, you'll start to notice when you need to bump it on up.
Just remember that when the rez gets warm there is more chance of bad stuff jacking up your roots, so keep it cool.
Your PPMs and the look of your plants should tell you if your ladies are needing more or less food. When your new growth is a lighter color that turns darker green, you are doing well. If new growth is light green and gets lighter greenish yellow, she may need a higher PPM.
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Billy the Mountain
Well-Known Member
You've used an EC meter whether you realize it or not.
Your TDS meter is measuring electrical conductivity (EC).
The only difference is the units on the display.
TDS is simply EC multiplied by a constant.
It's best to stick with EC when referring to hydro nute concentrations. The ppm values from a TDS meter don't represent the ppm of the elemental nutrients and often causes needless confusion.
Billy the Mountain
Well-Known Member
A TDS meter only gives a valid ppm reading if you're measuring table salt (0.5 conversion factor) or potassium chloride (0.7 scale).TDS meters do read in PPMs btw. To avoid confusion though, its best to go by ec, as some brands use a different scale. Dont let that trick you up, because your ppm number could be different from someone else.
Yea I would probably meet halfway then (or maybe dilute further with some filtered water), and subtract half the starting ppm away from the final target number. So maybe 75+ 3-350. Just go 400 for now, at least until you can determine they can handle more..which youll learn to figure out via some simple tests, like the water level, ph, and the EC/ppms.
You dont need much more than the cheap TDS meter, and PH test drops for now IMO. A cheap digi thermometer, and maybe a laser temp gun to read leaf and surface temps would be good to have..The fancy stuff can come later though.
Sometimes you just have to reach in the res for whatever reasons. Hopefully not to grab plant debris, now that you covered the holes. As far as being light proof, shine a powerful flashlight inside, and see if it glows through the container/lid easily. If so then cover it good.
For sure keep some bleach, or a small bag of pool shock on hand to mix your own solutions up. I recommend going ahead with using it at the recommended levels, unless of course you have chilled water, or stay under 68f most the time.
AHH gotta run, I’ll bbl. They look way better btw
Otherwise, the ppm numbers have little relation to the actual elemental ppm and are just EC * constant.
EC is the right unit for measuring nutrient concentration
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
i would maybe take the lid off and set off to the side and then give the res a good cleaning with peroxide or chlorine.
rkymtnman
Well-Known Member
you can take a small flashlight inside the reservoir and if you can see a decent amoutn of light coming thru, then i would think about covering it up with something. you could spray paint it black a few coats and then do another coat with white paint. you could wrap in foil too
I put my phone flash light up to it. It shined just a slither. I don't think they're getting thru.
Okay so new update. Cleaned the reservoir. Ph'd it to 5.5-6.0
I put them in some fresh ph'd water while I cleaned it out. I didn't use peroxide but I used 97% alcohol and let the reservoir sit for a sec including the lines and what not. I didn't really feel confident using peroxide but I feel like I cleaned it pretty good nonetheless. Do I use literal peroxide? Lol I had some but I was like nahhh. Aha
Billy the Mountain
Well-Known Member
Gool 'ole 3% h202 from the drug store works fine.
You can also get ~35% h202 from hydro stores.
Usually bleach or h202 is used for disinfecting in that scenario.
You can also get ~35% h202 from hydro stores.
Usually bleach or h202 is used for disinfecting in that scenario.
So update. Cleaned the reservoir out ph'd the water to about 6 and put nuts in 12.5 tsp of cal mag and 12.5 tsp of grow from lotus nutrients. I felt like a rookie saying my feeding info aha but yeah so my ppm was at almost 300 so that's good but now they are getting burnt for some reason. Any suggestions? Also when should I send them to the veg stage? I had it scheduled for the 27th. The biggest one looks like it's doing fine.
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Alright I'll do that next time. Am I gonna have to worry about algae even if I keep the light out and what not? I shoulda took pics of it. But it was kinda caked at the bottom. Also the algae was in the middle of the roots and it's at the top of the rock wool. Umm. Can u mix peroxide thru it while it's going the the system with the plants in it and all?
Billy the Mountain
Well-Known Member
No light, no algae. Algae on the surface of rockwool doesn't matter; you can cover the tops if it bothers you.
You can add h202 directly to the reservoir
Drop That Sound
Well-Known Member
Sure you weren't at 1300, and that your meter wasn't showing just the last 3 digits with a small multiplier symbol before them?
That bad one already looked pretty stunted.. but you should worry more about the new growth up top. Give it some more time to recover maybe..
Did you at least let the alcohol gas off before filling the res again? Or wash it out good anyway.?. Not sure if such a good idea, and recommend using bleach next time.. Better yet, run it at 3-5ppm the whole time using the calculator above^.
Also, don't be afraid to spray the roots off and get most of the scum or whatever when you need to dump and cleanout the res like that. Most the time it will spray right off. Easy on small plants, probably right in the kitchen sink.
That bad one already looked pretty stunted.. but you should worry more about the new growth up top. Give it some more time to recover maybe..
Did you at least let the alcohol gas off before filling the res again? Or wash it out good anyway.?. Not sure if such a good idea, and recommend using bleach next time.. Better yet, run it at 3-5ppm the whole time using the calculator above^.
Also, don't be afraid to spray the roots off and get most of the scum or whatever when you need to dump and cleanout the res like that. Most the time it will spray right off. Easy on small plants, probably right in the kitchen sink.