This Grow is Everything To Me (Expert Growers Please Help)

Hey everybody I know I post a lot of threads with a lot of questions and it might be annoying. I do plenty of research all day, in fact its all I do, but at the end of the day I might have learned a few things but it doesn't come close to answers I can get from you relating specifically to what is going on with my grow. I have sunk all of my money into this grow so failure is not an option, not only would I be broke but I would be heart broken. My grow has recently started to go downhill and I am in a state of panic. If you expert growers could be so kind to help me out my appreciation could not be measured. My main issue is water temp and ph. My water temp issue shouldnt be a problem for long because I ordered a chiller. FYI I also have recently added an air stone in my rez for the hell of it. 1. One of my seeds died during planting, i'm pretty sure because I put it in a rockwool cube that was soaked, so im assuming it died from drowning right? 2. There is hydroton dust in the bottom of my buckets, will this kill or affect my plants in any way? 3. I am using a 600watt hps bulb running on 50% 30 inches away from my plants 24/7 is this too much? 4. My PH refuses to go down. I have added half a bottle of PH down and it stays at about 7.5. I have tried numerous things and have no new results, all I can think of is that is is my meter, but I have a top of the line 3 in 1 Water Meter which tests the water temperature and PPM just fine. Any ideas? 5. I live in the top floor of a house where there are 2 rooms. You walk up the stairs and you are in my bedroom and then walking through my bedroom is a door to my grow room. I have no fresh air intake into the room technically. I do have all 4 windows in my bedroom open at all times and wind is constantly blowing into my room. I am also constantly in an out of my grow room, sometimes even leaving the door just wide open so more fresh air can just go in. And obviously I have air stones in each of my buckets and my rez. Is this enough air/fresh air? I am going to attach a picture of my seed that died during germination/planting. Please if you have any thought into any of these issues please reply. Thank you.

don't over commit yourself. If you're truly broke how can you afford top of the line ph/ppm meters and electricity for a 600 watt light 24 hours a day? You need to learn to budget better because you don't need a whole lot to be successful growing some plants for yourself.

Try soil first and if the water quality is still an issue then fix it. Sell some equipment if you have to. I buy my water from the store right now. Plant the seed in the medium, get it moist and let it do it's thing under some cfls or something. Once it's a few inches tall then put the HID on it.

lol that's why im broke I probably should have been budgeting better from the start! I did just switch to 18/6 so I hope that fine for my plants! Im going to try soil my next grow but I need to crop something off of this one or there will be no next grow!!!

Okay so I messed up! I was concentrating on all of the wrong things I didn't even realize that my ballast was running at 100% instead of 50, which means my babies were getting wayyyyy too much light for early veg. So yesterday not only were they switched from 24/0 to 18/6 but I turned them from 100 to 75%, will this help there stunted growth and put them back on track? O and fyi my ppm, water temp and air temp are all good! Still just workin on that PH!

get a liquid ph test kit they are 5$ and need no calibrating. at ph 7.5 ur girls will struggle but live and grow slowly. get it below 6 asap.

Get a cup of water put your ph probe into it and add some drops of ph down, if the reading doesn't change then its your meter, get some ph 4 and ph 7 and calibrate your meter, this is going to be your biggest problem.... You have no intake but I assume you have an exhaust fan? If so that should give you a bit of passive intake so shouldn't be a major problem, do you have air circulating fans in the room, cos you'll definitely want at least 1.

I bought API PH 7 and a PH test kit today, going to match up the ph in a little bit, and yes I have 2 fans circulating the air in my grow room. Any suggestions about the light and new seeds?

The light doesn't sound like it's your problem. Just make sure it's not too close if it's a 600w HPS. 30 inch is fine. Get that pH fixed!

Definately get that Ph issue sorted out.. If you dont know your Ph you are running blind!! It does sound like a problem with your meter.. or perhaps the probe? Did you buy it new? If its used you may want to consider replacing the sensor tip for the Ph if all you are getting is a constant 7.5... half a bottle of Ph down should at LEAST make it change a little bit even in a huge res... What is the natural ppm of your water before you add nutes? If its higher than 150ish You may want to consider using a water filter of some kind.. even a brita would be better than nothing if your tap water is the shits... If you dont have a fresh air intake.. you could make yourself a few Co2 generators.. 2 litre bottle half full of water.. a cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of dry active yeast.. drill a hole in the lid of the bottle and shake the shit out of it.. it will start producing Co2 within about 12 hours.. then just give it a shake every time your in your grow room.. it will last about 2 weeks before you need to add more sugar.. and you will need to replace the mixure every 4-6 weeks (it will give off a strong alcohol odour). The only real reason you need fresh air is to replace the Co2 for the plants to use.. so if you toss a couple of those bottles in there.. it will give off enough Co2 that you wont need fresh air in.. and if you can get the ppm high enough it will give your plants a nice boost! Good luck!

It was definitely my meter im going to need a new one for sure! So I bought this for my rez buit will it hurt my plants?

That's a buffer...they work well to stabilize pH fluctuations which are inevitable. As mentioned, keep ur pH in check with test strips or a meter if possible.

Sounds like you need a stress free soil grow bro. Are you going to be able to pay the electricity bill for that 600 watt hid light? Leds are a great way to cut expense, even cfl bulbs work great. Don't even bet on having a good outcome prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

just use advanced nutrients, all there nutes are ph balanced. I use tap water with Nirvana, Bud Candy and Earth Juice bloom in flower time and it goes from 7.3 to 5.5 which is almost perfect for hydro. I think they are a little costly but its worth it.

IrishSmoke00 said:

It was definitely my meter im going to need a new one for sure! So I bought this for my rez buit will it hurt my plants?

Click to expand...

Ummm.. I would say dont use that... lol... It looks like its for fish tanks or something? If your strapped for cash.. go get some Ph Drops.. they will give you a close enough estimate to keep things healthy at least!

I'm adding to the advice here about PH -- if your meter is new and of good quality, it might just need calibration. The tip was that you added a half-bottle of ph down to your res and nothing happened. Just a little -- like a teaspoon -- should show measurable results! I mixed my own from the powder, and one small spoonful would take me from 6.5 to 5.5 in a 3.5 gallon res.

I've come back to your list:
1) The sprout may have drowned. After the initial soaking of the rockwool, you should pick up the cube and get a feel for its weight with water. Then don't water it again until it's lightened up a bit. And water from the bottom by putting the cube in a small bowl of water so that it absorbs water about halfway up the side. That's it. You want to root to seek water downward, and too much dampness on the top of the cube can contributed to damping off disease.

2) Don't worry about the dust, as long as you had pre-rinsed the hydroton. If you didn't, just do a res change now and start with clean water. Even then there will be a little dust that settles to the bottom of the res for a while. This won't hurt the plants.

3) I ran my 400WMH 24/7 on mine 18" away, and had no problems. This, however, was after a week or so under a 40W CFL while the seedling grew in the cube enough for a root to be poking down through the bottom.

4) The PH probe is much more delicate than the ppm probe. Your ppm probe will probably last a lifetime, but the PH probe may need to be changed/calibrated.

5) Your plants have plenty of air. When people say fresh air, they don't necessarily mean open windows and a blowing breeze. You just don't want to lock them up in an air-tight room with NO air exchange. Opening the door for a while each day while fresh air enters from your other room will be fine.