leaves are curling down and algae is growing!!!! help plz....!

this is my first hydroponic grow so plz help.... ok my setup is a bubbleponics system from SH Hydroponics Inc. i got 2 85 watt SL85/65K cfls. one is bloom bulb and the other is a veg bulb. the ligths are about 3-4 inches from tops of plants. i planted these plants 2 weeks ago. 2 of the plants are 3" tall, 2 of them are 2" tall, and 2 of them are 1"-2" tall. the nutreints im using are premesured for this system. they get 19hrs of light and 5hrs dark. it called for no nutreints till atleast a month old but i went with half nutreints ever since they were planted. everything was going GREAT for the first 2 weeks, except for the fact that 2 of them seem to be shorter than the others. then i listened to my frineds and changed the water that night. the next morning i noticed i had a couple of leaves on some of the plants curling under. i flushed the water immediatly, thinking i put alil over half on the nutreint mix i added. so when i flushed it i put a lil less than half of the nutrients in it just to be safe that wasnt it. the next day i had a few more leaves effected by whatever this was and now also some leaves were curling up instead, plus 1 whole plant was fully looking wilted. o and there now appears to be a indent in one of the leaves. in case that wasnt bad enough there was also green algae growing on top of the rockwool cubes and along the plastic wraping on the side. i dont know what went wrong. at first i was thinkin the chemicals, then the flush didnt fix it so i figured it was because the plants went into shock from draining the water... but now that its getting worst and the algae has appeard i dont know what the problem could be. i have a lil fan thats been on medium and was doing great....but maybe it should be on low??? another issue could be because it has gotten cold here the past couple days and maybe that had an effect. its been around 78 degrees and at night getting to around 70. i dont have gauges in my closet right now to tell what the humidity or temp is in there but i think those temp readings are correct. and my ph has been a constant 6.25. if u have any good coments or opinions plz tell me asap for the health of my babies depend on it...! thank you all so much for your time and knowledge. p.s. i also cut the 2 leaves that were effected the most off at the tip.

ok so i have done some more research and from what i have gathered i guess i should have my feeder tubes under the rockwell cubes. so i have now moved them all, hopefully this takes care of my algae problem. i read that algae is caused by a few things, one of which is high amounts of nutreints. could this be why my plants are curling also? even though i flushed the system and put less nutreints in it....? plz anyone with advise let me know.

From what I understand, adding a bit of hydrogen peroxide to your reservoir once a week will prevent algae from growing. I grow in soil so I don't have first-hand knowledge of this, so maybe one of the hydro guys could chime in on this one and set the record straight.

nosrac said:

ok so i have done some more research and from what i have gathered i guess i should have my feeder tubes under the rockwell cubes. so i have now moved them all, hopefully this takes care of my algae problem. i read that algae is caused by a few things, one of which is high amounts of nutreints. could this be why my plants are curling also? even though i flushed the system and put less nutrients in it....? plz anyone with advise let me know.

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I am just going through my first grow and ran into the same problems.... but much worse. I inadvertently fixed my problems by soaking the the plants (the rockwool cubes) in water with some PH down. I tested the ph of my water and it seamed fine... until I picked up one of the cubes and tested the water running out of the cube. It had a ph of around 8... so I added some PH down. and soaked the plants overnight. I then had some new leaf growth the next day. My first lesson was 1) soak your rockwool cubes in PH down for 24hrs.

Then I found out that you are supposed to have aerator in the water (fish tank bubbler) to oxygenate the water. I was trying to do a water culture method so my plants were soaking in unoxygenated water. I bought an air pump and put the air stones in the water underneath the plant baskets. My second lesson 2) oxygenate the water.

I first started out adding regular dirt soil plant fertalizer to my water solution and the plants would yellow almost instantly.... so I didn't try that again.. I did the whole rinsing thing too... felt kind of like I was working in an ER or something. Anyhow, I went down to my local hydro/agriculture store and bought some generic nutients for about $8. It was a kit with a bag of A nutrients and a bag of B nutrients. Add them seperately to the water and then to your water tank. Part C is for flowing and I just added that recently. My third lesson 3) use proper nutients and mix per instructions. My plants were all about 2 inches tall for about a month and then finally ... bang! They took off....

I made my first attempt with junk seeds I dug out of a bag of quality stuff... only problem is that the seed was the product of a hemaphrodite... that's the only way it could have gotten their... so when they grew... they were both male/hem.. My fourth lesson 4) start with good seeds. I finally ordered on the internet (with a cc ... too brave!) and I'm very happy with the results. I bought a packet of Low Rider 2 seeds (an autoflowering dwarf) some mango and super silver haze. I'll tell you... the autoflowing is THE way to go for a newbie... it starts flowing right away (2-3 weeks) so you have a bunch of plants about 6-8 inches high that are already starting to flower (or turn to male)... so before their even really started vegitating I can tell the males and pull them right away. Honesty, I had never seen a female marj. plant until this grow... so the ability to tell the males from females and be SURE I have girls going into the final stretch was VERY reasurring ... and gratifying. I can't recommend these little guys enought. I started searching and found out that their are a variety of strains crossed with the autoflowing dwarfs.... deisel... blue berry...AK47... and so on..

I harvested way too soon and learned what premature weed tasts like. My second grow (clones of the best dwarf and mango) are coming along nicely.... My fifth lesson (and last but most rewarding) was to learn the right time to harvest... search the forums .... from what I've surmized ... wait until at least half the white pistols have turned into red hairs (early=pych high) or wait until all the pistols have turned red (late=body high)... of you could use a microscope and check the tricomes (crystals) and look for them to turn from white to a milky color.

I'm sure my last lesson to come is the curing process and I'm sure that this is a very important part to master.... so I better start searching the forums for info.
Oh... and to answer the algae question.. What I've read so far is that by airating the water with an air stone that it will help prevent algae from growing in your nutrient tank. The second thing to do is to prevent light from reaching the rockwool with nutrient... I use a piece of plain white paper with a slit cut in it about half way. I slide this around the stalk of the plant and use it to cover my rockwool cubes. It works to keep the algae at a very minimum ... actually it does a fantastic job... I can really tell the difference because my girlfriend took the paper off and then I got bad algae within 1 weeks time. Something also unexpected happened with the white paper container covers... it makes a great reflector and helps the bottom half of the plant receive extra light.... I got a bunch more shoots at the bottom after i started doing this... I tried on different clones started at the same time and I can see a difference in just 2 weeks.

Hope this helps... I figure its the least I can do.... pay it forward.

Thank you to everyone else who have helped me with advise in these forums. Even if I didn't start the thread. Now I just have to find out if the hydrogen peroxide helps...
Cheers,
Lithium Penguin

rolla8 said:

From what I understand, adding a bit of hydrogen peroxide to your reservoir once a week will prevent algae from growing. I grow in soil so I don't have first-hand knowledge of this, so maybe one of the hydro guys could chime in on this one and set the record straight.

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I found this on a fish tank website. They were talking about natural methods to balance an aquarium ecosystem.

1) Barley Straw Repulse Algae
According to a study by the Integrated Approach to Crop Research Centre for Aquatic Plant Management the use of barley straw placed in a mesh in a pond or aquarium will release chemicals, specifically hydrogen peroxide as it decays under intense light. Low levels of peroxide are said to be hinder and prevent algae growth.


http://www.aquascapingworld.com/magazine/Magazine/Methods-to-Prevent-Algae.html