Something seems to be off but can't figure out what exactly.

C

Crownia

Member
Hello, It's my first DWC grow and 1 already have a problem.

It's indoor grow(hydroponic DWC), they're now about 21 days old. They were fed SOIL nutrients(unbalanced PH) for the first two weeks as the grow wasn't actually planned and I didn't have hydroponic nutrients. They were yellowish when I finally managed to get hydroponic nutrients and PH+EC meter. They've been like that for a week.. They won't grow, they won't get worse.. Roots are okay. PH isn't stable, it will climb from 5.3 to 7.8 in under 24 hours. I prepared the solution by adjusting the PH to 7.0, then throwing in the nutes(B'cuzz Hydro A 2ml per litre, B'cuzz Hydro B 2ml per litre, ATAMI Rootbastic 0,3ml per litre, ATA Clean 0,01ml per litre. PH was adjusted with plain vinegar.) and then adjusting the PH to 5.3... Tap water PH is 7.8 and EC is around .25.. Nutrient solution EC was 1.4, a bit high but I'm kinda used to overfeeding these at this point.. They seem to like it.. Usually. The seeds were started in COCO-buttons and they were transplanted to hydro in those buttons&hydrorocks. Sorry for writing it all in one chapter, my tablet won't accept the use of "Enter" on this site for some reason. Please ask questions if you need to know something to help me :)foto_no_exif.jpg
 
peter berger

peter berger

Well-Known Member
Also if the ph is to high it can cause nutrient lockout in which the roots of the plants can not properly intake the nutrients.
 
W

wiethe20

Well-Known Member
No cal-mag ?something is being locked out more linen likely....try googling nutrient lockout chart...it shows from boron to zinc and everything between at what ph they get locked out at so start from there and process of elimination goodluck
 
C

Crownia

Member
I'm using LED panel. It uses 76W on 230V, with two cooling fans on it. It's chinese grow light and was sold as 300W grow light. I've been using it for years and never had any issues. However, plants grew pretty close to the light when I was away.. Those leaves did show some heat stress too. The PH-issue.. I'm always setting it back to 5.3, so it's off for about 8 hours at the most. I'm now spraying the foliage with mild nutrient solution to see if it would help.

I really don't think it's lockout because they're still alive. I've seen faster PH-deaths in soil, and now we're talking about hydroponics. Any idea what's rising my PH? Never seen this before >_< Oh, and the picture was edited because my tablet F'ed the colors. Colors in the picture are exactly the same I see in real life. I was actually thinking about ZINC deficiency but it should be gone by now as I've been adjusting the PH and it's perfect for like 16 hours a day.
 
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C

Crownia

Member
They do not really show any signs of overfeeding... One of four seems to be growing again and the pH seems to be stabilising as it was 6.6 this morning. Doesn't really help though, cause the water change is in a few days. I'm probably going to swap vinegar to a commercial product and dropping the nutes down a bit..
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
Crownia said:
They do not really show any signs of overfeeding... One of four seems to be growing again and the pH seems to be stabilising as it was 6.6 this morning. Doesn't really help though, cause the water change is in a few days. I'm probably going to swap vinegar to a commercial product and dropping the nutes down a bit..
Click to expand...
Did you see those pics of the leaves you posted? Burned!
 
hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
You say the roots are okay and I will bet they are brown and slimy. Your pH swings are probably due to root problems.
 
C

Crownia

Member
I'm just gonna be like I didn't see the messages above, as I find them pretty aggressive. I've been growing in soil for years, I don't post questions when I see a nute burn, or my roots aren't healthy. The fact is the roots are perfectly white, apart from the older roots that are becoming thick/strong, they're pale yellow/white, as they should be. I mixed new nute solution, tap water pH was 7.5.. It went down to 6.9 when I threw in the nutes(around 3/4 of what they should be getting at this point). I left out all additives apart from ATA Clean, which is supposed to keep the solution clean(hence the name, SURPRISE!). So the actual question is: what can my tap water contain, that won't allow pH to change "permanently"? It seems to be common problem in this are. I dug down to this case and found out aquarium owners have been forced to install purification systems to combat abnormal pH swings. The only two things that are different with this grow, compared to my other grows, are the water and the f'ed up first weeks(latter shouldn't matter anymore, as they've been getting what they should be getting for enough time now.)
 
C

Crownia

Member
Ha!

It was nothing you were guessing. So, I did a water change. Everything went good for twelve hours but then all hell broke loose. The nutrient solution started producing REALLY much of the snot, grey goo, slime.. whatever you want to call it. Infection, not root rot though. Well, it was eating the roots. YES! Eating! Im still unsure where it came from but I suspect it was either the vinegar or Rootbastic.

The plants were about to lose the fight, so I threw in the final solution. Sodium Hypochlorite. 2ml of it to approx 8 litres of water. It seems to be working and I really dont want to hear anything about it being toxic.

EDIT. Its possible that the thing came from the tap too. Whatever it is, it seems to pull out A LOT of oxygen.
 
C

Crownia

Member
polishpollack said:
slime in a hydro grow is usually algae.
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True, but algae doesn't appear in 12 hours. It's just not possible. This was bacterial organism anyway.

Sodium hypochlorite killed the organism and the plants actually seemed to enjoy the bath in the scary toxic pool cleaner ;)
 
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