1st dwc experiance...trial and error

So here is the scoop...
A few weeks ago i started germinating some mixed indica seeds.....out of 6 seeds I have 1 decent plant.... however all new growth is lime green. after doing some research I think it is because the light was too far away. i have attached a pic if anyone can confirm this? my setup is as follows..

250 watt digital ballast (MH for veg and HPS for flowering)
140 cfm squirrell cage exhaust fan
4 2.5" intake vents
2 Aquarium air pumps
4 1" bubble stones
24" x 16" x 8.5" rubbermaid
six 3.5"pots
cabinet is 32"W x 26"D x 48"H

Using well water at the moment. PPM 225 out of the tap. ph out of the tap it 7.5 but i allways bring it down to 5.5-6.0
temp in cabinet is about 78*
water temp is around 69*
this week i started using AN iguana juice, tarantula, pirana and B+. With the added nutes ppm is at 262.
Light was 3' above plant untill yesterday when i droped it to about 1'

Now last week I germinated 2 church, 2 trainwreck and an 2 ams seed all femanized. At the moment these seedlings are just getting ph adjusted water. They are all doing well and I would like to figure this lime green thing out before i pull them out of my little veg cabinet and put them under the 250 MH. This one little plant is like a trial run I geuss.

here is a picture of unhealthy plant under the mh and a couple pics of the new girls...

I don't know what the yellowing could be. Just be patient and see if it rides it out. One thing I'd do is lightproof that blue reservoir. That plastic glows when under bright light. I got some Krylon for plastic. First black then white over that. I had a great grom destroyed by root rot from this coupled with high reservoir water temperatures. I use a circulating set up with 2 10 gallon totes stacked up circulating from bottom to top all the time. ZERO light gets into my reservoir. Root Rot is a monster!!

sympLED said:

I don't know what the yellowing could be. Just be patient and see if it rides it out. One thing I'd do is lightproof that blue reservoir. That plastic glows when under bright light. I got some Krylon for plastic. First black then white over that. I had a great grom destroyed by root rot from this coupled with high reservoir water temperatures. I use a circulating set up with 2 10 gallon totes stacked up circulating from bottom to top all the time. ZERO light gets into my reservoir. Root Rot is a monster!!

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Thanks man.... Ya I'm not too sure of the yellowing.. Almost seems like it's getting better now that I have droped my light. I dont know if it's related or not but I seem to have a bit of nute burn on the leaves so i'm gonna lay off the nutes for a while. I would like to get this all straigtend before I put the new babies in the cabinet....
Oh ya...before I fired that cabinet up, I foil taped the entire rubbermaid. It's lightproof now

Very cool. I like the look of that grow room man. All that mylar with the hood and reservoir. Looks like something from Total Recall.

u should keep ur ppm 440-800 depending
on wat brand of nutes ur useing

hey man, I just finished my first DWC grow last December and I can verify what sympLED was saying about root rot. light in the res was one of problems, I had loads of whitefly larvae in my synthetic grow. <--they weren't even killed by massive amounts of phosphates and nitrates present in synthetics. So, I cant even imagine how much damage would be done with organics feeding these little buggers (which i'm trying on my second DWC right now). I just traced and cut some black garbage bags to line my lid with and it seems to cut out most light.
Also, I wouldn't listen to what sdpgrow says about your ppm. Us DWC guys should be using about 1/3 to 1/4 of what the recommended ppm is from most nutrient companies. Given the fact that our roots are constantly subjected to the nute solution (unlike ebb&flow for example) it is much easier to overdue it.
Other than that stuff your grow looks better than my current one. THUMBS UP BUDDY!

I take back that first paragraph. I am an idiot and didn't read that you had foil taped that shit like a pro. What I said about ppm still stands though.

I agree about the nutes. Keep it lower than you would ever imagine. I tried using Fox Farms feeding schedule and burned the crap out of my first try. So this time I've been using 1/4 strength for 4 weeks and finally worked up to 1/2 strength nutes for weeks 5 and 6. Less is better.

Thanks for all the advice.... I'll keep you posted....

So here we are 5 days later... I have moved the 1st Grow Doc plant into soil so I can move the six babies into the cabinet at the same time. It seems to be doing awsome..besides the little bit of nute burn from the dwc. I have since stopped using nutes at this point....just a little B+.

The Green house seeds...2 church, 2 trainwreck, 1 a.m.s. and one Grow Doc a.d.h.d. are doing great.

been watering with ph'd RO water with 1/4 strength B+.
They have been under 4 40watt 6500k cfls 18/6. All plants are showing roots through the bottom of the net pots so I would like to move them into the DWC cabinet. Is it to soon to put them under the 250watt MH? starting distance from plant to light would be 3 feet. Im just wondering if it would still be too much light for these babies.

Any opinions?

Ok..did some more reading and decided the 250 watt mh will b fine... I hope.

mixed 6 gallons of RO water with 1ml B+ and 1ml of plantacillin...........temps are at 77* and res temp is at 65* humidity 40%
watter is 19ppm out of the bottle and 24ppm with additives....pretty weak.

here are some better pics:

imo 3ft is too far away even for seedling for a 250. i would try 18 inches away and watch for stretching and keep dropping it down closer

wiseguy316 said:

imo 3ft is too far away even for seedling for a 250. i would try 18 inches away and watch for stretching and keep dropping it down closer

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so as long as the temp is ok, they can handle all that light?

250 is not alot of light for them right now, it is perfect, make sure you have good air circulation and they will love it, after a bit you should be able to drop that 250 about 4-5 inches from them with a fan blowing, if the leaves start curling down raise it up a few inches

wiseguy316 said:

250 is not alot of light for them right now, it is perfect, make sure you have good air circulation and they will love it, after a bit you should be able to drop that 250 about 4-5 inches from them with a fan blowing, if the leaves start curling down raise it up a few inches

Click to expand...

Thanks man...check back for updates. +rep

So I have now dropped the light down to 14 inches over the past two days. Lights are on 18/6. I have also added small amounts of tarantula and piranha. (1/8tsp each in 18L H2O ph=5.6-6.2) roots on 4 plants are well into the solution the other two are barely out of the net pot for some reason....im sure they are fine. above the res there really isnt alot of change.. ill post some pics on the weekend, should see some growth by then...

ya u can have the light as close to them as u want as long as u can put ur hand under the light and its not hot on ur hand...i have a 400w that im on my second grow with and usually at the begining its not more than like a foot away mayb alil more....

Went in to check on my babbies tonight and discoverd light rust spots forming on a ccpl leaves. Nute burn? There isnt alot in there. ppm is only at 98. 16L res and i have added 1/8 tsp of B+,tarantula and piranha. ph is holding well and temps are around 75* - 80* at plant lvl. res temp is 67*. Should I dilute the res a little? Or is this from too much heat? Im starting to second geuss this whole hydro thing. I think if these plants take a turn for the worst im gonna go back to soil. I would really like for this to work though.

are they in rockwool under the hydroton?

So I have been doing some reading and im thinking maybe the spots are from spraying the plants? Any thoughts?