Advice on nutrient problem with aeroponics

Aquapondering

New Member
SOOO let me say I am sorry in advanced... This is the only place I could find to talk about hydroponics. I am growing tomatoes and I have a nutrient issue. Unfortunately it is illegal in NY to grow marijuana but I still grow my own foods usually in aquaponics. I am working on a large scale aquaponic system to go to market and feed my animals chickens, turkeys, goat, quail, rabbits, wife etc.

I wanted to see how aquaponic tomatoes would compare to hydroponic tomatoes. I started before I was ready with my RO water and didnt want to spend money on distilled water. I run off of well water and its hard water with a high PH. This started making problems with my aquaponics tank in the house. So I got a water softener but I think I still have good amount of calcium and magnesium. The plants in the aquaponics look better now and are growing insanely as aquaponics tend to do. Again I am gonna get an RO and not worry about any of it soon.

For my nutrients I got the GH green purple and orange. Using the 3,2,1 ratio for aggressive vegetation. I use PH down until I get a 5.5 PH I dont know my EC or TDS yet either. Light is 300 watt MarsHydro led. Temp is 75-80.

The problem I am having is yellow blotches on my leaves. Any advice on what could be causing this. I am assuming I am having some kind of lock out. I know it will be fixed when I have my RO filter. I am just really curious as to what the problem actually is simply to understand better.

Again Sorry for my post on this forum. I learned most of my hydro from here to apply it to my hydro experiment any way. Thanks in advanced :-)

You can also see a sensitive plant I germinated from an Ecuador seed! Its loving the hydro too!
 

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Atomizer

Well-Known Member
Dont use the water softener for growing, they can add a lot of sodium (Na) to the water.
I would use equal amounts of each nutrient component (6-10ml per gallon) and set the PH to 5.9 using nitric acid if possible. Get yourself an ec meter ;)
 

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
SOOO let me say I am sorry in advanced... This is the only place I could find to talk about hydroponics. I am growing tomatoes and I have a nutrient issue. Unfortunately it is illegal in NY to grow marijuana but I still grow my own foods usually in aquaponics. I am working on a large scale aquaponic system to go to market and feed my animals chickens, turkeys, goat, quail, rabbits, wife etc.

I wanted to see how aquaponic tomatoes would compare to hydroponic tomatoes. I started before I was ready with my RO water and didnt want to spend money on distilled water. I run off of well water and its hard water with a high PH. This started making problems with my aquaponics tank in the house. So I got a water softener but I think I still have good amount of calcium and magnesium. The plants in the aquaponics look better now and are growing insanely as aquaponics tend to do. Again I am gonna get an RO and not worry about any of it soon.

For my nutrients I got the GH green purple and orange. Using the 3,2,1 ratio for aggressive vegetation. I use PH down until I get a 5.5 PH I dont know my EC or TDS yet either. Light is 300 watt MarsHydro led. Temp is 75-80.

The problem I am having is yellow blotches on my leaves. Any advice on what could be causing this. I am assuming I am having some kind of lock out. I know it will be fixed when I have my RO filter. I am just really curious as to what the problem actually is simply to understand better.

Again Sorry for my post on this forum. I learned most of my hydro from here to apply it to my hydro experiment any way. Thanks in advanced :-)

You can also see a sensitive plant I germinated from an Ecuador seed! Its loving the hydro too!
Yah softened water will quickly kill plants. I use my well water. There is no calcium left for every ppm of junk in the water the softener will replace it with salt ions. So all your doing is giving them a salty bath.
 

Aquapondering

New Member
I get the ec/tds meter on Tuesday along with my under sink RO.
So its only salt then? No lock out of mag, cal, or iron?
I feel like I was getting lock out with the strait well water in my aquaponics. Nothing was growing for a while. Hell I still don't even have algae growth. Never experienced that before. Since my PH down is phosphoric acid it wont break down the cal like nitric acid?
I guess its just the salt then and without an analysis on my well I cant really know how much cal/mag I have right?
So my salt water and my well water are both a waste. Im gonna assume it would be better to bypass my soft water for well water until I get the RO.

Thanks for all the help! I was expecting back lash but then again it is a weed forum so guess your all chill :blsmoke:
 

JSB99

Well-Known Member
I get the ec/tds meter on Tuesday along with my under sink RO.
So its only salt then? No lock out of mag, cal, or iron?
I feel like I was getting lock out with the strait well water in my aquaponics. Nothing was growing for a while. Hell I still don't even have algae growth. Never experienced that before. Since my PH down is phosphoric acid it wont break down the cal like nitric acid?
I guess its just the salt then and without an analysis on my well I cant really know how much cal/mag I have right?
So my salt water and my well water are both a waste. Im gonna assume it would be better to bypass my soft water for well water until I get the RO.

Thanks for all the help! I was expecting back lash but then again it is a weed forum so guess your all chill :blsmoke:
You can use RO with water softeners. It will extend the life of the RO filters, which are going to be more expensive than salt.

Bring your pH up to about 5.8 - 6.0

Take note how much TDS is in your water before adding nutes. You need to offset your nutes by that much. For example, my tap water is 70ppm, so if I'm wanting my nutrient's tds @ 500ppm, my TDS meter should read 570ppm.
 

Lordhooha

Well-Known Member
I get the ec/tds meter on Tuesday along with my under sink RO.
So its only salt then? No lock out of mag, cal, or iron?
I feel like I was getting lock out with the strait well water in my aquaponics. Nothing was growing for a while. Hell I still don't even have algae growth. Never experienced that before. Since my PH down is phosphoric acid it wont break down the cal like nitric acid?
I guess its just the salt then and without an analysis on my well I cant really know how much cal/mag I have right?
So my salt water and my well water are both a waste. Im gonna assume it would be better to bypass my soft water for well water until I get the RO.

Thanks for all the help! I was expecting back lash but then again it is a weed forum so guess your all chill :blsmoke:
If you don’t know how many grains of hardness there is to your well water how can you properly setup the softener? I know i had culligan come out and do all mine I had them install a softener and under sink ro setup. However I have raw water ( well water ) to my grow room and outside water. I’ve never had any issue with my well water it comes out at 200ish ppm mostly calcium. How big is you ro setup will it be enough for your setup?I know mine has a 4 gallon holding tank which is nowhere near enough for my setup.
 
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