Help with aero overwatering..

Possibly consider a silica treatment for your setup. Im told this acts as a great ph buffer as well as allows for your plants to sustain higher heat levels as well as stronger stems. try your best to keep ph levels in between 5.5 and 5.8. Also topping off your res with fresh water daily it keeps the ph levels and ppm levels steady always do this before adjusting ph

Otherwise the Dyna-gro i use doesnt require me to check my ph but everytime i change my res weekly (i used to check and adjust daily).

Check your roots to ensure no root rot is occurring you want white or slightly yellow(on older bigger roots). As your room temps are a little higher than what the plants without co2 should like. Bacteria will grow in your tank if kept above 74 degrees w/o enough Dissolved oxygen. Also keep in mind for veg your RH is a little low. humidifier from a thrift store or craiglist can easily fix this

im trying to keep an
Optimal Temperature: Between 70 - 85 degrees Fahrenheit (21 - 29 degrees Celsius). (anything over 79 recommends Co2 augmentation) **actually my temps stay below 75 now**
Optimal Humidity: 60 - 70% rH for vegetative growth.
40 - 60% rH during flowering (lower rH helps to reduce the risk of fungal contamination on your already moist dank buds).
80 - 90% rH for rooting clones and cuttings (high humidity is a must as these new plants may not have roots to draw moisture through).

I also wouldn't recommend 45 minute off. it only takes 15 minutes for roots to dry out and die. ive played with enough clones that were rooting out of rockwool to watch them dry out.

subbed ill come back

Fallinprince you have been very helpful and I hope to learn more from you. And to the guy saying my res ks too small; understa
nd this is a 3 plant op 10 gals is plentt

I am using a similar system (same sprayer nozzles too) in my garden. I am new to this type of grow system but have learned a few tricks that might help.
First...Make sure your water temp stays below 74 all the time. If you can't afford a water chiller then you can always keep a few frozen water bottles around and put them in the res to cool it. Just keep a few in rotation because you can go through them quickly when it is warm. When they thaw, replace with a frozen one and put thawed one back in the freezer.
Second: If your roots are moving toward your drain then move them away so they don't clog the drain and cause standing water in the chamber. You can get some plastic mesh material and drape it inside the chamber and tape the excess sides and ends to the outside of the chamber to keep it in place. Make sure to make little holes in the mesh for the nozzles to poke through so they can continue to spray- this keeps the roots from clogging the system and causing stagnant pools.
I have been placing extra black grow media baskets directly under the roots (upside down) to promote them to grow on to something rather than growing through the channels and drain. It also helps support the plants and provide an open air space under the plant so pools don't develop and become stagnant in turn promoting root rot which, trust me...you don't want.
I hope this helps and if you need to see pics then message me and I will send you some.

I've gotten some great advice on here! Thank you all. Now, anyclues as to why my plants look the way they do?

Im gonna put a humidifier. Oregondiesel, do I just simply pull the roots put pf the drain with my hands? I dun wanna damage them

fallinprince said:

Possibly consider a silica treatment for your setup. Im told this acts as a great ph buffer as well as allows for your plants to sustain higher heat levels as well as stronger stems. try your best to keep ph levels in between 5.5 and 5.8. Also topping off your res with fresh water daily it keeps the ph levels and ppm levels steady always do this before adjusting ph

Otherwise the Dyna-gro i use doesnt require me to check my ph but everytime i change my res weekly (i used to check and adjust daily).

Check your roots to ensure no root rot is occurring you want white or slightly yellow(on older bigger roots). As your room temps are a little higher than what the plants without co2 should like. Bacteria will grow in your tank if kept above 74 degrees w/o enough Dissolved oxygen.

Click to expand...

I drop my pH daily but the ppm level stay the same as if the plants aren't taking the nutes. Their old enough now where I would assume they should be but everyday the ppm is 400. I just dumped my res and am doing a 24 hour flush to see of it make a difference then im gonna add a light nute mix, maybe 200 ppm or so and see if over ferting was the problem.

grabbing the roots is fine do be gentle i havent really figured out which ones are fragile and which ones airnt but when i pulled a lock(like hair) out of one of my tubes it resisted quite a bit. i think you need to take care of the REALLY white ones they seem to break easier. dont worry if a few bits break off the plant will grow 2 or more back in its place. just make sure to throw them away and dont let them re-enter the system to rot

just SCRub like your going into surgery or coat your arms in rubbin alcohol to remove as much bacteria as possible. so you dont accidentally give yourself root rot.

Personally im beginning to think a small amount of heat stress with the need for a higher humidity. with silica and a humidifer im thinking your plants will shoot back. If the root inspection comes across any slime then you will NEED beneficials, bleach, or hydrogen peroxide (FOOD GRADE not store bought 3%)

His cup idea to catch the roots doesnt sound like a bad plan

ps what are you doing with your pump 15 minutes on off? and wuts the temp of your res?

fallinprince said:

grabbing the roots is fine do be gentle i havent really figured out which ones are fragile and which ones airnt but when i pulled a lock(like hair) out of one of my tubes it resisted quite a bit. i think you need to take care of the REALLY white ones they seem to break easier. dont worry if a few bits break off the plant will grow 2 or more back in its place. just make sure to throw them away and dont let them re-enter the system to rot

just SCRub like your going into surgery or coat your arms in rubbin alcohol to remove as much bacteria as possible. so you dont accidentally give yourself root rot.

Personally im beginning to think a small amount of heat stress with the need for a higher humidity. with silica and a humidifer im thinking your plants will shoot back. If the root inspection comes across any slime then you will NEED beneficials, bleach, or hydrogen peroxide (FOOD GRADE not store bought 3%)

His cup idea to catch the roots doesnt sound like a bad plan

ps what are you doing with your pump 15 minutes on off? and wuts the temp of your res?

Click to expand...

My res temp stay s at about 22celcius. Im now running my pumps 15on/15off. I just recently switched my base nutes to a light sensigrow 2part at 300ppm I do believe your correct about heat stress and humidity, since I changed my water schedule the humidity raised to 45% I've got two vortex 175cfm fans on the way along with airstones cause the roots have made their way into my main res. I haven't heard anyone mention a nute deficiency or toxicity so im going to tune up my environment and see how that goes. Since the 24way hour flush and nute renewal the curling has diminished but the leaves are starting to canoe, is that heat stress?

1 minute on 5 minutes off

buy another timer. You can get a digital one for $25 (pain in the azz to setup). You get get an really nice one for $85 with the knobs for on and off times.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/150004-plant-moisture-stress-symptoms-solutions.html


http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688 GREAT THREAD

Your plants are too green to be having problems with your nutrients and your ppm levels are in a good range they airnt Stupid dark showing over fert.

maybe your plants would benefit from silica in your system (botanicare sells silica blast Dyna-grow sells pro-tekt(recommended)) its only like 10$ for a small container

Also if the new leaves are still showing problems it could be that they need more water. in which case maybe some beneficial bacteria would do your root systems good. (roots in your main tank isn't a bad thing and good call on the air stone in the main res it will help further oxygenate your whole system

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-how-breed-your-own-beneficial.html Read the whole thread or Dont Do it

cruzer101 said:

I have grown hydro (sprayers) a bunch of times and tried different things. I have a cycle timer but Ill tell ya, that 15 min timer will work fine. Set it 15 on and 15 off.
Don't worry about the puddles as long as its draining and no, you don't need an air stone the roots get plenty of oxygen. I don't think its over watering, looks like pH is off.

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sir, you are correct. after doing everything i possibly could i have my temps at a steady 75F and humidity at 50%. so its not the environment. my pH drifts upwards in a matter of a few hours. ill bring it down to 5.5 at 6pm and by 11pm its up to 6.0, by the time i wake up - no telling. this explains why the leaves are clawing and drooping and canoeing. my pH meter is calibrated to the T and fully functional; i need advice on buffering pH for a longer amount of time. its like the more water cycles that drain back to the res, the higher the pH gets. im sure this is normal to some extent but my case is severe. any tips/advice? anyone?

You need silica. but i will warn you if not mixed well before adding other nutrients it will solidify and clog ur sprayers

http://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Gro-Pro-tekt-Tek-032-Silicon-Supplement/dp/B000E1VZHC 16$
Even Advanced nutrients has a silica product called rhino skin the only company that i cant find one for is GH

I use this its an excellent PH buffer it should be added first mixed very well then you add your other stuff then Ph with Grow and R/o water. Usually my ph lands between 5.4 and 5.7 at low doses of grow. then i adjust to 5.8 and it used to stay stead for a solid week

Now that i use Beneficial bacteria in my setup my ph drifts down over time & as an added bonus i get HUGE root balls in small amounts of time. and no more worring about root rot

What nutrients are you using? Dyna-gro's ph hold steady. Im told GH has you flying all over the place.

Jakabok Botch said:

u need an air pump flowing through ur res so ur water doesnt get stale an ur plants dont drown.... and i really dont think they should be off 45 min....thats quite a while and with no medium in aero the roots can dry out easily

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best answer

Looks like Low Pressure aero to me. 1 minute on 4 minutes off or 1/5. 15 on 15 off is your best bet until you invest in a better timer... that will be soon .. yes? Preset 1/4 timer is about $60 and a nice set however you want timer is about $85. Most of the digital timers are either super expensive or only let you set 8-12x a day. With 1/4 your timer needs at least 24 on/offs just for 1 hour.Res temp should be 65-69f. Change your res 1x every 7-10 days(little more often with small res) and do a clearex flush, 5.6 - 6.1 ph with 5.8 perfect( some might disagree with this by .1-.2). With 1 on 4 off you do not need a res bubbler, water gets oxygen every 4 minutes from mix from runoff, however bubbler never hurts.

UNLESS....
Too many people run an airstone from a pump sucking up hot air, or with no filter on it pushing any crap that is in the air into your res.This is very bad if your res temps are too high. Good that you are trying to add oxygen to res but if temp too high it won't work. The higher the temp the less oxygen water can hold. 76f and higher can start to look like a lab experiment in your system if you are not on top of it 24/7, even then too high a temp and ...

I use an igloo 37.5 gallon marine cooler as my res and GH nutes. No issues what so ever. The main reason your ph will rise and fall is res temps and res size. Most people have a res too small and res temps too high and both can cause severe issues.


Good Luck

Short answer:
clearex flush for 4 > 24 hours, res change, better timer, keep res temp below 70f if you can and a larger res. Last run a little lite as apposed to hot nutes, Aero does not need the same ppm as DWC. Many people run aero super hot, and many plants can take it. Thing is you get the same results with 900-1000ppm (even a little less, and proper additives) as you do with 2k ppm.

fallinprince said:

You need silica. but i will warn you if not mixed well before adding other nutrients it will solidify and clog ur sprayers

http://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Gro-Pro-tekt-Tek-032-Silicon-Supplement/dp/B000E1VZHC 16$
Even Advanced nutrients has a silica product called rhino skin the only company that i cant find one for is GH

I use this its an excellent PH buffer it should be added first mixed very well then you add your other stuff then Ph with Grow and R/o water. Usually my ph lands between 5.4 and 5.7 at low doses of grow. then i adjust to 5.8 and it used to stay stead for a solid week

Now that i use Beneficial bacteria in my setup my ph drifts down over time & as an added bonus i get HUGE root balls in small amounts of time. and no more worring about root rot

What nutrients are you using? Dyna-gro's ph hold steady. Im told GH has you flying all over the place.

Click to expand...

Im using advanced nutrients pH perfect line and it seems like it takes about a week for me for the ph to buffer correctly. It seems to have stayed steadily at 5.7 so im not touching it.

I appreciate all of you alls help I got some good useful advice, since there's alot of people tapping into this thread I want to post some pics of this powdery white stuff that's on my hydroton and see if y'all can give some input(I know I've got problems like a mofo) this is my first grow and I don't want to get all the way to late flower then end up with shitty rotted bud. Im gonna post some pics in a few hours of this white stuff and try to capture the consistency as best I can; stay tuned and thanks for all of your input.

As long as the water has AIR in IT.. you can have the roots under water 24/7 its entire life.. DWC*

umm does it look like this?

if so ive got it too and ive used powdery mildew products against it w/o any noticeable effect although it doesnt seem to cause any problems yet ill get a newer picture ive got a cup in my setup with it covering alot of the hydroton

Yea it looks like that but my "white substance" is waay more prominent, covering the entire top half of maybe 6-7 hydroton pebbles in each net pot. Have you ever grown and harvested with that hydroton problem? Im thinking about just leaving it alone unless it spreads to the plants; I don't know if its harmful and I don't want to do any harm trying to fix a simple salt build up, if that's what it is

add some hydroton to the top and if it grows onto them then it would be powdery mildew which means you need to increase the airflow of the bottom area of ur plants. these seem to not have done anything in a month or two so ive just left them alone. consider an all natural fungicide such as
http://www.discount-hydro.com/products/Ed-Rosenthal's-Zero-Tolerance-Fungicide.html thats wut i bought