skin in my reservoir? is it safe? help!

Watering the 16 plants was talking too long, so we spent a little $ and bought

60l reservoir
350w pump
watering wand
air pump + stone

This cuts the watering time down to 16 mins Plus with the airstone/watering wand it makes the feed all oxygenated...which i know is great for roots!

So the tank was filled with nutes for the week (2nd week of flower)

10ml per litre (veg)
10ml per litre (bloom)
1ml per litre of big bug
1ml per litre of bloom enhancer

I then noticed a light coloured skin appearing on the top of the water in the reservoir.

Does anybody have any ideas what it could be? Is it ok to water the plants with it?

The tank sits in the room, but the air stone bubbles away and gentle stirs/mixes the nutes throughout the day/week.

Anybody else seen/had this? Dunno what to make of it :-/

Cheers folks

ooops wrong setion sorry...

but still looking for help

i've seen this film develop on my nutrient water aswell, if left to its own devices sitting out in a gallon container (no air stone). I have been watering with this, with no noted side effects.

how long have you been using this water on your plants? a full grow?

I just got this reservoir, so dont have any prior experience...got worried and thought I would ask the experts on RIU

The film was light/sandy in colour...so weird.

ANybody else have any ideas/thoughts?

Just so you all know, the air stone is at the very bottom of the reservor and the bubbles travel all the way up...it isnt like the inside of a bubbleponics/aero tank...but there is quite a bit bubbles so i dont think its going stagnant.

yes, i have been using the nutrients on them from veg to bloom on the auto's in my signature. They are about 7 weeks old and well matured. I really only noticed the film on the bloom nutes.

How is your reservoir connected to your mediums,is it a bucket system? Is it watering through the top of the mediums? Canna coco? If your seeing that film i'm guessing your plant mediums are hooked up to your reservoir, in this case you have to provide serious oxygen to your plants, or reservoir,which ever is showing the film. This film usually occurs with higher temps. and water/nute solution, that doesn't have enough oxygen;"stagnant". If your res. still has the film change it out immediately every couple of days until you get it fixed then every couple of weeks as usual. Stay up Oregon,The Chronic State.

I noticed the same film in my Autopot reservoirs. The Autopot reservoirs are fed by a larger res through tubes and there is no runoff since they are fed from the bottom. I suck it off a couple of times a week and about once a week I take all of the water out so it doesn't add up. When it dries on the sides it is a white powder. Inside the pots on the bottom I have aerators which add bubbles after it is inside the pot. I don't know if it is hurting anything since this is my first grow. I assumed it was the nutes that were separating from the water.

imanoob said:

I then noticed a light coloured skin appearing on the top of the water in the reservoir.

Does anybody have any ideas what it could be?

Click to expand...

what does it taste like

robert 14617 said:

what does it taste like

Click to expand...

Tastes like chicken

imanoob: Your problem is related to the air pump and air stones. While it's correct to use them, your not using enough of them. Then again, even the quantity of airstones doesnt matter as much as making sure you get LOTS OF BUBBLES.

So how do you determine what the right air pump is? Easy -- 1 watt of air per gallon of water. So, you need a 15 watt air pump. Your pump from a hydro store is probably under 5 watts. http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/eco-air-24w-8outlet-variable-control-air-pump-p-1518.html is a nice one that has 24 watts of power, there's a billion of em out there so go nuts! Once you have enough bubbles in your res, your problem shall vanish.

Good luck!

Thanks for all the replies and thoughts on this

I really should have described my setup a little better so you guys n gals got a better idea of what was going on...

16 plants in soil (canna pro plus)
no hose's/tubes going to the pots...just the tank* > pump > watering wand (*the tank has a air stone/pump...Im not there at the moment but will check the size/wattage of the pump)

The tank is in the tent...I always thought its better for the plants if the water being used is at room temp...I thought cold water shocked them?

I dont measure the waters temp, which I will check tonight.

researchkitty said:

imanoob: Your problem is related to the air pump and air stones. While it's correct to use them, your not using enough of them. Then again, even the quantity of airstones doesnt matter as much as making sure you get LOTS OF BUBBLES.

So how do you determine what the right air pump is? Easy -- 1 watt of air per gallon of water. So, you need a 15 watt air pump. Your pump from a hydro store is probably under 5 watts. http://www.plantlightinghydroponics.com/eco-air-24w-8outlet-variable-control-air-pump-p-1518.html is a nice one that has 24 watts of power, there's a billion of em out there so go nuts! Once you have enough bubbles in your res, your problem shall vanish.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

I dont know off hand what size my pump is...but

60 litres = 13.1981494 Imperial gallons

so that would mean (like you said) a 15+ watt pump would be ideal

I will report back, thanks again folks

anybody that uses this AN stuff...can you point me in the right direction for the one to use in soil?
thanks

(ps - posted links in the last three posts)