hiya this is my first grow bought 400w ballast that switches in between MH and HPS voltages with a regular triangle hood three black buckets two with a netpot built in and one with a cover which is the nutrient bucket its pretty much a water culture system with tubes attached to the other two buckets the two buckets have hydrotons those clay pellets i also have a four port airpump oxygenating the three buckets one of them only has one and its the bucket with the nutrients i keep the all three buckets 6.5 Ph and 770 ppm i dont have a EC but the guy i bought all this from said as long as i follow the ratios given by the instructions it should be fine and everythings been fine the sprouts are starting to stand straight up i just transplanted them from a pot outside it was just two of them sadly imma not riskin buyin seeds and shippin them to my house f*ck that so it comes from some bag seeds i really dont care if ones male ill just kill it and clone the female that does form oh and i have it on 18/6 schedule and a small clip on fan which i had to mount onto the nutrient bucket and all this is contained in a 2x2 closet thats ceiling height with a wire shelve thats strong enough to hold the ballast on so like i said everythings contained in the closet and guess what the fans able to keep the room a cool 79 so tell me what yall think oh the nuts are envy part a and b with some g.h. Ph Down thx
You have a great set up, but I would do that extra investment in the EC/Ph readers (it is a must). To grow without those is more complicated than driving a car without watches/mirrors, of course this is just my humble opinion
Peace
Sounds like you've got a good start. I wouldn't worry about the PH meter. I'm also on my first hydroponic grow and I just use the cheepo PH tester kit from General Hydroponics. I keep my PH around 5.5-6.0 and everything seems fine. PH meters are kinda pricey if your on a budget. I do however recommend a PPM meter. I dont have one and im constantly fighting nutrient burn (at least i think its nutrient burn).
Instead of a PH meter i would recommend getting some sort of Co2 injection system. I wish i had it.
i forgot to put i got the g.h. Ph test kit it seems to work well i can easily determine the color match keep it around 6.0 and also got the Primo PPM meter really like that and actually imma start a third plant in the third bucket i talked to my botanist and he said might as well cause i still have to tend to the other two buckets so jus get rid of the nutrient bucket and this morning the plants looked a lot better i guess i takes around three days to strengthen up look good though!