Waterfarm issues!! First hydro grow.

MegaBud

Well-Known Member
After a few years of soil growing under my belt, I decided to try Hydro. I snagged a Waterfarm and a qt. of FloraNova Bloom.

I'm currently at week 4-6 from seed, RO water, PPM's are roughly 6-700 before 2 tsp of cal mag and 2 tsp of H2O2, PH 5.7.

Checked roughly 24 hours later: PH 6.6 1300 PPM's

Let me know what you think.



 

Situation420

Well-Known Member
Your adding the cal mag wrong. When your RO water comes out it will be at around 7.0 pH and 10-30 ppm depending on its efficiency. In a mater of minutes that ph will drop to 6.0 to 6.5 due to carbon dioxide in the air interacting with the water molecules creating carbonic acid. First thing you should do is add the cal mag until your ppm reaches 160 ppm to create a nice buffer for your nutrients. Then mix in your fertilizers and let it rest for about 10 minutes. After that adjust your ph to 5.8 to 6.2 depending on whether it tends to drift up or down. (5.8 if it goes up, 6.2 if it goes down, usually it goes down if using co2. Then just apply it to your plants. Don't follow the instructions on bottles when it comes to how much to use, judge it based on your plants. The directions on the bottles are usually the maximum amount possible to encourage you to use more of their products faster. Figure out how much cal mag you need to get your ppm to 150-160 if you can. I use about 2 ml per gallon of water and my ppm is at 150 before adding my nutrients. Typically the cal mag is used to buffer solutions and is only used in veg if it contains nitrogen. During veg you can get away with following the instructions on the bottle but even that is a little high. I go with half of what they recommend for hydroponics use and supplement the additional nutrients with AN grow parts A+B, b-52, voodoo juice, a little bud candy, and beneficial bacteria. You will never have another problem with nutrients if you learn how to use beneficial bacteria correctly and keep your ph correct.
 

mike45214

Well-Known Member
Looks like you have a nitrogen deficiency. Is there a reason you're adding peroxide to you water?
 

LadyZandra

Active Member
What are you feeding them and on what schedule?
You MUST check pH in hydro DAILY and re-adjust... or they go downhill FAST!
;)
 

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
It sounds to me it is time for a complete flush now, using Flora clean or a similar product. What happens with a Hyrdofarm is that lack of good circulation causes build up of nutrients which will fuck with you PPM and PH big time. They make a booster setup to improve circulation that can be added and it costs about $50, which should not be added to the cost in my opinion, as it is a design flaw. I think that might be a bit of a pain in the ass to add now. I would wait until the end of the crop, and convert it then. The only thing you can do now is flush every 2 weeks, which is recommended anyway. I have the same system and am also learning the ins an outs of it. PM me and we could discuss it further, if you care to.
 

MegaBud

Well-Known Member
Looks like you have a nitrogen deficiency. Is there a reason you're adding peroxide to you water?
I'm battling temps at the moment, working on upgrading my fans. I'm trying to keep anything nasty from taking over my roots.
 

mike45214

Well-Known Member
The temps in my room run 85 max with a 600 watt light. I'm piping in cold air from an ac and I run co2. As Jimdamick said the water in those doesn't get moved around that well. My solution was to run an air line down the tubing for the drip system to an airstone. I didn't have to drill any holes in the waterfarm. You might want to try that out as well.
 

Situation420

Well-Known Member
yea u can add hydrogen peroxide to your water to keep it sterile and provide more available oxygen to your root zones but beneficial bacteria is a better alternative.
 

MegaBud

Well-Known Member
PPM's have crept up to almost 1600 PH still 6.6, I'm thinking flush time as Jimdamick said. I'm mixing up a batch of RO with Clearex.
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
Just listen to me and everything will come out better then any soil run u ever done.. I have the same set up.
First dump ur res out. And run water overthe top bucket to cler the roots out of all the other nutes.
Now all u need is flora nova and ph up/down. That's it period. Nothing else. Ever!
Put ro water in res. add nova (shake very well!) and get ppms as close to 1300. Ph to 5.2/6.0 with those numbers in the right amount u will have dank buds. Works for all strains I have ran which is over 20. If it doesn't work ur meter is off and need to calibrate. Key is to keep ppms close to 1300 but if its 1500 that's fine just add water next time u need to add back. If its 1000 then throw sum nova in there. Remember 1300 or as close as possible at all times. Also when u harvest no need to flush as plants with over 1500 ppms need to be flushed. Anything under ur golden. Lemme kno if u need help! Peace!
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
if he cant fix temp get better air flow. or run ur lights at night. use the light schedule for veg is 12 on 5.5 off 1 on 5.5 off repeat. that keeps u in veg but limits the heat build up and lowers energy bills. hth
 

MegaBud

Well-Known Member
I flushed rez and put PPM's to 1300 and 5.7 PH.

The problem is still getting progressively worse.

I lifted the screen and checked the roots in the rez, light brownish in color, no slime or nasty smells.
 

MegaBud

Well-Known Member
It's getting out of control now, PH and PPM's both jump steadily. From 5.7 to 6.5 and 900 ppm's to 1350. The leaves are dying off like crazy. Temps in my room are still a little high, I have plenty of air flow and two doors on the tent open.
 

Chiggachamp

Active Member
u need to let ur plant dispose of everything in the roots. this is a tuffy considering im not there.
this is what i would try.. dump res fill with ro and ph to 5.2 and let ur plant drink for 24 hrs. check ppms. if they havnt jumped too much i.e less then 200 then dump res fill again and put flora nova bloom in at 1100. and ph to 5.2
you sure ur tool is calibrated? as this solution should be working...
 
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