air pump on timer is it better than 24/7

[punkp88]

hi
Just looking some insight into using a timer for the air pump in dwc
seems like Im over watering the hydrotron with splashes or its not getting enough
they seem droopy whatever I do
water is one inch below
GH website says for their waterfarm etc for one hour on/off etc during daylight hrs
should i keep the pump off during nighttime also

Many thanks
P

 

[rmccinc719]

keep running your air 24/7 i fill my nuted water right up to the bottom of my net pot may be 1/2 inch or so into the water. dwc works so well because of the amount of o2 kepping your roots healthy in all that water once the roots there living purly in nuted wated.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Does not a Waterfarm use double bucket design? If so, any bubbles in the lower bucket wont pass to the upper chamber which is why they supply a drip ring for top feeding.

Are you using the drip ring? More info, please.

 

[geopolitical]

Waterfarms do use a double bucket setup Freezer.

I found with leca (hydrotron) that 24/7 required me to drill additional holes in the bottom for drainage. You should check to see how well your top bucket is draining, it may be that you're getting pockets of standing water that's giving you root rot or similar. Also, if you have harder water/nutes the whole ring/airtube/etc. assembly can become gunked up pretty easily. This can really cause headaches to diagnose because sometimes fresh nutes will open it back up a bit by dissolving some of the mineral blockage. So you basically go from huge amounts of water being dripped to very little between nute changes. Which causes some weird plant issues. That being said, I only had that issue once.

How do your roots smell?
Are any getting into your res?
What is your pH like over time?
Are you pulling your drip/pump assembly each nute change to make sure it's not clogged up?
How often do you change nutes?
What exact nutes and dosing are you using?
What are your temperatures? Waterfarm setups are very easy to get too warm in my experience.
Pictures would be a huge help.

 

[dubwise]

I run peppers in waterfarms and the airpump runs while my lights are on in the room. My roots are through the netpot and into the bottom bucket and do real well. Now I know that I'm not talking mj and there may be some differences, but...this seems to work for my peppers. When I first started trying to use waterfarms I was not washing out m transplants enough and the medium was holding too much water from the start and this would cause the wilting and death among the plants. Good luck.

 

[punkp88]

sorry for the misreading info

sorry for the misreading info

Does not a Waterfarm use double bucket design? If so, any bubbles in the lower bucket wont pass to the upper chamber which is why they supply a drip ring for top feeding.

Are you using the drip ring? More info, please.

Sorry my post was misreading
im using one 3 gallon black bucket with an airstone
6 ' net pot with hydrotron
water 1 in below net pots

I was using the gh waterfarm info as a reference because that one of the only websites to say its ok to switch off the airpump on a timer


My water temp 72
gh flora series

I did have a cover over the medium to stop light
i think that might have prevented the rockwool from having a chance to dry out
seems to be wicking up and staying wet

Thanks P

 

[FreezerBoy]

Whoa! Now I'm really confused ... Waterfarm, DWC, Rockwool.

What size Rockwool? Anything larger than a 1" starter is counter productive to DWC. How big are the plants?

 

[stoney917]

do u have ne pics it sounds like were havinsimilar issues i havent solved myne compl;etely yet but i may be able to help best advice i can give you now is listen to freezerboy he really helped straightn my prob so far but only thing that will fix my issues is ro filter my water sux good luck

 

[Lorenzo]

are roots in the water yet? if so, the drooping is a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water i.e. too weak of an air pump. if roots are still in the netpot/barely out of the rockwool, then it could be overwatering or underwatering of the rockwool...

 

[punkp88]

HI FREEZER BOY

HI FREEZER BOY

Whoa! Now I'm really confused ... Waterfarm, DWC, Rockwool.

What size Rockwool? Anything larger than a 1" starter is counter productive to DWC. How big are the plants?

Hi freezer,
forget what i ever i said about waterfarms
I have one single bucket with one airstone.
one six inch netpot in hydrotron
and roots are in the aerated water

its a one inch starter
The plant is really nice now ,12 inches into veg

I have had the airpump on for a day and everything has seemed good since

I think it was when I covered the top of the bucket the rockwool got wet and didnt get a chance to breath. It didnt get dry and i think it seemed like the plant stayed droopy because of this.

I have the plant in a warmer temp 80( from 70)
and theres more light on the rockwool
rockwool stays dry and plants look fine

Also freezer boy
I also have a quick question about beneficals in hydro

Im experimenting with different beneficals in different dwc buckets

What do u think is the best approach to protecting the roots?

1. Added Benifical powdered supplment
(great white mycorrhizane)
http://red-icculus.com/?p=161

2. using the natural airbourne bacteria from bio buckets

3. Using an ewc tea for a day, then flush and add back water and nutes

Thanks for the info and patience
P

 

[punkp88]

hi

hi

are roots in the water yet? if so, the drooping is a lack of dissolved oxygen in the water i.e. too weak of an air pump. if roots are still in the netpot/barely out of the rockwool, then it could be overwatering or underwatering of the rockwool...

Good point
I have an oxygen test kit
What is the average ppm of the oxygen needed for dwc?
Thanks
P

 

[FreezerBoy]

75-80ºF is suitable for unrooted clones, plants prefer 65-70ºF. The higher the temp the less O2 it will hold and we want tons of O2.

I avoid all organics and zymes. Algae ,slime and rot have to be put into the res by the grower and organics is how it's done. Doesn't mean you can't use them successfully just that I can't help you there. I can say that without them, I have run DWC into the 80s without trouble. Try that with organics and it would be rot city.

I don't know if there's a formula for the amount of O2 needed. I will say my Whisper pump (which whispers pretty damn loud) is rated at 60 gal with my res averages 8-12 gallons.

 

[punkp88]

75-80ºF is suitable for unrooted clones, plants prefer 65-70ºF. The higher the temp the less O2 it will hold and we want tons of O2.

I avoid all organics and zymes. Algae ,slime and rot have to be put into the res by the grower and organics is how it's done. Doesn't mean you can't use them successfully just that I can't help you there. I can say that without them, I have run DWC into the 80s without trouble. Try that with organics and it would be rot city.

I don't know if there's a formula for the amount of O2 needed. I will say my Whisper pump (which whispers pretty damn loud) is rated at 60 gal with my res averages 8-12 gallons.

thanks for the feedback
Ill try those methods and I'll let you know works
I know what you mean by noisy airpumps Im looking for an ultimate quiet powerful pump!
P