Brand new system, NFT straight to 12/12, which nutrients?

[frenzybud]

Hello All...

I am going to start using using a brand new NFT system I have constructed. 70 plant sites, covering 4 feet by 9 feet using 1800 watts of HPS. I am planning on going straight into 12/12 using clones vegged for a week in advance.

I use RO water, which nutrients should I chose for this system?
I'm fairly new to hydroponics, I have been growing in soil for many years now, it's time to try something else. I have always been growing organic. I'm willing to try something else, perhaps a easy-to-use 3-part system? Any advise?

 

[Rowdy420]

I'd go with one of the well known brands, General hydroponics, Botanicare, Canna, or maybe House and Garden. Your using RO water so I'd suggest getting a Ca/Mg supplement also. Once you have a line you like get some of the other additives and see which ones work best for you.

Get yourself a combo meter for checking PH and EC, this will be an investment well worth every penny!

 

[ogenko]

i am an nfter myself amigo
if you want to keep your nutes simple,
try the KISS method. cheap, simple, and effective

good growing mate

lets see that system =)

 

[Scrogerman]

'Ionic' all day bro. Hard or Soft water formulas available, its One part, very easy to use, Kicks arse, great for novice & experts alike. add to that some PK 13/14, & H2o2(Oxy+) & that is all ya need really. maybe a little liquid silicon(optional but V-good stuff) & thats ya lot! Couldnt be simplier geeza watch m Fly!

Oh & your gonna need some Cal-Mag with the RO bro, dont forget that stuff!
What is the EC/ppm of your water man?

http://www.growthtechnology.com/ionic.asp

G'Luck

 

[frenzybud]

'Ionic' all day bro. Hard or Soft water formulas available, its One part, very easy to use, Kicks arse, great for novice & experts alike. add to that some PK 13/14, & H2o2(Oxy+) & that is all ya need really. maybe a little liquid silicon(optional but V-good stuff) & thats ya lot! Couldnt be simplier geeza watch m Fly!

Oh & your gonna need some Cal-Mag with the RO bro, dont forget that stuff!
What is the EC/ppm of your water man?

http://www.growthtechnology.com/ionic.asp

G'Luck

The EC of my water is about 0,5 roughly 300-350 ppm, really hard water. I bought a good quality RO filter, the water I use now is 0 ppm, easy to work with..

BTW: I live in Europe, so I need some nutrients available over here..

 

[frenzybud]

I have never used a Cal/mag additive before, I have used epsom salts in small quantities.. Is the Cal/mag absolutely necesary?

 

[frenzybud]

i am an nfter myself amigo
if you want to keep your nutes simple,
try the KISS method. cheap, simple, and effective

good growing mate

lets see that system =)

Pics will be added of the new system, hopefully next week when it's put into action

I need to get these 50 lovely girls out of the room first, they are at day 40 of flower in this pic:
They are at day 47 today.. So very soon the organic soil grow will be replaced by the new NFT system..

 

[Hazyfontazy]

best nute for nft imo is canna aqua ,,ive tried lots and canna aqua gave best results ,yield was double that of ionic and gh 3 part

 

[Ursus]

'Ionic' all day bro. Hard or Soft water formulas available, its One part, very easy to use, Kicks arse, great for novice & experts alike. add to that some PK 13/14, & H2o2(Oxy+) & that is all ya need really. maybe a little liquid silicon(optional but V-good stuff) & thats ya lot! Couldnt be simplier geeza watch m Fly!

Oh & your gonna need some Cal-Mag with the RO bro, dont forget that stuff!
What is the EC/ppm of your water man?

http://www.growthtechnology.com/ionic.asp

G'Luck

dude I don't wanna ride your nuts or anything like you have been doing Heath's just because he uses Ionic and says its stable in his book -_-. kidding a lil, but man Ionic should only be used as a hard water nutrient .

I'm looking at the bottle right now from an old grow.

Ionic Hardwater 3 - 1 - 5
Total N 3%
Ammoniacal Nitrogen .45%, Nitrate Nitrogen 2.55%
Available Phosphate (p205) 1%, Soluble Potash (k2o) 5%

Derived from - calcium nitrate, phosphoric acid, nitric acid, potassium sulfate and ammonium nitrate

Let me say Ionic is a VERY VERY basic nutrient formula and should be taken in conjecture with more "complete nutrient lines" for full effect. Again, the only reason I would use Ionic again if for some reason I had to switch back to tap water. Never Again.

 

[Scrogerman]

dude I don't wanna ride your nuts or anything like you have been doing Heath's just because he uses Ionic and says its stable in his book -_-. kidding a lil, but man Ionic should only be used as a hard water nutrient .

I'm looking at the bottle right now from an old grow.

Ionic Hardwater 3 - 1 - 5
Total N 3%
Ammoniacal Nitrogen .45%, Nitrate Nitrogen 2.55%
Available Phosphate (p205) 1%, Soluble Potash (k2o) 5%

Derived from - calcium nitrate, phosphoric acid, nitric acid, potassium sulfate and ammonium nitrate

Let me say Ionic is a VERY VERY basic nutrient formula and should be taken in conjecture with more "complete nutrient lines" for full effect. Again, the only reason I would use Ionic again if for some reason I had to switch back to tap water. Never Again.

lol,whatevea mate. My results speak for themselves & i recommended Ionic because the guys switching new to NFT. It fukin kicked ass for me. Always has & ive been using it since it came out. Canna Aqua is good & i love that 2, but you cant use H2o2 with the Aqua, makes a huge difference lol. Your comments about Heath are childish, you wanna fkin grow-up kid.
Ive used both formula's HW & SW, & its great Very stable stuff ime. Plants luv it!

You lads wanna try it with Oxy+, might change your minds. but i dont really give a toss!
I aint gonna say nothing bad about Canna Aqua cause it is a very good line, but The Ionic is much easier to use & works really well with Oxy+/H2o2, i cant think of an easier more effective nute/regimin, better for novices to hydro imo! So say what ya like. It was just a sugestion.
sticks n stones!

I believe Aqua which was designed to be run in Recirc/NFT systems, requires a specific water alkalinity, no good for really hard water iirc, guy has RO unit though, so its cool & id also recommend it myself & was going to, but as the guy was new to NFT i thought Ionic would serve him better, esp if run with the Oxy+. Canna is great stuff also. (refer to the little graph on the back of bottle)

 

[frenzybud]

Thank you everybody for the sugestions, I was up all night yerterday reading alot of threads and I went out today and bought this:

The only component I need other than these is PK 13-14 which my local hydro store was out of. I will get it in a couple of days. I'm looking forward to trying this shit out

It will, as mentioned earlier, be used in a NFT system. I will start a journal sometime soon so you guys can keep up and let me know how I'm doing...

 

[Scrogerman]

What did you get? cant see your pictures, you might want to edit your album to include 'pubic' access, usually what the problem is when the cross comes up like im seeing on the not-pics!

Curious now !

 

[frenzybud]

What did you get? cant see your pictures, you might want to edit your album to include 'pubic' access, usually what the problem is when the cross comes up like im seeing on the not-pics!

Curious now !

Thanks for pointing this out, you were right, my album was marked as "private"

You should be able to see my pics now.. I went for the Canna line..

 

[gonzo`]

dude that looks fun will be following this. Please keep us posted.

 

[Scrogerman]

V-Nice, you wont be dissapointed with Aqua, its great stuff.
You are running this with RO?, i would check compatibility for Alkalinity(Kh), like i said earlier, Aqua needs a specific amount of carbonates for buffering, i dont think Aqua is designed for use with solely RO. maybe mix your RO & your tap at a specific ratio(ie 70/30 or 80/20), your gonna need some buffering cap or your PH is gonna dance bruv! Why i mentioned Cal-mag earlier man. Your Hard water is full of the stuff, why you are getting high ppm/very hard water, thats what it is, mostly cal-mag.

This thread may be of some use to you, by BigToke: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=23357

I dont advise running Aqua with straight RO. Check the little graph on the back of the bottle of Aqua for reference & maybe check the recs on the Canna website, running Aqua with RO, they may have changed the formula since i last looked/used it. Some nute lines are designed to be used with RO solely, like VitalinkMax is one i can think of. Most if not all of Canna's stuff is designed to be used with tap iirc! ive used all Canna's lines exept Coco.

A plant start product might serve you well too, specific formula for seedlings, where for me Ionic is King, beats formulex & any of the other plant start product out there ime. (they have milder & correct NPK ratio etc.)
You dont 100% need it but your plants may think otherwise & move a bit quicker. something else to think about.

G'Luck with your NFT grow dude, its a sinch!

 

[frenzybud]

V-Nice, you wont be dissapointed with Aqua, its great stuff.
You are running this with RO?, i would check compatibility for Alkalinity(Kh), like i said earlier, Aqua needs a specific amount of carbonates for buffering, i dont think Aqua is designed for use with solely RO. maybe mix your RO & your tap at a specific ratio(ie 70/30 or 80/20), your gonna need some buffering cap or your PH is gonna dance bruv! Why i mentioned Cal-mag earlier man. Your Hard water is full of the stuff, why you are getting high ppm/very hard water, thats what it is, mostly cal-mag.

This thread may be of some use to you, by BigToke: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=23357

I dont advise running Aqua with straight RO. Check the little graph on the back of the bottle of Aqua for reference & maybe check the recs on the Canna website, running Aqua with RO, they may have changed the formula since i last looked/used it. Some nute lines are designed to be used with RO solely, like VitalinkMax is one i can think of. Most if not all of Canna's stuff is designed to be used with tap iirc! ive used all Canna's lines exept Coco.

A plant start product might serve you well too, specific formula for seedlings, where for me Ionic is King, beats formulex & any of the other plant start product out there ime. (they have milder & correct NPK ratio etc.)
You dont 100% need it but your plants may think otherwise & move a bit quicker. something else to think about.

G'Luck with your NFT grow dude, its a sinch!

Useful info. Thanks.. I was not aware of this, I was under the impression that pure RO water automaticly would result in a much more stable PH. I will definetly look into this before putting my system into use. I will keep you posted. Peace

 

[grow101]

Canna Aqua is pH-buffered and an EC of 0,3 isn't a problem at all. There isn't a hard/softwater line of Aqua like there is with some of their other lines, so Canna must have adjusted Aqua to be able to work with a good range of EC. If you follow the charts, use the lower suggestion, as Canna is known to go quite high on the recommendations. When I have used all of my GH Flora Nova (applied like Lucas) I'll give the Aqua a run.

 

[krest]

I vote for either Ionic or Dutchmaster Gold. Can't go wrong with either choice!

 

[frenzybud]

I have just finished reading the thread BigToke has written. Very informative, I have a much better understanding of things now. Great thread, thanks for the pointer Scrogerman

However, I can't exactly figure out how much tap water I should mix with the RO water. I conducted a small experiment just now.
I put exactly 500 mL of water into two individual glasses. One filled with regular tap water and one with RO water (both have been sitting out for several hours before the experiment.)

Tap water before anything was added: PH 7,3 - EC 0,46
RO water before anything was added: PH 6,0 - EC 0,02

And then I added exactly 1,5 mL of Canna Aqua Flores A & B to each individual glass.
*Stir* and I let it sit for about 15 minutes.

The PH and EC ended up like this:

Tap water: PH 6,3 - EC 1,82
RO water: PH 3,9 - EC 1,38




Clearly, if I were to use only RO water, my PH would end up being too low. So I must add tab water to avoid adding lots of potassium hydroxide (PH+) all the time to keep my PH accurate, I usually keep it around 5,6-5,9.

I really want to avoid to much tab water in my system, I want to be able to go for 3-4 weeks between dumping all my water from the tank and replacing it. (I have a 220 Liter tank) I grew hydroponicly once, back in the day. And I always had trouble dosing my nutrients with tab water. When the plants comsume the water and it evaporates, calcium build up in the resevoir and then i can't mesure my EC properly, when I have refilled my tank a few times I get seriously high EC readings (3.0 even 5.0, due to all the calcium) I cant determine how much of the nutrients my plants have actually consumed.

I'm babbling on.. (to stoned right now ) Anyway.. What is your suggestions as to how much tab vs. RO water I should mix?

 

[Ursus]

Why don't you mix the two 500ml of the tap and and RO water? What you need to be doing is start trying different conversions of both. Mix both equal parts of RO water & tap, take measurements, add more RO or tap. Try and get a PH of 6 with just the water, that will be a good starting point. Then you should start adding nutrients to test the buffer capacity. Don't add nutes in until you have properly found a balance of RO and Tap water.