Growing is fun and challenging, indoors your right of passage (hazing) is bugs (mites) then, when you switch to water culture more so than hydro (peat is hydro) another lesson must be learned.
Dead rez or living Rez?
Hurry up, I don't think you have much time before you smell death. When leaves die roots are dying is what I have learned. I don't know much as I just learned how to control the water where I live. Like I said earlier bacteria competes for food. Feed the better bacteria. Or use pool shock, I don't know that recipe. Household unscented bleach works too. I believe your plants are slowly drowning without the right tools to help them breath underwater. Dissolved oxygen I believe is a myth, dig a hole outside and it's wet, but indoors it must dry out. No worms indoors....no worm poop ever touched your water (well water probably). Brew the ewc tea, take a smell of it should smell like dirt and water 48hrs after brewing. People from another forum elaborated on the tea quite a bit, I read over 300 pages, spent some coin, and earned my rights. Good luck. And if your early enough it will work, last run I rushed my setup added plants too soon and even with tea, problems erupted and I resorted to handwatering to save my losses, no casualties lucky me. If I misunderstood your ph problem then this won't help, my ph would go to 7-8 within a week. I also use ro water and have never had my ph go below 5.2 without nutes or ph adjusters.
And those bio filters work well, I think I got mine for $12. Good bacteria needs a home before the rootzone is large enough. Use plastic chain to hang it in your rez. Again good luck.
What water are you using?
I recommend R/O water because it's always the same and your grow style will never change. Talk to people who've grown for decades and then moved to a different area and water supply. Ouch!
Stuck with the pumps you have? Grab a timer and turn the pump off a few times a day...
Once you get dialed in with hydro... you'll not want to change.
Keep it Clean!
That's about exactly what you want.
Keep track of what ppm and light density you had at that point... it's a good baseline to start with in your setup.
Now... to seriously increase the health of your plants... drop the pH to around 5.2 and let it drift up to 6.1 the same way.
Watch your plants get super happy over the next few days.
Keep it Clean!
Yeah... reservoir management seems to be a lost art. 10 years ago people understood... I think the huge waves of new growers over the years of washed the right info away with the continual influx of un-educated misinformation that comes with them.
Anyway... pH swing from bottom to top range is extremely important in hydro.
You can't afford $7 for a pH drops kit? I've only used a pH pen a few times over the years. Drops are just fine... it even helps to get that slight difference in pH each time you mix nutes.
You might want to look into the 'Simple Res Management" technique.
Example Res= 10 gallons.
Mix nutes for 10 gallon res at ppm that gave you the 'slow' pH rise.
pH to around 5.2
Top off daily with R/O water until you've used 10 gallons of R/O water.
Dump your res and start over again.
This is the most simple method you can use to maintain a healthy reservoir with nothing but a $7 pH test kit.
Once you pick up a ppm/tds meter you'll be able to use it to add nutes back to drop the pH again instead of dumping the res. Cool stuff... been running no-dump res up to 5 months for years now. Saves a lot of nutes and water.
Keep it Clean!
Hey FRIENDinDEED,
I just re-read your whole thread, and I forgot to mention/ask one thing. Did you soak your clay pebbles in ph'd water for a day?
It won't matter now, as they are fine, after being in the system for awhile, but fresh hydroton always raises ph, in my experience.
I've had a few times when I didn't have the patience to presoak the hydroton in a bucket of 5.0ph water. Not doing that had me chasing the PH for a few days, or a week, until the hydroton had stabilized.
Just something to consider.
Those plants look good. After your description, I thought you had some major problems brewing, but they look pretty happy so far!
Depending entirely on your tap water, Lucas Ratio should run very well for you. Obviously, it would be good to have TDS and PH meters, but I hear you on the $ issue!
Regards
Looks good!
Drop that pH down to 5.2 with pH down and let it slowly drift to 6.0 or 6.1. I swear they'll love you for it.
Personally? I run Lucas only... veg through flower. Why? It makes for short, stocky plants that produce the same yield as when given veg nutes. Just one thing I've picked up over the years.
I saw a blue tds meter on Amazon for $12... I used to use the exact model. Plenty good enough for a few runs of cannabis. I paid $30 at the time? lol
Keep it Clean!
totally understand the lack of $$ situation... seems to be a common thing around here too.
Drop your pH to 5.2... seriously.
Keep it Clean!
Uhh... the 5.2 pH advisement is for DWC where you top off every day.
Are you topping off or are you letting the plant suck everything up mostly?? Dropping to 5.2 and not topping off will damage them.
My apologies if I missed how you tend your res.
Keep it Clean!