DWC woes. hydro newcomer

[boredinmemind]

hey there,

so i thought i'd make a thread about my current round im doing atm.

construction is as follows:

Tent : 36"x24"x62"

Light: 1 x 400w HPS in a econowing

Bucket Setup:1 x 2gal. bucket with 2 round airstones in it with the main plant. no drainage just the bucket (i think this is where alot of my problems are arising)


Ventilation: 1 x 6in exhaust fan on top. (creates a vacuum so the tent gets the cool air from the AC in the room.)
1 x small box fan for circulation
1 x small desk fan mutilated and mounted to the light. (god how i wish i could afford a cooltube.)

Misc: scrog net out of wire fence and pvc. (not that you can call it scrog with how i let it get out of control.)


Strain: fem BerryBomb x "cherry". (there is also another of the same in soil in the tent. figured that way even if the hydro one died i didnt end up with nothing)

(cherry is a strain a friend had that i got a clone of last round. it herm'd and it was in with a berry bomb girl hence this strain, the cherry was a shorter plant i'd say mostly indica and had a dark bud appearance with skunky aroma with a hint of like a dark red cherry smell. very nice plant i wish i had cloned it when i had the chance.)


Nutes i have atm:
GH 3 part.
GH floralicious plus
GH koolbloom
GH diamond nector

grabed these yesterday.
superthrive
canna rhizotonic
canna-zyme

ive been mixing 3gallons at a time in a 5 gal bucket with an airstone to keep it happy about 1 day in advance typically. then i use a submersible pump that stays in the nute res and i plug in to transfer. the nutes sit as i only use 1 gal a time to refill. ive also just been using only the nute'd water, not topping up with fresh ph'd water. though i started this recently. i know that probably didnt help

ill post pics in the next posts.



My Issues
so ive been having some PH issues.

recently the bucket has been having it's PH fluctuate alot.

example: friday night i returned to a dry bucket, so i checked the nute res made sure it was at 5.8 then watered it 1 gallon. saturday morning around 11am (lights on 11am- 11pm) my gf checked the buckets PH. and it was at 5.93
perfect! i was thinking things are going ok. then when i got home and the res was down and at 5.9ish, so i watered it with the nute water after adding some superthrive to help with the stress of going dry for a while and whatnot. let it sit overnight, and when i checked this morning the water was way down so i checked PH was at 5.5 and the PPMs were at like 1500......

at 1st i thought i had root rot but it was the lighting mixed with "micros" ability to make water look like the runoff from a nuclear plant. (though i know the tent is in my bedroom im sure it could be more sterile, and i try but shit happens)

throughout all this the same strain in FFOF and having only used nute'd water once has been doing great. so i know it's something to do with me not the strain. (i assume)


What im going to start doing.

when the water goes from 1gal down to .5 gal i will fill back to 1gal with fresh tap water ph'd appropriately (just in case this is a salt build up.

im going to put an inverted grow bag over the 2 gal bucket to eliminate any light leak there could be (idk if there is or not honestly)
(though i know when i feed and check i have to open the bucket so there is then...)



ANY advice is helpful! and im sorry about the essay but thanks for reading.

 

[dreaded]

Switch to a 5 gallon bucket .....& continue...
ph fluctuate more in less water..
...also...superthrive with the rhizo..i don't know...i only use gh 2 part...less is better...i think...
Good Luck with your grow....

 

[br26]

The pH really didn't change that much from 5.8 to 5.93. That is negligible.

What do u normally run the ppms at?

 

[boredinmemind]

@dreaded

thanks for the advice man,
just fyi i havent used the superthrive and rhizo together. i added the superthrive (.75ml) to the remaining 2 gal of nute water i had sitting and bubbling for the b vitamins for stress. out of curiosity why are you weary of using both together? also i just grabbed a 5 gal bucket, but my issue was not wanting to "contaminate" that bucket if what i have is pythium or another bacteria, was gona start fresh next round with some upgraded things (which i was going to purchase with the money i saved from this, so this could really suck.) like cooltube. revamping and making a RDWC system with 2 x 5 gallons. better airstones that cover more of an area. as well as a nice pump to push them.


@BR26

well thats when it's behaving i guess? last night i checked bucket and it was at 1000ppm (im currently only adding fresh tap water which comes out at 140ppm)and 5.87ph this morning (day off can be around when "sunrise" is which is 11am) i checked at 1130. and the bucket was at 1110ppm and the ph was at 5.76.
that is on the calm side of change, other times it's been more drastic. but lately ive up'd the nutes from around 8-900ppms to like 1k ish as they are about 28 days into bloom. im following GH's feed schedule for recirculating but im thinking that maybe they dont need that much?



overall im starting to think a lockout maybe? but i do know that i would like better DO coverage, theres a fairly large root ball and the airstones i have are not the best at covering a larger area.

i will be posting those pics up later today at some point.

 

[boredinmemind]

heres those pics i promised. try to go easy, as i know this is a bad set up and i aspire to improve just beeing broke atm is a bitch.



whole tent there. as you can see the soil is tucked into the side there, and the "scrog net" helped but as you can see i didnt do near enough lst and pruning. oh well



slightly closer



underscreen, yeah yeah i know i didnt do any real trimming :/




a random hydro cola, note it seems there are less trichomes then the soil one



this is the soil one, this comparison makes me want to revert to an organic soil but im hoping someone helps me understand what im doing wrong because i hate giving up.

 

[br26]

You have a nutrient lock out with the flowering ones. Less is always more regarding the quick uptake of soluble nutrients. Keeping the plant happy with a steady and gradual increase of nutes through the growing and flowering phase is a good methodology. Document supplemental dosages of ppms of each nutrient and watch for signs of burn or lock up as the plant grows.

Controlling the pH is vital to ensure that nutrients do not lock out. If too high or low, different ones become more or less available.

Flush them with water for a day at the correct pH. Make sure to wash the main stem down so salts are dissociated in the water. Put them back at the next day at 700ish.



Many ppl swear up and down that 2k is a normal level for flowering. Their pics show burnt ass fan and sugar leaves that look like complete shit.

Initial dosage for any plant is near 800-900 in the bloom stages. I let it get no higher than 1100. Also , I run pH at 5.8-6.1. I don't care what ppl say, still got colas big as 3 liter bottles.

That organic nug does look pretty hot. Maybe you help me grow organically.

Well, hoped that helped a little. Good luck!!!!

 

[boredinmemind]

hey guys,

just a small update before i head to work.

i have been watering with straight tap water, (usually comes out within .5 of 7ph)

and after letting it bubble and sloshing the bucket around to rise shit i get very erratic readings from the water absorbing all the excess salts (ranged from 5.6 to 5.9 in the readings) im confident that BR26 was correct .

ive noticed an increase in trichome production a bit (lot more then when in full lockout), as well as some colas are much "perkyer"

going to take the nute water ive had bubbling for a week now and mix with tap untill it's down to 600 ish ppms

in other news the soil plant is doing very well and looks like i might get 1 giant cola as i didnt top it at all.


something i notice though was that in the organic soil you can smell more smells on that plant, like there are some hints of skunk and pine, where as the hydro one smells almost completely like fruity pebbles, with that "grain" smell like if the box might be old.

im excited to see the difference.