Grow Mediums AKsteel's First DWC, Mephisto Mystery Seed
- Thread starter AKsteel
- Start date
Hey buddy.... I found this page talking about grow stones.
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15140
http://backyardaquaponics.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15140
AKsteel
To fish or not to fish? What a stupid question :)
Thanks brother. I'll give it a read.
HotBunz
Just a dude who likes to grow
Uggh..... that darn hard water and those freaking growstones are no friends of yours! In regards to your wife's comment. I check water level, PH and PPM twice a day. I top off my water levels and add nutes at those times..every time!
If your PPM levels are raising during the day then you are feeding to heavy. You want a balance between water uptake and nute uptake. I am running my current Cherry Bomb at 750PPM. 12 hours later the solution is at around 690/700PPM. After water top off the solution is around 670 or so. I can run the solution at 820 PPM and the solution will be right at that same PPM in 12hrs but I feel it's pushing the Cherry Bomb a little to hard at the point. I wonder how that hard water is playing into your troubles.
For the record on my first bubble bucket I was doing bucket changes at least once a week or after I had topped off with the same volume of water that the bucket held. Which at one point I was topping off 1 gallon per day and was doing bucket changes every 4 days. I felt the PH swings were worse than they should have been. One my current grow which I am on day 33 of I have only done 1 bucket change(yesterday) as I have just changed over to a bloom feeding schedule.Ph has been much more stable and rarely am I using any PH down.
Keep your chin up and please tell your wife to hang in there!
If your PPM levels are raising during the day then you are feeding to heavy. You want a balance between water uptake and nute uptake. I am running my current Cherry Bomb at 750PPM. 12 hours later the solution is at around 690/700PPM. After water top off the solution is around 670 or so. I can run the solution at 820 PPM and the solution will be right at that same PPM in 12hrs but I feel it's pushing the Cherry Bomb a little to hard at the point. I wonder how that hard water is playing into your troubles.
For the record on my first bubble bucket I was doing bucket changes at least once a week or after I had topped off with the same volume of water that the bucket held. Which at one point I was topping off 1 gallon per day and was doing bucket changes every 4 days. I felt the PH swings were worse than they should have been. One my current grow which I am on day 33 of I have only done 1 bucket change(yesterday) as I have just changed over to a bloom feeding schedule.Ph has been much more stable and rarely am I using any PH down.
Keep your chin up and please tell your wife to hang in there!
AKsteel
To fish or not to fish? What a stupid question :)
Update Day 29:
Well we survived the week and are back on track. Res change Ph=5.51, PPM=627. Will keep monitoring and adjusting as needed. I think last week with the major ph swing we put her into lock out mode for a couple days. Lost a couple lower fan leaves and growth slowed. Here she is today.
Well we survived the week and are back on track. Res change Ph=5.51, PPM=627. Will keep monitoring and adjusting as needed. I think last week with the major ph swing we put her into lock out mode for a couple days. Lost a couple lower fan leaves and growth slowed. Here she is today.
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AKsteel
To fish or not to fish? What a stupid question :)
Update day 33.
With all the mistakes we have made and issues with PH she continues to bounce back. I know she will probably not meet her full potential but I am glad she can take some abuse...
With all the mistakes we have made and issues with PH she continues to bounce back. I know she will probably not meet her full potential but I am glad she can take some abuse...
I'm thinking of doing hydro for my first auto grow. I just read your thread and it looks awesome to me. Mind if I pull up a chair? It looks like she's just about ready to explode with some juicy buds.
To fish or not to fish isn't even a question around here lol
To fish or not to fish isn't even a question around here lol
HotBunz
Just a dude who likes to grow
AK,
Keep at it and you will be rewarded. If nothing else we can at least look at what was learned on this plant....1) that GROWSTONE is worthless 2) your hardwater was not helping. Both are fairly simple fixes. Replace the Growstone with standard expanded clay media. As for the water either A) buy bottled water or B) get a simple RO/Di filter. As of now I am using store bought gallons of RO water at .88cents a gallon. Not super expensive but a hassle being my current plant at 40days old is using 1.5 gallons a DAY! Once you do the math even at an overall average of 1 gallon per day over a 70 day grow that is a least $60.00 worth of water. I was pretty big into saltwater fish tanks a couple of years ago but when I got out of the reef game I sold all of my gear including my RO/DI system. The smart move is I am going to pick up another unit at it will pay for itself in 1 grow. A simple 4 stage RO/DI unit is only $62.00(free shipping) from Pure Water Club.
Keep up the good work. Yes it's a little more work than soil. With my 3.5 gallon bubble bucket I am checking ph, PPM and water level every 12 hours and reset PPM, PH and water level each time. I have discontinued using any tap water even if bubbled for 24hrs first to rid chlorine ( my tap is 48ppm ) just to eliminate unknown minerals in my system. Your plant is recovering well and she is still going to give you a real nice finish. Just to tease you here is my Cherry Bomb at 39days. Gotta go finish up a jig for my lathe so I can get started on building my new 5wt rod.
Keep at it and you will be rewarded. If nothing else we can at least look at what was learned on this plant....1) that GROWSTONE is worthless 2) your hardwater was not helping. Both are fairly simple fixes. Replace the Growstone with standard expanded clay media. As for the water either A) buy bottled water or B) get a simple RO/Di filter. As of now I am using store bought gallons of RO water at .88cents a gallon. Not super expensive but a hassle being my current plant at 40days old is using 1.5 gallons a DAY! Once you do the math even at an overall average of 1 gallon per day over a 70 day grow that is a least $60.00 worth of water. I was pretty big into saltwater fish tanks a couple of years ago but when I got out of the reef game I sold all of my gear including my RO/DI system. The smart move is I am going to pick up another unit at it will pay for itself in 1 grow. A simple 4 stage RO/DI unit is only $62.00(free shipping) from Pure Water Club.
Keep up the good work. Yes it's a little more work than soil. With my 3.5 gallon bubble bucket I am checking ph, PPM and water level every 12 hours and reset PPM, PH and water level each time. I have discontinued using any tap water even if bubbled for 24hrs first to rid chlorine ( my tap is 48ppm ) just to eliminate unknown minerals in my system. Your plant is recovering well and she is still going to give you a real nice finish. Just to tease you here is my Cherry Bomb at 39days. Gotta go finish up a jig for my lathe so I can get started on building my new 5wt rod.
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