Do you think I should try a mix without the silica? I am hearing conflicting info. Some say you can't have a plant OD on silica. Others say it fucks with your availability of the nutrients. What are your thoughts?
 
I use DynaGro Nutrients and they are designed to be used with the Protekt silica.
First I add the silica then wait a half hour at least. Then I mix the Cal Mag then the grow. When I use the Protekt it raises the pH almost like a ph up. If I don't use the Protekt I have to buffer the solution first with pH up and it was causing precipitate. I could be wrong in using the silica for a flush. I am a noob. Lol
That's the correct way to mix it. You can save the silica on the flush though. Don't know anything about the nutes but I've definitely heard of them before... :shrug:
 
That's the correct way to mix it. You can save the silica on the flush though. Don't know anything about the nutes but I've definitely heard of them before... :shrug:
What nutes do you use?
 
Do you think I should try a mix without the silica? I am hearing conflicting info. Some say you gave have a plant OD on silica. Others say it fucks with your availability of the nutrients. What are your thoughts?
I'm a fan of silica but I did have a bottle of TPS silica that I tried and it caused all kinds of pH issues
 
Generally if you're getting that kind of build up from feed to runoff it means they're not uptaking something. The plant is pretty yellow so it's not getting nitrogen at the very least I'd guess. Calcium/magnesium can lock out nitrogen. This could be an issue from not preparing the coco originally and you're chasing it around. That runoff pH is so high that the plants also won't drink correctly that high. I'm using these floraflex 1 gallon bags currently that come with their own "buffered and phd" coco in them and were 700ppm out of the box and I needed to treat them before using
I got a new bag of coco. I am going to wash and buffer it tomorrow. I will start some new beans and run them next to these sad ladies. I mean I will get this shit right. I have to get it right lol
 
I am wondering if the silica is the root of all my problems. It aint going to hurt anything at this point to try a mix without a buttload of silica in it. Last grow I started with 50 ppm of silica. This time around I bumped it up to 100 ppm silica. I think it was too much too soon. Tomorrow I will try a mix without the silica.
 
Silica is not necessary. Does seem to help but definitely don't need it. I don't feel like that's the issue though. I'm currently using house and garden coco a+b. It's made for RO water so no calmag needed. Just using that plus aptus fasilitor for silica and hydroguard. Think it was under $60 for the 2 gallons with black Friday sale. Seems to be working well but my 1st run with these nutes so I haven't flowered anything with them yet to get a real review. I used Athena the last year or so and didn't love it and megacrop before that which was fine
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Silica is not necessary. Does seem to help but definitely don't need it. I don't feel like that's the issue though. I'm currently using house and garden coco a+b. It's made for RO water so no calmag needed. Just using that plus aptus fasilitor for silica and hydroguard. Think it was under $60 for the 2 gallons with black Friday sale. Seems to be working well but my 1st run with these nutes so I haven't flowered anything with them yet to get a real review. I used Athena the last year or so and didn't love it and megacrop before that which was fine
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I know this sounds stupid.. But what does the hydroguard do? It's like beneficial enzymes correct? Now that I think about it Aquaman did tell me to get some of that.
 
It keeps the roots clean. Prevents root rot
:yeahthat: It's also an inoculant for your water. Meaning it'll reproduce and take up any space for bad bacteria to establish. Helps my prepared res last 2-3 weeks compared to maybe 5 days to a week without it. I mainly use it for this since I grow in soil so I'm not too worried about root rot.
 
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