Sorry, I had to wait 4 hrs to reply because I’m new here. It’s a cpl yrs old but it wasn’t used much, I got it from a buddy who only ran one or two harvests with it. I changed the prefilters and flushed the membranes for a while and it reads 0 ppm so I figured it was ok, could there be something bad in there that doesn’t register as ppm? I guess I assumed if it read 0’s it was ok.
I cleaned all water lines, manifold, laser lines from my grow chambers, pumps and chillers with a heavy dose of pyur peroxide and then ran a reservoir with just water and peroxide for a day before rinsing it out a cpl times and putting the plants in so I really hope there wasn’t any gunk left anywhere. That is also why I went with cx nutrients this time because they are so clean for hydroponics, theres nothing brown or thick that would leave gunk behind so I hoped it would work and make it easier to clean between runs.
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Yea, disregard that comment about the ph of my ro water. You’re right, I get a different reading every time from the bluelab and the hanna won’t even register the ph until there’s something added to the water. I just saw my monitor reading the ph @ 5.5 it seemed really low so I typed it before recalibrating and retesting it. To clarify though, I’ve never adjusted the ph in my reservoir until after I mixed all the nutrients and let run for a while.
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Res is 40 gallons plus a few gallons in the grow chambers, water temperature is 67°, I’m using a co2 tank set at 20 cfh and it runs for 1 min every hr. The plants are 7.5 - 8 wks old from the day I planted the seeds. I put them in the aeroflo on March 9th so they’ve been in “veg” for 6 wks.
It’s been happening for several weeks now (ph dropping) and my roots still look good, maybe because I’ve been rinsing them with peroxide in between res changes? That’s my dilemma, my ph won’t stop falling but my roots appear to be fine? I tried the ph up every time it fell before changing the whole res out and it never held at any reading. Will the ph drop before there’s any visible signs of root issues?
Could my ro system be a problem? It is a couple years old but I changed the prefilters and flushed the membranes and it reads 0 ppm. I figured as long as it read 0 ppm it was good, I’ve seen people use them without changing any filters for way too long and have 100+ppm and they’re still doing way better than I am currently. I am considering trying a res change with my tap water filtered through a garden hose filter, that water reads PH 6.9-7.0 and 120ppm(on the bluelab) 150ppm(on hanna monitor) both on the x700 scale.
I also got a starter kit of Mills nutrients because I can’t think of much else to try, just not sure if I should try them with tap water (new nutes/new water) or RO water (same water/new nutes) or the CX nutes with tap water 1st (same nutes/new water) Any suggestions/ideas?
Hi,
New here but have been doing hydro for about three years. I’ve never been able to push my EC that high (1.3). Sure, people tell you that it’s fine. When I’ve had pH dropping issues I lowered my EC a bit and the problems went away. You might be pushing them too hard. My son was a “need high EC” guy until I showed him we didn’t need to be.
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Yes it has some impurities, but so little that it’s a major difference in conductivity. Thus the reason it’s difficult to measure ph.
You are pumping co2 into your solution instead of just an air pump?
Hi, thanks for replying. I’ve always done the same, I used to run my nutes at half of what the manufacturer recommended (when I used green planet, canna or advanced). This time I’m trying CX nutrients and trying to dial it in I’ve tried an EC from 0.3 to 1.7 but nothing is keeping them happy. The plants have shown multiple deficiencies within 3-4 days of a res change regardless of how I mix the nutes. It started going downhill a cpl wks after putting them in the aeroflo.
No, air pump and co2 tank are separate. Air pump is just pumping air from the room and some people suggest that can cause the water to get co2 in it. Acid rain effect is what they called it.
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Gotcha, I was scratching my head for a minute lol.
I don’t run hydro, but I have aerated my solution prior to hand watering. This will cause some ph swings, but I don’t think you should expect that large of swings daily in 40+ gallons
I did notice your rh is low enough to throw your vapor pressure deficit off a considerable amount. That can cause excessive nutrient uptake, and in turn crashing ph.
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The more I read and upon further inspection I’m thinking it might be the beginning of brown slime, it’s just not real bad/noticeable yet and maybe I’ve been keeping it from taking off by rinsing with peroxide every few days? I did find a couple small pieces of roots starting to turn yellowish brown, normally it wouldn’t be bad enough for concern but since I’m having all these issues it would make sense.
It’s taking all I can do to keep the humidity at 40% It doesn’t look like the water level moved much in the last 24 hrs and the ec has only dropped a couple hundredths so they’re not doing anything excessively except driving me mad!
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Curious, you mention several water changes, etc, did you ever just flush the system for two days? I use CC and if I have problems I just do a 1-2 day flush with water and their water additive. Nothing else and the pH gets left alone as it’s just RO water. Is your water source clean (bacteria free) or do you have a UV filter on your RO unit?
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That’s another indication of improper vpd. Plants won’t transpire like they would otherwise.
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Also, maybe I missed it. What’s your water temp at? Do you have a chiller?
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I’ve only flushed with peroxide and this last time I used florakleen. I don’t have a uv filter, just Detroit city water straight through the ro unit. What is CC and their water additive? Water is 67°
current culture. they have a base called uc roots to help with keeping water good. Probably a con but I don’t have root issues (knock wood) so I use it. Florakleen seems like a similar product. You say your water is 67, and I believe you, but you also don’t mention a chiller and your not using led lights so…with no chiller I can’t see how you maintain 67 water.
Can/have you tried just running FloraKleen for a couple of days? Give everything including the kids a good flush?