does yield and ease of use justify the expense?
trying Terpinator right now. Started with hydroguard. So far, the other two reservoirs are OK.
to be perfectly honest, hydro is definitely not the way to go if ya donāt have a few bucks to spare. I got all the hydro stuff back when I had money.
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hear u loud and clear
Ha thatās no lie! Itās cheap to do some basic bubble buckets but full scale system can get pricey. And there will be long term maintenance like air and water pumps that will need to have spares just in case. I couldāve started with a dirt grow for half what I have spent. But it appeals to my control freak brain. This way I have control over every aspect of my grow room.
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are there advantages to doing a buvble bucket over a soul grow?
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Plants are supposed to grow faster and bigger. But thatās just what Iāve read. I personally wouldnāt go that method because I have a bad back and trying to get up under a big plant to change the water out would kill me. But lots of people do and itās a good way to decide if you want to spend the money on the bigger setup. Plus if you did decide to do it the full system removes some of those negatives. And if you do it right you can use the bubble bucket setup to upgrade so no wasted parts.
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Had to take down one of the rdwc Plants went root mush. The first one I had removed them from has grown back and had root 6 inches and hadnāt wilted like the other two did It was in a 3 1/2 inch netpot So i went to the scrap pile and moved it into 5 gallon bucket. I have bucket top square 7 inch netpots that leave 3 gal for nutes So I just put the entire 3 1/2 netpot and roots into big one and filled with hydroton. I still have the 6 outlet air pump hanging there from the res, so I turned off 4 outlets and ran the last two into the 3 gallons of nutes.
Do you have problems with your ph ever? Mine came out of the tap around 8.5 and Iām having a hard time lowering it. I may need to resort to a stronger acid to get it with this much water in the system.
I canāt get mine to budge more than 0.2 a week in the big res. I found a brand of hydro up/down called āGrow Moreā that I like. ph up is based with phosphorus, the down is based with potassium. Both are 30% and inexpensive. It is a lot more potent than the GH brand. A little goes a long way.
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My tap is around 730 ppm and using pH down it is about 5 ml per gallon
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Plain water is hard to PH, EZer with nutes in it.
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Yeah I added hydro guard and a little of the GH rapid start plus 1/2 dose of seedling nutes. The plants wonāt make it to the water anytime soon. Iām more trying to get the system dialed in and see what itāll take to maintain it once I get there.
@bryan Iāll order some of that. I bought a gallon of muriatic acid Iām gonna test it. It should only use a tiny bit of it to lower it.
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Hydroguard is acidic, will change the PH. Been getting the same results from about 1/4 strength on the Hydroguard. I been using it but cut way back ā1-2ml per 6 gal resā You see my root in my journal? āthe rapid start really worksā
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Yeah yours looks good. I think Iāll buy a big bottle of rapid start. I didnāt use but half what it said. With 75 gallons of water thatās currently in my system it would use a hell of a lot to use at recommended dosages.
Ya seem like 75gal would take the whole sample bottle
Yep it would lol
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muriatic acid should work if you use it in drops per gallon Most of the flushing additives like Florakleen are just citric acid. That is right. it is 5% citric acid at $10 a quart. Plain white vinegar is 4% citric acid at 79 cents a gallon. You do the mathā¦
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Yeah I figured muriatic acid is used in pools and hot tubs. It took me about 10ml to bring it down to where I needed lol. At that rate this gallon jug will last forever. Just have to be cautious using it. For now my pipette reaches the acid. Once it gets lower Iāll need to transfer some into another bottle. Donāt want to get it on bare skin.
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I have some ph up for a spa that I used in emergencies. it is sodium carbonate and does the job, but I did not really like the Na part of it. I would rather use products with P and K instead
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