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60 DE Nanolux 600 Coco DTW setup/grow
- Thread starter eric2028
- Start date
Ah, I see. Thank you for going out of your way and linking a new pic. Getting the gist of it now, me thinks!
For reference, your initial post on the irrigation system might be useful to other readers, as well: https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=8584803&postcount=108
So just to make sure, am I on the right track so far?
[URL=https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=83207&pictureid=2038287&thumb=1]View Image[/URL]
The controller simultaneously opens, say, valves C I (VEG tank) and C II (VEG room) according to the preset / program in place for that zone. Same procedure for the other pairs of valves or zones - just with staggered schedules. One and the same pump supplies each of the rooms (FLO I & II + VEG), hence.
It's been a while since the initial irrigation post, so I'm assuming you are no longer running two zones off of a single tank, right?
Is the box in the bottom right corner a timer controlling just the pump or both the pump and the controller? Both the pump and the valves start and open at the same time, with the receiving zone's valve and pump shutting off slightly later, to push remaining solution into the target zone, correct?
Sorry, prolly not seeing the forest for the trees here, but what do you mean by "standard rain birds"?
The mechanical valve you mentioned is meant to facilitate flushing and cleaning pipes, pump and reservoirs as well as reservoir changes, when necessary?
What about possible points of failure, i.e. expected lifetime and outright failure, with a view to both the pump and - especially - the ball valves? Any brands you'd avoid or recommend?
My post you linked confuses me lol. To be clear I have 3 zones, 2 valves per zone. Standard rain birds can be bought off the shelf at big box stores. But you have the understanding of it. The box in the right lower corner is a pump start relay, which the timer kicks on along with 2 valves. So the Rez valve and room valve open simultaneously while the pump kicks on to water one zone. The mechanical valves are necessary to control and keep the rezs from mixing. For flushing I teed the 3/4 inch poly line in the room and ran a spicket outside of the room to hook a hose to. I used 1” pvc that hooks to 3/4” poly inside the room.
I’m a fan of all my irrigation parts. I used a leader pump. Us solid mechanical ball valves which have been great( I keep a spare). 3/4” toro blue strip poly. Netafim arkal disc filter. Netafim 3.2 gph pressure compensating emitters. Netafim 3/16 spaghetti line. Netafim drip stakes. I’ve had clogs in veg, I don’t flush them often enough. In bloom I flush at least weekly, been flawless. Gonna post a few pics of inside.
What are the square saucers you use? So them being used on Instagram from someone else and interested in getting some
Square Farmers. I use them as well. I wish they were a bit more durable though for the price. I dropped a broom one day cleaning and a normal aluminum handle broom broke one first day I had them set up. I also wish they were bit taller to hold more water. There is no alternative I found though yet.
Their called square farmers. They have that built in plant elevator and I plumbed the bottom with a 3/4” drain.
Also I would like to add it would be most awesome if they added ports where you could slide in 56 inch tomato cages....This would be extremely useful.
LouDog420
Well-known member
Such a great thread. I've read through a couple times now and have a couple questions for anyone that may want to answer...
I just switched over to Jack's A and B in coco from H3ad's 6/9 recipe. I'm planning to follow eric's formula using 3.0g/gal part a, 2.5g/gal cal-nit part b, and switched out the 0.25g/gal MKP with 0.3g/gal of kool bloom (for veg) which hits roughly the same ppm numbers.
I was running tap water and noting some deficiencies, purple stems, some yellowing between leaf veins on mid/upper leaves, looks like Mg issue. I also had a tray of clones and some rootbound vegging plants go yellow from the top down in what looked like a boron or iron issue. I used to run h3ad's 6-9 formula with success for years, and started running into issues a few months back.
As a result, I just switched over to jacks and still seeing some issues (lesser but still there). I am running LEDs in veg which may cause a change in metabolism from what I've previously worked with (either HID or flouro), but even after adjusting nutrient feeds up to compensate, I'm still chasing deficiencies which seems to be mostly Mg, maybe some P. Root growth seems stunted and overall slow growth. I've come to the conclusion there may be something in the tap interfering with nutrient availability and causing lockout, maybe excess calcium causing issues with P and Mg uptake. The tap water comes out around 200 ppm, so nothing too crazy.
I figured fuck it, and shelled out for a RO system, just hooked it up and spitting out 11ppm water. First batch of nutes mixed up came out to ~4.9 pH. I added back a bit of tap to bring it up to 5.85-5.9.
So my question, does that seem right (such a low pH in RO with Jacks)? I thought Jack's was buffered to fall between 6.2 and 6.8, but could see the purity of the RO affecting this. It didn't take much tap water to bring the pH up to the desired range, maybe 1/30th of the volume of the nutes. No more pH down wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but just looking for some reassurance and what you all experience when mixing... I checked it with two pH meters, and seems to be accurate.
Any other pointers welcome. This thread is a wealth of info, thanks so much to everyone for sharing!
I just switched over to Jack's A and B in coco from H3ad's 6/9 recipe. I'm planning to follow eric's formula using 3.0g/gal part a, 2.5g/gal cal-nit part b, and switched out the 0.25g/gal MKP with 0.3g/gal of kool bloom (for veg) which hits roughly the same ppm numbers.
I was running tap water and noting some deficiencies, purple stems, some yellowing between leaf veins on mid/upper leaves, looks like Mg issue. I also had a tray of clones and some rootbound vegging plants go yellow from the top down in what looked like a boron or iron issue. I used to run h3ad's 6-9 formula with success for years, and started running into issues a few months back.
As a result, I just switched over to jacks and still seeing some issues (lesser but still there). I am running LEDs in veg which may cause a change in metabolism from what I've previously worked with (either HID or flouro), but even after adjusting nutrient feeds up to compensate, I'm still chasing deficiencies which seems to be mostly Mg, maybe some P. Root growth seems stunted and overall slow growth. I've come to the conclusion there may be something in the tap interfering with nutrient availability and causing lockout, maybe excess calcium causing issues with P and Mg uptake. The tap water comes out around 200 ppm, so nothing too crazy.
I figured fuck it, and shelled out for a RO system, just hooked it up and spitting out 11ppm water. First batch of nutes mixed up came out to ~4.9 pH. I added back a bit of tap to bring it up to 5.85-5.9.
So my question, does that seem right (such a low pH in RO with Jacks)? I thought Jack's was buffered to fall between 6.2 and 6.8, but could see the purity of the RO affecting this. It didn't take much tap water to bring the pH up to the desired range, maybe 1/30th of the volume of the nutes. No more pH down wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but just looking for some reassurance and what you all experience when mixing... I checked it with two pH meters, and seems to be accurate.
Any other pointers welcome. This thread is a wealth of info, thanks so much to everyone for sharing!
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Biologist
Active member
Hey LouDog420 have you tried mixing it without the KoolBloom to see what the pH is with the RO water? KoolBloom (2-45-28, Ammonium phosphate, ammonium sulfate, potassium phosphate, potassium sulfate and magnesium sulfate) is pretty different from MKP (0-52-34, monopotassium phosphate) so you might get a different result ph or otherwise with it instead of MKP.
Eric, I had a question, I think you said you stop spraying with Regalia around week 4, is that due to worries about bud rot from moisture or do you feel like the Regalia isn't good on the buds after week 4?
Eric, I had a question, I think you said you stop spraying with Regalia around week 4, is that due to worries about bud rot from moisture or do you feel like the Regalia isn't good on the buds after week 4?
DiverDave
Well-known member
I read that after weighing the 3 parts for jacks mix
I add cal/mag into rez or final feed bucket first , then jacks and finally mg or any additives , gauging each as its added to final and see where your at , it comes up right in this order for me w/o up or down , but if I do use down its crystal Alaskan citrus ,all natural.
DD
This is one of the best threads I have read in a while! Very informative and so rad the homie takes the time to answer everyone’s questions... Mad props!
Makes me want to dump my organic soil and buy a couple bags of Jacks
-DD
Makes me want to dump my organic soil and buy a couple bags of Jacks
-DD
LouDog420
Well-known member
Thanks for the input, I've been fighting deficiencies for six months now and it's starting to wear on me. Went from years of perfectly healthy and happy plants to struggling to keep plants green almost overnight. I appreciate any insight.
Good idea, should have done that from the start as a baseline. Just mixed up the Part A and B without any kool bloom and it sits at 4.92 for me. With the addition of kool bloom, that drops to 4.87. I can push it back up to 5.8-5.9 with tap water, which adds back maybe 1/20th of total volume via tap water.
So you add part b first then part a and your ph falls in line mostly?
I followed jack's directions for part a first, then b. I dissolve the part b in a smaller container prior to adding to the bulk res, then finally kool bloom (also dissolved in smaller container). But maybe that's an issue but all components are individually dissolved then mixed together after in the order: part a, part b, kool bloom.
I remember reading the discussion from earlier in this thread talking about the order to add as generally mg and ca products are added first as you stated with jack's suggesting part a first due to the part a taking longer to dissolve.
Good idea, should have done that from the start as a baseline. Just mixed up the Part A and B without any kool bloom and it sits at 4.92 for me. With the addition of kool bloom, that drops to 4.87. I can push it back up to 5.8-5.9 with tap water, which adds back maybe 1/20th of total volume via tap water.
So you add part b first then part a and your ph falls in line mostly?
I followed jack's directions for part a first, then b. I dissolve the part b in a smaller container prior to adding to the bulk res, then finally kool bloom (also dissolved in smaller container). But maybe that's an issue but all components are individually dissolved then mixed together after in the order: part a, part b, kool bloom.
I remember reading the discussion from earlier in this thread talking about the order to add as generally mg and ca products are added first as you stated with jack's suggesting part a first due to the part a taking longer to dissolve.
dramamine
Well-known member
Hey Lou....
I ran Jack's for years with RO and it always has low ph. I add a bit of either ag-sil potassium silicate or potassium carbonate before adding the 5-12-26 part and wind up at ph6. Anyway, it doesn't take much to bring it up to where you want it.
Just wanted to reassure you that it's normal for it to be low ph when you use RO. I'm sure you could add some tap water to your mix and get the ph where you want it, too. My tap sucks, so I don't.
Edit: once you adjust the ph, it's rock solid. Shouldn't come back down or anything.
LouDog420
Well-known member
Awesome, thanks bud. I've noticed it's super stable once set in the res.
I have some potassium silicate, that's a great idea to raise ph. I'd definitely prefer no tap, as I'm half convinced there was a change in water quality which is leading to my latest issues.
Yeah it is extremely stable. So fuckin nice. I quit even needing to pH with my RO. If you want the pH to stay normal and be awesome drop any sort of extra BS. None of it is needed. If your plants aren't perfect or extremely close with given recipe you have other issues.
And don't ever take gnats for granted...especially in coco. It is crazy how quick bugs reproduce in it.
And don't ever take gnats for granted...especially in coco. It is crazy how quick bugs reproduce in it.
Lyfespan
Active member
under way on this reset
p0opstlnksal0t
Active member
How are those aquablend dosers holding up?
