Calling all biobucketeers!

[Ray of Light]

Hello guys...

I've built 16x 5gallon biobucket system and I faced some problems....

Everything is build according to bigtokes specifications. Water ran for 2 weeks before plants were introduced into the system.

My tap water here is really bad. PH aroud 8 and around 400ppm.
Ph of the nutrient solution when pictures were taken was 7.4 IIRC. At the begining It was near 8 and I used 70ml of canna ph down - grow. Ph was dropped slightly. Later I also added 10L of distiled water hoping that would help and I boosted GH 3part nutes a bit more hoping it would bring the ph down and feed those deficencies. This pictures are 5 days old and it didnt get any better now. Yesterday when my last measurment was ph was just under 7 (tested with ph tester in drops for aquariums, because I lost ph meter - probably aliens fault) and ppms at 850 -400 for the water=450. I just rememberd, no pics of roots but some plants have them outside their nets (from 0-30cm long) and they are looking heatly white. Temps of water are cool.

















My guess is that the best would be to empty the system -keeping this plants-and start over of nutrient mixing. But I still have to fix my water that I start to work with. What do you reccomend?

-Mix distiled water? 50:50? (That would make water to start with 200ppm and ph probably slightly above 7) Maybe I would do it once.... Lots of water...
-Get an RO water filter and use that water straigt or mix it with tap regular?
-Write to Santa?
-You got any toughts on this? Please....

thank you

I will supply new pics asap!

may the ray of light shine on your plants (hope they grow better than mine )

edit;
did I forget anything?

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Go with the RO water...if you're gonna run a hydro setup, it's pretty mandatory if you don't already have excellent water - which you don't.

In those pics, it looks like high levels of calcium are locking out mag to me...

 

[MID TOWN]

lower that PH to 5.8 QUICK.

 

[Ray of Light]

Excuse my dumb question, but shouldnt the benefitial bacteria compensate for slighty high PH? Bringing PH down will cause ppm to raise even more....

thank you.

 

[Blackvelvet]

Go with the RO water...if you're gonna run a hydro setup, it's pretty mandatory if you don't already have excellent water - which you don't.

In those pics, it looks like high levels of calcium are locking out mag to me...

 

[MTF-Sandman]

Excuse my dumb question, but shouldnt the benefitial bacteria compensate for slighty high PH? Bringing PH down will cause ppm to raise even more....

thank you.

It's not really the fact that the PH is high as much as it's the stuff in the water that's causing your PH to be high that are causing the issues.

But IME no, they're not gonna magically make the plant be able to uptake nutes since the osmotic function of the roots won't let it happen.

 

[Ray of Light]

Ok.. I think I understand....

I dropped ph to around 6. Close to what MID TOWN said, thanks. Also added just a little GH Micro.


Here are todays pics.


















thank you for helping!

...
I will order RO filter and some kind of constant PH and PPM reading device.

 

[Getawaymonkey!]

use distilled water and stop chasing your Ph

 

[Ray of Light]

Yes...

My plants are lookin better now. Yesterday I have exchanged all the water in the system with RO water (Yep, have the RO Filter) . PH/EC/Temp meter comes on monday,I hope.

Thank you for your imput!

 

[Ray of Light]

PH @ 6, RO water EC 0.2, res water EC 0.8.

 

[MTF-Sandman]

You sure that's an RO filter? Reason I ask is because RO water is usually less than 20ppm and yours is right at 100ppm (.2 EC).

 

[Ray of Light]

It is RO unit for sure. I think I made a mistake.... I should say 0.02.... I will do a double check.

Thanks

 

[Ray of Light]

Yes... The RO water has EC of 0.02.

Got a new PH meter today... its great! Hanna waterproff...

and this is the EC meter I use..

Anyone sure about 0.5 or 0.7 conversion with this EC meter? I was sure that it was 0.7 but I saw a chart yesterday saying hanna has 0.5.

Thanks!

 

[MTF-Sandman]

You're gonna love this...

From http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/search/ProductDetail/SIGMA/Z710407

EC / TDS Conversion Factor Adjustable from 0.45 to 1.00

Sounds like it's time to break out the manual...

 

[Ray of Light]

Hey... it has been a while ... hasnt it?

Thanks MTF-Sandman!I broke the manual to 100 pieces but still no sign of that....

Here is how my first bio buckets run is progressing.... i think i havent been feeding them enough or maybe phosporus def?... EC from 0.6 to 0.65 and ph of 6. I bumped ec to good 0.75 today and hope it works.... i apriciate any comments!














Have a nice day growers!
Ray

 

[Blackvelvet]

Veg formula

Veg formula

Hey Ray!

Glad you got on the purified water. I bet you just had a simple magnesium deficiency for whatever reason. With gh 3 part, I doubt you will need to add any additives like cal mag plus, additional p, etc... if mixed properly.

With plants your size, I would aim for about 1/2 strength 15 ml grow, 10 ml micro, 5 ml bloom per gallon of water. I don't know what ec this gives you. I do know it gives you about 100 ppm nitrogen. (This ppm n is not the same is how a
ppm meter reads ...they are different things) Once your plants get slightly larger, increase your n to 150 ppm. This would be about 2/3 strength of the above formula.

Glad to see your keeping an eye on ph.

Good luck growing!

 

[Ray of Light]

Hello Blackvelvet!

Thank you for your imput! There is now way of knowing how many ml/gallon of nutes are in there because I have been just adding them since the RO water went in. I have been using all 3 parts in the same amounts!! (That is what it says on the label) Maybe Ill do a test mix of your recepie for 1 gallon to see what EC i get and compare it to mine. Maybe anyone else would like to elaborate on this? Todays system readings are:

PH: 6.8 (horaaay!)
EC: 0.75

I have a water temp problem... summer comming, temps are going up and water chiller is needed. I orderd it a week ago and should be here any day now.

Thank you!
Ray

 

[Blackvelvet]

Get your ph under 6.5

 

[Ray of Light]

Yeah? Is that neccecary?

And I still dont know what is causing this deficiencie?
(same pics as on the end of page 1)






Thanks!
Ray

 

[Ray of Light]

Hello please?!

I am still waiting for someone to confirm what was my conclusion.. phosporus def ... or is it something else? Please if anyone could help me with this. I would like to flower this girls very soon and would like to see them doing better....

thank you for reading.
Ray