L
lazy gardener
great insight stonefree thanks and awesome roots and tree in your sig!
Capfan: how high do you keep your water level above the bottom of the net pot to get roots like that?
So I thought I was being slick and collecting all the runoff water from the A/C's and Dehumidifiers. Collecting it in a 50 gallon brute, then reusing for the humidifiers and fogging the plants with it. I used a pond uv filter on a timer in the Brute to keep the fogger water clean. The water was 0 ppm and ph was around 7. The water stayed Chrystal clear so I didnt think it was a problem. Since I started using it the plants turn to crap. I thought it was the MR. clean stuff i used to wipe out the humidifiers, and the anti bacterial stuff I used before was the problem, Not so. It is the water in the brute. Turns out it is severely Anerobic. I sent a water sample out to be tested. Here are some quotes..
"No harmful bacteria detected.
Extremely excess total aerobic bacteria. May cause nuisance slimes, odors, and opportunistic
infections. Recommend sanitizing the system.
Sample is very “soft.” No detectable divalent cations. Therefore, unable to calculate LI and SAR. "
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So, I have switched the humidifier supply to straight since mid last run. Plants have never been healthier. I could try to solve the anaerobic problem with a better filter and some air stones, but I think ill stick to the ro for now.
Another giveaway was when I switched the water to ro, the feed lines I was using were the rigid frosted ones. In 2 days they were clogged with green algae. Had to switch to black ones. This didn't happen with the anaerobic water. Probably because it is poisonous to plants.. Ah Ha
I still have been managing to eek out 2-2.5 averages, but I know this system can average 3.5. Its on now
I don't think you're not supposed to use metal in hydro, especially at pH levels around 5.5-6.0 way too much copper can leach into your water. Heard you can also kill a tree by driving copper nails into it, if you only drive a few into a big tree though it can actually help it (as plants use copper). That might be a myth though.I been working on Hydro like 4 years now (5gal buckets), and always with good results but recently, I read about molasses and I try some in DWC in the middle of flowering and everything went to trash (root rot). I have never try EWC tea (but basically seems to be like freshwater aquarium healthy system, with benefical bacteria), since I prefer clean setups, and for that I just add a couple of inches of cooper wire into the buckets, along with peroxide once a week. I belive the cooper helps a lot to avoid ciano and excesive baterial growth...any thoughts on that? (You can use it on humidifiers?)
Thanks for sharing! most impresive grow diary you have here, respects!