Newbie hydroponics grow, need help getting started/selecting equipment!

[eLiguL]

5.5-5.8PH is ideal for DWC.

My PH would rise from 5.5 to 6.5 overnight and I was seeing problems such as this.






I have since got my PH stable and the new growth is nice and dark green. Also, if you have some time you should make some black/white plastic covers for your netpots, light going into your rez is a big NO NO.

 

[SoEx]

5.5-5.8PH is ideal for DWC.

My PH would rise from 5.5 to 6.5 overnight and I was seeing problems such as this.






I have since got my PH stable and the new growth is nice and dark green. Also, if you have some time you should make some black/white plastic covers for your netpots, light going into your rez is a big NO NO.

Yeah, I covered the unused ones (all but one) with paper towels and weighed them down until I get more hydroton.

The light is actually off and nothing is in there yet until I know if I want to move this one germinated seed into there or not.






^^The little thing right there.

The other ones haven't shown any signs of progress as of yet :/

How far away should I keep my light with hood from this guy to start off?

 

[Don Cotyle]

12-18", put your hand over your cube and If your hand gets hot move the light up higher until it's comfertable to your hand.

Ph between 5.6 and 6.4 is fine...what I ment is to pick a PH and stick with it...DON'T LET PH FLUCTUATE UP AND DOWN. I like 5.8 to 6.0...but pick a number between that range and stick to it!

 

[eLiguL]

I kept my lights(60w floros) about a foot and half away then slowly lowered it down to 4inchs from the top. If your gonna make covers for your hydrotron its best to use something that is lightproof or you gonna get algae in your rez. Algae leads to high PH and that in turn will lead to many headaches. Good luck.

 

[dc105]

Aluminum foil will be an inexpensive and useful tool to keep light out!

 

[SoEx]

Aluminum foil will be an inexpensive and useful tool to keep light out!

Aha! Wonderful advice, things are starting off now. I covered the rest of the pots with aluminum foil and filled the other high enough to block light and put the rockwool in. Light is hanging up about 12" away and fan and air pump are functional.

 

[SoEx]

ARGH! The bubble curtains keep detaching and floating to the top!

Fucking suction cups, I should've listened and made sure to use gorilla glue beforehand -_-

I don't know how I'll go about things now, should I maybe try weighing them down? I really don't want to drain all my water.

By the way, my water got murky? Not diseased looking, I just can't see down to the bottom. A few hydroton balls fell through, but I rinsed them beforehand. TEmp is 65 F in tank, ~74F at rockwool surface/hydroton, and 86F 4-5 inches above that. It seems to have made a slight move toward the top.

Damn this water will be the death of me. I hope I can keep ph stable and not have to worry about the damn bubblewands coming up :/

Edit: all four seeds germed and are headed for the surface, now. I only have one int he chamber, but I am getting more hydroton to put down so I can place all four in.

edit2: water temp went up to ~70, possibly due to the bubble curtains floating up and doing nothing :/

Also, ph is wanting to move itself more toward basic. I had it at 6.0, it crept up in the shade of color that the test is indicating.

 

[Military]

Shit man im sorry to hear your troubles and frustrations atm. Dont worry we all get them, coming from someone on there 2nd grow.

BUt what you should do with the wands if just grab a few decent rocks from outside or whatever, some to just hold them down till end of this grow. But since you say your water looks "messed" and murky, Id change the water out just to be safe, might save time later, and while you change the water might as well gorilla glue those wands down.

Your Temps are fine, thats usually what mine are about all the time, im on 11/13 light timing atm.

But your nutes that your using, im sure your mixing them very weak solutions atm, but does your Nutes have a ph buffer build in already? Because the nutes i use, cost about 30$ with shipping, for 1liter or grow/bloom/boost 3 bottle set, that i think is called Techfloro something like that, sorry dont have them by my atm.

These nutes never need to have PH adjustments, the buffers set the pH perfect (almost), but i have never seen any nute burn or pH problems with my 8-10 so plants iv grown. (2 complete harvest, i had bad luck streak, keep getting males)

 

[SoEx]

Shit man im sorry to hear your troubles and frustrations atm. Dont worry we all get them, coming from someone on there 2nd grow.

BUt what you should do with the wands if just grab a few decent rocks from outside or whatever, some to just hold them down till end of this grow. But since you say your water looks "messed" and murky, Id change the water out just to be safe, might save time later, and while you change the water might as well gorilla glue those wands down.

Your Temps are fine, thats usually what mine are about all the time, im on 11/13 light timing atm.

But your nutes that your using, im sure your mixing them very weak solutions atm, but does your Nutes have a ph buffer build in already? Because the nutes i use, cost about 30$ with shipping, for 1liter or grow/bloom/boost 3 bottle set, that i think is called Techfloro something like that, sorry dont have them by my atm.

These nutes never need to have PH adjustments, the buffers set the pH perfect (almost), but i have never seen any nute burn or pH problems with my 8-10 so plants iv grown. (2 complete harvest, i had bad luck streak, keep getting males)

It's not murky -- I can see bubbles coming up -- I just can't see all the way to the bottom perfectly anymore.

I'm also not going to be adding any nutrients until things break the surface and start developing, that was my understanding.

Thanks for the tip on the aluminum foil dc105.



It's near breaking the surface, I hope the ph isn't going to shock the new seedling too much, hopefully it'll stay.

 

[eLiguL]

It's not murky -- I can see bubbles coming up -- I just can't see all the way to the bottom perfectly anymore.

I'm also not going to be adding any nutrients until things break the surface and start developing, that was my understanding.

Thanks for the tip on the aluminum foil dc105.



It's near breaking the surface, I hope the ph isn't going to shock the new seedling too much, hopefully it'll stay.

How well did you rinse your hydrotron?? If you only ran water thru it once or twice then the murkiness your seeing is hydrotron sedament. That will clog your bubble wands in the long run. You should buy a cheap submersible pump to help with emptying and refilling your rez.

 

[SoEx]

How well did you rinse your hydrotron?? If you only ran water thru it once or twice then the murkiness your seeing is hydrotron sedament. That will clog your bubble wands in the long run. You should buy a cheap submersible pump to help with emptying and refilling your rez.

I have one somewhere in storage (actually, two), I just probably won't be able to find them for a week or two. Will the hydro sediment harm the plants at all?

These bubble curtain things claim that they're less prone to clogging, so I dunno.

But yeah, if the hydroton sediment isn't harmful to the plants, I'm hoping to have to change the water as few times as possible.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Hang in there dude. We're all behind you.

My water's a little murky too but, the girls seem happy.

 

[Military]

hah ya my first grow man i had light sneak in my bucket and algae took over. Went on everything, I had to literally scrub my plant's roots every 3 weeks never seemed to do any harm

 

[SoEx]

Okay, makes me a little less worried.

Hopefully going to get some more hydroton and put the other cubes in the chamber. This is day two coming up on the start of day 3 since I put things in the rockwool (10pm).

Hopefully the cotyledons will slip out from inside the seed and show themselves soon

 

[dc105]

Be careful with the new sprouts you don't ned the light too close to start off! I would go 24 inches for a week or so, but if it's not too hot 12 inches may be ok!

 

[dc105]

Be careful with the new sprouts you don't need the light too close to start off! I would go 24 inches for a week or so, but if it's not too hot 12 inches may be ok!

 

[SoEx]

Be careful with the new sprouts you don't need the light too close to start off! I would go 24 inches for a week or so, but if it's not too hot 12 inches may be ok!

It's actually about 16" away at the moment. Temperature of the medium at the surface is about 80. The temp sensor a few inches higher (ahove the rim of the net pot) is reading 88 F. I read from 80-88F is good.

Humidity wise the sensor I have in there is giving me "LO%." I think it may only go down to 25% or something, not sure.

The other cubes are doing well. Two of the other seeds are showing themselves near the surface, the third is down a ways.

The plant in the lights right now has started to show itself above the rockwool, so it's moving itself up at least.

 

[Murphy]

Those baskets look really big, just something to think about, when the plants are in them what's going to hold them up from tipping over? Did you put some holes in the bottoms? look at a few "root Porn" pictures as people like to call them, the main root usually comes out of the bottom, this would also help you in keeping the plant up right. I grew DWC before in 5 gallon buckets with 3" netpots and I had a tough time keeping them upright. Just trying to think like if that was my system, what would I be looking for as far as potential problems that are easier to address now then when you have plants in there. use the time you have now, I'm telling you from experience, once things are up and rolling, every time you mess with the plants you are taking a risk, snapping the stem, breaking roots, tipping one over and so on. Take all of the advice you can get now and use it before the plants go it. It's always better to learn from someone else's mistakes rather then making them!!
If it was me, I would consider ditching those baskets and take a drill to some plastic cups. It will be easier to keep the plants upright. Depending on what size rockwool cubes you are using, they may fit in snug on the corners. Another mistake I made was getting the rockwool to wet......I didn't realize it was supposed to be above the water. Once they start to fall apart, they break the roots and it ends in disaster.

 

[SoEx]

Those baskets look really big, just something to think about, when the plants are in them what's going to hold them up from tipping over? Did you put some holes in the bottoms? look at a few "root Porn" pictures as people like to call them, the main root usually comes out of the bottom, this would also help you in keeping the plant up right. I grew DWC before in 5 gallon buckets with 3" netpots and I had a tough time keeping them upright. Just trying to think like if that was my system, what would I be looking for as far as potential problems that are easier to address now then when you have plants in there. use the time you have now, I'm telling you from experience, once things are up and rolling, every time you mess with the plants you are taking a risk, snapping the stem, breaking roots, tipping one over and so on. Take all of the advice you can get now and use it before the plants go it. It's always better to learn from someone else's mistakes rather then making them!!
If it was me, I would consider ditching those baskets and take a drill to some plastic cups. It will be easier to keep the plants upright. Depending on what size rockwool cubes you are using, they may fit in snug on the corners. Another mistake I made was getting the rockwool to wet......I didn't realize it was supposed to be above the water. Once they start to fall apart, they break the roots and it ends in disaster.

The baskets are held in place by the fact that they are slightly bigger at the rim than at the base. I made the holes very small so the baskets have to be pushed and squeezed into their current position. They remain as they are and I can't push them through. they're not "floating," their rims are also able to rest on the sides of the rubbermaid container.

 

[eLiguL]

It's actually about 16" away at the moment. Temperature of the medium at the surface is about 80. The temp sensor a few inches higher (ahove the rim of the net pot) is reading 88 F. I read from 80-88F is good.

Humidity wise the sensor I have in there is giving me "LO%." I think it may only go down to 25% or something, not sure.

The other cubes are doing well. Two of the other seeds are showing themselves near the surface, the third is down a ways.

The plant in the lights right now has started to show itself above the rockwool, so it's moving itself up at least.

The hydrotron sedament wont harm your plants at all but it will clog up your pumps.

88F is extremely high, 80F is a tad bit high, if you can keep it at 78F this would be ideal.

Personally I like the round disk type bubblers, they are heavy enough to sit at the bottom of your rez without a weight. If your bubblers do get clogged get some CLR(Calcium, lime, rust remover) and soak it overnight to get it working again.

I also noticed that you dont have a PH pen, you should seriously consider getting one. Ive learn the hard way that you shouldnt leave your PH to guess work it will lead to LOTS of problems. I picked up an EC and PH meter from ebay for $50, well worth the money as it takes all the guess work out.

Good luck and grow safe.