Homemade Under Current

Hobgoblit

Active Member
Read last night how in DWC you should let your PH rise from 5.8 to 6.3 in veg, and the lower end when flowering. Anyone know if this is true?
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
Never thought I'd actually be standing in line buying 21 gallons of distilled water, but I did, and felt like everyone was looking at me...haha Will be cleaning the system tonight, flushing the plants and filling her back up with distilled. One question, should I add anything extra, besides the nova grow? Like CaMg+, or will the grow be enough to finish out veg?
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mr2shim

Well-Known Member
Never thought I'd actually be standing in line buying 21 gallons of distilled water, but I did, and felt like everyone was looking at me...haha Will be cleaning the system tonight, flushing the plants and filling her back up with distilled. One question, should I add anything extra, besides the nova grow? Like CaMg+, or will the grow be enough to finish out veg?
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Where'd you buy hat much water!? I need to make a stop there. I'd say nova grow + cal mag would be good enough. I've been using only Nova Bloom, I can't say if that's enough because I was under nuting it.
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
Where'd you buy hat much water!? I need to make a stop there. I'd say nova grow + cal mag would be good enough. I've been using only Nova Bloom, I can't say if that's enough because I was under nuting it.
Walmart, $2.88 for a box of 3, something like 82 cents a gallon.
 

[420]Haze

Active Member
if i were you id remove the airstone from the return res, theres more than enough oxygen being pumped into each tub via the stones in the DWC bucket, run a small pump to keep the water moving in the return res, this should help stabilize the PH in your res, to much oxygen in the water will displace the hydrogen and cause PH fluctuations, any water surface movement oxygenates the water, it doesnt have to be a airstone, on the other scale you dont want stagant non moving water either.
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
[420]Haze;6116751 said:
if i were you id remove the airstone from the return res, theres more than enough oxygen being pumped into each tub via the stones in the DWC bucket, run a small pump to keep the water moving in the return res, this should help stabilize the PH in your res, to much oxygen in the water will displace the hydrogen and cause PH fluctuations, any water surface movement oxygenates the water, it doesnt have to be a airstone, on the other scale you dont want stagant non moving water either.
Walked into the room a minute ago and the smell of ganja almost knocked me down. First smell from this grow. Probably from moving my light down to about 2 1/2 feet, had been all the way in the top of my tent. Anyhow, if you look in the posted pick of my res, the black fitting in the bottom is my return line, it shoots water up to the surface, so got the mixing part down, will remove the airstone tonight while cleaning. Hope this works, thanks for the advice...+rep
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
Ok, got the system cleaned out, took the airstone out of the reservoir, but left the top feed. Flushed the plants with 5.5 distilled,(3 gallons all together). 19 gallons all together in the system. PPMs are @ 250 till I see a good drop, don't wanna push them to hard right now. PH is @ 5.5 and won't be dropped till it hits 6.1. Water level is just at the bottom of the net pots. Gonna shoot for 65 in the res. I'll try for 80-85 in the tent.
 

[420]Haze

Active Member
you should be alright now, you may still get a slight variance, but not a major drop like 6.5 to 5.5, or vice versa, it should help keep it a lil more consistant. Leave it a few hours and re-check your ph to confirn its balancing out.
 

dirtysnowball

Well-Known Member
awww buddy your making my day +rep! just look at that clean setup! and you have great nutes too 7-4-10! K should be the highest nute for the entire grow, but look at this you've been doing that already! K regulates water and plant respiratory but most importantly it makes your fruit FAT and SUPER DENSE, giant pumpkin growers focus on K more than anything. +rep your doing superb
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
awww buddy your making my day +rep! just look at that clean setup! and you have great nutes too 7-4-10! K should be the highest nute for the entire grow, but look at this you've been doing that already! K regulates water and plant respiratory but most importantly it makes your fruit FAT and SUPER DENSE, giant pumpkin growers focus on K more than anything. +rep your doing superb
Thanks man, this is probably the 5th system I've built, saw a guy on youtube with the current culture and 30 minutes later I was in Lowes, ha ha, had to have it...believe it or not, I'm seeing the green just pour in from the top down as we speak. Red in the stems is backing out. Looks like it's gonna swing on through the first time, @ 5.9 now, but it does that, second time through will probably be alot slower.
That Nova Grow is awesome, I use it in soil too, everything is so fat and huge. Can't wait to see how these turn out...
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
Well, it has climbed to 6.0, and been sitting since 2:30am, still the first swing since fill up. PPM's are bouncing around a 10 point area. Gonna take a pic in a sec to compare with last nights. Anyone got a clue how long it takes to come out of a lockout in hydro, and what to watch for?
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
Just dropped it down to 5.5, hit 6.1 @ 2pm, so it took almost 18 hours to go through the swing. 12 hours it sat @ 6.0. PPMs are about the same...248 @ 2pm, this swing should be alot slower.
 

dirtysnowball

Well-Known Member
the plants are eating up the nutes, and that causes the ppm to lower & the ph to rise simultaneously. i guess you just have to add some more nutes and test it repeatedly until the swing calms down. its fine for the ph to swing a few tenth points but its not good to have it swing like a whole (1.0)point, get your ph under control and your lockout will disappear! i read 1600ppm is like the max for hydro, and i also know that plants grow the fastest when ppm's are at half of their max ppm. that would be about 800 but your plants are still young... so i get what your saying about keeping low, i agree less is more. good luck looking forward to tomorrows results.
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
the plants are eating up the nutes, and that causes the ppm to lower & the ph to rise simultaneously. i guess you just have to add some more nutes and test it repeatedly until the swing calms down. its fine for the ph to swing a few tenth points but its not good to have it swing like a whole (1.0)point, get your ph under control and your lockout will disappear! i read 1600ppm is like the max for hydro, and i also know that plants grow the fastest when ppm's are at half of their max ppm. that would be about 800 but your plants are still young... so i get what your saying about keeping low, i agree less is more. good luck looking forward to tomorrows results.
It will stop, IF i take the top flow off. It sat @ 5.8 for 2 days before I put it on, should I pull it off?


Dumb question, right? Pulled it off...
 

Hobgoblit

Active Member
Can someone explain to me why anything I pass through my hydroton raises my PH by 1 point, causing me to swing constantly. The only way I get a slow steady PH is without my top feed, and the water level just below my net pots. What gives?
 
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