Qleaner in DWC

burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
Day 24 of flower for the qleaners. These girls are growing som big stout branches. The stretch seems to have stopped, but it was some huge stretch. went from about 8" to 36" high. Still seeing the gradual ph drop, but nothing severe. growth is looking very healthy, nothing out of the ordinary other than one days worth of mild light burn from last week.
 

Attachments

burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what to look for as far as a silica overload. What would you expect the symptoms to be, fat stems? I'm running the same level of silica that I did with the vortex, and the vortex had wimpy stems that would sag from the weight of a popcorn bud.
 
burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
HB, do you think my ph drop is from the conversion of ammonium into nitrate nitrogen? Does the ratio of ammonium nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen seem off to you? Does having this ammonium nitrogen in the mix give a more controlled release of N than a mix that was all nitrate nitrogen?
 
homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
burrr said:
HB, do you think my ph drop is from the conversion of ammonium into nitrate nitrogen? Does the ratio of ammonium nitrogen to nitrate nitrogen seem off to you? Does having this ammonium nitrogen in the mix give a more controlled release of N than a mix that was all nitrate nitrogen?
Click to expand...
To be honest, the type of N and how it relates to pH stability is a little over my head, if there is even a correlation. I'm familiar with the different sources of N and how some are desirable and some aren't given one's growing method. I'm familiar with a few different types of N as they're supplied by the different hydro ferts I've used and I don't think I can draw a correlation between the type of N that's supplied and pH stability.

Connoisseur supplied 75% 'other water soluble Nitrogen' with the remaining 25% being roughly half urea and half nitrate. GH was almost 100% nitrate and neither of these brands is pH stable. If nitrogen is allowed to build up in the medium, I'm assuming this could have an effect on the pH which is why I leach my medium a few times during flower.

In regards to protekt, I use 5mls per gallon in flower. What is your water source again? RO or tap? If tap, what's the ppm?
 
burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
I use RO water, and add back 10% 200ppm tapwater to it. Now that I am top feeding I don't have much salt buildup at all, and see no rise in ppm while flushing.
 
homebrewer

homebrewer

Well-Known Member
burrr said:
I use RO water, and add back 10% 200ppm tapwater to it. Now that I am top feeding I don't have much salt buildup at all, and see no rise in ppm while flushing.
Click to expand...
Were you running a drip system during your other grows? If not, did you pH have a pattern throughout the week?
 
burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
I experienced this ph drop even while doing the ebb and flow/ dwc combo. PH drift was at its lightest when I was using 100% RO water, magpro, and dutchmaster zone (chloramine and copper to fight slime).
or

So.....
It could be biological activity now that I've stopped the Zone,

or maybe the buffers in the tap water I'm using a little of wear off in a few days.

or maybe it's because when I add back to the solution through the week I use ph up and bloom, instead of protek and bloom.

It does not cause problems, what ever is behind it.

I'm hesitant to over do it with silica, even though I don't know what silica overload looks or taste like.
 
burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
Day 29. I saw a drop in ph over 24 hours from 5.7 to 5.3. This is 4 days into a nute change and has been fairly stable till now. Plants are still happy in that ph range. Buds are starting to fill in and it looks like this TGA drow is going to give me the big nugs I was looking for. The next 30 days should be good!
 

Attachments

burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
I just dropped two beans from 303 seeds into rapid rooters today. I'm hoping for two lady snow godesses to sprout forth!
 
inhaleindica

inhaleindica

Well-Known Member
I have a question about the ppm meter that you have. I have the exact same one and another blue lab ppm meter. When I use the aqua pro and have the ppm up to 800 then i check with the blue lab it shows almost 2k ppm. I was like wtf am I over feeding or under feeding due to different ppm meters showing different numbers.
 
burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
inhaleindica said:
I have a question about the ppm meter that you have. I have the exact same one and another blue lab ppm meter. When I use the aqua pro and have the ppm up to 800 then i check with the blue lab it shows almost 2k ppm. I was like wtf am I over feeding or under feeding due to different ppm meters showing different numbers.
Click to expand...
Does your BLuelab meter have a scale for EC? that's what I would go by. It sounds like one of the 2 meters may be off judging by the big difference of 800/2kppm
 
inhaleindica

inhaleindica

Well-Known Member
burrr said:
Does your BLuelab meter have a scale for EC? that's what I would go by. It sounds like one of the 2 meters may be off judging by the big difference of 800/2kppm
Click to expand...
EC how exactly do you read the EC comparing to 800ppm? I know they have a bit of different numbers. I think that my Bluelab does have both scales. I will look tomorrow when the light comes on, but I am using the ppm scale. The aquapro can't really be calibrated it right? I can't seem to see a way to calibrate it.
 
burrr

burrr

Well-Known Member
The aqua pro is a .5 conversion TDS meter. that means that when it reads 800 ppm the bluelab should read 1.6 EC. Aqua pro at 500 ppm should read 1.0 EC. The aqua pro can be be reset.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top