Athena Pro Questions

joe how

Active Member
Hi,

I recently switched from GH to Athena Pro line and have a question about target EC. My target EC is 2.0 in Veg and 2.7 in Flower (following the heavy feed chart). I converted the powder nutrients to liquid using 25lbs of nutrients to 25 gallons of water. I was very very careful with this step. I measured the water very precisely , used a aquarium heater to increase water temp to 90 degrees and used a aeromixer to mix everything.

I'm following the Athena guide to using Pro line as a liquid nutrient and for a 2.7 EC you need 33.3ml of Core and 55.9ml of Bloom. The individual EC chart states that for a 2.7 EC target, the Core should put you at 1.08 EC and the Bloom adds another 1.62 which is the 2.7 EC.
Now here's my issue, when i add the Core the EC is 1.10 which is on target but when i add the Bloom its only reaching 2.3 EC. So the Bloom is only increasing the EC by 1.20 EC and NOT the 1.62 like it should.

To get the EC to 2.7 I am adding approx. 50% more Bloom! For my 50 gallon res I should be using 2,795ml of Bloom but im having to add another 1350ml of Bloom to get to my target of 2.7 EC.

The Athena support rep i spoke with said its possible I had more than 25 gallons of water in tank i used to convert the nutrient from salt to liquid which I don't think is true since i filled the tank myself and was very careful to get it exact but assuming I was off by a few gallons, that shouldn't equal a 50% increase in nutrients needed.
Note: I used 3 Blue Guardian PPM/PH meters to confirm the PPM when testing the above.
My questions are,
  1. Can a few gallons really throw off the concentration by 50%?
  2. According to the Athena rep, as long as I hit my target EC's I will be fine from the standpoint that my plants are getting the correct EC with the correct rations of nutrients. Is this true?
  3. Has anyone else had a similar issue using Athena?
Thanks!!
 

Armyofsprout

Well-Known Member
It’s been a thing going around the Athena community where what’s happening is that the bagged salts are retaining moisture from the humidity. This causes it to be heavier when you weigh out your salts due to the water weight in the salts which throws off your measurements.

No way to really fix it but to play around with your measurements and figure out what blend gets you to your recommended EC.

im gonna go Athena myself but when I buy mine I’m gonna sit them in a room with a dehumidifier cranked up first. it sounds like you bought the large bags. I’m gonna buy the small buckets instead the bags because bags are EASILY susceptible to humidity. It happens all the time with bags of soil and coco. The buckets are more airtight.
 
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