DWC n00b with PH/PPM issues. I HAVE SEARCHED.

Well well well... i've dabbled in soil for a while now and i have a certain level of confidence there. However, given my personality and grow style and whatnot, i figured DWC would me more "me" ... so i germed some pepper seeds and whatnot to get my feet wet with some hydro. However i'm having a nagging issue that may very well be me being a dumbass... more on that in a bit, here's all my info:

• 10 gallon rubbermaid, exactly 5 gallons 20ppm RO in the res.

• 25ml GH micro/50 ml GH bloom, a la Lucas.

• 26w cfl with pepsi reflector per plant.

• RINSED AND PH'ed HYDROTON. THREE TIMES. ALOT. GOOD.

• pussy little air pump for 60 gallon tank.

• 3' flexible bubble-tube-thing, along with a 12" traditional stone.

• res temp of 74.5 (now, it's been closer to 68-70. i accidentally left my submersible running overnight. turned it off a couple hours ago. the only reason i mention that is the res temp has only dropped one degree in the last hour. i'd think it would have dropped faster.)

• hmm... what else... ok... lighting. what i have been doing with my hydroton/flexiplugs is lining the bottom 3/4" or so of the net pot with my hydroton, toss the plug in, and fill it up with 'ton to the top of the plug. this created a light-leak of about 1/2 inch on the top of the net pots. i used double-layered duct tape to seal up that light leak, although it's not 100% effective. much better than before though.

By the way, yeah, i know... tiny plants, lotta nutes... but they're doing fine, so that's not the issue... unless maybe it is. more on that later. From what i've read of Lucas, 0/5/10 is ok for me, as long as my little guys have roots... which they do.


Ok so here's my problem. I changed my res LAST NIGHT, 12 hours ago, with fresh RO water, fresh nutes, everything. after adding nutes, i tossed in 1 ml of GH ph Down, which brought my ph to 4.9 (eek shoulda used 1/2) and my ppms to 750 (both are milwaukee meters)

now, today, my ppms are 780, and my ph is 5.4. OOOOoooOOOooOOOooh no. 5.4 is good right ? Whatever, that's not the point. it will keep going up and up and up and up... i've let it go up to 7 at one point to see if it was ever going to stabilize. nope. PH keeps climbing, as do ppms. rapidly. The water level is not changing visibly. This tote has a line built in to it right at the 5 gallon level. it does all of this fluctuation while sitting right there on the 5 gallon mark. For reference... how much would the water level need to drop to up the PH this much ? Certainly i would not be able to SEE the drop of a CUP of solution u know ?

Another note: Before switching to Lucas, i was using GH in the same 0:1:2 proportion, but i was running it at 100ppm, starting it at 5ph. within a week it would be 250ppm, 8.5ph, if i were to let it. WITH NO VISIBLE DROP IN RES VOLUME. I guess the point i'm trying to make is that the PPMs appear to be going up on their own, without the influence of phDown or decreasing water volume. of course using phdown would also raise ppms, but the ppms have been going up regardless.

fuckin a... such a long rambly post for such a retarded problem.

i've been dealing with this for about a month now and have done 15-20 res changes... etc etc... its fuckin annoying. BTW i have a couple ideas of what it could be, and how to deal with it, but i'm trying to get YOUR unbiased opinion. I've attached a couple pics for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks in advance.

ok well you provided good info. i would lower those ppms man by alot.. i have fully rooted clones right now about 5 inches tall at half those ppms. keep your ph up at 5.8ish and try not to use too much ph down. sometimes it takes a day or two to adjust itself. you say you dont have light leaks in the res. but it doesent mean you dont have algae growing. is it slimy in there? are the tubes slimy? if so maybe try covering the sides of the res with something to prevent future growth. in my experience hydro is forgiving as long as you dont let the problems continue and at least try to stay on top of shit. you sound like a good grower just please lower those ppms because i think thats the problem. (300ish)

2 part response:

over the past month, i been ran 100ppms for 2.5 weeks, and only recently upped it, after reading many posts like this from Lucas himself: oinky doink linky dink Prior to upping the ppms, my problems were identical.

as far as algae: that is what i am suspecting. things are slimy indeed. i know this causes ph to raise... does it affect PPMs as well ? I've not found a lot of consistent info on algae and what i've read has pointed me away from it. my temps have been below 70, yada yada... i think at this point i'm going to go get a better air pump, as i've read that the more oxygenated the water is, the less your chances of algae. i'll have to do some thinking as far as light-blockage... i'm not too keen on coating my tub in duct tape for whatever reason.

one other reason i was thinking it could be something other than algae: it happens so FAST ! as a test a while back, i took everything out and cleaned EVERYTHING... except the netpots/hydroton of course. so that is, tub, airstones, tubing. i cleaned it good, right... and 12 hours later im up a half ph point. i realize that *some* light is getting in. but very little ! and this was back when i had ONE 26w cfl with NO REFLECTOR !!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARGH !

mhmmm.. try getting a new pump then because its true about more oxygen = less algea. so do that, and cover up the res maybe by ducktaping a black trashbag anywhere light can seep through the plastic. if it still continues which i doubt, then you can troubleshoot other possible problems. its all a work in progress my freind, take it 1 step at a time.

just bought a 600gph to replace my 40gph. i'll expect this to at least put a dent in the situation... thanks for the replies man. it's good to bounce ideas around sometimes.

new bubbler seems to have done the trick. seems to. i'll know for sure tomorrow. ppms have risen by 40 since my water change, BUT over the last 3 checks (8 hrs or so) they have only risen 10ppm. encouraging, since my hands have been in and out of the res all day, AND i got a new 12" airstone in there which always spit a negligible amount of ppms into the res when they're new. Ph, on the other hand, is up to 5.9 from 4.9. HOWEVER, as stated before, my hands have been in and out of the res all day, plus the airstone, yada yada. PLUS i do remember that the GH nutes at the level i was using dropped my ph to oooooooh about 5.8 or 5.9, then i dropped (and overshot) the ph the rest of the way with ph down. SOoooooooooooooooOOOooOOOoo it could still be pretty stable in the morning. i hope. AND i have some gaurds to block the netpot-light-leakage that im gonna toss on tomorrow. If that doesn't do it. I'll be pissed. Oh yeah, my res temp is at 70... it kept dropping steadily from 76 or whatever it was when i got up this morning, from leaving my sumbersible on overnight. So yeah it leveled off at 70.

70degree res temp, low light, freshly changed solution, HIGH HIGH HIGH oxygen... if this shit keeps going on tomorrow... i might just tear this shit all down and put it away for a while. I've only got some pepper seeds going right now after all.

Indeed. My new bubbler, by itself, has solved the problem.

My readings this morning were identical to those of last night. 5.9 ph, 800ppm. ok ok ok so the ppm is 10 higher but that's what happens with evap and drinkage. so yeah, time-adjusted identical. so yeah, i'm thinking that nowhere else on RIU has someone had this exact problem. whatever.

as far as light-leakage goes, i'm still gonna use those little CD looking root protector thingies, my duct tape just wasn't doing it. In order to do so, i had to raise my plugs within the netpot, so now the plug is a good 2.5" farther away from the water. this will easily be offset by the extra bubblage and the fact that the root protector thing will up the humidity in the plug-zone. My thinking is that this "humidity" will do better than the prior "wetness." So overall... win.