Krondizzel
New Member
Hello rollitup.org,
I have been following along on the forum for quite some time now. It has helped give me the confidence I need to become an indoor grower. I have done my best thus far to meet a budget, not do things half effort, and accept positive and negative feedback since I know this is my first time and I can't expect myself to know everything. Let me tell you a bit about what I have going on.
I purchased a 4x8x7 pre-made tent (Lighthouse brand), mylar lined, with vents and drip liner and ports for electrical cables n such. It's a fairly nice tent and I went that route to avoid building one myself and having to modify it a bunch of times. Glad I went this route.
Inside, I have 2, 1000W MH lights, one 6" vented and one open hood. I have a 6" hydrofarm fan and im using that as an exhaust, running through the vented hood and out. it also has a 6x24 charcoal filter.
I also have 2 air intake fans, 4", that pump outside air into the tent near the open hood in attempt to displace heat and improve overall airflow. Originally my plan was to run 1 1000w light, but i was lucky enough to have a second one fall into my lap, so i figured id at least try to utilize the second light.
I am running a general hydroponics waterfarm kit. It is 2 kits combined into one, and I have reasons for my modifications to it, so try not to jump me so soon on what I may or may not be doing wrong.
I currently use 12 buckets. (space limited) All with drip rings. I am using only a controller bucket and two water pumps of the same size to recirculate the water from control bucket, to buckets, and back again to be re-oxygenated (instead of using a non recirculated gravity feed reservoir to add water). I do this because it minimizes the correction time when adding water or adjusting ph or whatever. Its my first build and I haven't worked all the bugs out so I'm trying to monitor things very closely.
I am 1 week in after transplanting. My medium is hydroton and I am using the 3 part General Hydroponics Flora Series (gro, micro, bloom) and Grotek Insta-green.
I am running roughly 800ppm at a ph of about 6 (hard to tell with the drops, but I'm close) Recirculating my system allows my PH to stay pretty consistent in each bucket.
My questions and concerns are as follows:
At first, I didn't have my circulating system in, so my ph level in each bucket was all out of whack in each bucket. Some good, some terrible. Yes, I suffered a PH problem that resulted in some black tipped leaves and stunted growth. Once I got my circulating system in, and was able to manage my ph and watering a bit better, I noticed some improvement after a couple of days. At first, I thought the culprit might have been the foliage spray. I thought this because everything was fine all day, I sprayed the plants down before bedtime, and when I woke up, I had some black tips again.
Previously, I had left my drip rings on at night, so I also had wondered if the PH had gone out of whack overnight? I then put my water pumps to circulate 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off during the night and woke up with the same pesky problem.
I read that over-watering could cause this (read this on rollitup.org). The leaves curl funny and have black tips but by mid day, the new growth seems to flourish. I was viewing someone elses grow and they had suspected they have hard water due to some bronze colored spots on theirs. (same strain, but theirs looks MUCH better. also he is much more experienced than I am.)
Another key point is that I AM in fact, using city water. I honestly haven't had the time to let water sit out and "air off". I have been dealing with one issue at a time. First it was the recirculating issue, then a heat issue, now a water quality/delivery problem (I'm guessing?)
So my questions are:
City water? Hard on the system? How do you test your water to find out if it is "hard, soft, chlorinated, etc". My PPM out of the faucet is reading about 110 PPM, which I understand is fairly decent for city water. Also, does "airing out" my water get rid of chlorine and whatever other chemicals might be in my system?
Drip ring cycle? Should I run these things at night? Will my hydroton dry up if I don't continually run them? Which cycling would you use? ie 30 mins on, 30 mins off?
Should I start cutting leaves that show damage or will this further stunt it?
Any feedback is appreciated! Thank you in advance!
I have been following along on the forum for quite some time now. It has helped give me the confidence I need to become an indoor grower. I have done my best thus far to meet a budget, not do things half effort, and accept positive and negative feedback since I know this is my first time and I can't expect myself to know everything. Let me tell you a bit about what I have going on.
I purchased a 4x8x7 pre-made tent (Lighthouse brand), mylar lined, with vents and drip liner and ports for electrical cables n such. It's a fairly nice tent and I went that route to avoid building one myself and having to modify it a bunch of times. Glad I went this route.
Inside, I have 2, 1000W MH lights, one 6" vented and one open hood. I have a 6" hydrofarm fan and im using that as an exhaust, running through the vented hood and out. it also has a 6x24 charcoal filter.
I also have 2 air intake fans, 4", that pump outside air into the tent near the open hood in attempt to displace heat and improve overall airflow. Originally my plan was to run 1 1000w light, but i was lucky enough to have a second one fall into my lap, so i figured id at least try to utilize the second light.
I am running a general hydroponics waterfarm kit. It is 2 kits combined into one, and I have reasons for my modifications to it, so try not to jump me so soon on what I may or may not be doing wrong.
I currently use 12 buckets. (space limited) All with drip rings. I am using only a controller bucket and two water pumps of the same size to recirculate the water from control bucket, to buckets, and back again to be re-oxygenated (instead of using a non recirculated gravity feed reservoir to add water). I do this because it minimizes the correction time when adding water or adjusting ph or whatever. Its my first build and I haven't worked all the bugs out so I'm trying to monitor things very closely.
I am 1 week in after transplanting. My medium is hydroton and I am using the 3 part General Hydroponics Flora Series (gro, micro, bloom) and Grotek Insta-green.
I am running roughly 800ppm at a ph of about 6 (hard to tell with the drops, but I'm close) Recirculating my system allows my PH to stay pretty consistent in each bucket.
My questions and concerns are as follows:
At first, I didn't have my circulating system in, so my ph level in each bucket was all out of whack in each bucket. Some good, some terrible. Yes, I suffered a PH problem that resulted in some black tipped leaves and stunted growth. Once I got my circulating system in, and was able to manage my ph and watering a bit better, I noticed some improvement after a couple of days. At first, I thought the culprit might have been the foliage spray. I thought this because everything was fine all day, I sprayed the plants down before bedtime, and when I woke up, I had some black tips again.
Previously, I had left my drip rings on at night, so I also had wondered if the PH had gone out of whack overnight? I then put my water pumps to circulate 30 minutes on, 30 minutes off during the night and woke up with the same pesky problem.
I read that over-watering could cause this (read this on rollitup.org). The leaves curl funny and have black tips but by mid day, the new growth seems to flourish. I was viewing someone elses grow and they had suspected they have hard water due to some bronze colored spots on theirs. (same strain, but theirs looks MUCH better. also he is much more experienced than I am.)
Another key point is that I AM in fact, using city water. I honestly haven't had the time to let water sit out and "air off". I have been dealing with one issue at a time. First it was the recirculating issue, then a heat issue, now a water quality/delivery problem (I'm guessing?)
So my questions are:
City water? Hard on the system? How do you test your water to find out if it is "hard, soft, chlorinated, etc". My PPM out of the faucet is reading about 110 PPM, which I understand is fairly decent for city water. Also, does "airing out" my water get rid of chlorine and whatever other chemicals might be in my system?
Drip ring cycle? Should I run these things at night? Will my hydroton dry up if I don't continually run them? Which cycling would you use? ie 30 mins on, 30 mins off?
Should I start cutting leaves that show damage or will this further stunt it?
Any feedback is appreciated! Thank you in advance!
