Help 5 Gal. DWC

I miserably failed my first attempt at hydro. I would appreciate any tips that you pros may offer! I am running a 5 gallon DWC. What should I PH my fresh water to? If I change my water every 7 days, will I need to contunually monitor ph or will it hold? When are nutrients added generally? I assume I should start at 1/4 and increase gradually when changing out resevoir? Once again any tips and suggestions are gladly appreciated.

Alright im definatly no pro yet but im on my second grow and have gotten the hang of things. First i would suggest you use either distilled or RO water for your plants. Tap water has to much shit in it. If you use distilled or RO water you also need to use Cal/mag. You should keep the ph of your water between 5.5 and 6.5 but the golden number is 5.8 try to stay around there. Your ph is going to go up and down which is good because you need some swing in your ph to get all the nutes into your plants. I try to check my ph and ppm at least once a day and adjust it according to the readings. Ph is a huge part of your plants success if its off for a while it will cause all sorts of problems for your little girl. While your plant is just a seedling you should NOT give her any nutes. one she is on her 2nd set of true leaves is when i start giving my plants nutes. You can change the rez every seven days but early on i dont think its necessary. That little girl cant eat or drink that much. Definatly start with 1/4 the recomened amounts and work your way up. Sorry for the book i just wrote you but theres alot that goes into this shit. Good luck!

I am no pro either. I have definitely learned that CAL-MAG is something that should always be something that's on stand by. I use GH performance pack got it off amazon for 40. Water temps are a big thing to prevent root rot. I try to keep mine from 68 to 73 and check my PH daily. I let it float from around 5.8 to 6.5 then drop it back down it will definitely flux on you.

i ran DWC with tap water for a long time with no problems. ph nutes to 5.8 check and adjust daily as needed. top off water level as needed and full resevoir change once a week. easy peasy

Thank you. I actually appreciate as much detail as possible Let me explain my first hydro disaster. It was a dwc kit that came with this cheap ph up and down powder. So Im adding it, it wasnt disolving properly! The next day my resevoir looks like milky white soup with a layer of powder on top! I knew nothing could grow in that!

This time I will be using distilled water. I was also going to buy general hydro up and down liquid, unless there is better product? I will have to get a cheap ph/ppm pen combo, as I cant afford a more expensive all in one pen now. So, do a I check ppm of water first (reverse osmosis or distilled should be under 50ppm right?) And then PH it, before adding my plant? Then I adjust ph once a day? When I start adding 1/4 nutrients. Do I first PH and then add nutrients, and check ppm after? The main nutrients I use are two part iguana grow and bloom. Which isnt ph perfect. Are there any supplimemtal products that are a must for hydro? I do know of root rot, and I do have hygrozyme. Not sure if I need to add a peroxide product like H2o2 as well? How much water will need to be topped off weekly in a 5 gallon resevoir? What level do you top off the water to? For instance is the optimal level to have water actually touching the bottom of the media, or just below it with just the vapor licking up at the bottom of the media? I have also heard of germination problems and flooding of seedlings in rockwool. Would it be safer to grow a smaller viable plant and transfer it to dwc after its more established. I think I am going to try some bagseed before I get the hang of hydro.

Smokenpassout said:

Thank you. I actually appreciate as much detail as possible Let me explain my first hydro disaster. It was a dwc kit that came with this cheap ph up and down powder. So Im adding it, it wasnt disolving properly! The next day my resevoir looks like milky white soup with a layer of powder on top! I knew nothing could grow in that!

This time I will be using distilled water. I was also going to buy general hydro up and down liquid, unless there is better product? I will have to get a cheap ph/ppm pen combo, as I cant afford a more expensive all in one pen now. So, do a I check ppm of water first (reverse osmosis or distilled should be under 50ppm right?) And then PH it, before adding my plant? Then I adjust ph once a day? When I start adding 1/4 nutrients. Do I first PH and then add nutrients, and check ppm after? The main nutrients I use are two part iguana grow and bloom. Which isnt ph perfect. Are there any supplimemtal products that are a must for hydro? I do know of root rot, and I do have hygrozyme. Not sure if I need to add a peroxide product like H2o2 as well? How much water will need to be topped off weekly in a 5 gallon resevoir? What level do you top off the water to? For instance is the optimal level to have water actually touching the bottom of the media, or just below it with just the vapor licking up at the bottom of the media? I have also heard of germination problems and flooding of seedlings in rock wool. Would it be safer to grow a smaller viable plant and transfer it to dwc after its more established. I think I am going to try some bagseed before I get the hang of hydro.

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I am also using a 5 Gal DWC setup. I use tap water DE-chlorinated I live the water comes off a mountain so it has a PPM around 60-100. I use GH PH up/down. i always check PH after nutes are mixed in. I PH tested my tap water once before just to get an idea of what I was working with. Out of the 3 supplements I am using my research says that rapid start is really what is the most bang for your buck. I think it does awesome for explosive root growth(but that's my opinion). I also use H2O2 3% in my Res. I use about 5 ml a GAl. every 3 days(my buckets only hold 4 gal with net pot in.). My water level sets just past the first square on the net pot where the water is able to be wicked up into the rook wool. I have a friend that let his seedlings sprout in paper towel for 2 days then placed it in the rock wool and let it grow for about a week making sure the rock wool stayed wet but no water sitting in the try to keep from drowning it. I however germed in the rock-wool and had them in DWC the 4th day at 1/4 strength for the first 10 days under 50% 400w HID MH. Hope this helps. Happy Growing.
(I attached some Pics of my two DWC grows and the nutes I use.)

This is very helpful information thanks. So you add 1/4 strength nutrients when the plant is only a seedling (4 days old)? So I should PH water first, then add nutrients and adjust ph again? I should also adjust ph once a day thereafter, and adjust it once daily. I should change water every seven days or so? Those plants look great, very healthy! Thanks for the pics. Back to water level, should the water be up touching the bottom of the net pot, before I turn on the air stone. The rock wool is close to the surface right? What do you think about me germinating the seed in the Rockwell, over a heat mat for a while until the roots pop out the bottom before adding it to my hydro system?

Thanks bro. this is my first been a learning process but its coming along. Ok, What I did is first I put the seeds in rock wool, then stuck them in a container and poured PH balanced water at about 5.5 over the rock wool till it started to run out of the rock wool then drained excess. I let them set in the dark on a heating pad set to low for 2 days and that's all it took for the starter leaves to come out (as long as it has broken the top of the rock wool you should be ok. some let them grow in just that for a week.) then I put them still in the container under 50% light for one day. on day 4 I put them in the net pot with 1/4 nutes.(But after doing research I have found that most use only PH balanced water for the first week or two of seedling stage) live and learn. I would add all your nutes and everything first then PH test/balance, and yes I fill my water level up right past the first square on the net pot. As for the hydroton I put a thin layer over the bottom enough where you cant see the bottom but can still see the water bubbling up. I change my nutes every 7 days. the AVG. is 7 to 10.

Smokenpassout said:

I miserably failed my first attempt at hydro. I would appreciate any tips that you pros may offer! I am running a 5 gallon DWC. What should I PH my fresh water to? If I change my water every 7 days, will I need to contunually monitor ph or will it hold? When are nutrients added generally? I assume I should start at 1/4 and increase gradually when changing out resevoir? Once again any tips and suggestions are gladly appreciated.

Click to expand...

ph should sit on 5.5 -6.0 in dwc test it every time u dumb and refill ur rez most people i no go 6 days of nutes then flush with clean water so on and so on till the last week of harvest were its just plan water

I am actually just starting in dwc as well. Just started my second week of flower and ill give you the run down of problems i had as a beginner so you can be on the look out. First thing root rot. Forget that h202 it's absolutely useless. Invest in a beneficial bacteria. I am using orca but hydrogard or aquashield are cheaper and from what I've read just as good. I have no idea how people are maintaining sterile buckets but i can't, i need those bennies. Second thing ph. If you use distilled water ph should be 6.0 right out of the bottle. Once you add nutes it will drop so you will end up using more ph up than down. Try your best to only use one or the other. They don't like to mix very well in the rez. I use the lucas formula so after adding my nutes to distilled water my ph is around 5. I prefer to add my ph up before i add my nutes to the water. I have learned it will take about 4ml of ph up to get my rez to around 6.0ph so i add that to my water first then add my nutes. If you add the ph up after the nutes you gets clouds in your water because they don't like to mix. I like to set my ph at 6.2 with distilled water to start. My ph always drifts down because my pants always consume more water than nutes so my ph always drifts downward. Magnesium is best absorbed above ph 6.0 and i like to make sure my plants are getting it. I believe most people are adding cal mag cuz they never have their ph high enough. Last thing is patience. I almost quit after what was supposed to be a 3 week veg turned into two months due to the learning curve. Things are going to go wrong, I've learned its a hearty plant it will take abuse just don't give up. Sorry about the long post just wanted to give a fellow newbie a heads up

make sure your buckets are 100% light proof... you can wrap them with a few layers of silver bubble wrap for extra insulation and light proofing.

dont use any nutes with organics. not sure if iguana juice has organics but it can fuck your roots up. botanicare kind and gh flora 3 part (not floranova) are safe in dwc.

make sure plenty of bubbles for oxygen. you can just fill up the bucket to the net pot, the water level drops as the plant drinks. dont let the water level get too low or the roots will rope up.

try to keep water below 70* a little higher is ok with bennies. 1L bottle of ice once a day in a 5 gallon bucket wrapped in 3 layers of reflectix does well.

run bennies to prevent root rot. if u dont want to fuck with tea, you can dose the res with great white and/or hydroguard once or twice a week. if you are broke, pond-zyme from the pet store does ok. If you use tap water, you can dechlorinate it with conditioner for aquariums. if you want to make tea the recipe is r/o, great white, hydroguard, ancient forest humus, black strap molasses, bubble for 2 days.

for your first time, keep nutes simple. base nutes with maybe cal/mag. ph up/down maybe tap water conditioner, and bennies. silica is good to use but you dont need it for your first run. if you do use silica, add it before nutes because it will condense into a plastic substance if u mix with nutes.

I use the liquid ph test drops. if you get a ph pen you also need to keep stocked up on calibration fluid and check it often. I think they are a hassle and dont trust them.

"If" you plan on using a sterile res, you shouldn't use GH liquid down because it contains citric acid.

- Jiji