Holy Smoke: Strawberry Diesel - 400w Waterfarm

Topped off the res with some nute water. 1/4 tsp per gallon. ppm of nute water is 150 and pH was 5.8. Added to res ppm stayed same at 240 and pH went down from 7.0 to 6.5, added about a half a gallon. Not sure if I'm going to continue to use distilled water through out if it's drinking 1/2 gallon every day and a half right now. Around full flower it could drink over a gallon a day which can get expensive. I'll probably test how it does with water from the PUR filter soon. If it likes it then I guess I have nothing to worry about then.

3 hours later, pretty big jump. Can't imagine how much more will be there in a few days.

mr2shim said:

3 hours later, pretty big jump. Can't imagine how much more will be there in a few days.

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Hey there little root!!! Now's when it starts to get a little more exciting!

That root is probably close to 5" long now and another one has showed up. Come one come all I guess. Can't wait to check in the morning to see the difference during lights off.

pH was kind of high so I changed the res with 2 gallons of nute solution. 1 tsp for 2 gallons.. pH is 5.6 and ppm is 185 See how the plant likes it. Finally figured out a method of changing res without taking bucket out of tent. Use a low profile plastic pan that holds about a gallon so I have to dump it twice. All in all it only took 10 minutes to completely change.

Here's another pic of my setup I took with my DSLR..



and a pic of the plant @ Day 16



Appears to be liking the nute solution I made up. Will maybe bump the ppms up to around 300 by weeks end.

mr2shim said:

Topped off the res with some nute water. 1/4 tsp per gallon. ppm of nute water is 150 and pH was 5.8. Added to res ppm stayed same at 240 and pH went down from 7.0 to 6.5, added about a half a gallon. Not sure if I'm going to continue to use distilled water through out if it's drinking 1/2 gallon every day and a half right now. Around full flower it could drink over a gallon a day which can get expensive. I'll probably test how it does with water from the PUR filter soon. If it likes it then I guess I have nothing to worry about then.

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Have you tested the PPMs of your tap? I used to buy alot of distilled water too, tested my tap and got 35 ppm...I use tap now

Hobgoblit said:

Have you tested the PPMs of your tap? I used to buy alot of distilled water too, tested my tap and got 35 ppm...I use tap now

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yep, tests at anywhere from 210-230 Average tap water according to the back of my tester. Shits nasty. I either drink from the PUR filter(helps a little) or buy gallons of distilled water.

I'm gonna do a test tomorrow on some water that has been sitting out for 2 days. Going to add 1 tsp of nova bloom to a gallon to see where ppms go from the baseline of the water. Yesterday ppm of that water was 200, haven't checked it today. Will check it in the morning.

I take my tap water and fill my empty gallon jugs half way and let them set for a day with the cap off, then i take my distilled and fill it the other half. Makes my tap water manageable, and instead of $1.09 a gallon it cuts that in half. Just a thought to cut your monthly distilled water bill down some.

CatfishBilly said:

I take my tap water and fill my empty gallon jugs half way and let them set for a day with the cap off, then i take my distilled and fill it the other half. Makes my tap water manageable, and instead of $1.09 a gallon it cuts that in half. Just a thought to cut your monthly distilled water bill down some.

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Thanks, that's a pretty good idea. I'm gonna have to give that a try. Cheapest I found for a gallon was 70 cents. Not too bad but still a lot for water.

mr2shim said:

Thanks, that's a pretty good idea. I'm gonna have to give that a try. Cheapest I found for a gallon was 70 cents. Not too bad but still a lot for water.

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Tried, didn't go too well. Will be sticking to distilled water for a little bit longer. I tried 2 methods. First was adding 1/2 gallon of tap to distilled and then adding nutes. Well, the ppms of that was close to 500 with only 1/2 tsp of nutes added to the gallon and pH was very high @ 7.5ish

Other method was to add 1 tsp of nute to a gallon and pH down if needed. Apparently pH down doesn't work out that well after adding nutes so I need to leave out anotehr gallon of water for a couple days then add pH down FIRST. ppms of that was 650ish and pH was no better at 7.0

Also, when I changed the res yesterday pH was at 5.6 but now it's up to 6.5 and I haven't seen it any lower but plant does not seem to mind the higher than ideal pH levels for hydro. Plant seems to like a high pH level. Need to figure out why, it's not affecting anything but it does make me curious.

Darn, my tap starts out at 200ppm, 7ph, after the 50/50 mix it goes down to 110ppm. I just add nutes to 100 below my target. My nutes drop my ph to 6. So adding the ph up brings my ppm up 100 and keeps my ph at 7.2-7.4. But thats soil. Hydro is a different animal to me. Hope you find a solution.

oh correct me if i am wrong, but the ppm of the tap water being a little high isnt bad because it has nutes built in right?

CatfishBilly said:

Darn, my tap starts out at 200ppm, 7ph, after the 50/50 mix it goes down to 110ppm. I just add nutes to 100 below my target. My nutes drop my ph to 6. So adding the ph up brings my ppm up 100 and keeps my ph at 7.2-7.4. But thats soil. Hydro is a different animal to me. Hope you find a solution.

oh correct me if i am wrong, but the ppm of the tap water being a little high isnt bad because it has nutes built in right?

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Yea, there's something in the water but I have no idea what it is. That's the problem. Could be an ass ton of sodium, could be a ton of iron. I have no idea which is bad.

also, ive heard that you must ph AFTER you nute. If not your nutes will throw your ph out of whack. and the more nutes you have in the rez the more ph up or down you must use.

CatfishBilly said:

also, ive heard that you must ph AFTER you nute. If not your nutes will throw your ph out of whack. and the more nutes you have in the rez the more ph up or down you must use.

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ah. I added pH down after I added the Nova Bloom. It's weird, when I add Nova to distilled water it drops pH down to 5.5, but when added to the 100% tap it didn't budge hardly. I put in probably 10ml of pH down which on the bottle it says 5ml treats 25gallons!

Your tap must have a buffer in it. Two more options, rain water..... or RO water, distilled in bulk.. lol

Its funny, my water is undrinkable, tastes weird, and smells. But it seems to be ok for plants in soil.

CatfishBilly said:

Your tap must have a buffer in it. Two more options, rain water..... or RO water, distilled in bulk.. lol

Its funny, my water is undrinkable, tastes weird, and smells. But it seems to be ok for plants in soil.

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Will probably go with the distilled in bulk. It doesn't rain a whole lot here so that is out of the question. May try to boil a gallon and see where that gets the pH and ppm. I calculated I'd need something like 65 gallons of water to complete the grow. @ .70 cents a gal. about 45-50 bucks. Cheaper than RO system.

You can call your water company and ask them whats in the water when it leaves the plant, they will tell you. Ask them if they use a buffer, and what PH it is. You may have to go in and ask for it, by law they test and make it public every month. I am a plant operator myself.

Hobgoblit said:

You can call your water company and ask them whats in the water when it leaves the plant, they will tell you. Ask them if they use a buffer, and what PH it is. You may have to go in and ask for it, by law they test and make it public every month. I am a plant operator myself.

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oh nice. Thanks I will do that. The water here comes from the local river which ironically enough the waste treatment plant released a statement the other week they were going to be dumping 60% purified water into the river or some shit like that.

My buddy here works at the waste water plant...He actually brings the outflow home in 5 gallon buckets and feeds his plants. 6.2 from the plant, and his girls love it. BTW, the outflow here from the waste water plant goes directly into the local river 24/7. I promise you that if your local water company is regulated like the rest of the US is, the water going into the river is clean except for some chlorine, which evaporates in a day or 2.