cannabillion7
Well-Known Member
thanks a lot guys. so what does E.c. mean? i know ppm but im not sure of e.c. anyways thanks a lot for all the response!
more f****d up leaf pics. yay!
- Thread starter cannabillion7
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hypernovax
Well-Known Member
i will take this advice into consideration thank you for your input
Londoner
Well-Known Member
ec=electrical conductivity, cf=conductivity factor, tds=total dissolved solids, ppm=parts per million. Theyre all measurements of the same thing, the amount of dissolved salts or minerals in yr tap water or yr nutrient solution. Ec and cf are easy to convert, an ec of say 1.5 will be cf of 15 u just add or remove the decimal point. I cant for the life of me remember how to convert ppm or tds tho, been growing in soil for too long and forgotten. But i wouldnt even attempt hydro again without my meters, its cruicial that u know yr tap waters ec(hardness). As mentioned earlier by someone else i believe this is the root of yr problem. And personally just my opinion i wouldnt bother flushing using clearex, its just an unnecessary expense, a low ec some where around 1.2 or 1.3 will flush yr plants fine. And dump the overpriced AN nutes with 101 different additives and get a simple a+b grow and bloom at least till u got everything dialled then maybe go bak to AN. I used to use just canna vega and flores with pk13-14 and i used to get top colas bigger than my calf in my flood and drain!
also house and garden do a additive, drip clean or somthing. you just run it with a your hydro base feed and you dont have to flush. it keeps all the salts broken down. drip clean. for hydro. only use it from the start tho they say. because it'll pull it all out if used half way thru, if that makes sense.
there proper dutch aswell i think, house and garden. ive used there shooting powerd and was very happy with it. my tank temps are allways fine. you only get that, hi tank temps if you use small hydro tanks. the best is no smaller than 100 litre tanks. bigger the better
mine are about 50 litres, but uset to have 100 ltire tank and it was best. cool, but not cold, and not hot, room temp
there proper dutch aswell i think, house and garden. ive used there shooting powerd and was very happy with it. my tank temps are allways fine. you only get that, hi tank temps if you use small hydro tanks. the best is no smaller than 100 litre tanks. bigger the better
mine are about 50 litres, but uset to have 100 ltire tank and it was best. cool, but not cold, and not hot, room tempcannabillion7
Well-Known Member
thanks a lot guys, would places like lows and home depot have tds, e.c., and ppm. meters? i guess i didnts know how important they are.
Londoner
Well-Known Member
i have no idea, i guess theyre like the u.s equivalent of b&q and homebase which dont sell them here. Here u have to go to a growshop for them. And yes they are vital! Also vital is a good ph meter, ph strips and reagent drops do work but imo u need a digital ph meter. I believe the best e.c/c.f meters are the nz and bluelab truncheons, theyre fully waterproof so it dont matter if drop it in yr res, never need calibration as they stay accurate for years and will easily outlast the budget e.c pen type meters, theyre a little more pricey but well worth it. Order one online if theres no growshops near u. When u get one add the same amount of nutes that u were using to get the ppm of 1600 according to the label on the bottle, then test with the meter, bet u any money it wont say 1600! With AN and all its many additives its all to easy to get it wrong, every additive adds more ppm and u have to balance yr base grow or bloom ferts with the additives to reach yr desired ppm, also taking into account the "dead" salts already in yr water, then u adjust yr ph last, all this is completely impossible with out an e.c/c.f/ppm meter. This is why id reccomend using a simple a+b grow & bloom fert like canna with pk13-14 or hammerhead pk9-18 and u cant go too wrong.
Londoner
Well-Known Member
yea i remember my tank was 125litres situated under an 8pod flood and drain system, even with the 600w above it(had no cooltube back then) my res temps were still on the low side coz my res was sitting on a cold concrete floor, it was causing slow growth, so i put a 100w aquarium heater with thermostat set at 21'c and no more probs, but because the solution in my res was only being moved around once every three hours with the flood cycles the solution tends to become anaerobic so i got an aquarium air pump and put a 5" airstone in my res and this just made the plants take off man, turbo charged hydro stylee! But if yr in hot climates chances are yr running high res temps with low dissolved oxegen and u'l need a res chiller and air stone or H2o2(oxyplus).
Londoner
Well-Known Member
lol yea the first one i bought shattered in my res when the water level dropped below it one day, i hadnt checked my res for a few days and when i did the heaters element must have reacted with the nutrient and ph down or something and rusted in the tank and my nute solution looked like tomato soup! Plants were fine tho. Then i got one of the hydor heavy duty shatterproof ones from growell, they'l still work out of water completely dry!
bigbong1411
Well-Known Member
To convert ppm to E.C. the conversion factor is either 500 or 700 depending on your meter. My meter is 500. So if it reads 900ppm, then it's just 900/500 which equals 1.8 E.C.
bigbong1411
Well-Known Member
I'm using the House & Garden Cocos line currently. It's best to use about 1/4-1/3 the strength of what they recommend for the A+B base nutes. I followed their directions and got severe micro nutrient lockout/lockup due to too much K...started having problems at 1.4 E.C. during week two of flowering. If you haven't checked out THC's sweet god journal already, it would be a really good idea.
It has been my experience that even if you use their Drip Clean, you still have to flush. I personally think that the Drip Clean isn't worth it and that it does not live up to the hype.
Londoner
Well-Known Member
yea growell is great, on most product prices they cant be beaten and i get the odd discount here n there too, their london shop is just 20mins away from me, its like a little growers supermarket! Im like a big kid in a sweet shop there!
Londoner
Well-Known Member
nice one mate i remember it being something like that, i still dont get ppm/tds tho lol. Never had to use ppm/tds as my meters is e.c. Now i dont have to use any meters coz i grow the proper way in soil, ner ner lol.... jk..
good read dude. that doesnt suprize me about that drip clean. i cant even scrub the salts off properly somtimes. i'll tri find that grow man. link'e link
thats what its like buying AN additive. like grabing handfuls and throwing um the bag.
canna are good. i aint seen no probs when using there 2 part. and there pk13/14. but ya gotta tri house and garden shooting powder. read t was the best late bloom additive on the market. its the expensivest but. you see it work pretty much strate away. kicks another flowering cycle in on top of the allready riping bud
bigbong1411
Well-Known Member
I should have just added the link. Here you go, this guy is quite the grower...good read dude. that doesnt suprize me about that drip clean. i cant even scrub the salts off properly somtimes. i'll tri find that grow man. link'e link
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/61748-sweet-god-frow-bc-bud.html
bigbong1411
Well-Known Member
I don't know why people use ppm and tds. I got the ppm meter from a friend but I'll be buying a Blue Lab e.c. meter (it has ppm
&tds as well) in the near future. The e.c. is what really matters. I'm pretty sure all those meters measure the e.c. anyways and then they just convert into ppm or tds
