need help with my 1st dwc grow (pics)

this is my 1st dwc and iv been struggling the hole time. the water is ph .5.-5.7 and temp is around 65-70. ait temp is 70-75. lights are 6- 42 watt cfls(150 watt equivelant), and a 65 watt cfl (300 watt equivelant).i started with 12 plants from seed and 2 have already shown male preflowers so they are gone, 1 has female preflowers (yea), and 1 had a bad stem rot problem just above the dirt so now its a clone. i was told to use rain water cause its better, so on the 3rd rez change i did and i got some realy bad root rot and changed again the next day back to tap water with a little h2o2, but have stoped the h2o2 scince then. but the roots still dont reach very far into the water now like they used to, is this ok? nutes im using a 30-10-10 for veg so far, and i started to burn them bad so changed water again at the first sighns of that, and backed way off the nutes, i also have started using a plant started additive with root stimulator in it, and someone told me that fish emulsion was a good ssource of vitamin b1 to help them recover, but when i used ust a very little bit of it overnight the roots had some nasty looking white mucus on them so i just changed the rez again last night and didnt use any fish emulsion, just 1 tbls of nutes to 10 gal rez, 2 tsp root stimulator, and 2 tsp ph down to get it to 5.6. oh and is it ok to use ph down for a pool??? here are some pics any help is greatly appreciated. the 2 clones are, 1is a hole plant that had stem problems and the other is off the known female.

wow where to start. You don't mention the age of the plants from the look of it maybe 2 weeks? First never use H202 on young plants too strong for them. Lucky you took it out when you did, I didn't and they died on my first try years ago. You have nute burns on some of your plants. This early go with straight Ph'ed water and then slowly add what you want to use. Start real slow. Good luck!

trust me bro get these as your nutes and use nothing else no additives




follow the directions on the back but only half strength and even less strenth for plants smaller than yours. forget any addititives anyone told you to put in there these above nutes are tried and true and been used for many many years growers

next u need this:


its the Hanna ppm meter


so this is what u do to have 100% good plants all the time.

u fill your res with fresh water and then put half strength nutes as per the directions on the above nute bottles depending what on the stage of growing you are in.

then once everything is nice an mixed u put the ppm meter in the water and read your ppm

say your ppm says its 400 ppm. make a note of it

so then u come back the next day and look to see if your plants drank water if they drank a noticable amount of water, then check the ppm,

if the ppm is above 400 ppm as was measured the day before then it means your plants are trying to drink more water and are trying leave some nutes behind and thats why the ppm is higher, so it means u have too much nutes in there and you need to dilute with water

if the ppm is less than your 400 ppm reading of the day before you know that the plants are trying to drink more nutes up than water which tells u you need to add more ppm of nutes

now if they drank water and the ppm is the same as the day before it means you found the perfect nutes ratio for that time in there lives

note: the ppm they require differs depending on which growth stage they are in so u must always monitor them this way. I would avoid balancing your ph as the nutes above do it automatically usually and u wont have to mess with that

what i have told you just now is the secret to sucess,

your only problem left is you need to get an HPS light to grow properly but follow the above rules and you will be golden,.

once you master it pass on this knowledge as it was passed on to me

thanks moogie wherever you are

thanks guys, that was one thing that i was thinking about is a ppm meter but im on a fixed budget right now as in 0, but is there any type of local stores that have them cause idont have a credit card to order of line? and the plants range any where from 2-4 weeks old. thanks again any other help out there is appreciated

your roots look very wild. they were very healthy at some point not long ago. Try using just hydroton next time as media with the GH nutes listed above.

ph meter -$40
ppm meter-$70
small 3 part GH series bottles - $30 altogether
ph down-$10

looks like you are using dirt for a medium???

yea, its all i got, but now that the roots are comeing out the bottom and are well established im going to wash out the soil and put the plants in foam plugs so the roots are still hanging in the water

BEEN THERE BRO MY EX TOOK ME FOR 80K CASH. ALSO PAY 750 A MONTH FOR 1 KID IN SUPPORT. U NEED TO TRY GRODAN CUBES AND IN VEST IN SOME GOOD METERS ABOUT 135 FOR SOME GOOD 1S.THE PPM IS REALLY THE 1 I CONSIDER MOST IMPORTANT U CAN TELL BY KEEPIN IT WROTE DOWN IF UR PLANTS R USING WATER ARE NUTES AND ADJUST ACCORDINGLY THIS WAY U GET THE MAX ON THE TOTAL GROW I USE DM NUTES WHICH R PH BUFFERED AND AS LONG AS U KEEP THE LIGHT OUT PH IS OK.MY FIRST DRO W AS A 5 GALLON BUCKET MESH CUP AIR STONE AND PUMP FOR THE STONE JUST WATERED FROM THE TOP TILL ROOTS REACHED THE WATER IT WORKED OK WITH NO METERS BUT WASTED ALOT OF NUTES AND BURNT EM AT THE END.DAVE AT JOLLYGREENHYDRO IS GREAT WILL HELP WITH ANYTHING JUST B COOL AND ACT LIKE UR GROWIN FRUIT HE KNOWS AND GROWS MAD PROPS TO JOLLY AND DAVE.

once iv got the dirt washed out of the roots and put the stems in the foam plugs should i submurge the hole roots or leave some of the out of the water?

hydroguard wil stop rootrot

i was told to just change the water every week

make sure atleast 3 to 4 inches are in the water with a good airstone r 2 never can have to much oxygen u want alot of small bubbles more oxygen the better gl.

oxygen in the water isnt a problem, iv got 2 12" air stones and 3 airpumps for 60 gal tanks going to them. i got lots of bubbles. now that iv washed out the dirt and am useing foam plugs, and got rid of 3 males, and turned 1 plant into a clone cause of stem problems, iv only got 6 left in the dwc tank and every thing seems to be getting a little better. not as crowded either. ill try to post some newp ics a little later.

you turned a plant into a clone..? looking well equipped on the O2 side of things.
good luck

yea the plant was about 5" tall and was having some serious issues with the stem so i cut it off, cut the first couple sets of fan leaves off, dipped it in cloning gell and am starting it like a clone now. its just barely starting to show roots now.

just got my ppm meter in the mailtoday and checked my rez. and its at 775, is that ok for 3-4 week old plants?

what kind of airstones or misters what ever is in ur resviour what kind are they bc i dont think mine are powerful enough. Is ur water all they way to the baskets?

thanks later

THE HOLE PURPOSE OF THE METER IS TO KEEP A CHART EVERY DAY TO SEE IF THER USING WATER R NUTES AND OF COURSE TO SET AT START.IF IT READS SAY 500 THEN THE NEXT DAY IT READS 400 THEN U CAN ADD MORE NUTES THERE USING NUTES NOT WATER THEN IF IT READS 600 THER USING WATER YOUR LOOKIN FOR THE SAME PPM EVERYDAY THEN ITS PERFECT, HOPE THIS HELPS 775 IS OK BUMP IT A LITTLE THEN READ IN 24 HRS