OA. Third grow, first in hydro. 600w Growlab Tent/Ebb&Flow/Hydroton
- Thread starter Lanternslight
- Start date
Lanternslight
Active Member
Last Resort?
Dubbz0r
Well-Known Member
This is why I went out and grabbed gallon jugs of r/o from the grocery store yesterday. I keep fighting something and I'm getting the feeling it's my tap water. My tap water goes straight from the tap to the plants. A few people from my city are on the RIU forums and advised that our water was ok to use this way. I'm having my doubts! So far my ladies love the r/o water. I'm going to start throwing some superthrive in this water and see if I notice anything.
Lanternslight
Active Member
Superthrive is the bombskeez. I would suggest if you are using the city tap, to test the pH as well as the PPM. Knowing if your water is hard or soft makes a critical difference. It also will help in your diagnose of deficiencies. Make sure with your R/O water to supplement with calcium and magnesium. These two are lacking in R/o and are commonly found in tap. A bottle of Cal/Mag can be found several places.
I dont want to comment on whether you can take it straight from tap to plant. Normally you would want to let it sit out 24-48 hours, maybe with an airstone in it to help break down the chlorine compounds. Maybe, try the Vitamin C ( ascorbic acid) to get rid of the chloramine. Before giving it to the girls. Without a city water report its kind of conjecture and heresay(IMO)
How is the house hunt?
Ps I'm happy alotaball mentioned superthrive. Its super good for the ladies. ;}
Lanternslight
Active Member
I'm using my TV to view the threads so I can't enlarge your pics. How are her measurements compared to the others?Like if the other plants end up dwindling off.
Just thinking you could end up having 4 skywalker 4 bluedream or however and all of them will do great, just a thought.
your plants look fine though, look a lot better than my f#$king hindu!
steeZz
Well-Known Member
Shes shorter than the rest, and just now getting decent bud sites...but shes looking a lot fresher and happier since I moved her closer and closer to the light.
I'm really up in the air on how it'll turn out though, i'm leaning more towards it turning out like shit but who knows.
can't wait for you to come up here man, the plants look crazy specially the northern lights... every single node is so close all the bud is coming in REALLY compact. :]
i'll get some more pictures up tomorrow morning for ya though since it's been a few days.
I'm really up in the air on how it'll turn out though, i'm leaning more towards it turning out like shit but who knows.
can't wait for you to come up here man, the plants look crazy specially the northern lights... every single node is so close all the bud is coming in REALLY compact. :]
i'll get some more pictures up tomorrow morning for ya though since it's been a few days.
steeZz
Well-Known Member
This is one reason i've been using RO from the start, don't want to have to deal with uncertainties.. well worth the trip to the local water store.
alotaball
Well-Known Member
I used to use RO only.. and some day I would like to buy a RO filtration system so I can use it again... But I found the tap water works fine .. I just bubble it for a day before I use it.. When you have 10 big ladies going I will go through EASILY 15-20 gallons of water every other day .. Thats something like 80 gallons a week.. no way im paying for that and transporting it in my car back and forth. If I had a closet grow or something it would be more affordable and logical... I doubt the tap is whats causing the problems.. IM pretty sure DUBBZ improvements in using the RO water is more from the PH being closer to optimal then anything else.. Im pretty sure your tap will work just fine DUbbz once you have a decent PH meter and can adjust it accordingly .
Dubbz0r
Well-Known Member
LL, I use HB Equilibrium (cal/mag) with every feed even though the HB feed schedule says not to (weird?). With the r/o water I actually used about 4ml per gallon. Hope that's enough.
The house hunt is going. I'm still waiting to hear back from a friend before I look any further. It needs to accommodate both of us but they are dragging their feet. I need to give them a swift kick in the ass to get them moving. We'll see what happens...
The pH meter should be here by Saturday (i hope). alota, you're using a shit ton of water homie. I watered 4 plants with 2 gallons last night. The best thing would be to buy a filter for your tap. Even if the city water is good, filtered would be better. That is on my list of things to get soon.
The house hunt is going. I'm still waiting to hear back from a friend before I look any further. It needs to accommodate both of us but they are dragging their feet. I need to give them a swift kick in the ass to get them moving. We'll see what happens...
The pH meter should be here by Saturday (i hope). alota, you're using a shit ton of water homie. I watered 4 plants with 2 gallons last night. The best thing would be to buy a filter for your tap. Even if the city water is good, filtered would be better. That is on my list of things to get soon.
alotaball
Well-Known Member
Dubbz im not sure what size containers your in.. but with 5 gallon containers.. those girls can DRINK once they hit about 5 weeks into flower or so.. they would drink 2 gallons each every other day.. It was alot of water... I also do the drench till runoff technic then I let them dry till they are about to wilt.. then drench em again.. they seem to thrive on that water schedule compared to when I used to water just a little everyday.... I agree that a home filtration system would be optimal.. SOME DAY.. but I can honestly say that .. I have seen NO difference since going to tap water.... the crazy thing is .. my ppm of my tap is 330.. once I bubble it for a day its in the low 200's. And the ph comes out at 8.5-8.8.. so I think that tap water with no tools to adjust it is asking for problems.. Knock on wood I have never had to use cal mag or any supplements.. only thing besides my 3 part nutes I use is Molasses.
Dubbz0r
Well-Known Member
I'm in 5 gal warrior pots, so I guess they would hold a little less water than a normal 5gal pot. I slowly water each pot until I get some run off or it looks like the entire soil is soaked good. It's usually between 2 and 3 qts per pot. If there's not a large amount of run off I leave it sit in the drain pan. If it's excessive I'll dump it out.
That's good that you don't see a change. Using tap water is a money saver. I'm almost hoping my plants don't enjoy the r/o water any better than the tap lol but we'll see...
That's good that you don't see a change. Using tap water is a money saver. I'm almost hoping my plants don't enjoy the r/o water any better than the tap lol but we'll see...
alotaball
Well-Known Member
Ya mine were pretty light on water till they started budding hard.. then you will be like what the fuck .. i watered that yesterday LoL.. I hope for your sake ur tap water is decent once you can ph it and let the clorine evap.. because your setup is about the same as mine was .. and if they get going good.. those bitches are gonna drink you out of house and home lol.. thats good though .. more drinking .. more growing.. more budding .. more smoking .. lol
Lanternslight
Active Member
UPDATE:
:}}}}}}}}}}}
Looks like the ladies aren't shy.
Edit: My camera phone is only 3MP :{
:}}}}}}}}}}}
Looks like the ladies aren't shy.
Edit: My camera phone is only 3MP :{
ru4r34l
Well-Known Member
Congratulation, such a proud papa..UPDATE:
:}}}}}}}}}}}
Looks like the ladies aren't shy.
Edit: My camera phone is only 3MP :{
and without even doing 
regards,
Lanternslight
Active Member
It is a very good flower. ;}
Lanternslight
Active Member
Flushed the girls til there was no more purple. they are extremely happy. ;} hopefully I will have pics up in the AM. Night all.
Lanternslight
Active Member
Setup a drip system to overcome water not getting to the top. It was very easy and straight forward. The tent has gone through so many variations, which makes me happy. In a little over 3 weeks I have learned a great deal. I feel like I have solved some major issues with the way I want to grow.
since I wont being doing organic this time around I have begun treating my reservoir with 10ml of Hydrogen Peroxide per gallon. I am putting a DIY CO2 emitter up. It is the type that utilizes a 2 liter bottle and a reaction between yeast and sugar which produces CO2. I will put the bottle on top of my light, that way the CO2 being heavier than O2 will leak down over the canopy. I have a duct vent down near the tray to facilitate air exchange. As soon as I can find m phone charging cable or get a new one I will post pics of everything.
Going to reinstall the Carbon filter soon, although I am considering purchasing a new one. This one has been through 2 grows and i feel like its well past its prime. I will use a Y split and pull air through the filter while pulling air through a hepa filter from outside of the tent through the hood. Next reservoir change I will be putting the girls into flower. They should all be within 12-18 inches. The shortest is still the God's Gift @ 7", although she bends out then up. She is filling out nicely after the flush and drip installed. The Skywalker is a whopping 13.5-14" already. A difference of about an inch since my post last night.
I picked up the (4) 4 inch cylindrical airstones (made by sunleaves). The thin stick like ones are IMO nothing but useless. There is more bubbling around the cylindrical stones and they are like solid rock and don't look like they are going to be breaking EVER. My reservoir is beautiful with all the little air bubbles going in it now, a total of 5 airstones. I have the big pump feeding the drippers and the little guy is pushing water around. I will probably be dumping the little one and get another Eco pump, they come with little attachments for different sizes and uses. One of these is turns the water into a flat jet and pushes everything around noticeably. The little one doesn't quite do the jump for pushing 40 gal of water around, it seems.
After questioning a very knowledgeable fellow that works @ the local hydro shop and also works with hydroton. I put the drip to feed 1 time every 4 hours for 30 min. I know I have been changing the water quite a bit. It will be worth it knowing about where to start on the next grow and have somewhat of a baseline of what works and what doesn't. I know the girls will be getting more thirsty as I put them into flowering :} I don't know why but seeing a ton of water missing in the reservoir gets me excited. It also gives me something to do in between reservoir changes haha. During flowering I feel the need to keep the tent more closed than it often is now. I will still open it up and check things out, get my readings, stare into their beauty for hours, however, I won't be leaving it open throughout the day while I am home.
Hopefully I will have a desk to have my computer on and I will actually be using the forum more often. I feel like a big loser not being able to read as many of the journals as I would like to, I will get to them.
Thanks to everyone who has given me words of encouragement and advice. Everything is very genuinely appreciated.
since I wont being doing organic this time around I have begun treating my reservoir with 10ml of Hydrogen Peroxide per gallon. I am putting a DIY CO2 emitter up. It is the type that utilizes a 2 liter bottle and a reaction between yeast and sugar which produces CO2. I will put the bottle on top of my light, that way the CO2 being heavier than O2 will leak down over the canopy. I have a duct vent down near the tray to facilitate air exchange. As soon as I can find m phone charging cable or get a new one I will post pics of everything.
Going to reinstall the Carbon filter soon, although I am considering purchasing a new one. This one has been through 2 grows and i feel like its well past its prime. I will use a Y split and pull air through the filter while pulling air through a hepa filter from outside of the tent through the hood. Next reservoir change I will be putting the girls into flower. They should all be within 12-18 inches. The shortest is still the God's Gift @ 7", although she bends out then up. She is filling out nicely after the flush and drip installed. The Skywalker is a whopping 13.5-14" already. A difference of about an inch since my post last night.
I picked up the (4) 4 inch cylindrical airstones (made by sunleaves). The thin stick like ones are IMO nothing but useless. There is more bubbling around the cylindrical stones and they are like solid rock and don't look like they are going to be breaking EVER. My reservoir is beautiful with all the little air bubbles going in it now, a total of 5 airstones. I have the big pump feeding the drippers and the little guy is pushing water around. I will probably be dumping the little one and get another Eco pump, they come with little attachments for different sizes and uses. One of these is turns the water into a flat jet and pushes everything around noticeably. The little one doesn't quite do the jump for pushing 40 gal of water around, it seems.
After questioning a very knowledgeable fellow that works @ the local hydro shop and also works with hydroton. I put the drip to feed 1 time every 4 hours for 30 min. I know I have been changing the water quite a bit. It will be worth it knowing about where to start on the next grow and have somewhat of a baseline of what works and what doesn't. I know the girls will be getting more thirsty as I put them into flowering :} I don't know why but seeing a ton of water missing in the reservoir gets me excited. It also gives me something to do in between reservoir changes haha. During flowering I feel the need to keep the tent more closed than it often is now. I will still open it up and check things out, get my readings, stare into their beauty for hours, however, I won't be leaving it open throughout the day while I am home.
Hopefully I will have a desk to have my computer on and I will actually be using the forum more often. I feel like a big loser not being able to read as many of the journals as I would like to, I will get to them.
Thanks to everyone who has given me words of encouragement and advice. Everything is very genuinely appreciated.