Organic Nutes -- Settling in my Reservoir :(

ettubrutus

Well-Known Member
I have an irrigation system with a reservoir (a 10 gal fish tank) where I keep the water/nutes solution... well since I switched to Earth Juice Grow, it has decided to settle on me, mostly behind the pumps...

I have a pump to push the water to the plants and a circulation pump to stir the tank 24 hours a day... somehow the currents are settling the nutes all to the bottom... anyone have this issue?
 

LiveVibe

Well-Known Member
I have an irrigation system with a reservoir (a 10 gal fish tank) where I keep the water/nutes solution... well since I switched to Earth Juice Grow, it has decided to settle on me, mostly behind the pumps...

I have a pump to push the water to the plants and a circulation pump to stir the tank 24 hours a day... somehow the currents are settling the nutes all to the bottom... anyone have this issue?
Well.....Fox Farm Grow Big and Tiger Bloom does not do that as far as I know.....the Big Bloom does.....hhhmmm.....
 

Silky Shagsalot

Well-Known Member
any kind of rez is gonna do this, even with chemical nutes. so you have 2 pumps in your rez? take one (or both) out and replace it with one of those air wands. it'll circulate things and aerate your feed mix. pumps put off heat too.
 

ettubrutus

Well-Known Member
any kind of rez is gonna do this, even with chemical nutes. so you have 2 pumps in your rez? take one (or both) out and replace it with one of those air wands. it'll circulate things and aerate your feed mix. pumps put off heat too.
I just have the pump that actually does the irrigating and a circulation pump for stirring... most of the settling occurs on the back side of the circulation pump, so I was thinking I'd get another circulation pump and point it at the other one--kinda offset to the other side to create a whirlpool in the tank to actually stir the water around the tank instead...
 

ettubrutus

Well-Known Member
well, that worked... I put a second circulation pump in with the exhaust heading in the opposite direction. There is now a visible whirlpool and there is no more sediment...
 

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
Is the sediment in solution now, or simply being stirred around? If you're not using something like RO water, you may actually be experiencing precipitate.
 

ettubrutus

Well-Known Member
Is the sediment in solution now, or simply being stirred around? If you're not using something like RO water, you may actually be experiencing precipitate.
No, I don't think it's precipitate, I cleaned out the junk when I put the new pump in and mixed a new solution... it's not settling now. there's still some sediment floating around but all in all it seems to be mixed pretty well.
 

Ohsogreen

Well-Known Member
Is the sediment in solution now, or simply being stirred around? If you're not using something like RO water, you may actually be experiencing precipitate.
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Are you constructing a homemade hydro set up (flood & drain) or just a Organic Fert Mixer with irrigation lines, to keep from carrying buckets....?
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If you are mixing any type of Organic Fertilizer in water and using pumps to mix it, you must know the condition of the water first.. like pH...Total Disolved Solids and Electrical Conductivity. Because if your water is hard, the Organic Material will simply bind with minerals present in the water and precipate out, settling in the bottom. Which makes them less effective.
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If mixing is the goal, bubbling overnight in a 5 gallon bucket, then watering in, will work better than a continous recirculating system.
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If you are making a homemade hydro setup, you need to make a low point drain - when using organics. Since, you will obviously have materials that will not be water soluble that will settle. These can not be left in the reservoir, without frequent draining or they will cause your pumps to fail.
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If you are growing Hydro, you must have a TDS meter to keep things in the limits. Otherwise, it is doomed to fail. Water Growing is much less forgiving than soil.
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Any sediments from Organic Ferts poured onto soil, will be broken down by bacteria, fungi & weathering over time. In Hydro Systems, they are just sediments that will lead to pump failure.
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Earth Juice is good, but chucky stuff..... Great for Soil. If used in Hydro, Premixing (bubbled tea form - is best) then strained / added to your reservior is the way to go.
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Hope this helps...
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ev3rfr3sh

Active Member
wow great post, Ohsogreen...

hey, nothing to do with mixing because it sounds like you already solved that, but on a similar note i heard of this food MAXSEA somewhere and it's a totally water soluble organic hydroponic plant food derived from northern atlantic seaweed and maybe some other sources. Found it when i was trying to overcome the same problem. If you add 1/2 teaspoon/gallon of epsom salts it makes it a COMPLETE fert. and it dissolves totally.

They make a 16-16-16 (grow) and a 3-20-20 (bloom) and i heard, but I'm not sure, that it might not be completely organic because some of their N comes from Amonia, just haven't looked into it yet because the shit is (not impossible, but) not as easy to find as other ferts.

Anyone else have any experience using it? I'm gonna buy some just to try anyways because it comes in 16 oz. cans, just wondering if anyone has experience with it.

No, I'm not telling you to change your regular organic food, i would never do that.
 

LiveVibe

Well-Known Member
Well I do not do hydroponics but from brewing tea I know that you can filter out the rough stuff just to have the tea with no sediments. If I ran it through a coffee filter it would basically be nute/fert water. Maybe I should do that and use the rough stuff for outdoor plants as a dressing.
 

halzey68

Well-Known Member
i was having the same problem with nutes settling and added a circulation pump. it seemed to work but raised hell with my ph bringing it down to 4. i ph'd my mix and started feeding- DO NOT DO THIS! Ej will self correct its ph. through its biologcals. my plants didnt like the ph'd EJ. are you "bubbling" your brew? this is GOOD.
 

Seamaiden

Well-Known Member
Good advice. Part of the reason for the rise in pH was because by bubbling you had helped "force" excess CO2 out of solution, thus bringing up pH. You also may have well-buffered water (resists pH shift). Definitely bubbling or other means to aerate these brews/teas is a must (and keep bone meal out of YOUR brew!). :D
 
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