RDWC - Athena - Dosatron

Hi All! I have been a lurker on here for a bit, but its finally time to post and get some users feedback bc i am at a loss with what is happening.

First let me list a bit of items being used.

- 8 Station + Res Current culture RDWC system with 8 gal buckets
- Athena Pro line mixed at 1:1 Stock tanks 4 gal each of core, grow, bloom ( Cleanse and Balance as well but mixed at their recommendations)
- HortiTech Roi-E680 LED's x 2
- R/O water
- dosatron injectors. 4 - 1 for balance (barely used) , 1 for core, 1 for grow or bloom, and last for cleanse.
- TrolMaster Hydro X and Aqua X Pro's + sensors and etc. Too many to list but will try my best as i go along.
- Clay Pebbles
- and last - Hemp seeds. Not doing THC grow yet - just CBD / Hemp for now
- A/C Mini split
- hurricane fans
- Quest de-hum . i believe the 100A model?

Now where did i start?
We started off with a bunch of clones that grew great! Started off with seeds, and gradually went into making a mother plant and etc. This process was fairly easy using CloneX supplies and a Clone box. Once I moved them into the 8 gal net pots + clay pebbles, i forgot to use Athena Stack for the 1st week but then immediately did that.

I had the lights at about 18-20" away from the tops of the plants and the PPFD sensor was reading anywhere between 380-420 PPFD. CO2 at around 700-900 PPM and temps around 70F-73F and humidity around 68%-71%. Its not very easy getting them to stay at the correct levels. once we get the correct amount of Athena Stack nutrient plants finally were looking OK. but still, i would see the leafs on all the plants droopy / wilting. not dry to the touch either. So i thought ok over watering and lights too close or not enough. So i raised them all the way up (now they are about 2' away), and have the PPFD at around the same levels bc we increased the intensity which of course raised temps etc. so everything had to be re-adjusted.

for the nutrients, we have the Dosatron dosers set at the recommended level for the mix ratio used of 1lb to 1gal of mix of core and grow. using this chart, https://5940170.secure.netsuite.com/c.5940170/SSP Applications/NetSuite Inc. - SCS/SuiteCommerce Standard/athena/assets/Pro_Dosatron_InjectionSettings_A01.001.pdf

the targeted EC is 3 during veg, so that means core Dosatron is set to 38ml/gal and 64ml/gal for grow. My Bluelabs Ph adjuster adjust's the PH according to 5.9ph and EC is at the correct target when going through the trolmaster sensors which read 5.94ph, EC reads a little lower 2.45-2.55, and Temp is 71F which i have a chiller at the main reservoir for the grow itself setting the temp to 68F.

Frustration is getting to a level where i want to scrap everything, but i have invested a lot into this. The leaf's are not yellow, but still droopy and sorta wilted. below are some pics.

I might have left out some more info, sorry about that in advance. i just hope someone can steer me into the right direction.

They look overfertilized to me. I'd reduce EC.

Fluence bioengineering used to have a high PPFD grow guide downloadable. They recommend between 1.0 to 2.0 EC for vegetative growth.

Damn, I wonder why Athena would post the feed program as EC of 3.0. Would that cause the wilting / droopiness?

LuisFlora said:

Would that cause the wilting / droopiness?

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Yes. I can't explain the chemistry, but it has to do with salt balance and osmosis.

There are better growers than me here on RIU, and I grow in potting mix, lowtech style, but I like perusing the unanswered threads and if I think of something, I'll say it. Sometimes you have to throw the books away, experiment a little, and figure out what works for you and your system! Good luck!

yeah, my frustration is going away bc i have grown so many different ways but small batches. Now a lot of things come into play, and i just have to step back and experiment until whatever works in our env works 100%. I lowered the light intensity a bit, and will lower the EC as well. but to many changes at once wont give me direct results that i can say THAT's what it was. ill report back

LuisFlora said:

I wonder why Athena would post the feed program as EC of 3.0

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they sell nutes. simple.

alot of people rarely need to go above 1.2 for the entire grow.

LuisFlora said:

and temps around 70F-73F

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way too low especially running co2

your roots look fantastic by the way

I'd be surprised if the problem wasn't at least partly the temperature. Thats super low. You want it to be like 82-84F with LEDs and CO2.

MidnightSun72 said:

I'd be surprised if the problem wasn't at least partly the temperature. Thats super low. You want it to be like 82-84F with LEDs and CO2.

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i've read almost as high as 90F if you have everything else dialed in. i run low 80s w/o co2

I'd disconnect the PH doser until you get a feel for what it's doing. If you're running the wrong EC, the PH will be all over the show and a lot of that EC is probably PH +/- solution. Run a batch with no doser, write down your ECs that keep the PH stable (ish) and try to keep it close to that when you plug the doser back in.

Ec is too high, I’m running the proline and in veg I don’t go above 450 ppm and flower under 600ppm 700 scale. Even at those numbers I’m still having a few issues and my next run I’m going to drop the ppm a little bit.

thank u so much for all the feedback ill report back in 1-2 days once these slight changes take affect.

The 3.0 ec is for the pro line which is assuming that you have a perfect environment, ppfd,co2, and vpd all dialed in

Sorry for the long wait on this. Turns out there are a lot of factors in play here. and 1 of them being major. i have an RO filter in place and thought it would be enough to filter the well water, but its not. There is a heavy and when i mean heavy about 1-2mm thick of reddish / orange slim which i think is iron deposits on my RO res tank lines that push it to and from the cooler. once its goes through the Dosatrons and into the patch tank its not as bad but i am pretty sure now my dosatrons are gunked up big time by now. the PH is way off almost reaching 7 in the RO res tank.

once i also upped the temp in the room, the water in the RDWC system starting to get hot so i installed chillers, 4 of them 1 in each batch and still wasnt enough to cool the water below 71-72 id like it to be at 68 to feel comfy.

so i will let this batch finish (examine it) but eventually toss is all out. and start all over.

Thoughts on what i can add Pre RO and Post to filter out the crap in the well water? something beefy that i dont have to replace / clean so often.

First time I've heard of a reddish slime from an RO filter. Let's start at the beginning.....

What is ec of the RO water?

Have you had the well water tested?
What is the ec and ph of the well water?
Do you have a water softener?

Just an FYI, it's rather pointless measuring the ph of RO or distilled, they have a very "weak" ph since most ions have been removed.
Measure ph after all nutes etc. have been added.