second try at dwc, need a guru

the last time i tried dwc i cooked a nice little afgani. i could never get the Ph under control when i watered it would start out at something like 6.2 or so the next day the Ph would be at 4. i once found a post where someone when ito detail bout all the problems, cures, and just about anything one would need to know about dwc. my problem is i cant find the linkto the post. i am about to start my buckets back up and dont want to hurt my litle alaskan ice girls can anyone please give this dirt grower some help on dwc
thanks

titan95 said:

the last time i tried dwc i cooked a nice little afgani. i could never get the Ph under control when i watered it would start out at something like 6.2 or so the next day the Ph would be at 4. i once found a post where someone when ito detail bout all the problems, cures, and just about anything one would need to know about dwc. my problem is i cant find the linkto the post. i am about to start my buckets back up and dont want to hurt my litle alaskan ice girls can anyone please give this dirt grower some help on dwc
thanks

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Sure can. DWC is by far the easiest method of hydroponics. If you had not noticed yet, Hydro is more hands on than soil. Everyday something has to be done to keep the system running at optimum levels. If you could elaborate some on the details of your grow I could help you with more specific answers

1. what kind of lighting are you using?
2. How big is your res?
3. what kind and how much nutes are you using?
4. How much could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? im j/k

Anyways....everyday to keep my pH in check i would test the water. Generally I would not see any drastic fluctuations in the pH from day to day. Although as time goes by my pH would gradually go down till it was below 5. The best pH for hydro is 5.8 to 6.2 which if you chemically test ur pH water like i do it is a piss yellow color. Nutes will affect the pH of the rez and as the plants drink the water the pH will be affected as well as the ppm of the water. SO daily monitoring of your pH is critical. Heat issues in your res? or heat issues overall? if its in the rez then try a easy fix method , take some plastic bottles with caps and fill them with water. Throw them in the freezer and once they are completely frozen put them in your rez. They last about 5 to 6 hrs. It's a pain i know but it helps the water temp stay in check. Also add some more air stones in your res will bring the temp down. Highly oxygenated water is generally cooler than non activly oxgenated water. Well I hope this helps.

Peace and positive energy

sorry i should have been a litlle more detailed. my light is a 1000w hps. as far as the rez the last time i was just experimenting wiht dwc so all i had was a 5 gallondark colored bucket with 4 air stones and at the time i was having to use an aquarrium heater to keep the nutes from getting to cold, it was winter and my woodfloor was transfering the cold to the bottom of the bucket. i maintained the indoor temp at 70-80 degrees. the room is about 4x6' with 8' ceiling. my nutes are all advance. big bud, conisour, tarantula, b52, overdrive, and black strap molasses-didnt see bud candy as worth the money could be wrong. a woodchuck would chuck about a half Oz. if he could chuck wood! as far as trying dwc this time i will use 3 buckets and 1 soil this way if i start to cooking in the buckets i will have one back up. i have et fully rapped my twisted little mind around how to do a rdwc with buckets. i know theres a intake and a waste but i cant figure out where lines should be and how to get the thing working so i am stuck with individual buckets. i guess its not that bad some time i will figure it out. the one thing ineed to get is a pppm meter. i thank you fir any in put you have

I have found that molasas will raise your ph,at least it does with my set up,my ph was allways fine until I started putting molasas in my mix,it goes from 5.8 to low 7s, Im only useing it for the last few weeks of flower,Im at week 7 now and I plan on useing it till the end,I had good results in soil with it and hope it does the same in my dwc (this is my first dwc grow) good luck

Starting my DWC set-up next week. This is my 1st try with DWC too. I have a 4 gal. that holds 4-3" pots. ( 3" is fucking small..I know..but I'm gonna try). I'll be using a 400w HID ( MH & HPS ) , FoxFarm nutes GB,BB,TB, & the 3 powders. And I think I'll try molasses the last few weeks this time..( didn't know molasses could go into DWC ).
2 questions : if I germinate in pucks , do I put the puck right in the hydroton?? or do I try and remove little seedling 1st and put just seedling in hydroton?? And what is good temp. to keep water at in the DWC res.?? Thanks for any info...have a stoney one.

One more thing....is it possible to run the whole grow with HPS? I heard this will help keep the plants smaller...for this set-up, small is good for me. Thanks again

rowlman said:

Starting my DWC set-up next week. This is my 1st try with DWC too. I have a 4 gal. that holds 4-3" pots. ( 3" is fucking small..I know..but I'm gonna try). I'll be using a 400w HID ( MH & HPS ) , FoxFarm nutes GB,BB,TB, & the 3 powders. And I think I'll try molasses the last few weeks this time..( didn't know molasses could go into DWC ).
2 questions : if I germinate in pucks , do I put the puck right in the hydroton?? or do I try and remove little seedling 1st and put just seedling in hydroton?? And what is good temp. to keep water at in the DWC res.?? Thanks for any info...have a stoney one.

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you can use the hydroton and pucks with no problem, if you have a water pump in your set up it would not hurt to use a filter bag. as far as nutes i have used fox farm in the begining really did not like it advance is leaps ahead of fox farm and well worththe money. i still have some tiger bloom in the cabnet and wont use it on anything. as far as hps goes never had any complaints from seed to haverst it will grow anything i even grew a catus with hps. it is advisible to spend the money and get the bulb with a little bit of the blue spectrum that wat you kinda cover both worlds at the same time. yeah i like molasses i put it in everything from biscuits to plants works well

oh yeah the temps i wouldnt go under 70 or over 80 at extrems. that is just me but i too am always learning with this dwc system

snocat said:

I have found that molasas will raise your ph,at least it does with my set up,my ph was allways fine until I started putting molasas in my mix,it goes from 5.8 to low 7s, Im only useing it for the last few weeks of flower,Im at week 7 now and I plan on useing it till the end,I had good results in soil with it and hope it does the same in my dwc (this is my first dwc grow) good luck

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mollasses has no place in hydro, use baking soda or just plain tap water for ph up.

I don't think he was using molasses for ph up, it's used as a basic sugar to fatten up the buds and make em dense nugs.

If your ph is going down then you have too high of ppm, if ph goes up the ppm is too low. res temps should be between 65-75f, with 70 being optimal. anything warmer than that and you are asking for root rot.

When i use general hydroponics flora series fertilizer it automatically ph's your water. Its sick but most of the time you dont need to ph cuz its done automatically i dont even check it anymore as it is always on point as long as im usin these nutes, also i guess the water out of my faucet is pretty good quality comes out at 75 ppm so your results may vary depending on your water quality, but dwc is easy as hell its just like mixing cool aid no more difficult than that

wow! your tap is awesome. mine has a ppm of 350. With your nutes giving you proper ph is about right. I know with technaflora nutes it does that too, puts ph right at 6 (with RO water anyways) but if you dont have the correct ppm your ph will shift drastically on you, so its always a good idea to check your ph and ppm. But if everything is going great for you, no need to change a good thing.

pwizzle said:

I don't think he was using molasses for ph up, it's used as a basic sugar to fatten up the buds and make em dense nugs.

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yeah i use molasses for the sugar to fatten'em up and i think it adds alittle to the flavor. as far a the ph goes i use eath juice for ph up/down that stuff changes ph like nothing i have seen.

wesside said:

wow! your tap is awesome. mine has a ppm of 350. With your nutes giving you proper ph is about right. I know with technaflora nutes it does that too, puts ph right at 6 (with RO water anyways) but if you dont have the correct ppm your ph will shift drastically on you, so its always a good idea to check your ph and ppm. But if everything is going great for you, no need to change a good thing.

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Cool man thats good to know if i ever move, I thought everyone was trippin about ph but now i realize it has to do with my water why i dont have much ph issues