Sediment buildup.

Hey no worries, you're welcome. I wouldn't worry about the foil, it'll work. That black painter's plastic stuff you get at home depot would work to, be a good permanent fix.

I will check out the painters plastic tomorrow. I have to look more into what you are doing. I do not have a choice with the rocks this grow, but next time i will def. look into it. I take it you water less since the rock wool is in direct contact with the water. One thing puzzles me. Why use the basket at all? Couldn't you just put the cubes directly into the tray? What benefit is the basket at that point? I have so many questions to ask. I am glad that you are taking the time to help me out. Kudos brother. I owe you one.

Oh yeah, how come it say's that i am a stranger after my name? Am i missing something?

I'm using the mini-cubes, they look like little croutons to fill my pots. I also have my tables on a slight angle so I don't have any standing water. Just made some 1" blocks out of scrap wood and put them under the legs on one side of the tables.

It'll say stranger for a while until you get enough points. You earn points by making posts, creating threads, getting/giving reps.

Do you mean that you are not using rock wool? I guess i live in a vacuum. Would you show me a link? I have allot to think about. These little rocks are a pain in the ass. You must be sick of my noob questions. But you sure are helping get to the right answers. Thanx again.

They're rockwool, looks like they chopped up the bigger blocks into little cubes. Here is a link:

http://www.discount-hydro.com/productdisp.php?pid=376&navid=34

I've only been using it for a few harvests, but I'm digging 'em so far. Same issue's as with all other rockwool products, have to pretreat with PH'd water and can grow algae.

So how many do you put in each 6" pot? do you stack them? You have me very interested in them now. I assume you build them up to almost the rim? Btw. i am seeing a little bit of algae growth on the plastic that i left on the cubes. So i built the rocks up around them more. I used 2 1/2 tablespoons of 29 percent peroxide in a 25 gal. res. How often do i need to treat it for the algae issue?

Yep, I fill my pots to the rim with them. Couldn't tell you how much I use in each pot. The big bag of them will fill about 30 - 35 6"x6" pots.

Peroxide breaks down within 3 days, so you have to retreat with the peroxide every 3 days. Remember algae needs two things to grow: food and light. The peroxide may kill off the algae, but it will come back if you don't eliminate one of it's sources. Since you can't get rid of the food source, that means you have to block off the light.

Gotcha. I will continue treatments every 3 days. I will definitely be going to your method next grow. What are your breakdowns for watering for veg and bloom as far as intervals? I backed off on the waterings in the veg room. i have em going twice a day for the starter clones to root. Then every 8 hours after. In the bloom i am doing twice when the lights are on, once in the middle of the sleep cycle. How does that sound?

I only flood once a day in the morning after light's on, regardless if it's in veg. or bloom. But that's me I probably experiment next time and flood twice a day. Not sure about flooding at night, might be pointless. I don't really know you'll have to search for answer on that one.

The guy at the hydro shop told me the night thing was not needed. Maybe once. I was told the less you water at first promotes root development. He said to check them at the end of each dry cycle, before the next flooding, by picking them up. If they feel heavy they are not feeding so adjust accordingly. If they are light, increase the frequency. Everything is looking good so far. The flowering plants have adjusted well to the cutback in flooding. I do not see those signs that you pointed out of over watering anymore. The veg plants are not growing as fast as i think they should. But they look very healthy.

Sounds like good advice the. Really it's all about learning what the plants are telling you and adjusting accordingly, but that's a trick all to itself.

How long have the plants been in veg? They may not have developed enough of a root system yet.

I have been putting them in in waves. Some 1/7 then 1/11, 1/16. They were between 4"-7". I just started another series of clones in the cloner between 7"-9". They will take several weeks to root. Some of the smaller vegged clones are up to 8" now. About half have roots coming out of the bottom of the pot. Even the small ones have some. I lift them every day while gently turning them to feel how much they weigh. I can tell which ones are feeding more than others. So far twice a day seems to be agreeing with them. When i feel the baskets getting lighter i will up the waterings. What was your sequence when in grorocks? The flowering ones seem quite happy with the 3 times a day also. Am i slighting them?

What do you mean by "slighting them"?

When I was using rocks, I flooded 6 times a day every 2 hours for about 6-7 minutes when the lights were on. That was probably to much, but I never saw any ill effects.

I did not want to give them to much during rooting. So i backed down the cycles. They get 15 mins. on each watering every 12 hrs. But the flowering ones were showing very mild signs of over watering. So i backed em down. But i do not want to do it to little. That is what i meant. Again they are getting watered three times in the 12 on, for 15 mins. Once in the 12 off. I am keeping a close eye on them. I might bump it up a bit.

You"ll be able to feed them more once they got the root mass for it. The plants will be digging it and they'll reward you for it.

Now thats what i am talking about brother! Some things are worth waiting for. I am stoked.

Last night i took all of the vegging clones and separated the bigger ones from the smaller ones. I put all the big ones in one tray and adjusted the light to 18",s. The smaller ones went in the other tray. smallest ones in the middle. The bigger ones are being fed every 8 hours for 15 mins. the smaller ones 2 daily. Again the oldest are no more than 2 weeks old. They seem to be doing fine. I am watching root mass and weight. So far so good.

Now your cooking with gasoline! They'll be taking of in no time. What size light(s) do you got?

Using 600 watt with digital ballast. How bout you?

Same here, 600 digi. Had to downgrade, the 1000 put's off to much heat.