[Liflow]

Originally Posted by Help_Needed

You'll sometimes see the water turn cloudy like yours is doing if you add a lot of pH adjusters in, for example. But from the sound of it, you're not getting a chance to adjust the pH before the TDS goes wrong.

Yeah, I don't put anything in but the GH Micro/Bloom at 8/16...

Is there any possible outside source of contamination? Is your secondary reservoir open to the air, by chance? Would it be possible to quit using the secondary res for a while, and maybe just use the drain tube and leave the main res sealed off?

Nope, it's closed, lid is set on it properly but not latched down. It would have to be a lot of crud falling in it to make the PPM jump that much happen though, wouldn't it?

I had thought about disconnecting the second res and just dealing with the inconvenience to try to simplify the system... Like, maybe water is getting trapped in the fill hose and growing algae or something...? It's polypropelene tubing, the kind used for sprinkler systems but it is almost level at the top of the hook where it comes off the pump into the top of the bucket so water could be sitting in it for a day between times that I run the pump to recirc the nutes.

P.S. DWC systems usually have a very good track record, in part because they're so very simple. A lot of growers have had good results from them. I'm guessing that there's something unique to your set up that's causing the problem.

Yeah, I pretty much followed Rumpleforeskin's "how-to" thread to the letter... Had some issues where I bought the wrong hose barbs and ended up having to use sprinkler tubing instead of clear/white flexible vinyl tubing though...

Originally Posted by dunumptanum

Not that I am a hydro expert by any means, but when you balance your PH are you using proper PH up and down mixtures (and not vinegar/bicarb etc)?

I'm using Lucas' formula. It doesn't typically need pH adjustment from what I understand of it... I'm not doing any pH adjustment and it ends up right where I want it (my meter reads 5.6) when mixed at 8ml/16ml per gallon.

Also, do you use both products in one mixing? (The reason I ask is that apparently you should try to only use one product at a time, if you add too much of either mixture and overshoot your desired PH you should dump your nutes and remix them, instead of using the opposite product to balance it out).

Yeah, that makes sense. But that's not really relevant here. I'm not fighting a pH problem, oddly, I'm fighting a PPM problem...

Also, I am assuming that you built your own DWC buckets? What sealant/glue did you use? Is it possible that some of it is breaking down and leeching into your nutes? What about the foil tape, is any of the adhesive sticky side touching the nutes? Hearing about the cloudy reservoir makes me think that something contaminating it for sure...

Nope, no adhesives, I used O-rings like in Rumpleforeskin's sticky thread. The foil tape isn't touching the nutrients anywhere. It's completely on the outside of the buckets...

I guess I'll just dump the nutrients again and start over like I've been doing... I just expected it to be more stable based on what I've read about this technique and formula...

Thanks for your help, guys!