New To Dwc, Had To Use Tap Water.. Please Help

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by NeuroGenesis719, Apr 16, 2014.

  1. My schedule basically revolves around work right now, but what little time I do have, I'm trying to fix up my garden. I got a new DWC system, and it seemed to be working, until I checked under the Lid today and checked the pH and saw tons of white chunks flying around in the water... What is this?
     
    And also, can I just use the Water I buy from the store for drinking to start out with? That is going to suck to spend 7+ dollars a week for 2 3.5 Gallon DWC Buckets not to mention everything else..
     
    Any cheap options for R/O?

     
  2. <sup>What is you TDS/PPM of your tap water? If it's anything like mine(500ppm on 0,5conversion) then I'd invest in a R/O. I bought a GE Smartwater from Home De Pot for about $160.. The filters last me 6-7 months, and reduce my ppm to about 20.</sup>
     
    <sup>No idea about the white chunks though, are they hard or slimy? I used to get pinkish white(red algae) chunks mainly around my old clear air lines.. cause they were letting in light, but those got changed out to solid black irrigation line now. </sup>
     
  3. Only my first grow but I have been using tap water only. My tap water ppm is 210 and I'm on week 3 of flower with no problems. I either let the water I use for res changes sit for at least 24 hours or I use prime, which is a good quality aquarium chlorine removing liquid.
     
  4. Thanks guys. I'm in Colorado with PPM supposedly around 70, not that 7-10 of those parts aren't still Flouride and other things that plants don't want. I went and got water today. I don't have a TDS, I know, shame on me, but I've got a Decent handheld pH. Now my problem is that the pH won't rise or show results until it's too late. I had the plants in there for almost a day before I checked the pH again and it was *3.8!!!!* !! So I put in both Mad farmer pH up and GH pH up and kept the DWC air going for 5 minutes to mix it up, then let it sit for a minute before testing.
     
    That water is white. I know there's something wrong. Lights on in 5 hours, we'll know how screwed I am then.
     
  5. #5 OneDayJD, Apr 16, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 16, 2014
    What all do you have in your soup? And are you using liquid or powder? Also, how does it smell, does it smell normal and watery, or does it smell bad and rotten? Like, inside the reservoir. And what are your temps of the soup in the res?
     
  6.  
    Okay, so, 
     
    2.5 - 2.7 Gallons in each DWC Bucket
    1/4 or maybe 1/2 tsp of Open Sesame per Gallon.
    Maximum Strength Armor Si (Please fucking work!)
    and 1 tsp / gallon RX Green Solutions Micro and Bloom
     
    Can't think of anything in any of those that would have caused White flakes/ algae whatever
     
  7. From the description I would suspect you added too much ph up. When you add to much ph up or add it in too high of a concentration it can cause nutrient precipitation. This is when liquid nutrients solidify, once that happens to a specific mineral it is unavailable to the plant. I think it is usually the calcium that solidifies. To avoid it in the future use a 50/50 water/ph adjuster mix. 
     
    If your ph has dropped that far out of range in the first place then you're probably overfeeding. Leaves curling? Brown tips? Stripping or spotting? These are all often signs of overfeeding.
     
    Change the solution completely and use half the amount of nutes you did before, depending on how they are currently looking you may want to use even less.
     
    Are you currently trying to run a full dose of nutes? If not then whats the ppm you're running?
     
  8. I second what @[member="bizie"] said. Anytime I start getting something wonky going on, one of the first things I do is drain the res and put fresh H2O in and start a new batch of soup. Is your res light proof? I'm just spitballing and trying to narrow down the possibilities.
     
  9. #9 Da-Lu, Apr 17, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 17, 2014
    Instead of using two different chemicals, I'd drain some water and add non ph'ed water instead to bring the ph up. That's just me though, I'm a complete noob but to me the less chemicals/nutes I use the better. I'm in week 3 of flower and none of my plants get full strength anything.
     
  10. You need an EC/ppm meter otherwise you are never going to get the nutrient strength right in the first place.
     
    I suspect the problem is caused by the stuff you are adding to it but I have never heard of them so can't help with those.
     
    Is the nutrient solution slimy? Smelly? 
    If you have a rotten smell it's most likely you aren't using enough air. Adding more and adding some h2o2 will sort the rot. 
     
    Can you put a photo up? 
     
  11. The Dabs will not allow me to answer your questions at this time.
     
  12. Okay so I know I can get a tds/ec pretty soon. I get really paranoid and I don't like posting, sorry about that..
     
  13. That's exactly what I'll do, thanks. What water do you use? R/O ? I want to use the water that I drink for starting with for now. Its about 6.7 and I wouldn't have to do too much of anything for it to drop into the right 6.2 zone for 12hour shift.
     
  14. I use tap water ph'ed to around 5.5. My tap water ppm is 210 and I have had no issues what so ever. RO water is ideal though. But your 70 ppm tap water is just fine I'm sure.
     
  15. I want to avoid Tap water at all costs.. Our tap water always gets White and Murky when it's warm or... anything else. I hate showering in it. :(
     
  16. Also, I got another pump So i'll have a shit ton of air going through..
     
  17. Do you not keep your air pump on 24/7? That is probably the problem. Depending on what nutrients you use you can have nutrient lockout. If you're mixing your nutrients together without them being diluted enough they'll have a reaction and form a buildup. Make sure you mix in your nutrients 1 by 1 so they get diluted enough.
     
  18. That's just air that has been infused due to the pressure in your boiler. It's perfectly normal. Pour a glass of it and leave it settle you will the the microscopic bubbles start to rise and the water clear. If your ppm is 70 then you have great tap water, use it. Mine is about the same, you may need to add a little magnesium as the ppm is so low
     
  19. Your problem is probably the RX Green Solutions products. Did you get them as a free sample at an HTG seminar? I did. Used them and two days later had shit everywhere in my buckets. If you read the directions carefully, it should be used as a foliar spray in a hydroponic setup. Also, these products are no longer even listed on their website.

    With Denver water, I switched to 1 tsp of Maxibloom and 5ml of GH pH Up per gallon if water and have had great results and no more problems so far.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
     
  20. You're right. 1 little bit of that crap has made the pH 4 no matter what I do. Going to be using sensi bloom

    Sent from my SM-N900V using Grasscity Forum mobile app
     

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