I thought it would be a good idea for everyone to have a place to tell there strange incedents with DWC, and how they over came them. Heres my story..... I have been growing in dwc for about 2 months now and have run into what seems an alien invasion. 1)ph dropping from 6.0 to 4.8 overnight. - fixed by letting nute mix settle overnight and readjusting before use. 2)brown (algea?) growing underwater on sides of buckets.- fixed by covering hydoton with panda flim and neopreme inserts around the stem base. 3)blackish growth on some parts of the roots. dosnt seem to slow overall growth or go away completely.- kept at bay with h202 3ml per gal every new res fill and then adding Orca benificials 2 days in, then changing the res every 4 day.(5 days seams fine too.) make sure to flush out the root ball from above with new nutes/h202 in the correct Ph. 5.5-6.5. I always adjust ph daily to 6.0 after finding the correct ratio(PPM) of nutrients to water. I try to keep my water set at a ph of 6.0 and ppm set at 638 and they seem to take an equal amount of nutes and water. 4) STINKY FOAMY RES! The main Res i mix and ph everything in before it goes into the buckets. sat overnight and in a hot area the next day. I came home to find the room stinking like shit and my warm res water with LOW O2 FOAMING IN THE TANK. It was awefull. It just happend the other night and i decided to add 100ml of h202 for the 28 gal. the smell went away pretty quickly but there is still a foam on one side of it. Im debating on tossing it or adding Orca to fight it...... What do you think?
Hmm, I can't say I'm having any problems. However, your pH drop is usually symptomatic of a bacterial or fugal root infection, causing root decomposition. Bacteria create organic acids which acidify the solution. Hence pH drop. Either that or your plant's taking in a shit load of potassium from your soup. Doubtful... Your temperatures are likely too high and you may not be providing the root zone with enough dissolved oxygen. Mix new nutes. Get your res temps under control (under 70 degrees always), and make sure you're pumping in plenty of air. You shouldn't need all that H2O2. Pictures always help.