Dear readers, I have had enough of my deep water culture system. I don't have the time to constantly add frozen water bottles to it. I was thinking about buying a resevoir chiller but am in the process of concluding that I might as well just buy an ebb and flow system since it is 2 hundred dollars cheaper than the chiller. There is one thing I desperately need help with though. It is... Do you have to keep the temperature of an ebb & flow reservoir as low as you do with a deep water culture system? Big thanks to all who have helped me! Peace.
I have sucessfully grown and am now at with water temps in the high 70's up to mid 80's without any problems. Hotter the water, the more air you need to pump in and maybe all a bit of h2o2 every couple of days. Oh, and make damn sure you aint got no light leaks to the water.
I am not sure what the temp of my plant area is because I just harvested, and can't check it... but... I think that it was about 72 degrees. This is just a guess. I do know that it wasn't too hot because I am using a 315 watt, CFL light bank, of which doesn't generate allot of heat. But I think that the heat, that rises off of the light bank, adds to the room temperature. I know I was calling it quits on my DWC system and was looking to invest in an ebb & flow system, thinking that ebb & flow reservoirs don't need to be cold. Do you know if they do? And I love working with hydroponic equipment, and so, without any money to buy the ebb & flow, I tore off all of the contaminated foil tape off of my DWC, reservoir lid, washed the lid and put new tape on it. It's looking cool so I think I'm just going to continue using the DWC, and continue with the ice bottle thing. Do you know if water chillers can get clogged up with funk? I am thinking that, if that happens, I would have to buy a new, $500 water chiller, over and over again, until I don't get anymore problems with funk in the reservoir. Then, on the other hand, maybe the water chiller would solve all of my problems. Peace.
I'm using a DWC system. Just bubble buckets no res. My girls seem happy with air temps of 75-85. My a/c vent blows on the dresser which keeps the temp below 85. If I leave the air off the highest it pushes is 88 and only rarely. I haven't had a problem with my girls aside from a bit of nute burn which I caught early enough. Are you using RO water? Maybe more bubbles are needed? Or are you just sure it is the res temp? Hoping to help
Dear ArsenalOfCronic, I think that I have the same CFL light bank that you are using. I got mine from that Stealth Hydroponics company. I plan on getting some LED lights to replace the CFL system. I use tap water and I keep it full of bubbles with an air stone and a pretty powerful air pump. I'm pretty sure that I have everything dialed in except for the reservoir temperature issue. So it's either the high maintenance job of adding frozen water bottles to the reservoir, or the option of investing in a water chiller. Because I can't just blow hundreds of dollars, I'm worried that, if I purchase a water chiller, algae or bacteria will grow inside of it and that I'll have to buy a new one if this happens.
Have you had algee problems before? In summetime, in my tent, air temps have gotten to mid 90's, so I have to run 12\12 at night and turn off the lights in the day time. This is with my HID shit. But the point is, if you have no light leaks and shit loads of air you should not have a problem.
yah maybe you need 2 airstones but i think you've got a light leak. have you wrapped your buckets in foil tape?
Yes. My reservoir is wrapped in foil tape so I don't think I have a light leak. But... do you think that it could possibly be the chlorine in the tap water that was killing my roots? I was wondering this because, two times, the roots were doing good, and then right after the reservoir change they turned brown. I'm wondering if there is some kind of low cost hydroponic product for de-chlorinating tap water. Oh... and I was even using Dutch Master ZONE with the General Hydroponics, three-part, FloraSeries nutrients that I was using. As for right now, I am running tap water with hydrogen peroxide in it, in my system just to sterilize everything before my next, up-coming grow. Thanks for all the help!
You set the tap water out for an hour the clorine is supposed to dissipate or so I have read. I ordered a 5 stage RO from fleabay for 150 I think, but there are several others out there. I'm thinking, right after you did a water change they turned brown...that sounds like user error to me. Are you mixing correctly? Are you using a PPM meter? PH meter? Is the PH calibrated? What is the PPM of your water?
My roots are kinda brown, but it's from the micro. I run Lucas formula at around 850 PPM. Do you have slime in the roots?
Well I didn't have slime on the roots. But I believe that this was only because the Dutch Master ZONE was eliminating the slime. I don't know if that is true though. But the roots just turned brown; especially the ones under water. And I too was using FloraSeries nutes. I do know that roots get slightly dyed from the FloraMicro. I guess we can end this thread because I cut down the plants. But there was mad rot all over the rockwool cubes when I took them out. I sterilized everything with hydrogen peroxide and am going to start a new grow. I threw out all of the old Hydroton because of the fact that it was heavily contaminated. I'm gonna pick up a new, 10 liter bag of it and some new cubes. But thanks for all the help people! Talk to you later.
Yeah we have the same light bank. Check out my grow my girls are nice and happy with that light bank. I think your problem is the tap water. You might need to get a portable ro filter. When I get home I'll take a pic of mine and find the site I got mine from.
i dont care if youre jack here, you need to monitor the temperature and humidity of your grow room otherwise youre just growing really dank tomatoes and not dank weed.. youre only doing yourself a disservice by not being aware of the numbers.. theres sweet spot for growing
I started a new grow and I am monitoring the temps. I keep the reservoir temperature down to 50 degress at the lowest to 62 degrees at the highest. I get no algae, no bacteria and everything stays fresh. I do use Dutch Master ZONE.
O.K. I am having horrible issues. Now I am aware that below 62 degrees is bad, and that with DWC, temperature is a big issue. I don't have the time to constantly monitor the temperature with ice bottles to keep the temp. in the sweet spot though. Thus I am looking into buying a reservoir chiller. My system is completely light proof but for some reason, this clear/white slime grew on my airstone. I have a powerful air pump that may be keeping the airstone too warm. Plus, I have clear air tubing that runs from the air pump, through a hole in the reservoir and into the airstone. Could this be a source of light into the reservoir? Is the slime from light, and what happens if the slime grows inside of the reservoir chiller. Would I have to buy another reservoir chiller? Because I can't afford the first one to begin with... How would I just buy another one? Thanks to everyone helping me on this nightmare issue!
I have noticed that sometimes when I open the top of the res, some of the old stems from some fan leaves I have pinched off falls into the water. It's hard to see because it's dark in the res and I'm using a rubbermaid tub right now. I'll be switching back to buckets and HIDs once the temps cool outside. Now if I don't get them out, they will rot and leave a white slime shit in there. Think that might be your problem? You can also use h202 every couple of days in your water, like 1 ml per gallon.