At first(about 5 days before the creation of this thread) I had the water just touching the net pot. About a day or so after this thread was made the water was dropped to about 1" to 1 1/2" below the net pot. This has obviously accelerated the root growth, but my plants are still looking droopy... I'm thinking nute concentration is too high...?
Hmm. Well you had it too high before, though not the worst. And you have it about perfect now. I got nothing else. Lol
Not gonna split hairs on the inert/ph neutral issue, but I felt like I had all my vitals in correct ranges and needed something to blame it on! Lol I don't think the rocks are much different than hydroton other than the shape and size of the medium. My plans at this point are to get this girl healthy, take cuttings, and start all over with babies of the same age. Hopefully have pinpointed all the issues I'm experiencing now.
Water level is fine as long as its not like two inches into the basket. Get some more air stones, grab some root food and some aqua shield. Get as much oxygen to the roots as possible and when you change your res, wash it too if you don't already. Water level isn't a huge deal long as its not flooding the bean. If you don't see an improvement then switch nutes or cut them way down, but it looks like a suffocating plant to me. I had this once when I was only usin a shitty stone and then I got three 6 inch round ones and they were all kabooooom
I think you have everything in perfectly safe ranges here. Youre nowhere near nuteburn anymore AND you seem to have defficiencies which says to me you had the nutes too high at one point and the plants taking in the wrong Ph locking out thinkgs like nitrogen and phosphorous. If this plant keeps looking like dookie, get rid of those stones (acids dissolve basic stones altering Ph)
Dwc theres only 1 thing that will make your plants grow oxygen... If you dont not have atleast 1lpm of air to 1l of water most likely root rot will set in some people get lucky with those shitty air pumps. I have a 70lpm hydrofarm air pump with 8 outlets going to 5 buckets 4 plants 1 rez. After i put this pump on my dwc my plants have never grown so fast and things like root rot are just non existent now. I would highly recommend getting a commercial air pump. My water looks like its boiling hardcore when your water looks like that you wont have anymore problems. My 2 cents goodluck!
You can drown a plant in dwc if you over water before the roots drop into the water, looked at your pics and I'd say you simply over watered by having your bucket too full. Barely any roots hanging from those net pots.
Definitely going to pick up some new air stones at my hydro shop soon, possibly some aqua shield depending on the price... Thanks for the suggestions ,do you guys have any preferences on air stone sizes? Long vs short?
I've got 7.5 to two buckets with about 3.5 gallons, your saying this is not sufficient? Definitely going to try some new stones before I invest in a new pump though...
How would it not matter? If one air-stone constricts airflow more than another there will be a difference. Might as well get the best from my pump...
the difference in neglegable. its not like youre using wooden airstones Youd be better off spending the extra money on another airpump the resistance is from the water, not the stone. save your money or buy another pump
Update: switched out my solution, made it really weak ( 400ppm). GH flora series, 7.5ml of bloom and micro and 10mL of grow. 7.5 Humic acid. Dedicated my entire pump (15 LPM) to one bucket. If this doesn't work, fuck dwc! Lol Longest root is only a centimeter or so from the water and the others are following suit...