$125 for RO aint bad at all, esp for 100 gpd post a pic! eventually I'll get one, but not yet I believe gonejah checked the ppm on one of them mr clean thingy's and I think he said it was 20 ppm. (low enough for me) I'll def check ppm and ph before I addback with it - just used up the last 2.5 gallon jug of distiled either yesterday or the day before The two weeks I let it run was to give the beneficial bacteria a chance to start breeding in the lavarock, chlorine evaporation wouldn't take that long, would it?
Great thread, like mordgrow said, don't feed them until they get 4 noods, I feed them right away with the Lucas formula at 450ppm @ .5 and fried them badly. The Lucas formula is great and so easy if you do as you should. He recommends using hard water micro instead of the normal flora micro if you waters PPM is high. There's cheap RO systems on ebay that work great, I'm about to order up another one, almost wore out the first one already. The new ones have a little pump on them for more pressure and longer life on the membrane because of it, that will be nice cause we all know how long that shit takes to make. lol My water is a horrible 367ppm @ .5 so an RO is a must. Here's a link, I know they work because everyone that drinks my water says its great, I can't say because I don't drink water. lol http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=160236768778&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=006 Someone mentioned the ask Lucas thread, here's a link to it. It starts out great, gets a little boring but you can sure learn a lot. http://www.cannabis-world.org/cw/showthread.php?t=892
Chlorine only takes 24-48 hrs to evap. What bacteria starter do you use during the 2 week start up? As i quickly read through your R/O system i see it is made for drinking,(dif. than aquariums and plants)i can tell because it has a final carbon scrubber filter for taste which is great if you plan on sharing the system between drinking and your res. My system has two DI resin canisters for a zero PPM output(final polishing),most drinking R/O systems have some waste PPM,but taste better than the one i have. I didnt see anything about that systems final PPM output but im sure it well within limits. The GPD # is based on several factors,mostly incoming water pressure,my system is a 100GPD system rated at 80 psi and i have only 45 but i fill a 5 gal bucket in less than 2 hrs and thats more than i will ever need with some planning. The pump,IMHO cant save water but will make water faster,all i see it doing is increasing pressure which even at 1000psi the membrane still only passes a percentage of the water and waste will not change(i dont believe their claims),show me how so i can understand. The 3 gal storage tank will not be used by most and the company should save you some money if you choose not to get it,i use a $4 float in any sized bucket for a res. of your choice.
just FYI, My well water is about 450PPM AND I use a water softener ( two things which I'd advise against) this is still fine in hydro. if you have a little bit higher PH, you can either not do the add back (and just do the add water) or change your rez out every other week. This is really good for your plants anyway, its not neccisary but its a good idea, especialy if you can get inthere and scrub the build ups out a bit, general maint. etc... hope that helps with your delema. I DO want an RO system for the future though. (mostly because my PH starts out at 8.2 or so and I dont like using so much PH down) Bro, do your kidneys a favor, drink water when your thirsty ! I'm betting your younger, this shit will catch up to you later on.
This is wrong... you should feed plants the concentrations of nutes to suit age. A bigger plant will just drink more, but the concentrations will still be the same. Example... I'm flowering under a 600w light, the plant is currently on 1.6ec. I get in another light or replace the 6 with a 1000. The plant is still at the right age to receive 1.6ec, but is starting to drink more... do I up the ec, or do i simply feed the plant more? The answer is I feed the plant more water but with the same concentrations of nutes.
yes i think not feeding untill a 4 leaf set is a good idea my new citral grow is showing that all thay need is some good lights, temps, humidity and water my tap water is 170 ppm and that works fine but i still think that early veg (0-10 day) is faster in soil i also learned that full strength lucas formula is awesome even with tap water and there is no need to worry about over ferting like i did before u just put a little less nutes to a tap water and thats it and ph is pretty stable i love the lucas so far
it's kinda nice screwdababylon! isnt it? Somebody here recommended I look into it and I am a fan! This has been by far the easiest grow I have ever done sure when they are young but not after that lucas formula says it depends on the light they are under, not age at all (not even stage) I vegged under cfl and flowering under hps with ppm numbers based on the light and it's working for me so far makes sense to me cuz all it really says is light drives the plant, the more energy it gets the more food it can use that doesn't mean you can take a seedling and throw it under hps at 1400 ppm and it'll be fine, but it does mean that if you can keep three numbers in check (ppm, ph and temp) you can grow nice weed without dumping the res and with one bottle of food I kinda like that
hell yeah!!!!! i found 1 strange thing about lucas not shure if its me who coused it but anyway: THE PPM IS RISING FEW DAYS AFTER MIXING A NEW SOLUTION i just made a 870ppm water and three days after its 1050!!!!!!!!!! and im toping with the tap water!!! any ideas why could it be?
it aint you, my system does that too try this to make it seem even more fucked up: check your ppm right when the lights come on and then again after they have been on for the 12 hours, are they different? Mine lowers under the lights, rises when lights are off and I dunno why weird
Whats your taps PPM,180?? Adding tap with some dissolved solids will increase the PPM but a PH change in the add back water can affect it too. I'm thinking the solutions temps rise after the lights warm the plants and subsequently the solution changing the DO and thus the temporary PPM change,all just my theory though....lets ask Lucas!!
hey oci, you see ppm swings due to light schedule too? so this is normal for hydro? somebody should ask, it kinda has me wondering but I gave up on trying to figure out the WHY and can live with "that's how it is for me" I think you have a good point about res temps being related, makes sense to me though I doubt if DO level changes would read in ppm (and here I thought I was DONE wondering WHY) lol
good to hear its normal ill just make it 100 ppm lower than i should do in case it rises too much i heard u about the tap add water and its ph correction YES A LOT OF PH DOWN INCREASES PPM TOO (IMO) P
screwdababylon! did you find out where the upper limit of nutes is for your plants? I am doing that right now. will push the food as high as I can until I burn the leaf tips, then will back it down a bit and keep it there for the rest of flowering GL
Lights or increased temps should have no effect on PPM levels. Now normal evaporation or increased evaporation with an airstone or plant uptake of water will and I suspect that is what is happening. Dewave
tested the ppm from one of those mr clean auto dry guns and it brought it way way down! 25 is damn near nothin I got about 8 gallons circulating in a 15 gallon drum for my next top offs
Thats another reason why i went with R/O,VERY little PH down goes a LONG way thus keeping your PPM lower and keeping the amt. of unnecessary chemicals away from your plants. Now let us know how many gal. of water one of those gadgets will keep it at 25 PPM.
Its amazing how much less ph adjusting stuff 0 ppm water uses. I found THAT out by adding too much and then scrambling to bring it back to normal that is the kicker huh? as long as it gets me to the end of this flower cycle it's a win win my water usage so far: Filled the res with a garden hose, about 30 gallons at 250 ppm added back about 22 gallons back to the system of which 15 was distilled, 7 was 250 ppm brita filtered tap water - none of the auto dry water yet I had not figured that out yet, but here I am at 10 weeks on a res and I still have not replaced the water once! That's kinda cool I LOVE this hydro stuff!!
Did the same thing a few times getting used to the new R/O,depending on how much you add it can sometimes be better to just dump and start from scratch than adding even more chem. to bring it back up. I use ANs Barricade for my PH up when needed,needed it more with the tap and now i find i use just a lil PH down to fix things.
ANs Barricade is a Potassium Silicate,I have read that it is used by ppl throughout their grow but as an adjunct to rase their PH,which is exactly what their bottle says and love the stuff. A few drops to a few ml. can do the trick(depending on how the buffers are and the starting PH vs the required one.