BTW,got a liter 9 months ago and used it on all my stuff on each watering with great results and still have 4/5th left in the bottle.
Hey IMgreen, just wonder what you did to get that mr clean auto dry gun to work properly? I thought I read in your thread that it did nothing, could have been somewhere else though. My PPM also goes up when lights are off and down when lights are on but it only changes about 20ppm the most.
yeah I wrote that it didn't do nuthin! as it turns out you need to turn the dial ON it to USE the filter! and it even came with a card with PICTURES showing you how to use it, but it dont help when you dont even look it made my wife laugh cuz I never RTFM ever
LOL, done that a few times, glad it works now just for how long? Hey if you read that manual it might even say.
Here's a quote from Lucas that might help explain it. "There are many ways to screw up a bubbler grow. Tops on the list is using too small a nute volume, which most folks in a bucket experience. The problem with buckets, besides having to lift the lid off to change nutes, is that the amount of nutes is so small that evaporating a single gallon out of it, which can happen in one day under 250watts, will cause significant nute overconcentration. This will also create large pH swings. Also, with such a small volume of nutes, you will need to change out the whole mix very frequently, which many folks wont do because it is such a pain to lift the lid off the bucket. Then they will have pH problems, root rot problems, and plant health problems."
RG, Do you remember the rule of thumb for the size of res. based on the plant numbers and their solution quantities on multiple plants for one res.?
you'd think so right?? it says it stops workin when you see spots on your car... so it works until it doesn't thats funny
I haven't seen him mention anything based on plant quantity, its usually light power. For every 50 watts use 2-3 gallons of water for the res. I guess the more light power more water is used up so to keep things working properly you need more water. My res is just big enough for my light according to Lucas, I have about 16-18g of water.
The vagueness of their info is because of the starting PPM,if its high it wont last as long as lower PPM will given the same water is used.
hi! well i did 1050 maximum (05 EC) and it was fine i dont want to burn em becouse i want as fast and as big yeld as possible so i guess i wont go further 1100 and its enough i think
yeah thats a good one it might be a problem for me on the later stages i dont want to screw the stealthness of my cab by ading a huge suspicious res near to it))) so i guess all i can do is a third bucket between em as a res like some peeps do here but i think that 6 galon res is aint shit for 2 x 5 galon buckets shitty...
Here's a quick link to add into this. It explains what EC, TDS, & PH. I was looking for something like this for 2 days now, and figured I could pass it on to make someone elses life a lot easier..
I've been searching (Google) for the " Lucas Formula" and this thread was one of the returns. I've been reading for three and a half hours and only in the last few mins did any of make any sence at all. I'm sure that I'm over complicating it, WOW. I did see one big bit of info for me, I've been fighting a Mg deficiency for a little while now. I guess the Canna Aqua Vega and Flora in known for this. In his formula he adds Epsom salt. I must admit, I'm going to have to read it a couple of more times to get this info down. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm so new at this. And starting with Hydro is a real in your face experience. I did find "pH's Spreadsheet" and will start to read them tomorrow, my heads bumping from all this and it's late. How long did it take for most of you guys to get a grip on this?
the formula isn't that bad once you get it. I dont use the micro and the bloom mix because floranova bloom is micro and bloom already mixed (use the micro # as the FNB #) ((target - current) / target) * 8 ml per gallon * res gallons = FNB (ml) an example is I have a 30 gallon setup that the nutes are at 920 and I want to put them at 1250 here's the math: 1250 - 920 / 1250 x 8 x 30 = 63.36 ML FNB 1250 - 920 = 330 330 divided by 1250 = 0.264 .264 times 8 = 2.112 2.112 times 30 = 63.36 ML Floranova bloom hits that in (RO water) they can feed at full strength (about 1250 ppm) once they are past seedlings - as long as you have them under HID, 700 - 800 ppm under CFL hydro is nowhere near as hard as you might think. there's no guesswork. Just keep these three number in check and they will do you well: Res Temp - 67 dgegrees (21C) is ideal (it should feel chilly, not tepid or warm) PH - keep it between 5.8 and 6.2 no higher no lower for good nute uptake PPM - 1250 is your baseline (under HID) please don't use epsom salt in hydro. use cal mag++ every couple weeks if the plants need it good luck and hit me up if you have any questions
If your worried about dealing with the ppm you can also just do the refill method with the Lucas formula
Thanks for the reply. I'm using Canna Aqua Vega at this point ( that what the hydro shop point me to, before I started reading this forum) , though not a bad set of nutes their notoriously low on Mg. So I've been using Epsom Salt to correct the def., the plants have looked much better since. I will be switching to FNB soon. I still have not gotten a grip enough on the lucas system to make the convertions for the Canna. I've read the PPM's but don't know enough to figure out the mix yet to reach the target PPM for each nute. I'm even close to understaning how to use the spreadsheet. Still many more post in these threads to read.