Need to improve my grow

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by GrowerGemini, Sep 28, 2017.

  1. I'm going to post what my current grow operation looks like, I know I'm making fundamental mistakes that I need to fix but there is so much disinfo that sometimes I feel like I'm getting pulled in different directions.

    Grow Tent - Have one Indica plant in a 4x4x6 tent with a 4 panel Viaspectra LED light and a 32 watt/60 liters per minute air pump. I have two air stones in my container (5 gallon black bucket) and get plenty of oxygen in my tank and also have 2 fans in my tent.
    - I only use distilled water and usually put 3 to 3.5 gallons in a bucket every week
    - I'm using Advanced Nutrients pH perfect (Grow-Micro-Bloom)/ Hydroguard 4mL per week/pH down/pH up
    - I feed once a week 4-4-4 mL, I got this from the feeding chart on their website
    - Using frozen water bottles to keep the temperature in the res tank down
    - I keep 3 gallons of water in the rez at all times


    My questions
    - My pH pen jumps up and down and is generally unreliable but I try to keep my pH at 6, what pen works and is cheap? Also do I keep the pen's bulb in water at all times and what type of water to keep it in if so?
    - My ppm seems extraordinarily low (150-200ppm) just started tracking this, is the pen faulty or am I using too much pH down? I use about 1 mL of pH down with my weekly feeds.
    - I've heard that you don't have to track your waters pH/ppm levels if you're using Advanced Nutrient's Grow-Micro-Bloom series, is there any truth to this?
    - My leaves seem to be suffering from nutrient burn (brown tips/edges and slight discoloration) is this because of mistakes I'm making with my water? My roots look relatively healthy.

    Sorry for this long ass post but I just feel like I'm not using my resources properly and am underperforming significantly. I don't have much disposable income so I can't go grab anything that expensive but I'll listen to any suggestions. I'll post photos of my tent/pH pens and TDS meters below.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Use a Blue Labs pH meter. It's about $70 - 80 but it's very good quality. Care for it and it'll last you a long time.

    There's a bit to know if you want to keep it calibrated and the probe in good shape. Here are some pH probe fundamentals...

    The probe itself is a glass tube with a tiny ceramic type plug that allows ion exchange between the KCl fluid inside the probe and the ions in the solution to be measured. You need to keep the KCl fluid in good shape to keep it functioning properly.
    - Always store the probe wet - never let it dry out for more that a couple of minutes or so. Crystals can start to form inside the probe and then it's probably pooched. I have resurrected some like this, but most are dead.
    - Never store it in plain water. Tap water or ESPECIALLY DI or RO water. The lack of ions in the water will pull the KCl right out of the probe - and again it's probably pooched.
    - Store it only in pH 7.0 solution of KCl storage solution (best)
    - Eventually the KCl inside the probe can become depleted, causing calibration errors. KCl storage solution keeps the probe properly conditioned and prevents this.

    Calibrating:
    The probe is only as accurate and your calibration procedure. Always calibrate your probe using 2 solutions - pH 7.0 and 4.0. The probe sets up a graph based on those 2 points of calibration and any reading in between them will be accurate. Outside of 4 and 7 and the calibration begins to drift. We use 4 and 7 because our target pH is in the 5.5 wish to 6.5 wish range - which is between those points. If you only calibrated to a pH 7.0 solution then the meter would be accurate AT 7.0.

    Good lab type practices:
    Keep your containers clean for your pH standard solutions. Pour a little into the container, rinse the container a bit with it and dump it to rinse out anything that might effect the pH. Fill it again with fresh pH standard for calibration and then test.

    Be cognizant of what's on your probe tip and don't double dip. Don't pull the probe out of the 4.0 solution and stick it in the 7. The residue of the 4.0 on the probe will change the pH of the next solution which will then effect the calibration. So, rinse the probe with a bit of the standard solution to be tested BEFORE putting it into it.

    Avoid contaminating your standard solutions themselves. Don't ever dump leftover or unused solution back into the bottle. Once it's out of the bottle, throw it out. Don't confuse the lids of the bottles...

    It all sounds like a lot - but if you understand the basics of how to work the meter it will be spot on every time for a long time.
     
  3. Crazy thing is I figured out that I don't need to measure pH with the nutes I'm using (Advanced Nutrients pH perfect) people using them say just to watch your PPM. I will bank all this info for later though Mike because I plan on switching nutes at some point and eventually getting a decent pH meter when I do.
     

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