My girls have a calcium deficiency, so I got some General Hydroponics CALiMAGic, but I have a question about how to use it. It says on the bottle to use 1tbsp per gallon, and to mix in the CALiMAGic before adding nutrients. The thing is, once I add it, the PPMs of my water go WAY up. Like from a base of 110 up to 600! So my question is, am I supposed to be including the CALMAG in my target ppm? Meaning, if I'm looking for 1200 ppm for my nutrient solution, should I be subtracting the ppm that includes the CALiMAGic, then adding 1200 ppm of nutrients? If I include the 600 ppm in the target 1200 ppm I will only be giving my plants about half of the nutrients they are used to... Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
You're going to add it to your target PPM's. I assume you're using RO water? Also, a silica additive is an important thing - if you aren't already using it. This goes into the nute mix first, then ca/mg, then A nutes, then B nutes - last, pH check and adjust. It's important to do these in order or else they can bind up and precipitate out, locking it out from the plants. I use ProteKt silica which adds 50 ppm (700 scale) and Calimagic which adds 400 ppm = 450 ppm before mixing nutes.
Correction - a starting ppm of 110 - you must have good tap water or something. If so, maybe it has SOME ca/mg in it, but not enough. If so, you might not need to add the full strength. Do you know what your water's hardness level is?
I'm not sure of the hardness level. It's usually 90-140 ppm right out of the tap. So I should use less A & B nutes in order to keep the ppms where they are now? I'm worried about nutrient burn. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
No. Your tap water sounds perfectly suitable. 90 - 140 is really good. Do you know if your water is chlorinated and do you dechlorinate it somehow? Your hardness is probably lower than average so I'd say start with 1/2 of what they recommend. Since you probably have SOME already in your water... And no, use the amount of nutrients that you were, and these things will add to your ppm's. The nutrient mix charts give you a target PPM but that's really just a guideline that doesn't take into account these other factors and additives. For my DWC buckets the target PPM is 800ish but ends up 1100 - 1300. That said, I use about 1/2 of what's recommended anyhow and have learned to read what they are needing and raise or lower the PPM's as needed. When you start too low, you can see that they need more and bump it up in increments until it's just right. So, record your starting PPM. Add whatever additives first, like ca/mg, record the new PPM, then mix the rest and adjust pH. Your final PPM will end up somewhere around 500 PPM higher than your target and that's fine. Just watch how the plants react. What is your medium?