Any of you had plastic tank problems

[Roadblock]

I got a problem with a small room that is driving me nuts , good plants show real pale yellow new growth within a couple of days of going in , trust me when I say its not the nutrient or PH and the water supply is the same as another room that is powering without a problem .

 

The only thing I can think of is the plastic nutrient tank which is one of those 200 ltr black bunnings tanks , Im going to empty it tomorrow and throw a liner in it , which will fix it if thats the problem .

 

Have any of you guys ever had problems because of Plastic Phytotoxicty caused by a plastic tank ?

 

Rod

[Roadblock]

Those black 160 ltr storage bins from Bunnings , dont use them for nutrient tanks , they cause a reaction by leaching plastisizer into the water , they have no rating stamped on them and are made in italy by Plastimo , they are a recycled product and who knows what they are made of , the way it works the more rubbery the plastic the more plasticizer is used and the more used the more leached out , these tanks are very flexible a tell tale sign of a lot of plasticizer , the plants would show symptoms within a few days of being on this tank , would pickup on a nut change and slowly get worse as the tank concentrated over the wk , I wont know for a little while 100% , but Im fairly certain this was the problem as every other thing is ok in another room .

Learned alot about plastic today

 

Anyway guys when you have something that you carnt pin point going on with your plants keep this mind .

 

Rod

[keepleft]

hi rod

 

if your talking about the black rectangular (@ 200lt) tubs you get from bunnings i can vouch for them. ive been using em for over 3 years. in fact i have 3 now and never had a problem.

 

i find when i put 'young' ones in they take up to a week to adjust and do weird stuff (like show twist a couple of leaves, pale growth etc), but once they settle down and the nutes fire up they are fine.

[SukonmiSkunk]

yeah I ve never actually heard of this happening b4, I guess its possible for low grade equipment... I think if you are using PVC then you should be ok. I am glad they are making these bins from re cycled plastic.. shows a bit of direction towards helping our depleting enviroment.. but like rod says.. who knows what they are made of and in what percentages...

 

goes to show when growing like we do.. you really should cough up for the right and quality equipment

[Roadblock]

These would do that also Keepleft , leaf curl and pale new growth , these are plants that were perfect going in , this one is definatly 160 ltr , I guess being recycled plastcs they could vary where you could get a good or bad one , being a smaller water volume than what you have would also make them more toxic maybe , also the chemicals we use may pull more crap out them , from here on in food grade all the way for me .

 

The easiest fix if you have any doubts is to throw one of those cheap blue liners in the tank , the liner is made of Low Density Polyethylene 04 food grade rating .

 

Rod

[keepleft]

yeah i know the ones ur talking about rod. there about $55 for the 200lt black ones and come in a smaller 160 lt one for veg. i know a few people using them as its hard to find 200lt tanks that arent too tall. and the hydro shops dont have anything near as big. they actually tell u to go to bunnings!

 

lining sounds good, but if your using recirculating system, only problem is that the 19mm polytubes flow back into the tank so may be difficult to line it?

 

everything else connected to them are plastic too! from the 19mm polytube by nylex to the crop boxes.

 

anyway if u come across something else keep us posted!

[thc24]

Best thing i ever did was to buy a couple of those Blue virgin plastin 44g/ 200lt drums, havnt seen algee since and nute mix lasts the full month in veg.

 

Rod your problem sounds alittle like what im seeing atm on a mum and her clones im pretty sure its from changing from canna nute to Hygen in the bast ive noticed different coloured leaves from these two nutes.

 

Canna darker leaves, stretchy stems.

Hygen Pale fresh growth and less stretch.

 

Flowering plants look the same.

 

cheers rod heres the contraption in the 44gallon drum.

Edited May 26, 2006 by thc24

[Guest SOMEONE]

ive had shit plastic containers raise the ph ????

could that be it??

 

thc whats the contraption for??

is it a air stone like thingy??

 

take care

s

[Roadblock]

hey THC , great job with the airator , look at that airation , you wont get that out of an airstone , the first time I made one was like 10 yrs ago , they work really good and do two jobs by mixing the tank as well as airating it , to equal it with a common airstone you need a very large airpump , like the one I made from a airpump that came out of an old car Sigma air condtioning unit and put a fridge motor on it , geez this thing pumped some air but it sounded like a chaff cutter

 

Good job mate

Rod