salt buildup in expanded clay

[bluntman_77]

any tips for salt buildup on the top of expanded clay flood and drain

 

water flushing from the top is a bit difficult in this setup

 

should I be concerned or is there anything to do to minimise/control it ?

[Evil_boof]

cant say ive ever come across the problem, if u can, dissolve with hot water?

[Gazza2001au]

dont use hot water u will cook the roots! just empty your res and run strait PH water for as long as u like to flush its all u can really do if u cannot get access to the pots

[bluntman_77]

yeah thats what i am doing

 

just wondering if there was anything to prevent the salt buildup my ppms are low about 600 but it comes back !

[Gazza2001au]

all u can do is flush the pots are u able to use a coke bottle connected with a hose to reach the pots?

[yields]

yeah thats what i am doing

 

just wondering if there was anything to prevent the salt buildup my ppms are low about 600 but it comes back !

your at 600ppm just to stop salt build up on the clayballs? Unless they are seedlings 600ppm is to low and u are being super pedantic about it!

 

Its normal for a bit of salt build up on the clay balls man (wont come off unless scrubbed), just flush with PH'ed water once per week for 24hrs, thats more than enough to pull out any REAL excessive salts.

 

Happy growing.

[bluntman_77]

plants show signs of nute burn at anything higher than 600-800

 

they just cant seem to take higher ppms . i thought it might be because of salt levels building up the clay as if you flush water through it its quite a lot higher ppm than res

Edited May 15, 2009 by skyhigh

[Radic]

irey Sky

your probly right

tell i

you checked your waters PH and EC before you

flush

if not

dowit now

if your EC shows something in it and you dont know what it is

than filter it first

you only need to correct the ph if below 6ph or above 7.6ph

otherwize just go with what you got

while the flush is running

clean out all the pumps and pipes and the nutrient sollution holding tank

same way with pure water

irey

if there is someting that is not clear

just ask

seen

the perpose is to flush the toxic nutrient salts build up, out of your pots

flush

exactly like diss

 

start flush

 

pore pure water into the top of the pot

fast nuff to completely cover the top of the pot

but too fast

do not let the water over flow the top edges of the pot

seen

let all the flushed water from the bottom of the pot---> drain to waste

which

at first the water draining from the bottom of the pots will be dark colored

this is the salts comming out

seen

now

keep poring the water into the top of the pot

untill

the water that runs out of the bottom of the pot is--->100%clear <---

irey

when the water that runs out of the bottom of the pot is--->100%clear <---

then stop

 

the flush is now finished,

completed

seen

it may take 30min

or 3hrz

to complete each flush for each pot

seen

 

next

 

start with a fresh made sollution made at 1/2 your usual strength for the first feed after the flush

then the next day back to usual strength for their age and stage of growth

 

most plans recomend that you flush every week

check your nutrient bottle lable for your flush timetable

but even that is a guide for most plants

every plant is different

plants show signs of nute burn at anything higher than 600-800

if you see signs of nutrient burn at 800ppm

and yet your plant is growing fine at 500ppm

irey

that is cool

that is why most plans give a max ppm and a min ppm to aim for when mixing the fresh sollution

the min is the best 1 to aim for

fine tune to run your system as lean as possible

that is

to get the max growth rates at the min ppm nutrient sollution

seen

 

irey guidance

[bluntman_77]

thanks for the help guys

 

plants have been looking better with 6-700 , will do a full flush for a couple of days now and switch to flower cycle and nutes