Newbie needs help with rapid PH declines

[hydrochronic]

it does look like a nice setup mate, but hyrdoponics is a bit of an art and so if you can't make changes yourself you may have some difficulties, it's usually something that needs to be monitored and tweaked until you get it right. 

what Gazza is saying is right on, if you're growing in coco which is looks and sounds like, you don't want those nutrients to circulate back into your reservoir, this will cause the pH to rise, and the unused nutrients will mix in with the stuff you're feeding it and the PPM will rise too, you might have a constant PPM/EC of 1.2 but all the good stuff is gone and just the dregs it doesn't need get left and then you start to have issues. 

 

To keep it simple I would say run the drippers once a day until it gets nice and wet and runs out the bottom a little bit, people usually recommend about 10% of what goes in runs out the bottom. This prevents pH buildup and salt buildup in the medium, as long as you are using correct pH water going in which it sounds like you are. Catch the stuff that runs off in a bucket or something and chuck it on the veggies outside or just down the drain. 

 

If you're growing in a tent you should just be able to move the exhaust fan to a top vent port if there is one available, it is usually better to have air coming in at the bottom and going out at the top. there is probably a reason whoever set it up for you did it this way, but it's not impossible to change although I don't know about your health situation and the limits of what you can do. 

 

Looks like you've gone all out, nice lights, cool tubes, massive carbon filter and silencer, so you've spent a fair bit already on this grow. I am sure it will go great if you can make a few small tweaks here and there as required. 

[Gazza2001au]

Mate i hope i made the picture easy enough to read if u follow the picture diagram all u need to do is the following

 

* Install a timer connected to the water pump

 

* Wait untill your plants need watering again

 

* Use a stop watch than switch on your water pump and turn on the stop watch, run the water pump untill u see water running into the nutrient waste bucket than stop your stop watch, now read however long it took for your pots to water and set your timer for however long it took to water the plants

 

if it took 1 minute u will need the timer to turn the pump on and off for 1 minute once every time u feel u need to water the plants

 

if it took 1 minute or 25mins to water the plants set the time to this period

 

usually a watering will only happen around once every 3-4 days in pots the size your running

[Gazza2001au]

I also understand your unfit to build the hydroponic system but your mate or your mates mate is a ass wipe for charging you $250 to set it up!!! mates do shit for free they don't charge you, and there is around 1 hour in setting up that system and about $25 worth of coco (coconut husk) from Bunnings