i hate my setup

[Luke Skywalker]

i think that i should be more worried about what the pH down is made of  Sodium Biphosphate

 

I'm sure you mean pH up here. pH down should be phosphoric acid. What brand is this pH up? It should certainly not contain sodium, as you've already noted. It should be potassium hydroxide.

 

You need to test your water quality, if you have yellow water you may have high ec which may make it all but unsuitable for growing in. Once the ec reaches past about 1.2 or 1.4 at the tap then there's very few plants which will grow in these conditions. There's just too much junk in the water, which screws with the nutrient solution, and burns the plants.

 

You can alleviate this somewhat by flushing regularly, and setting the pH of the media you use by soaking them in pH adjusted water before use. You could also consider using just rainwater, bottled water, or even RO if you could afford it.

 

You would do well to take a sample, (about 100ml) of your water to your hydro shop when you visit and ask them to test the pH and ec. Take one of the nutrient solution and the plain tap water.

 

You need exhaust ventilation for the plants, you cannot rely on natural breezes to provide the air movement, and co2 that growing MJ plants need indoors. Oscillating fans won't cut it.

 

Hope that helps.

[F420]

He is using the Ph adjusters for a fishtank.

and yea all that sodium cant be good.

 

on the water thing, if I use R/O water then where do you get all the macro and micro nutrients from?

 

my local servo has a big R/O machine that they sell for $4-00 a 19 litre. I was thinking of using it but not sure. as I cant see where they will get the minor things not included in the a+b formulas. :scratchin

 

my tap water is about 200ppm, and its never been a problem in the past but Im always thinking of new things to do to improve the grow.

[WantDaChronic]

Sodium Bicarbonate - pH up

Sodium Biphosphate - pH down

 

just read that off the labels on the bottles and i havent opened the pH up, dont think i ever will....

 

as for my water situation, im buying a massive bottle of the shit from woolies on wednesday and using that for growing...fuckin plants are gonna drink better than me

 

You need exhaust ventilation for the plants, you cannot rely on natural breezes to provide the air movement, and co2 that growing MJ plants need indoors. Oscillating fans won't cut it.

 

im planning on getting a jigsaw to cut the hole for the fan and all that but i dont wanna pay $50 for a tool im going to use once....living in the ghetto no-one has anything and if u ask for something like that, questions are asked :thumbdown

 

i usually have a fair bit of breze changing the air in the room frequently (probably not enough), have a fan blowing over the plants and another fan blowing over the globe and out the doors....its doing wonders in keeping the area cool and for changing the air compared to when i only had the 1 fan....room is usually about 5 degrees cooler with the second fan and it stays at that level instead of increasing :thumbsup

 

that outter the way, my babies are BOOMING :smoke they are all showing sex now which does suck as i wanted to vege them some more but they are on 18 hours a day for atleast the next 2 weeks, probably 3 so im sure they will re-vege and grow up all nicely so i can donate a few cuttings :thumbsup 2 of my ladies already have a second branch thats nearly as tall as the main growing shoot and i have way more branches starting to grow daily :thumbsup

 

 

posted that a bit quick , forgot to mention that i have cut off the shitty dying leaves....also while im thinking about it, 1 of the cuttings actually arrived with the leaves dying a lil from the sides :scratchin didnt think much of it till just then....could it be a disease or anything like that? im thinking its not but then again what would i know about marijuana diseases

Edited January 3, 2005 by wantdachronic

[WantDaChronic]

Sodium Bicarbonate - pH up

Sodium Biphosphate - pH down

 

just read that off the labels on the bottles and i havent opened the pH up, dont think i ever will....

 

as for my water situation, im buying a massive bottle of the shit from woolies on wednesday and using that for growing...fuckin plants are gonna drink better than me

 

You need exhaust ventilation for the plants, you cannot rely on natural breezes to provide the air movement, and co2 that growing MJ plants need indoors. Oscillating fans won't cut it.

 

im planning on getting a jigsaw to cut the hole for the fan and all that but i dont wanna pay $50 for a tool im going to use once....living in the ghetto no-one has anything and if u ask for something like that, questions are asked :thumbdown

 

i usually have a fair bit of breze changing the air in the room frequently (probably not enough), have a fan blowing over the plants and another fan blowing over the globe and out the doors....its doing wonders in keeping the area cool and for changing the air compared to when i only had the 1 fan....room is usually about 5 degrees cooler with the second fan and it stays at that level instead of increasing :thumbsup

 

that outter the way, my babies are BOOMING :smoke they are all showing sex now which does suck as i wanted to vege them some more but they are on 18 hours a day for atleast the next 2 weeks, probably 3 so im sure they will re-vege and grow up all nicely so i can donate a few cuttings :thumbsup 2 of my ladies already have a second branch thats nearly as tall as the main growing shoot and i have way more branches starting to grow daily :thumbsup

[WantDaChronic]

just looked over woolies online shopping and searched for water just to get a general idea of how much i'll be looking at spending and im looking at about $20-25 for like 15L of water :thumbdown

 

just wondering which would be better, mineral or spring water? im assuming mineral but i have no idea

 

Edited January 3, 2005 by wantdachronic

[Pickle]

I get water delivered, $9.50/15L. I can also buy frantelle from the supermarket for $5-$6/12L, and they also sell 15L bottles but i never bought them because they don't fit in my fridge but if you buy from the supermarket you have to hump them home.

 

If you cant find something cheaper than $25/15L i would suggest buying a water filter/purifier.

[WantDaChronic]

you got a point with having to cart it back home :thumbdown 1.5km walk would be killer with a 15L bottle under each arm

 

im fairly certain i could get it cheaper, just im in a bit of a rush to get these babies growing their best :thumbsup

 

as for the water filters, how good do they work? ie do they reduce pH, get rid of chemicals or what? i have no idea about water filters but i sure as hell know that if we had 1 here, it would be a god sent

[WantDaChronic]

just took a pic of the pH up and down i have been using...sorry about it only being a webcam shot but its all i got untill i get my 6MP beast of a camera outter the pawn shop :thumbsup

 

 

dont worry guys, i know this stuff is nasty and all so i'll be getting decent pH adjusting solutions on wednesday :smoke

[Luke Skywalker]

In the meantime you could probably get by with vinegar if you really, really had to adjust some water, but yeah, you'll kill em unless you change that stuff.

 

RO filters are quite expensive for the unit size required for even a small hydroponic setup, about 300 bucks and up I think. But they will totally remove all the salts and other crap from your water.

 

You can also use things like brita water filters and so on, these work by slow sand/carbon filtration and take quite a while to work, but should help noticeably improve your water quality.

 

If you can test the e.c. of the base water, it can certainly tell you if you're going to have to bother with some kind of filtration.

 

Good luck.

[WantDaChronic]

im so gonna sound dumb but i couldnt really care, life is all about learning but what exactly is e.c. and how can it be measured?

 

im thinking about sticking with bottled water....i seriously dont trust the water where i am and im just waiting for about 10 years to pass when the signs of heavy metal poisoning start to show and we all start sueing the water board IMO not even boiling the water helps when i tested the before and after pH the pH actually went up after boiling :scratchin