Advice on getting maximum potential from my setup

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Stickyicky247

Active Member
Hey everyone! Just looking for some advice on my current grow. I'm neither a pro nor a newb but this is my first hydro attempt. I am using a 5/10 tent with 2 600 hps's with vented hoods. Under 1 i was going to do soil (just because im familiar in case of disaster with the hydro) and the other, a 4x4 flood table. Im using GH Grow,Micro,and eventually bloom. I also have been adding sensizyme in small amounts to try and maintain healthy roots. I have 2 blowers, 1 6in and 1 8in. The 6in is only used for my carbon filter and the 8in draws cool air from out of the room, through the hoods and out the window. Im maintaining 80-84 F even on hot days without ac. Res temps are around 78-83 consistently(in my cloner and 1 dwc bucket). Im running plenty of airstones in the res and im about to add co2 this week. So my question is, With this setup, what would be better? Fewer plants vegged longer with lst or topping, scrog,or many with sog? Also, the water im using is filtered through a carbon water filter but my ppm's are still over 300 from the tap and it looks like either a bunch of lime or calcium is present because i get white powder residue on containers i use to transfer water and my ph is constantly out of wack.I adjust to 5.5 and within a day its over 7.0! Maybe i should scrap the hydro plans for now but i really want to learn it. I want a r/o system but spent everything on what i currently have. Im just looking for the best setup to pull the most from this. I currently have liberty haze (more indica dominant),Crystal,and 8-ball kush. The crystal has really impressed me in the past but im trying to change up flavors a bit. Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
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IndicaDom

New Member
Stickyicky247 said:
Hey everyone! Just looking for some advice on my current grow. I'm neither a pro nor a newb but this is my first hydro attempt. I am using a 5/10 tent with 2 600 hps's with vented hoods. Under 1 i was going to do soil (just because im familiar in case of disaster with the hydro) and the other, a 4x4 flood table. Im using GH Grow,Micro,and eventually bloom. I also have been adding sensizyme in small amounts to try and maintain healthy roots. I have 2 blowers, 1 6in and 1 8in. The 6in is only used for my carbon filter and the 8in draws cool air from out of the room, through the hoods and out the window. Im maintaining 80-84 F even on hot days without ac. Res temps are around 78-83 consistently(in my cloner and 1 dwc bucket). Im running plenty of airstones in the res and im about to add co2 this week. So my question is, With this setup, what would be better? Fewer plants vegged longer with lst or topping, scrog,or many with sog? Also, the water im using is filtered through a carbon water filter but my ppm's are still over 300 from the tap and it looks like either a bunch of lime or calcium is present because i get white powder residue on containers i use to transfer water and my ph is constantly out of wack.I adjust to 5.5 and within a day its over 7.0! Maybe i should scrap the hydro plans for now but i really want to learn it. I want a r/o system but spent everything on what i currently have. Im just looking for the best setup to pull the most from this. I currently have liberty haze (more indica dominant),Crystal,and 8-ball kush. The crystal has really impressed me in the past but im trying to change up flavors a bit. Any help would be greatly appreciated
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Do you know if you have hard or soft tap water? What medium are you using to grow in on your E&F table, and do you feel it is important to keep your res oxygenated in a E&F system? Also what is the pH of your tap water prior to mixing in your nutrients? Have you tried using another nutrient line just to test to see if the nutrient is causing pH fluctuations? I would seriously drop $15 and pick up a bag of MaxiBloom and mix up a res and see if the pH fluctuates the same as with the GH. After you try these things come back and give us your results.
 
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Stickyicky247

Active Member
Its hard water with a ph of 7.8 out the tap. Medium is rockwool and hydroton in 3gal pots. (soaked and washed the medium in 5.5 water) im aerating the res because i heard that the higher the dissolved oxygen content, the more nutes the roots could uptake. Maybe a myth but i had an air pump so figured why not! I haven't tried anything but the gh nutes. I have the whole foxfarm lineup for my soil, can that be used as a variable to see if gh is the problem? Or are ff nutes strictly for soil? Otherwise i will get the maxibloom and post the results.
 
shortngreen

shortngreen

New Member
you must get your ph in check. Otw, the girls will become toxice. Ideal ph is 5.5 hydro and 6.0 soil. All that sounds good. Also temp sounds like a culprit as well. Ideal temp is between 72 and 75 degrees ( however with CO2 you can get away with slightly higher temps.) SOG works awesome for flood and drain setups. Also it is best to have lids for rez. This will limit contamination and ph drifting as well as help mitigatemold and mildew issues in late bloom cycles. I realize this is a late reply but hope this helps.
 
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