PH Nightmare Remains!

[Furcifer]

Most rain water collected in the open. Not from a roof or collection barrels from downspouts. Will be right around 6.8 - 7 pH, and 0.01 ppm. This is a clean slate for water. All nutrients have to be supplied either through amendments in soil or added to water during a feed cycle.

My was thinking something else pH for rainwater is around 5 - 5.7 Ishmael. Sorry

 

[eggzin]

Thanks very much!

 

[Weaselcracker]

You're right though- rainwater is a clean slate- or should be, if it's clean.

 

[Dr GreenJeans]

Yeah, you're right. That comment definitely didn't help. My apologies. (My pH is at about 5.9 this morning, by the way. )

God damn I love you attitude! You're certainly going places man!

Grow strongg

 

[texasdjj]

I hate when a thread devolves to the point the original poster's question never gets answered, or gets so many conflicting that they leave more confused than ever.

I hope when that happens they seek out growers successful in their style and find what really works.

Hi Rifleman - your right about "getting conflicting" advice. Fortunately, enough of the really smart people got me sorted out early in this thread! That said, I have learned an awful lot from all of the different recommendations. Now, I know a couple of you well enough by seeing your journals, crop pics, etc., It is easy for me to determine who to listen to. Your one of them!
cheers,

 

[texasdjj]

I've never grown DWC so am basically pretty ignorant about it and wouldn't be the one to try to sell you one way or the other. And everyone's situations/needs vary.
Drain to waste is a one way trip from the res to the plants. It's not actually any different than soilless growing. Soilless is basically DTW. Saying it's DTW implies (to me anyway) that I'm using a res and doing frequent waterings/feedings.

So in your DWT method, where does the water go after the plant is "watered"?

 

[Weaselcracker]

dTW- drain-to waste
It goes down the drain.
In reality it's like soil or anything else- I aim for some runoff- but not much goes down the drain.

 

[texasdjj]

dTW- drain-to waste
It goes down the drain.
In reality it's like soil or anything else- I aim for some runoff- but not much goes down the drain.

Interesting. the "clay, little smaller than a grape sized, pebbles I use" - if I pour water on top it drains to the bottom reservoir immediately. I guess the roots live off the moisture that is retained in the Perlite? How big is the "nute reservoir" that you feed from? You mentioned that you can travel out 5 days at a time - when you return is your reservoir close to empty? Finally - how much A/B or nute solution do you go through in a week or a month?
thanks

 

[texasdjj]

PH NIGHTMARE UPDATE - Not really a "nightmare" anymore:
PH has crept up from 5.6 - 6.42 over a two day period, (much better than before 5.2 - 8.2+ overnight)!!
EC @ 1177
Super Skunk baby buds are starting to look like some of the pics members with all the dots have - (well maybe not quite, but to me they look good)!
I now see several leaves are curling and several have are getting a "yellow border"
I have also just lowered the bar light as instructed so that it is about 8inches above the tallest plant.
thoughts?

 

[Weaselcracker]

My current run is in coco. It retains plenty of water. Hmmmm... so- I could just say 'I'm growing in coco' - I suppose I'm calling it DTW (which it is) because of the res and the autowatering system I have it hooked up to.
Before that was a run of perlite and I did a couple little ones in rockwool. For what I'm growing now if I was in perlite I'd probably have to water four times a day.
I haven't tried using hydroton/aka clay pebbles for this style (actually I haven't heard of anyone using it for DTW). I'm not sure whether it would retain the water well enough. I do have some, maybe I should try it.

Most of my plants are in soilless. The DTW ones are just sort of a side project. I only have six smallish plants under it. - about a 2' x 3.5' area. Check my current journal- somewhere in the first two or three pages is shows that setup.
My res is a garbage can- probably holds 30 gallons. I probably use about a gallon each watering- so 2 per day or a bit less.
Nutes...roughly 3/4 of a cupful a week maybe (?)

 

[Weaselcracker]

My was thinking something else pH for rainwater is around 5 - 5.7 Ishmael.

They usually don't call me Ishmael.

 

[Scientific]

They usually don't call me Ishmael.

They call me Ishmael.

 

[Latitude17]

OK - Found "Aquarium Chillers" on the internet now all over the place! I have a 50liter reservoir and will add another 50liter reservoir once I have digested all of "rocket scientist's" input from this thread and have eliminated my PH problems!
So - any recommendations on: Chiller, make, model, size, etc.. Also, are there any "negative" impacts of running the chiller?
Please share..

I am using the Active Aqua Chiller 1/10hp model based solely on reading posts here by The Frizz. It has been doing a great job keeping things at 68'F

 

[Scientific]

I am using the Active Aqua Chiller 1/10hp model based solely on reading posts here by The Frizz. It has been doing a great job keeping things at 68'F

That's a nice looking unit for a reasonable price.