THC Onlyfans
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I figured even if GLN grinded it up before packaging it would still have non dissolvable fines, ill be using it anyway but just a bit odd to me that they dont fully dissolve.
The Mega Crop Thread
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I figured even if GLN grinded it up before packaging it would still have non dissolvable fines, ill be using it anyway but just a bit odd to me that they dont fully dissolve.
Too much Mega Crop in too little water. It needs diluted more and then everything will dissolve as intended.
THC Onlyfans
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Ill be throwing that into 4 litres during tomorrows feed. Will see if it dissolves fully once i do
Some folks have MC that completely dissolves, others don't. It could be that we have different versions, or perhaps batches.
The Mega Crop I have does not completely dissolve. I've added a 100µ filter to the design of my automatic watering system. I'm wondering if about 2 sq in / 13cm2 filter material is enough to get through a grow without a filter change.
The Mega Crop I have does not completely dissolve. I've added a 100µ filter to the design of my automatic watering system. I'm wondering if about 2 sq in / 13cm2 filter material is enough to get through a grow without a filter change.
Emilya Green
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Heat is your friend. I mix up my MC in an orange bucket by first adding HOT water. A gallon and a half or two gallons is enough to totally mix up the MC, and then I add cold water to get the mix to watering temperature.
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- #3,267
zap method always worked great. reduces precipitate but does not eliminate it.
orange bucket method is the best way to get over the precipitate concerns tho
orange bucket method is the best way to get over the precipitate concerns tho
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Seriously though... I mix the bucket again when I get it to the grow area and I keep swishing it around every time I fill up my watering pitcher... and whether the orange bucket is hiding it or it is actually mixed up, I don't notice any fines at the bottom when I am done or even nearly done. I think the hot water is the key.
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- #3,269
i agree about the hot water. i find it's just easier to zap it in a smaller container. after it's mixed with the rest the stuff essentially disappears. i've left it sitting overnight a few times and the results are similar. i zap it cause it's easier to hit target ph the same day it is mixed.
i also give it a stir between feeding each plant.
truthfully though, has anyone ever heard of it clogging hydro equipment ? not one person here using has ever reported it happening. yet so many people fret over it. MC is targeted at much larger players, it is a commercial nute, not a home hobby nute. commercial players don't bother with any special mixing or filtering, that would be an unnecessary cost.
That depends on how they water. Many commercial players use irrigation systems with drippers to save the cost of hand watering the plants. The particles left in suspension when mixing a batch are big enough to clog the drippers. I have to clean mine weekly with no filter.
Currently, I have a wave generator for mixing that starts five minutes before the automatic watering pump starts. It puts the particles of Mega Crop that have precipitated out of the solution, back into suspension. As a guess, this is 2% to 5% of the Mega Crop.
I've tried heat, it doesn't help, I still get those particles. I've tried it up to the boiling point of water. The next version of my automatic watering system will include a spin down sediment filter. If that gets clogged too often, I'll throw in an automatic rinse cycle for the filter. If the filter still gets clogged, it's back to my previous nutrients.
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- #3,271
commercial hydro is not quite the same as home hobby. most are direct feed, and the systems are under current, or much more wide open than most home systems if from the top. they can pass much larger chunks of material than most of the smaller systems.
have seen some flower green houses that use a super fine mister though. sure it would clog in that environment. the vegetable ones etc would not even blink.
Take a look at the filtration requirements for drippers. I have commercial ones here in several flow rates. All require particle sizes of less than 120 microns. Before I ever started using them for cannabis, I had literally hundreds of them going to feed fuchsias in 3 gallon pots. There's a large greenhouse operation down the road that also uses drippers. All of their irrigation lines now have filters, When they first automated their watering, they thought they didn't need them, and within weeks they had to start replacing their drippers. By mid season they had filtration on all their lines.
FYI the cost of a spin down filter with a 20gpm flow rate can be below $30 CAD. Fifty gpm flow rates start at $100 CAD. These have stainless steel elements, and a petcock on the bottom to drain the sediment. The element is removable, so a more vigorous cleaning can be done, or it can be replaced.
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- #3,273
the two commercial cannabis ops here have no filters at the feed end. they did pre-screen going in to the res though, pretty certain they still do. they had some issues initially as well.... they are not dripper systems though, and they don't use spray heads. it is direct feed. would like to know how much they feed. seems like it would dump way too much in at once to me.
the one place has already switched out the original system too. haven't got to see it and have no idea what they are using now.
both used to mix their own nutes but no longer do.
I plan on installing the filter immediately after the pump, before it hits the pressure tank. So unless they were filtering everything before it hit the nutrient tank, it will be the same type of system. The way I intend to run it is
T0 - turn on wave generator and pump, close filter cleaning valve
T5 - open irrigation valve for desired time (max 10 min)
T15 - turn off wave generator and pump, open filter cleaning valve (pressure tank provides flow)
As I'm using four 4lph drippers per line/plant, 10min allows a maximum flow of 2.7l per line/plant per feeding
I'll bet they stopped mixing dry nutrients for the same reason I am considering switching back, clogged irrigation systems. I experienced this with my home plumbing last summer. The domestic hot water coil in my furnace clogged up over a 20 year period. It's only 3/8" or 10mm ID. I cleaned it out, re-installed it, and had the well filled. It got clogged again within three days. I also had to take all the taps and valves in the house apart to clean them. I now have a 50 micron spin-down sediment filter for the whole house. It was a time consuming crappy job. A commercial irrigation system will have many more components that would need to be cleaned or replaced if this happened. That would severely cut into their profit margin.
If one adds up all of the elemental percentages in the most recent version shown on the GLN site (9.5-7-18), the total comes to less than 50%. This indicates other (possibly less soluble) components (inert filler) must be present - hence the visible fine particles.
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- #3,276
oddly, i'm certain they filter the water lol.
our water system is atrocious. took the shower head off thinking i needed a replacement, and a pebble fell out. thank god i did that before opening the package on the new one.
really wish they would have allowed some pics. don't think i can even see them now. it appeared pretty simple from what i saw. sort of deceptive. everything was super well organized and spaced out. could get nearly all around the individual plants. white suits and booties and stuff to go inside too. even just for a peak, and that wasn't much past the door. a couple people had ski type goggles, i'm sure uv blocking and to protect their eyes.. it looked sweaty.
i'll bet you would have figgered out what they were using. it was on a scale i'd never seen.
BooMtoLate
Well-Known Member
I changed my water in my res on the weekend and when I used advanced there would be a sludge and the bottom of tank and caked on walls of res. This most recent water change of MC there was no build up at all. Just a quick rinse and filled back up.
Has anyone found an average spot where too much causes precipitate?
I'm asking because on my last water change I took the following steps:
1) grabbed 5 gallons of RO from my barrel (that was at the 50gal mark)
2) added the following to the 5gal bucket, mixing with drill paddle:
- 100ml pro-tekt (2ml/gal)
- 200ml botanicare cal mag+ (4ml/gal)
- 300g mega crop (6g/gal)
4) dumped 5gal back into barrel, continued mixing with drill paddle
5) pH'd solution
6) put pump in barrel, turned it on and filled up the system
Wasn't an issue with the mix. No problems at all. Now it may have if I let it sit for a while in the 5gal bucket, but I didn't need to do so. As I poured the 5gal bucket back into the barrel, I did use a fine micron filter screen. It did not catch anything substantial, other than a couple errant dog hairs.
I use the same fine screen when pumping into the system as well, and it remained clean with no dog hairs this time.
For reference, it was probably more like 4.5gal instead of a full 5 as I left some room at the top to slosh and spin. It's a good thing too, I make enough of a mess when I leave room, can't imagine the mess on the floor if I got real close to full.
General Hydroponics' Flora trio was the same, until I added Floralicious. That needed a little more work. The support I have for the wave generator is coated with MC, as I don't clean it very often. I hoping that I;ll only need to clean the barrel once or twice per grow once everything is set up.
Has anyone found an average spot where too much causes precipitate?
I'm asking because on my last water change I took the following steps:
1) grabbed 5 gallons of RO from my barrel (that was at the 50gal mark)
2) added the following to the 5gal bucket, mixing with drill paddle:
3) continued mixing for 3-4 minutes
- 100ml pro-tekt (2ml/gal)
- 200ml botanicare cal mag+ (4ml/gal)
- 300g mega crop (6g/gal)
4) dumped 5gal back into barrel, continued mixing with drill paddle
5) pH'd solution
6) put pump in barrel, turned it on and filled up the system
Wasn't an issue with the mix. No problems at all. Now it may have if I let it sit for a while in the 5gal bucket, but I didn't need to do so. As I poured the 5gal bucket back into the barrel, I did use a fine micron filter screen. It did not catch anything substantial, other than a couple errant dog hairs.
I use the same fine screen when pumping into the system as well, and it remained clean with no dog hairs this time.
For reference, it was probably more like 4.5gal instead of a full 5 as I left some room at the top to slosh and spin. It's a good thing too, I make enough of a mess when I leave room, can't imagine the mess on the floor if I got real close to full.
I've been mixing at at 6.5gm/gal, and am getting the precipitate.