I need your wisdom!

[EyelykPot1]

Good morning everybody...I have a serious problem that has killed several of my female seedlings.
My hydro setup causing issues was an 18 gallon res DWC bubbler system. No nutes, ph at 5.8. My seedlings developed a mucousy substance on the bottom of the net pots and roots. All growth stopped. I wiped it off on two consecutive mornings, and decided to transplant the 8 seedlings into new net pots. The water in the res had no smell or anything strange, so I left it alone. When I woke up this morning, the mucousy crap was back, and the res smelled like there was a dead body in it. I dumped the water out, and got another smaller systrem I have that holds 4 plants in a 4 gallon res. I put my 4 plants that have survived in the small res and adjusted ph.
Here is my question, is my 18 gallon res not getting enough aeration, it has a 10 inch bubble stone? I don't know what to do, everything I read by all of you says that you need a big res for roots to develop fully, so I am fully confused. Any help will be greatly appreciated!!

[hudson88]

18 gallon is a pretty big res, I'd say you probably need more than one airstone, but i dunno if that alone would give you the problem you had. High res temps can cause problems, do you know the temp of your res? 20C is perfect, over 25C and problems start.

You should have a look around at some root rot treatments, h202 or cannazyme might be worth a look at.

[EyelykPot1]

Thanks Hudson88, I ordered 2 airstones and a dual pump today. I think that is the problem because started a grow before in a 6 gallon res (had to terminate before I could flower) with 6 plants and the veg growth was vigorous. So I will see and hope it all works out. I appreciate the quick response and wise advice!

[EyelykPot1]

Res temps I will monitor too as I was closing the closet door at night with 3 65 watt CFLs. That also seems likely to have caused a problem. I am going to an 18/6 light schedule and see if that makes a difference. Thanks again Hudson88, you the man!

[Weedhound]

more oxygenation definitely.....

A LOT more!

I have a 10 gallon DWC (holds 5 gals of actual water) and have at LEAST triple the airflow through it.

Also consider some good zyme products for root health.

Anytime something seems off to you......do a rez change......you'd be surprised at what that may accomplish.

[Opie Yutts]

You don't need a huge res for big plants. Check out my LSTTT thread to see what an Emily's Garden setup can do. I had 6 plants in a 2 gallon res, and things were great. The key to not getting root rot and other problems (not to mention huge, healthy plants) is getting air to the roots, the more the better. It is impossible to have too much air in your water. Plants want air just as much, or maybe even more than they want water. Also, change your res as often as you can stand, up to once per day. In the Emily's Garden I feed when the nutes run low, and try to do a complete flush at least once every 3 weeks, but more often is better. Watch your res temps, you may want to consider a chiller. Higher temps mean faster growth but bigger chance of root rot. Lower temps mean slow growth, but little risk of rot. I forgot the ideal res temp, but I just try to keep my environment below 85, preferably 82, and I assume the water is close to that.

And WH speaks the truth about root conditioner. I use SubCulture, recommended by Rhizome.

[EyelykPot1]

Thanks again for all your help! I was like most newbies, and you think that little changes are really a no brainer, and then you blow $200 in seeds learning the hard way. I will put in an order for the root treatment stuff, and I am getting 2 airstones to add to my res. And a drainage system to ease the changing of my res water. And I know I made a huge mistake when I closed the door in my closet at night with a total of 4 65 watt cfls. When I opened the door in the morning it was around 90 degrees in there and I guess that is root rot heaven! I have changed my lights back to 18/6 to keep nighttime temps down. I am getting a Homebox delivered on Tuesday (3.5ftx3.5ft.5.3ft) and a clonong setup. I will probably set up tent as a veg growth area with a carbon filter/fan, attached to a thermometer that turns on when the tent hits a certain temp. And I will keep a mother plant for clones and clones in veg stage in there. I will use the 8 plant res(18 gal) for flowering and have another carbon fan/filter in my closet. For lights, I will be getting 3 100 watt veg cfls, 3 100 bloom cfls, with reflectors delivered tomorrow as well as 2 105 watt multispectrum lights that emit 7,000 lumens and reflectors for those too! Heat is an issue as I live in an apartment building(luckily I am around most of the time), that is why I have decided on cfls for now. In another closet I have 8 Lowlife AK 47s x Hindu Kush and they are doing well, seedlings are about 9 days old. I read that they only needed bloom lights, but I used those the first 6 days and had little root growth, changed to 2 65 watts of veg grow cfls and 1 65 watt bloom and and now the roots are growing rapidly. I know that it is important to keep both spectrums of light on my babies, and I will crank up the wattage with my new lights arriving (especially on my bloom phase!). I have read many threads by you guys and I will keep you informed how things get going! Thanks again Hudson, Weedhound and Opie!!

[EyelykPot1]

Just ordered three 1 oz. GH Subculture pouches on amazon.com. Will add asap!!

[Opie Yutts]

Sounds like your on the way. Half the fun is getting things figured out, the other half is the huge buds in the bag. What are Lowlife AK 47s?

[hudson88]

Hey opie, lowlife is the company same one that do lowriders.

So i pressume lowlife ak47 is a lowriderxak47 autoflowering cross

[EyelykPot1]

The Lowlife AK47 x Hindu is an autoflowering plant. I bought 10 seeds for $77.00 from theattitudeseedbank.com in the UK and they got here in 5 days in a stealthy bubble pack. I hope to get 4-5 females and the strain is said to be powerful with a good yield! I am going to check the ph on them in a minute and my 3 surviving females (which art 2 Snow Whites from Nirvana and a Ice Cream from Paradise Seeds). I feel like it is Christmas morning everday with all the deliveries I get here! I am very happy with this seedbank, I have ordered 5x in the past year. The only thing I can complain about are the Greenhouse Seeds "The Church" females I recently purchased I germed 4 seeds out of 5 and nothing happened after 4 days, so I scuffed the seeds lightly with sandpaper and put them back in the cabinet in paper towels. Never germed! So buyer beware of Greenhouse Seeds. This site is awesome and everyone is helpful and willing to share their expertise, there is so much mis-information out there. Well you have a great morning Opie, I am off to train one of my clients!

[Opie Yutts]

I wonder if it's just the Church from Greenhouse Seeds. I know of several people, myself included, who could not get Church seeds to pop. Don't know their origin though.

[EyelykPot1]

Hey Opie! I had the same rot problem in my small closet grow w/8 Lowlife autoflowers. I went to change my res and it was nasty, luckily I caught it before too much damage was done and all roots were still looking healthy and I only had to kill one seedling. I am pretty sure it was a air circulation issue, and I am keeping the doors open at night for now. The Lowlifes are on 20/4. I germed my last 3 female seeds from my last order (1 Nirvana Snow White, 1 Paradise Seeds Ice Cream, and that last Church seed). I am hoping to get a good mother to reveg after harvest for cloning. I have 10 G13 Power Skunk seeds and 5 G13 Ice seeds that I got for free. From now on I am going to just buy regular seeds. No more feminized seeds until I perfect my growing techniques. I get my cloning system delivered tomorrow and my homebox grow tent. And I will get my root treatment stuff in a few days. And my 2 extra air stones will be here in 2-3 days.
Right now in my small closet I have a new 105 watt multispectrum light with 6,900 lumens, a 65 watt bloom light wth 3,400 lumens, and a 85 watt veg light with 4,200 lumens. In 3 weeks or so, I will change to a blooming set up with a 50 watt veg light with 3,400 lumens, the 105 watt light with 6,900 lumens, and 3 85 watt bloom lights with 12,600 lumens. I think that will be enough for bud development. Am I keeping my wattage in reasonable range for stealth reasons? In my bigger closet I will be vegging seedlings, in my two other hydro setups(the 3 female seeds, 4 Power Skunk and 4 Ice seeds). For that I will another 105 watt light with 6,900 lumens, a 50 watt veg light with 3,400 lumens, a 65 watt veg light with 3,400 lumens, an 85 watt veg light with 4,200 lumens, and a 65 watt bloom light with 3,400 lumens.
This will be fun and interesting for me! Growing is a blast! I should be bummed about the seedlings I have destroyed, but that knowledge is invaluable! Thanks to all 4 helping me.

[EyelykPot1]

You are right about the Greenhouse Seeds Church! I am going to email my seedbank and see about a credit for my next order.

[EyelykPot1]

I emailed my seedbank, they sent me an email saying that they sell only for entertainment purposes and that I shuld send Greenhouse Seeds an email and try to get a refund. So I clicked on the link and began filling in the contact info, and when I got to the part with country and state they didn't have the USA in the list (I am sure because it is illegal here). So I guess I am out of luck.

[Opie Yutts]

You don't have to tell them you are in the US. Just give em your paypal account and email. I would be surprised if you get a refund, but it might not hurt to ask.

[EyelykPot1]

Hey all! I added two two airstones to my 8 gal res with my Lowlife AKsxHindu Kush seedlings yesterday, changed my res this am and my seedlings were just drooping, so I added a very light nute mix (1/8 strength of veg nutes) and hoped for the best...I can't believe it but they are finally growing! They are really getting a lot of aeration, which is critical. I will leave that huge 18 gal res in my storage area as it is way too big for what I need. I have just finished germinating 10 G13 Power Skunk, 5 Ice seeds and 1 Nirvana Snow White female and they are all doingwell (in my homebox I just got yesterday!). They are in smaller hydro setups with 4-5 gal res so aeration not an issue. I will be getting my GH Subculture packets and will add to the res. I am keeping my closet doors open 24/7 for now. I don't want to get it too hot in there. So I might have saved my plants, only time will tell. But thanks to everyone on this thread for your insight!
I am ordering more Nirvana seeds next time as I have had great results with them. For now, I am staying away from Greenhouse seeds in general. I am ordering 10 Nirvana Northern Light x Shiva and 10 feminized Seedsman Seeds White Widow (which grew vigorouly and almost survived the acid bath I gave them when I put in too PH down without a PH test...I know, I know, How stupid could I be??!!). Well, have a great night everybody!!