300PPM Tap, what to do...

[bertoxxulous]

I know most of you are going to probably say RO, but I just went out and bought a PPM pen and a large bottle of CalMag to try fixing some issues in my e&f setup. I've normally been filtering my water with brita but after purchasing the pen today I've noticed that the brita filtered water doesn't really make a dent in PPM. So now I'm stuck with 300PPM tap and not enouph money to afford a RO filter atm, any suggestions on what I can do? Or am I over-reacting...is this a problem or no?

[Loafyboy]

300ppm should be good man, I am running around 500ppm on my tap water and I'm just burning up some of the best shit that ever existed, so other than hard water nutes (maybe, not essential) you will be just fine bro! :thumbsup:

[Loafyboy]

P.S forget the brita filter.

[bertoxxulous]

Thanks for the info...one more question. I'm using Ionic right now, and I know the have a hard nute version but, on this type I'm using right now its says target EC is 1.8. So that means like [email protected] for me. Does that sound right? Should I always keep it at 900PPM no matter what? Also, the only other additive I would be using is Ionic Boost during bloom cycle just to let you know.

[LOC NAR on probation]

The problem is when you get above 200 ppm's that's when it's starts to affect things. If you send your water to CSI maybe and find out what is in the 500 ppm's we would find a great dif in the 300. If it works then use it but as I remember bertoxxulous was haveing a problem with the water. You also have a 40 gallon rez you were running 30 gallons in for E / F system.

If you can't buy a filter or R/O at the moment then I would buy water R/O and mix it 50/50 with your tap water to bring it down and then add half cal/mag. Not really that much water to buy. Get the filter when you can.

Or check out friends and families water with your pen you may get lucky and find a good source.

[Weedhound]

I think Loc Nar's advice is excellent, :thumbsup: Id definitely switch to RO if at all possible......you may simply not have the right stuff (or really, lack of stuff) to get a good finish with your issues.. Maybe a friend/relative has better water; as LN suggested. Tell them you need it for tropical fish or something.

[bertoxxulous]

I agree with you guys. I just don't have any friends or family ha. Oh well.

[LOC NAR on probation]

Melt some snow if your in the great white north. I would try any water source, maybe a stream. No place at work ? If not buy some and mix.

Water, water everwhere but not a drop for my hydro. Wish I could send you some.

[johnny123]

i dunno but my tap ppm is 300 i use canna aqua line without any probs:)

[Loafyboy]

I didn't see the bit that said you had issues....whoops! :stoned: I thought you were just asking if 300ppm was likely to cause problems. I guess it depends on what is in those 300ppm's that makes the difference.

I know what you mean about the brita filter not touching the ppm, I tried it and dropped from about 512 ppm (0.8 EC x CF of 640) to maybe 500 (0.78 EC), so brita filters don't really do much for overall ppm.

Hey johnny123, I see you are in England too, maybe the water has more useful impurities here, and works better for growing? I guess without lab analysis we can't be sure.

Hope you manage to sort out your issues bertoxxulous! :thumbsup:

[bertoxxulous]

Well its really been disheartening with all the issues I'm having. There are so many elements to the equation and I don't think I've recieved good grow advice in the beginning. I've been trying to find a guide or something I could base my grow off of but I'm not finding anything. It doesn't seem that the way I'm growing is what alot of hydro growers are doing. Now I'm on a quest to find if my watering schedule is ok and I'm not really finding any relevant info on that either. I'm afraid that I may be overwatering because what I've done is, I germinate my seeds by dropping them in a glass of tap and letting them soak for a good 8 hours or so. Then I put them in between to plates with moist paper towels (which I found out is bad practice but I don't know what other way to go about it) and when I get some tap roots that are just about a quarter of an inch long I place them root down in a rockwool cube. At that point I water them twice a day for the first week with PH adjusted tap, then the second week I use 1ml/gal of Ionic grow in a gallon of PH adjusted tap until they have about 3 true leaves. I have these rockwool cubes sitting in a tray with with no pearlite or anything, just the cubes. Once that is happend I transplant them into my ebb and flow system by using 1 gallon plastic bags with holes in them, covering the rockwool cubes with the clay balls. So far, I've been on a watering schedule of 30 minutes at a time, four times a day which never is changed. What I'm now wondering is if I've been overwatering them because of rockwools nature to retain water or not. The other issue is where I should start with my nutes do to my high PH tap. I won't be able to start using RO water till the fall and this is my last grow attempt until then with these seedlings that I'll be transplanting into my e&f this weekend so I've been digging around all day for answers. I'm starting to wonder if when I start in the fall if I should use that coco medium instead of the rockwool. Blarg!

[LOC NAR on probation]

Coco is another learning curve. I would stay with what you have. To pop beans I just persoak my 1 inch cubes of rockwool. Then take the rockwool cube and sling the water out like cleaning a paint brush, to get excees water out. Place a bean in the top and cover slightly and keep in a warm place. 3 to 5 days and they pop. During this time I only put a few drops of water on them if the cubes look like they are drying out.

I just made the mistake of putting a bean in with clones, which are in 1 inch cubes but I keep about a 1/4 inch of water in the bottom of the tray to keep the stems wet. Well the bean popped but i left it in there and it died from damping off. Too wet and the root will rot and fall over. Too bad it was a redbud skunk fem.

Seedlings need no nutes untill 2 weeks old. The less you can move a bean around the less chance of damage to the root.

I have seen your setup with the gallon bags and if you are only using 1 inch rockwool I would not think they would be under water when you flood.
I need to look at your setup again.

Listen to tiny about flood times.

[LOC NAR on probation]

I just looked again and they seem ok. My concern is that the rockwool is too wet when watered. Does the tray fill all the way up, cause it should only come about half way up. There by not soaking the rockwool. The rockwool is around the air roots and when your plants get larger the rockwool should not get wet at all or just barely. Maybe raise the gallon bag up with clay balls under them like a bed to get the rockwool above the water level and cut back on water time. I bet they would perk up. It's all about tuning in your setup. Don't give up.

[bertoxxulous]

I see what your saying. In the past, and the clones that you've been looking at, the rockwool is getting fully submerged every watering. I can always put more clay balls under the rockwool cube to get it above the flood level, but then my question would be, on my seedlings I'm about to transplant...the roots are comming out the bottom of my rockwool cubes but are kind of compacted up against the rockwool. Now, when I first transplant the rockwool seedlings in with the gallon bags and the clay balls, if I keep the rockwool above the flood level, won't my seedlings roots that are compact against the rockwool cube not be getting any water from the flood table since it will be above the flooding?

It seems that the person who showed me how to grow may have really sabotoged me on this one because they told me to get the rockwool cube as close to the bottom as possible and to flood as high as possible. Now, one thing is that I can in fact flood high so I could position the rockwool cube much higher in the bag and still be able to sufficiently flood the roots if they were to grow down in the bag....I get the picture your trying to paint LOC but I'm not seeing how I should go about watering my plants in the first week or so until the roots can grow down to the level that I would be flooding. Thanks again for your help LOC. I'm not ready to give up yet but I've been going at for over six months now and haven't had any luck at all, it does get very frustrating...However, I feel that I'm on the right track, but I want to try everything to make sure these seedlings have a fighting chance and I plan on transplanting them tommorow night, going to a night schedule because its starting to get warm outside.

[LOC NAR on probation]

Just put some more rocks under the cubes in the gallon bags. Don't put them tooo deep. If you know how deep the water is , put the cube so just the bottom of the cube is in the water. The roots will grow down and as the plants get bigger they will raise the rockwool up a little. The idea of planting them deep is a soil thing but not for hydro. Right around the rockwool cube the rootball are air roots. They can get wet but need to air out a good bit of the time. The roots that come out of the bottom can stay under water 24/7, water roots. Give it a try or do half and half to see the difference. You have nothing to lose.

[bertoxxulous]

I'll do my best...I have some shims under the back portion of my resv. so that it drains better, maybe taking it up about 1/8th of an inch roughly so I'll have to see what my water line is before I clean my flood table out.