First Ever Grow, Obviously

The ratios were right around 65/35 ProBloom to CalMag last res change.

One thing to note:

I drain my res by connecting a hose to the sprinklers and it pumps out the water like 2 gallons a minute or something. The thing is, it doesn't completely drain the water.

In fact, the last time I changed nutes there was 350 PPM of "waste ppms" that could have been any ratio. So, there is around 950 ppms of 65/35 Probloom / Calmag in there now.

I will have the ratio at 60/40 bloom / calmag tomorrow when I flush it. This time, I will drain the water as much as the pump does. Then I will add in 15 gallons of water. Then I will drain that fresh RO water all out and the resulting ppms should be much less after I fill it up again.

I now know the answer to every question I've had so far!

I just need to add more of that precious RO water!

I think for my Birthday I will ask my parents for an under the sink RO unit :(

Yeah, that could tip them a alittle as well. I try to keep the ration of CalMag/bloom nutes over 1000 since about 2 1/2 weeks into flower and anything on top of that is supplement so I'd try and go with that if I were you. Example...350 "extra nutes" floating around.....I'd go with 400/CalMag and 600Pro Bloom and watch the numbers.....are they going up or down?

It doesn't make much difference for this grow but having "extra" ppms floating around once you add Liquid Karma, Sweet, Hydroplex yadda yadda yadda will definitely make things harder for you later.

Well, I know right now that the ppms are raising. From 1220 on the day of the res flush until today they have raised to 1350. I will tell you if the same thing happens tomorrow when I add in 400 ppms of CalMag and 600 ppms of Probloom.

I am going to add a heater into my room to try and lower the humidity!

So I remembered I have a heater in my room! One that heats up an element and smells funny kindof like a toaster. So I turned that one and and also put a portable heater in there.

Hopefully this will cut the moisture down at night and during the day if the temps aren't affected too much.

Yes, the last frontier.....humidity......

How many days are we talking.......last wednesday was res change? And have you been adding water during that time to "top off"? As those beasts get bigger and bigger they are only going to get bigger appetites. If the numbers are staying about the same (raising or lowering about 50ppm a day) you can just add nutes at the same strength when you top off......or slightly less strong if the numbers have risen. They will drink quite a bit of water from here on in as well. Don't let your res get too low as that will REALLY screw with your ratios.

If you add a heater you will see the ppms rise more than if you didn't have extra heat in with them. This is normal but you should keep a good eye on your daily trends.

I haven't yet added any water since last wednesday's res change. I am just doing this heater experiment tonight so that I can see any affect. I am doing it at night because that is what it is right now, plus 70 degrees has more room to get warmer than 80 F :)

Ok.....I think i might smell lockout ....while the numbers may not seem to change much to you the ratios could have really changed. You need to keep x-amount of nute solution in your res at all times....as the rez level goes down replace it with more to keep things in balance. Does that make sense?

Ah, I see. Will remember this info :thumbsup:

So what's going on over there? How about an update??? :wtf:

You don't have to ask me twice :)

I talked to my local hydro guy for about an hour the other day and he said that the discoloration might have been caused by a lockout from too much calmag. So, per his instructions I flushed my system and put in probloom at 20ml/gallon and calmag at 5ml/gallon.

The ppms are at 1250 right now and the ph is at 5.7. When the solution was first put in the reservoir it was 1260 at 5.9 ph.

I got a rubbermaid 18gal tub and a cheap pump. I now mix my nutes in that and then pump them into my res after the ph and ppms have been established. No more nasty concentrates hurting my roots :)

The res change was on saturday. How do they look?