Re-occuring tip burn/WALL of text

[bertoxxulous]

H=Hydro
R=RockWool in Geolite
D=Ebb and Flow system, 4 times a day for 30 minutes at a time
E= EVERYONE needs to answer lol!


E-indoor (grow tent)
E-hydroponic
E-Rockwool cubes planted in 1 gallon bags with geolite
CSL-Geolite
HCL-Hydro/Ebb and Flow
E-Filtered tap water (inner city)
E-Source water pH 7.0 (after filtered its ~6.5)
HRT-Source water EC (if hydro) - I donâ??t know what this means
E-Almost 3 weeks
E-Ionic Grow/Bloom
E-Rate of application (if hydro, this is your PPM number, preferably after each component is added) â?? I donâ??t know how to answer this question other than saying I water 4 times a day for 30 minutes at time
E-Lighting source and distance from plant â?? T5 Metal Halide/3 feet
E-Air temperature (both day and night if you are running a dark period) â?? Max 81, generally 78, drops to low 70â??s at night
HD-Reservoir temperature â?? most likely 60â??s or 70â??s
E-Air % Relative humidity â?? 40 to 50%
E- 18 on 6 off
E-Intake/Outtake fans in the tent, the room has no ventilationâ?¦I keep the door to the room open mostly however
TR-Pre soaked the rockwool cubes for 24 hours in 6.0 PH with ½ strength Ionic Bloom

To begin with the pictures that Iâ??m going to attach are all clones that were started just shy of 3 weeks ago in the system. The situation however is this has been a re-occuring problem. I have now tried and gone through two failed crops and working on my third with this one. What is happening is that I start getting white tips that turn brown and even leave curl and browning on the edges of the leaves. It doesnâ??t seem to start till they get to be about ~10 inches tall. The first crop which was started from seed from a swag bag got to be around 2 feet tall but by the time it got around to harvest the buds were like finger nail size and the plants looked like they would catch on fire in a moments notice (almost all brown/dried up leaves). The second crop was clones that got probably close to 12 inches before they started showing signs of the tip burn and edge curling/browning and it progressively got worse till I decided to harvest the slightly larger than fingernail size buds. Growth was slow on both attempts and I swapped them over to 12/12 light cycle with bloom at 12 inches. However, the tip burn usually started before I swapped them over to bloom. With this crop, 5 of the clones sprung up fairly quickly to about 9-10 inches and then rapidly deteriorated with the tip burn/leaf curling and browning. At the end of the first week I started noticing that the leaves were curling and there was beginning signs of tip burn with white tips. The 3 small ones however barely grew but the leaves they had were very yellow on the tips till the point of some of them being almost entirely yellow. By the end of the second week the small plants had barely gone anywhere with lots of yellowing on the leaves and the 5 bigger ones had excessive browning that started at the tip and on the edges. Iâ??d also like to say that I started out with 4x T5 metal halides and the 4x T5 equivalent to sodium lights in the ballast. At the end of the first week I removed the 4x T5 sodium lights and went with the 4x metal halides only but didnâ??t see any improvement by the end of the second week. I change the water every two weeks so when I changed the water this time, for the first time ever I tried reducing the amount of nutes (Ionic Grow) to 3.5 tsp/gal instead of 4 tsp/gal like the bottle recommends. Now at nearly 3 weeks (I trimmed most of the dead leaves off) the 3 smaller plants have almost caught up with the 5 big ones. The smaller plants also have mostly 5 leaf growth and the bigger plants have only 1 -3 leaf growth and they havenâ??t hardly done anything for this whole week. Also the smaller 3 plants have darker leaves than the larger and generally look more healthy overall with the exception of white tips on almost all their leaves. Iâ??d also like to mention that this is 40g resv. and Iâ??m filling it to 35gallons. I have been keeping the water in the resv. at PH 6.0 every grow attempt Iâ??ve made. Iâ??ve always used the recommend nutes/gal. on the bottle and this is the first time Iâ??ve tried nocking it down alittle and so far the plants havenâ??t really deteriorated anymore but they arenâ??t really hardly doing anything and the smaller plants are coming up slowly but it seems like their growth has been stunted from the beginning.

After reading through some posts on here I do now realize Iâ??m maybe .2 high on my PH but I donâ??t really feel like thatâ??s the answer to all my problems. I tried looking at my water report online but couldnâ??t find any pertinent information on the web other than what chemicals were in the water and that my local PPM is ~120. Also I wanted to know about my lighting situation. I have a 8 light ballast. I have 8x metal halides and 4x T5 red lights. What should I be using?? Someone recommended I run 4x metal halides and 4x T5 reds and Iâ??m not sure if its adding to the problem or not, but like I said earlier Iâ??m only running 4x T5 metal halides at the moment.

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I'd also like to mention that there is a white clacium type buildup that shows up on the upper layer of geolite where the water level floods to.

bertoxxulous Reviewed by bertoxxulous on 03-27-2009. Re-occuring tip burn/WALL of text H=Hydro R=RockWool in Geolite D=Ebb and Flow system, 4 times a day for 30 minutes at a time E= EVERYONE needs to answer lol! E-indoor (grow tent) E-hydroponic E-Rockwool cubes planted in 1 gallon bags with geolite CSL-Geolite Rating: 5

[Weedhound]

That looks like hydro to me so your very first problem would be that your ph is too high for hydro apps. It should be no higher than 6.2.....5.6 beng ideal imo.. Yes, your ph is abnormal enough to kill off your plants by creating "less than healthy" plants.. Second, let me ask about your home water filter. How is it filtering your water.....through some sort of sodium? Most home filters do and the resulting sodium level is too harsh for cannabis.

[Weedhound]

Last question; what kind of grow tent are you using?

[bertoxxulous]

Well, I am keeping my PH in the resv. at 6.0. I am filtering my tap water through a britta filter. My tap is 7.0 PH and after being filtered through the britta filter it nocks it down to ~6.5. After I fill my resv. I put in my grow or bloom, then use PH down to get it to PH 6.0. But I've been using PH 6.0 for everything.

[bertoxxulous]

And my grow tent is 800 cubic inches, like black nylon stuff on the outside and the inside is this white reflecting pastic kind of stuff.

[tinytoon]

Hmmm Bertox is an EQ named mob is it not? You say you are running lights at 18/6 but using Bloom, are u veggin or flowering? Also the white calcium looking stuff is most likely a salt residue, possibly from the Rockwool. Do you flush on a normal basis?

[bertoxxulous]

Yes, it is an EQ name, god of disease. Funny someone noticed! Anyways, I run my lights as 18/6 veg and 12/12 bloom. And when you mean flush, do you mean with just PH adjusted water? And how many cycles? All I do, every two weeks is pump the water out of the resv. and fill it back up with 35g of water, then put either grow or bloom nute depending on if they are veg or bloom and PH adjust the water to 6.0 before they get watered. Again, this is a 40g resv.

[Weedhound]

Ok, what is the Name of your grow tent? Is it an older style tent or have you grown successfully in it before? Hydrohut made one set of tents that caused growers plants to die off due to a weird gas the tent or the poles gave off. You don't see many of them anymore is it an issue that the company has resolved. Just trying to cover all the bases.

Now, you seem like a go getter to me. Call Britta and ask them what chemicals they use in their filters to "soften" the water and exactly what is removed from the water during this process. I believe the answer will not only surprise you, but also cause you to switch the water you are using to either plain tap (sometimes it works well in hydro apps; just depends on your water. Personally I would use RO or distilled water and CakMag for hydro apps.) Definitely lose the Britta filter imo.

PS...if your ph is going in to e and f at 6 but coming back higher thats a different issue. is it?

good luck

[bertoxxulous]

Well, I've spent an hour digging around for my receipt and I can't find it. Neither can I find the instructions for building the tent which, by the way were terrible to say the least. But to give you an idea this tent was purchased in late 2008. I have yet to grow anything successfully as of yet. This set of clones is my third attempt at growing. I would assume however that these are newer tents, but who knows at this point. Here is the info I got off the net about the brita filters...

What do Brita® Faucet Filtration Systems remove from tap water?
Brita® Faucet Filtration Systems with Advanced Features (Model FF-100) and Brita® Faucet Filtration System (Model OPFF-100)
The Brita® Faucet Filter removes microbiological cryptosporidium and giardia. It also reduces lead, TTHM, VOCs, lindane (pesticide), 2,4-D, alachlor, atrazine (herbicide), chlorine (taste and odor) and sediment1. For more information about the impurities that Brita® Faucet Filters reduce, including any health risks they may help avoid confusion.

Also...

How the Brita® Faucet Filter works
An added layer around the filter traps large particulate matter from the water
Activated powdered carbon acts like a sponge, sucking up Chlorine (taste and odor and Benzene)
A zeolite acts like a magnet attracting Lead

I am still not educated enough to know if any of that listed is a problem or not.

Now onto the water thing you mentioned. If after reading this you think its better for me to just go ahead and use tap then I'm all over it but, you say that RO water or distilled water using CalMag is my best option. First, considering I'm using a 40g resv. I really want to get my water from the house. I don't know much about plumbing so I don't know how hard installing an RO filter will be in addition the cost of one of them. If I did get an RO filter is there any way I can make it where its not "inline" with the rest of my plumbing? Like something I could attach to a faucet or something easy like that? Also, how would I go about distilling water? Would it be too much of a hassle considering its a 40g resv. and I drain/refill it every two weeks? I've never checked my grow store for CalMag because I didn't know anything about it till I visited this site...do you think most grow stores will carry it? Also, if I were to use just plain tap if you think its better than using a brita filter, should I still use CalMag or do you only use it for RO and distilled water? My water treatment plant said average is 120PPM, after reading some other posts that doesn't seem all that bad to me, and if thats the case is it low enouph where I should use CalMag?

[bertoxxulous]

I'd also like to say that there is a easy quick connect RO filter but its kinda pricey. Here is the link. Premium Counter Top, Portable Reverse Osmosis Systems & Drinking Water Filters I just don't know if I can commit to that but if you guys think its the answer I will invest in it.