DO NOT USE COPPER ANYWHERE (except wiring!).

[Jollyrancher]

If you are, the copper can and will react with the fertilizer and will kill your plants.

(I thought I was upgrading the plumbing too!)

It took a few months for me to find the cause, but I found it. :thumbsup:

Killed a nice strain of WW .

Jollyrancher Reviewed by Jollyrancher on 08-06-2010. DO NOT USE COPPER ANYWHERE (except wiring!). If you are, the copper can and will react with the fertilizer and will kill your plants. :mad: (I thought I was upgrading the plumbing too!) It took a few months for me to find the cause, but I found it. :thumbsup: Killed a nice strain of WW . :( Rating: 5

[Prodaytrader]

I add one for your list:

Dont use any metal in a res where you have a disk fogger also inside the container. Believe it or not, those medal disk foggers have an electrical current that gets passed through the device and since it's touching the water also charges the water. In fact, if you touch the disk head, while it's on and in water, you will quickly see that it can and will shock you. Since the water is electrified it begins to act like a electroplating system and draws the metal away from the fogger and put it on the metal/wire that was in your res. It took about 4 days for large pits in the fogger to start to show but it was clearly removing the metal away from fogger housing and instead plating it on the tie wire near by. Very strange and enlightening at the same time. I know how the electroplating concept works now. lol I never thought I would run across something like that when attempting to grow some pot!

[khyberkitsune]

It's not the copper killing your plants. Copper piping gets much more acidic and basic stuff running through it all the time and it does nothing.

It's the added anti-corrosive chemical added to the copper that is leaching out and killing your plants.

Copper is an essential plant nutrient and one of the hardest ones to lock out or overfeed by any means.

[tikiroom]

I just made a water chiller, and used copper refrigeration tubing for the coils. The water is going to be running through this. So, am I going to have problems with this then?

[Jollyrancher]

It's not the copper killing your plants. Copper piping gets much more acidic and basic stuff running through it all the time and it does nothing.

It's the added anti-corrosive chemical added to the copper that is leaching out and killing your plants.

Copper is an essential plant nutrient and one of the hardest ones to lock out or overfeed by any means.

I suggest you talk to a fertilizer company.

I did (after the carnage) and they said copper was a NO NO.

The nute solution is very caustic and reacts with copper.

However, you believe what you want.

[Jollyrancher]

I just made a water chiller, and used copper refrigeration tubing for the coils. The water is going to be running through this. So, am I going to have problems with this then?

Water, no problem.

Nute solution (soup) big problem.

[Jollyrancher]

I add one for your list:

Dont use any metal in a res where you have a disk fogger also inside the container. Believe it or not, those medal disk foggers have an electrical current that gets passed through the device and since it's touching the water also charges the water. In fact, if you touch the disk head, while it's on and in water, you will quickly see that it can and will shock you. Since the water is electrified it begins to act like a electroplating system and draws the metal away from the fogger and put it on the metal/wire that was in your res. It took about 4 days for large pits in the fogger to start to show but it was clearly removing the metal away from fogger housing and instead plating it on the tie wire near by. Very strange and enlightening at the same time. I know how the electroplating concept works now. lol I never thought I would run across something like that when attempting to grow some pot!

You need DC for electroplating.

The ultrasonic foggers (which I have been using for over three years with great success) run on 24Vac.

The cheap/funky chrome plating method the Chinese use gets attacked by the nutes.

That "shock" you feel is the ultrasonic vibration.

Unless your transformer has major leakage (shorted winding to the ac input), no way are you gonna get shocked.

[khyberkitsune]

"I suggest you talk to a fertilizer company."

I'm the research director for a very large horticultural corporation. We use copper tubing in our multi-stack NFT systems with all sorts of fertilizers. We have no issues because we got non-treated copper piping.

And our systems have been in operation for two years easily and still produce great crops.

And we use AC for electroplating copper into wafers to fill damascene structures, so your statement of using only DC for electroplating is false. There are issues with using AC for electroplating, such as deposition morphology, and the consumption of organic additives. To work around this, we use different copper alloys like CuSn, or CuMg, CuZn, CuPd, and other copper alloys.

[Jollyrancher]

FYI

I posted this thread after killing a strain of WW I had been enjoying for almost three years.

This was the result of "upgrading" the air delivery via a manifold made of 1/2" copper.

The cause of the loss was confirmed by the fertilizer supplier (GH) and several other sources.

The reason I posted this information was to help anyone else, as information on "banned" building materials for hydroponics is not easy to find.

In short, DO NOT USE COPPER FOR NUTRIENT DELIVERY OR AIR DELIVERY (if the copper is gonna be exposed to the soup).

[Jollyrancher]

"I suggest you talk to a fertilizer company."

I'm the research director for a very large horticultural corporation. We use copper tubing in our multi-stack NFT systems with all sorts of fertilizers. We have no issues because we got non-treated copper piping.

Try cutting open a piece of your plumbing and check it for etching.

Good for you that you don't have any issues.

Like I said, talk to a fertilizer company, I did.

My system is a hybrid DWC/aeroponic