have waterfarm questions

[nuglover]

hey all this is going to be my first attempt at hydro and i just built a home made waterfarm and trying to figure it out. oh ya I'm starting from seed.

i used the gh waterfarm kit, 1 5 gal bucket a 10" net pot with hydroton. i have a duel outlet air pump. I'm thinking about adding an air stone into the reserve. i am going to use gh 3 part. my tap water has a ppm of 66 straight from the tap. is that hard water?

i have a few questions.


1. what can i do about the splashing of water out of the net-pot?

2. can you put a root riot, a rapid rooter plug or similar product directly into the hydroton with out clogging the drip ring?

3. if the answer to no. 2 is no then how do i germ and sprout the seed for use in the waterfarm.

4. how do you change the reservoir and do i flush between each res change.

5. how often each day do i check pH?

6. how often do i top off(IE down 25%). the res is 2 gal.

any help with this would be greatly appreciated.

nuglover Reviewed by nuglover on 12-28-2010. have waterfarm questions hey all this is going to be my first attempt at hydro and i just built a home made waterfarm and trying to figure it out. oh ya I'm starting from seed. i used the gh waterfarm kit, 1 5 gal bucket a 10" net pot with hydroton. i have a duel outlet air pump. I'm thinking about adding an air stone into the reserve. i am going to use gh 3 part. my tap water has a ppm of 66 straight from the tap. is that hard water? i have a few questions. 1. what can i do about the splashing of water Rating: 5

[keylime]

1. what can i do about the splashing of water out of the net-pot?

I have to assume you are using 5 gal ROUND buckets, and they are just not built for the waterfarm kit.... I have tried it. You will either have to use rectangular buckets, or build yourself your own "kit". I had a lot of 5 gal buckets and so I built my kits myself using 1/2" CPVC.

2. can you put a root riot, a rapid rooter plug or similar product directly into the hydroton with out clogging the drip ring?
That should be no problem, these kits do not plug up like the drippers may.


4. how do you change the reservoir and do i flush between each res change.

Use a water pump to get the old nutes out, and you don't flush till 10 days before harvest.

5. how often each day do i check pH?

Your PH will/should not change that fast, generally I check mine 2 or 3 times a week.

6. how often do i top off(IE down 25%). the res is 2 gal.

Your res should be bigger than your 5 gal bucket, the bigger the reservoir, the more stable your PH and EC/PPM will be. Do you have a control bucket?

keylime

[nuglover]

OK i have the above information absorbed. now my new questions.

1. do i put the root riot straight into the hydroton after popping it or when it pops up and roots appear trough the root riot.

2. all i have ever done is soil. when i put the root riot in the hydroton do i use ph'd water or do i add nutes?

3. if i add nutes what strength do i add them at this stage? (i use gh 3 part)

4. do i run it 24/7 or 15 min on 15 min off. do i run it different with lights on and off?

5. what is my target Ph range and what is the perfect Ph for hydro.

6. and my last question. i take my water ppm and it ranges from 55 to 66 out of tap i let sit for 24 hours it measures 35 to 40 and 24 hours later it reads 24-30 and then stays there steady. why does it have the second ppm drop. and is the total drop chlorine evaporation if not what is it that left. also do i need calmag or is my water fine without it.

thanks after i am helped with these if i have more ill ask more questions.

[keylime]

OK i have the above information absorbed. now my new questions.

1. do i put the root riot straight into the hydroton after popping it or when it pops up and roots appear trough the root riot.

Yes, but no. You can do it, but you will probably have to water it by hand, and not run the waterfarm setup. Personally, after your seeds have rooted, I would put them in some cups, and water by hand until you have a few inches of Spaghetti (roots) hang out the bottom of the cube or whatever you're growing it out of.
2. all i have ever done is soil. when i put the root riot in the hydroton do i use ph'd water or do i add nutes?

If your water is city water which is generally a ph of 6.5 or so, just mix your 3 part GH in there until you have the right dose, perhaps 500 ppm, and then check the PH. GH has some stuff in it that will balance your PH and you don't have to do anything until later when the plants are consuming more nutes... then you have to PH it may twice a week.

3. if i add nutes what strength do i add them at this stage? (i use gh 3 part)

Once they have a couple of inches of roots I try to keep them between 400 and 700 ppm

4. do i run it 24/7 or 15 min on 15 min off. do i run it different with lights on and off?

I've always run mine 24/7, others do it 15 on and 15 off. I've also run it continuously during lights on, and not run it at all when dark, it didn't make any difference for me.

5. what is my target Ph range and what is the perfect Ph for hydro.

Its higher for soil, but hydro should be run 5.5 to 6.5. I would say the perfect ph is 5.7

6. and my last question. i take my water ppm and it ranges from 55 to 66 out of tap i let sit for 24 hours it measures 35 to 40 and 24 hours later it reads 24-30 and then stays there steady. why does it have the second ppm drop. and is the total drop chlorine evaporation if not what is it that left. also do i need calmag or is my water fine without it.

PPM changes a bit with temperature, and it settles down after a day or so. I don't know about the chlorine.... it could also have something to do with it.

keylime

[nuglover]

thanks for the rapid responce. it is great help.

[keylime]

No problem. If you still have water splashing over the sides, consider making your own setup. Not only will you save money because those kits are $15 each, but you will have a dry floor. I think I might be able to come up with a few pictures of how I did it if you are interested.

Also, a word of caution, after your kits have run for one crop, check your 1/4 inch air line that goes down to the bottom of the bucket. You will find residue in the last half inch or so, and it starts blocking the passage of air. Nobody mentions that, but its true. I couldn't figure out why the system was not bringing the water up. I changed out the pump, and it made no difference. I finally found out that the bottom end of the tube(s) were almost completely plugged after two harvests.

keylime

[nuglover]

id love those pictures and a step by step and parts list if it will lower my cost. and my kits cost 12.95 my hydro guys brother ordered and they got 250 of them hehe he lowered the price to get rid of them. just real curious as to how to build the pumping collumn. and if it can save me money oh ya.

i fixed my splashing problem. i removed 1/4 inch off each end of the ring, and 1/3 inch off the colomn. it now sits even with the top of the netpot and is resting on the hydroton i ran it for 3 days non stop and no splash out of water. the hydroton in the center is very damp. still dont get how it wicks to the center point. i want to run 2 or 3 but if i can get the cost down ill run 4.

oh ya got a question my last crop had no males(2 pants) there were no male flowers and never had a male in the area and no other growers were in mine or i in theres. how is that possible. there were no male flowers at all. hey it gave me about 20 seeds of which i germed 4 and they are just poking little tails out i am going to put them in root riots when it gets to about 1/2 to 1" long.

[keylime]

id love those pictures and a step by step and parts list if it will lower my cost. and my kits cost 12.95 my hydro guys brother ordered and they got 250 of them hehe he lowered the price to get rid of them. just real curious as to how to build the pumping collumn. and if it can save me money oh ya.

Well, I don't have a pic of it that I took a while back, and my camera is on the blink, but...
I tried to modify Waterfarms kit first, but found that nothing I could buy at the hardware store would work to modify it, maybe its metric, I don't know.
So I started from scratch. I bought some 1/2" CPVC and started on the pipe that sits near the bottom, and cut about a 12" piece of pipe. The top would come up just above the hydroton. The bottom is cut at a 45 degree angle, so it doesn't get blocked. About a half inch above that cut, I drilled a hole at an angle the size so that my 1/4" tubing would fit in there. I placed the tubing just barely into the hole and taped it onto the 12" CPVC. Then just try it out by holding it in a bucket of water and put an air pump on the other end of the tubing. You will get some water getting pushed up that 12" pipe. From there on its just a matter of putting an elbow on the top and I had another 3" cpvc piece on the elbow. Then a Tee, and you can maybe some other small pieces of cpvc on each side of the tee, and perhaps a couple of 45 degree elbows at the end. They don't need to be glued because there is not much pressure. Then drill a few holes along the way so it can drip wherever you want it to.

i fixed my splashing problem. i removed 1/4 inch off each end of the ring, and 1/3 inch off the colomn. it now sits even with the top of the netpot and is resting on the hydroton i ran it for 3 days non stop and no splash out of water. the hydroton in the center is very damp. still dont get how it wicks to the center point. i want to run 2 or 3 but if i can get the cost down ill run 4.

oh ya got a question my last crop had no males(2 pants) there were no male flowers and never had a male in the area and no other growers were in mine or i in theres. how is that possible. there were no male flowers at all. hey it gave me about 20 seeds of which i germed 4 and they are just poking little tails out i am going to put them in root riots when it gets to about 1/2 to 1" long.

What you experienced here is a plant that "hermied". That is a female that partly turned into a male and female and fertilized itself. This can happen if the plant is in stress, that is, say the lights were on while it was in dark, or anything else that would stressful to the plant. If I were you, I would throw those seeds you gathered from it away. There's a great possibility that the seeds it gave you will become hermies too. Take a look at this:
Cloning a plant that hermied - 420 Magazine

keylime

[nuglover]

well i dont have much choise i cant afford to buy new seeds. and i have no bag seed. so ill take my chances.

[nuglover]

have another question. i have been running the system to work out issues and fix them seems i have got it running smoothly except it has a red and black grit. the red grit is super fine the black grit is very course. is this normal.