hey mackswell and weed hound it's nice to know people actually read this stuff rofl

first off I'm sorry bout the double post I desperately wanted a response

Mack's q's

as far as I've been informed you can not overwater aero because the pump is never supposed to be turned off...in my setup I have 20 micron misters which is basically a bit heavier than a fog that runs through the air chamber and has drainage canals to port the water away...if it is over watering the only thing I can think of is because I put them in while they were a bit too young and the roots were always soaked in the hydroton (not hanging out into the open chamber yet...I agree that it looks droopy and wilted and I thought either over water or over fert but the leaves got really dry to the point of being brittle is this what happens in the case of over watering? I've grown twice before in soil so this is my first attempt with a more complex setup Everything I read points to either heat stress or over nute when it comes to curling leaves and brittle texture but even when I had the foil around the light as long as I kept a fan on it stayed dead on at 75F is it possible that plants that are too young can get over lighted without being too warm?

The the lower the leaves the more exaggerated?sp? the brittle texture seemed to be I'm not sure because there are 2 different kinds in the tank the darker green is a stout afghani indica and the other is a cross between nl and jack so I think that's mostly sativa the indicas leaves even at the top were almost like that of a rams horns even when they seemed healthy but the nl/jack pretty much fanned straight out as far as texture I can't think of a better word than leathery...it really felt like my jacket if it was warm in the sun with some moisture sprayed on it

hmm how long...umm they seemed to be fine till the first time I added my nutes I added 1 teaspoon for 5 gallons of res and they seemed to be growing at about 1/2 to 1cm a day I added an extra tablespoon after 5 days of this and noticed yellowing and droopy leaves and curling under....I flushed the res and after a day they started coming back....added nutes again as I thought I messed something up and again they got wilted but at this point I thought maybe they were just not getting nearly enough light so I also added the foil around the aero setup...actually let me describe the current setup as detailed as I can:

the 400w hortilux hps wide spectrum bulb in a super sun reflector is 2ft above the top of the aero tank there pump stays on constantly pumping pure tap water at the moment I know the tap water is at about 190 ppm or so because I took it to a local shop to have it tested...I'm not sure what the britta ppm is but I'd assume it's lower from what I've read it should be much lower like under 50ppm

the room is in the basement so it's 50F ambient temp and in the section with the light it is 75 with the light and the space heater running...the water in the res I've heard several different takes. I was told best is 65F and with 5 gallons of solution the pump keeps it at 66F with the space heater it's up to around 75F I have no idea who or what to listen to cause every faq and help says something different

humidity is about 35 to 40 as far as the dehumidifier says

the ph has been a roller coaster and it's also pissing me off

water goes in at roughly 6 I say that cause I only have a drop test kit and the next day it's over 8.5 to 9 I lower it each day to keep it at about 6 but it's wandered pretty bad...this is possibly because I've had to change the res out several times and it hasn't had a chance to even out...a few times I've accidently made the ph really low like 4 but again changed the water pretty quickly the main problem is rising ph I flushed the res 3 times after the last feeding which I think I added too much and changed it one more time last night it went in at 6 and I checked it before bed it was over 8 I checked it again when I woke up this morning and it was way over 8 I dropped it down again to just about 6 maybe even a bit lower are the plants too tiny should they be left at about nuetral till they show significant growth? I can't imagine the change is supposed to be that fast but I have no idea what is causing it cause there are no answers in the facs only thing I can think of is stored up nutes were being pushed outta the plants and that somehow raised the ph but after 3 res changes how much could they have left to push out oh by the way if I turn the space heater and the light off the room will go down close to 50 and the res temp will drop to around 60 I'm not sure if that's bad for em...ummm what else oh when they got droopy and brittle they seemed to shrink as well not just in appearance but the leaves themselves got tiny

I thought I had the problem pegged as over nute because they seemed to look a bit better as I only put water in the res

As an update with the current setup I described they have perked up a bit and the leaves seem more fleshy I'm not sure if I know what an over watered leaf feels like so if ya could describe it would help I'm not sure how much nute to add cause of all the issues before I'm thinking about changing the res once more after the dark cycle and adding 1/4 teaspoon of maxigrow <- my nute per the 5 gallon res and keeping the space heater on to have the room and res close to 75 at all times till I can narrow down the issue I don't wanna put the foil back on till I hear someone assure me that if the temps stay low enough that you can't over light I think it produces 55k lumens probably somewhere around 45 to 50 now though as it's the third grow

ok well that's all I can think of to answer those questions...I wish I had a better explanation but it really seemed like adding 4 teaspoons to 5 gallons was too much food from the description of the symptoms unless it was heat stress somehow but I'm positive they never get over 80 I hope this gives you enough info to figure out what I'm missing or maybe for someone to point me in the right direction I'll put an updated pic up when I get a chance thanks again weed and mack ;-)