Could it be over or under watering? High placement of rockwool?

Hi guys.. first grow here in dwc buckets w/ 400w HPS/MH and a 2x4x5 tent.
I've been having some problems with my little babies.. my Bubba is drooping a lot.. just can't get her to lift back up no matter what.. and my Kens is getting some weird yellow/white spots over the leaves.. here are some pics



I made a lot of adjustments, like my passive intake was a smaller diameter than my fan/filter/light so I got the proper 6' ducting and also waiting for a 6' intake booster fan. My fan inside is a 400cfm hydrofarm, have been trying to turn it to 50% or even lower to try to get some more humidity in the room. Started at 30% and put in a little humidifier inside and then outside the intake, could get it up to around 45. Still trying to lower fan to get more humidity but heat was issue with HPS, so I switched over to MH bulb. Temps have been easier to control with intake adjustment and MH vs HPS. But my babies just don't seem to show much improvement... their new growth is looking okay.. with the exception of some funky tips and slow rate. The roots have not yet shot out of the hydroton, but I have been checking and adjusting PH every 8-12 hours or so. At first the PH was rising pretty quick but now it seems a lot more stable.. will also be getting RO unit shortly, will flush once it's here. Not sure what else to do.. any ideas?

Is the rockwool the bubba in damp or soaked. If soaked lower the water level.

I have also had plants behave that way when being attacked by pests. Check the underside thourougly

looks like overwatering to me, check that rockwool

Thank you guys for posting!

The rockwool seems super dry actually.. I have it buried under those hydroton rocks, not much maybe 1 layer of rocks but i pushed them aside and touched the rockwool, it was pretty dry.

I got the humidity up to about 52.5% by turning the fan speed to a little less than half and temps are around 78-80 with the MH bulb.

I did take out the rockwool maybe 2 days ago just to check on the bubba and she did have some roots poking out, maybe like half an inch?
But I don't want to pull either of them out anymore because they have probably grown some longer roots and I might yank them off.. but that rockwool def seems super dry.
The underside looks pretty wet, lots of bubbles shooting from my super strong GH DD pump w/ 2 large hydrofarm air stones. The net pots have bubbles of water, like the bubbles are reaching up there.. so I'm really not sure.

Maybe the bottom of the rockwool is damp?
I also had the water lowered to about 2 gallons instead of 3 for about a day, but it didn't see much improvement.

I've found a lot of advice like the following,

I'd raise the water level just below the bottom of your rockwool cube, this way the cube is staying wet and any roots that are busting out are getting hit. Once your roots starts to really bust out then lower your water level again.

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and that it's nearly impossible to overwater in DWC...
but then a lot of advice suggesting that they ARE being overwatered...
ugh hard call.. but ill raise the bubba by a gallon and check back in an hour..
yeah.. prob overwater. gonna lower the bubba down to 2 gallons..

I've never grown in DWC, but the plant def looks crucially overwatered

dip a cup into the water fert mix and replace the top, then pour the water mix into the hydroton rockwool. you need to feed the roots until they are are long enough to reach the water themselves. the problem is just the opposite of overwater. they're too dry.

Really not sure which one it is at this point... I was doing a little bit of the water/nute mix onto the rockwool about 2 days ago and it didn't seem to improve so I stopped.. but I have been finding so many different suggestions..how often should I top feed them? and what about roots not being able to grow downwards if top fed?

Thinking about raising water level to maybe 4 gallons instead of 3 and just leaving it overnight but kinda scary at the same time..
I mean.. you can't really overwater in dwc right?

Hm I may have found the problem,

Put a thin layer of hydroton across the bottom of your netpot (like 1 rock high...) then set your rockwool cube with roots coming out of the bottom on top of that thin layer of rocks. gently fill the rest of the net pot with hydroton until it's full to your liking. Then place the netpot into your res/solution/5 gal bucket...whatever you are using...keep the water level just high enough to touch the thin layer of rocks...maybe touching the bottom of the rockwool. As long as you have sufficient aeration the roots will explode. After about 3 days you should notice some roots poking down through the bottom of the net pot. Once that happens simply drain just enough water so the roots are in the solution but the bottom of the net pot is above the water. That way the roots will continue to grow into the solution and the rockwool won't be soaking.

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I put quite a lot of hydroton in the netpot.. then put the rockwool on top, the rockwool may only be covered by 1 or 2 rows of hydroton.. so pretty much exact opposite of what I should have done.
I'm scared to take the rockwool out now because I remember trying to bury the bubba a little more a few days ago and it already had a few 1in-2in roots coming out, so if I pull it out now.. maybe those are longer and might snap or tear.. I'm thinking I should just wait it out this grow but now know what to do next time when transplanting clones...

quick advice anyone.. do you think I should let the bubba sit in maybe 1in of rockwool overnight? that's about 4 gallons instead of the regular 3 gallons, which is about ~1in away from bottom of netpot.
or maybe leave it at 2 gallons and top feed?

About 8 hour difference.. can't really tell if the higher water level is better or not though... should I just leave it before heading to work or maybe drain back down to 2?

Reset your rockwool as someone else wrote. Just be gentle, some roots break off no big whoop.
Rockwool damp ok.
Rockwool soggy no ok
Rockwool dry no ok .

Ok ?

Sweet.. thank you so much for that advice Slab. I carefully took off the screens and decided to slowly tumble down the hydroton into a bucket and carefully held the rockwool in place.
Man they were BOTH suppperrrr dry! And it's so rare to have rockwool be dry.. so damn.. def all about that placement.
I tried to go with 1 rock high then put rockwool on top, but it was just way too low. I think I used about 2-3 layers which is still pretty low, should be pretty chill. I think I may lose some of the Kens GDP though, had to bury that little section of hers because light would have penetrated the netpots holes and gone in the water. I tried to leave her out as much as possible, but tiny little growth so not sure. Not a big deal, but I hate killing off anything.. sad stuff. Also drained bubba down to 2 gallons before I left for work, so I am now running my RO and trying to get another gallon in there for the proper water level. Hope they improve! Thank you!!

roots need that water fert mix. the amount of hydroton doesn't really matter. people grow in just rockwool with no hydroton, like a float trays. you can't overwater in dwc as it's all water. the problem there is you have to put in enough oxygen with bubbling. soak the rockwool with water fert mix. the next issue would be your ppm amount.

But I have two large airstones in each bucket w/ the GH DD pump.. I made sure to spend more to get a lot of bubbles in there.
http://www.amazon.com/General-Hydroponics-Dual-Diaphragm-Pump/dp/B008UF9XLY?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages02
http://www.amazon.com/Hydrofarm-ASCL-Large-Active-Cylinder/dp/B00564IT5S?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s03

Man I'm thinking I should have got some tiny netpots and put the rockwool in there like you said, without the hydroton.
I check my PPM and it's usually very low, the water alone is 0-1 because RO system and after nutes it comes up to about 30-40 and I saw 50 once I believe but that was because I used some ph down/up.

Since I've lowered the rockwool it doesn't seem like they've improved much.. but it hasn't been much time I'm guessing.
I also saw a tiny root popping out of the hydroton in the Bubba netpot! so awesome lol


should I maybe increase the water level so the rockwool is pretty much sitting in it? I mean with all the oxygen pumping up it shouldn't be a problem right?

what you need to do is get a ppm meter if you don't have one, but it kind of looks like you do. take your fert water mix to about 600 or 700.

You mean get the PPM up by adding more nutes? I'm adding 1/4 str per gallon since they are 6 day old clones now, but to get around 600 ppm I would need more than 12x which is like 3x strength.
Should I closely monitor them after feeding them that much? Maybe wait an hour after and look at edges/tips of the fans? And I will get the RO started right now, thank you!

oh and yeah I have a PPM and PH meter.

Climb to that level, never leap. Considering, the consequences.

Gradually , increase ppm. It's not a plant until she has a rootsystem.

Great, thank you. I was a bit sketched out giving them that much. My first 3 gallon is almost done, RO system is a bit slow/water pressure low maybe.
Just going to double the dose to 1/2 tsp per gallon for now. Got about 100ppm atm

Had a ton of pictures and had logged every action and nutes w/ ppm/ph but my hard drive just crashed about 4 hours ago and I've just been trying to get everything set back up.. but everything is pretty much gone.. got some pics back by downloading what I had posted hahah.

Anyhow.. got some way better looking new growth.. but a little concerning with the tips. I reduced down to 1/4 str yesterday and waiting until tomorrow for another new res change, since I'm trying to do it every monday and I really don't mind the extra labor.

Also have been able to get 65-70% humidity by using a combination of a humidifier and evap cooler. Best combo I have found is to place the evap cooler right outside the intake and humidifier inside the tent. Luckily I had the evap sitting in storage but those things can be pricey @ 200-300.. and they really don't do much cooling. Somehow my tent is hovering around 80... I can literally touch the glass and hold it there and not burn and the air inside and even exhaust feels pretty cool... but both digital thermometers I have bought brand new say the same thing around 76-82, max 90 sometimes.. really strange.


Do these tips suggest another week of 1/4 str nutes?
I was thinking of 1/2 but.. looks like it's still a bit much for them


Also these two from the Kens are really scaring me.. should I just clip them off??





damn a lot of my problems seem like fungus gnats, but I don't seem to ever see any. thinking of getting some yellow traps and if that doesnt work then maybe step up to aza max?

looks like you went to a lot of trouble to make those buckets.