My first hydro setup far from being successfull, why?

Hi all,

I started recently my first hydro setup and the 2 weeks old seedlings growing in it do not look well at all, as you can see on the pictures below. I read a lot on the net and I tried to apply what I learned but there is apparently something wrong and I need some help to understand what happens.

[FONT=&amp]The setup is a mix of water culture with a drip system and some piezoelectric nebulizers,see below. The tank contains about 30l of nutrient solution. For lighting, I use t5 fluorescent tubes for aquarium plants, 200 W at the moment with a 18/24 lighting scheme. The temperature on the canopy varies between 20°C minimum during dark time and 30°C maximum during lit time. The temperature of the solution is set to 20°C.

[/FONT]I started to grow from seeds that I germinated in humidified kitchen paper and then transferred to clay pellets (without any rockwool, a mistake?). For comparison, I also transferred some germinated seeds to good old soil and they are doing well compared to those of the hydro setup.

For the nutrient solution, I use rainwater with an initial EC of about 100 uS/cm. I adjusted the pH to 5.8 and the EC to about 600 before installing the plants in the setup. The pH is more or less stable over 3-4 days, but it tends to decrease afterwards. I add some kH+ to reset it to 5.8 when it happens. The bubbler is 24/24 on. I use the drippers 4*5min and the nebulizers 4*10 min per day.

As an additional info, I tested the setup with pumpkins seeds before starting with weed . The seedlings of pumpkins developed well and had nice roots. Why the hell doesn't it work with the weed seeds??? Can someone advise me on what to correct ?

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For future reference, mix nutes then ph as nutes can change ph. Drain that tank and put plain water in it. I would say stop the rain water, ya don't know whats in it. Just give em plain old ph'd tap water for now, no nutes needed. Room temps are getting to high and low, you need to stabalize that. bring water level closer to netpots. Are you sure solution temp is 20, ya shouldn't need a heater at all, if anything ya would need a chillerl.

Personally they look a bit young to be out in the big world, I tend to keep in the cloner til growth shows and roots well established.

I'm no professional I'm actually having height issues in my grow of WW but I learned early to keep the PPM DOWN at first. I'd say 150-300 PPM and no more then that for the first couple weeks. I mean thts what I do and my babies LOVE it. I would put pics but won't let me from my phone and I too would lose the rain water. Go to Walmart and get RO water. 5 gallons for like a dollar. So I mean pretty cheap and comes ready for nutes! My ph normally around 6.3-6.8 and it works awesome. Lowest PH ever been Is 5.5 and they loved that too lol. Bring the nutes down tho cause it looks like they are being burnt out with too much food. Plain water would be better the 600ppm for now but 150-300 has given me 100% success.

their dying because your giving them nutes, seedling are not suppose to have nutes at all, just ph balalnced water. Its not your hydro setup its simply because your not suppose to be giving them nutes. Their to young for that, dont give nutes for at least another 2 - 3 weeks.

they still have their own food source, they didnt need nutes. remember one thing:K.I.S.S. too much shit going on in the res, heater? nebulizer? if you are just starting try and make it simple. air pump and stone is all you need, you can use the drip until roots touch water but then not needed. just from giving them nutes tells me you have a lot more to read.

Do you know the actual res temps? I suspect they are high and that you already have root rot or slime. Your PH should not go down.

Thank you all for your answers. Well, I must admit that I over engineered a bit the thing without taking into accounts some basics... so, still a lot to learn.
But I am fed up with it at the moment, I will stick to soil for my next grow and restart the hydro setup later.

somebody1701 said:

Do you know the actual res temps? I suspect they are high and that you already have root rot or slime. Your PH should not go down.

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Yep, there is a thermometer in the tank and it varies between 19 and 21[FONT=&amp]°C. You're right, the pH should not go down. Maybe I played too much with the ph+ or ph- products....
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30°C maximum during lit time.

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Thats why , keep temps below 25 and use high concentrate H202 in the res.

I would try a full-on FLUSH with plain pH'd water to start with... Then I would totally back off the nutes, seedlings don't need nutes... Next, I would never ever put sprouts or seedlings into straight hydroton (clay pellets), always put them in rockwool, THEN into hydroton.
I also agree with the K.I.S.S. method: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Less is more, both with the equipment and with the nutes.
Hope that helps.

i would not recommend putting the nebulizer in the res with the roots. It tends to heat the res to much (first hand experience). I had to put it in a second res and pump the fog to main res. And whats the heater for? most people wish they could get the res temps lower rather then higher.

PersonalJesus said:

Next, I would never ever put sprouts or seedlings into straight hydroton (clay pellets), always put them in rockwool, THEN into hydroton.

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When I first tried my setup on pumpkins seeds, I did use rockwool that I later put in hydroton. Indeed, it worked well. I have not done the same with the weed seeds because I was afraid it may stay wet all the time with the drippers dispensing water regularly and then prone to fungus. But apparently, that was just another mistake.

DonPepe said:

And whats the heater for? most people wish they could get the res temps lower rather then higher.

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Well, the primary reason is that I had the heater available as I was busy with aquariums before. I thought it was not hurting as I kept it set on low temp. I also wrongly thought that the water may become too cold as the setup is not enclosed in a closet but let in a room where the temp can go down to 10[FONT=&amp]°C in winter[/FONT]...but I forgot that the lamps are heating the room quite a lot, so that there is indeed no need for this heater.