Nute & Reverse Osmosis questions For Hydro

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
That new SS still was only $150 on amazon . ca so likely cheaper on the dot com one for US buyers. Has a thumper box too that hooks up before the cooling one. Looks the same as that cooling tank but without the side fittings for water inlet and outlet. Has a few shortcomings I don't like. Only 3 full turns on the cooling coil and almost a whole turn sits up out of the water most of the time so reduces throughput. If I try to crank it up too much the solvent starts coming out of the tube still as steam which is no good. The cooling water uses a small submersible pond pump which is nice as I can set it up anywhere like my mud room where it is now. They could have used a 1/2 outlet to drain better but it's 3/8" like the inlet so you have to fiddle with the valves to get a balance to keep as much of the coil covered as possible without overflowing. Once it's running steady it works OK tho.

They have a 1/2" outlet from the boiling tank going into 3/8" cooling coil which makes no sense plus the 1/2" pipe should be higher and poited a bit down to better fit the angle of the cooling coil, Part of the coil was higher in the middle which causes blockage then bumping so I had to rebend it to have a continuous downward flow.

Something I can't really bitch to them about is the gaskets that seal the outlet from the boiling tank and the thermometer. Made out of a silicon type material, like thick flat washers, that absorb the naphtha then blow out. Same problem I ran into with the countertop distiller I got to do this kind of thing with. As this still is designed for water or alcohol I can't really bitch about it not working with naphtha as it's not designed for that type of solvent. I bought some automotive gasket material and made my own washers using hole punches to get the centre nice and round and the outer edges don't matter. Right now running a new can of fuel thru it so will see if they are impervious to naphtha but seems fine so far.

View attachment 5041439

The lab still I've had for 30 years and got some at an auction cheap, bought some off a buddy and pinched a few bits and pieces when I was in school for my chem diploma. Waiting on a nice 2L, 3-neck boiling ball from amazon but it's couple weeks late already. Probably is on that container ship that lost 105 off the coast of BC then caught fire. Just in line to get into the port at Vancouver to offload now so if it is on there and survives should only be another month. lol That was $90. I got a little attachment to allow me to run a feed line into the boiling ball thru one of the necks so I can run continuously when I'm cooking down a batch of oil still in the solvent. I could run a vacuum attachment using the 3rd neck as well.

This is the coil I made for my DIY still. I wrapped it around a 2L pop bottle full of frozen salted water so I use the pop bottles for my cooling with the coffee can full of auto antifreeze. Tried water but it rusted out my first can. :) Still have that stuff but my big glass bottle only holds 4L and the new still holds 12.

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:peace:
Damn dude, thats awesome!
 

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
did you see my comment about southern ag? you don't want the surfactant that you had picked.
I haven’t been cutting leafs off. It’s getting so bushy. I know next time I’m only vegging half what I did. I think I’m going to put up my 4x4 for the next one. Here’s some pictures from today. I think I’m starting to get it down a little bit, and the colors have been decent on them. F7F798E0-7155-4D8B-9E22-19F627691266.jpeg5821A8AD-2009-4587-BD02-B8B9E8ECED8D.jpeg
 

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
lookin' good.
i wouldn't touch a thing. you'll see some of the bottom leaves probably yellow up and die if they aren't geting good light. the plant decides what leaves should be removed. lol.
Funny you say that. I just removed a bunch on the bottom that were yellowing and dying. I took some off on the top that have three plus leafs laying on top of each other bad. They’re liking that spring water though. I think the mix I have is perfect 5:1 ro:spring. My ph dropped to 5.5 last night. Put two gallons of spring water in and it turned to 5.8. It seems to be more stable adding spring water to bring it up over the ph up.
 

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
you want the southern ag garden friendly fungicide not the surfactant. everything else looks good.

i should have bought a gallon of the kelp instead of a quart.
Do you use Cal/mag too? The same company that makes the cleankelp makes some cal/mag too. What is your recommendations on cal/mag?
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
i have a bottle just in case. my well water has plenty of Ca and some Mg. i will get Mg issues so Epsom salt is an easier fix either by foliar or just adding to the feed water. 1 gram a gallon is usually enough.
 

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
i have a bottle just in case. my well water has plenty of Ca and some Mg. i will get Mg issues so Epsom salt is an easier fix either by foliar or just adding to the feed water. 1 gram a gallon is usually enough.
I just did a 10 gallon spring water 14 RO. Jumped my PH to 6.3. I’m going to need to lower the amount of spring water I think.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
So I should get it just in case is what you’re saying?
i would get your spring water analysed to see what's in it. bad stuff like heavy metals, etc and also to see how much mg and ca it has in it.

but yeah, a few bucks to have a quart or pint laying around is never a bad idea.

and about your spring water going up to 6.3, that's not a bad thing. i would not adjust pH on it and see what it does for like 3 to 5 days. 6.3 isn't that high
 

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
i would get your spring water analysed to see what's in it. bad stuff like heavy metals, etc and also to see how much mg and ca it has in it.

but yeah, a few bucks to have a quart or pint laying around is never a bad idea.

and about your spring water going up to 6.3, that's not a bad thing. i would not adjust pH on it and see what it does for like 3 to 5 days. 6.3 isn't that high
Ok, I’ll let it take it’s course and see how she’s doing. Took some pictures last night right after lights out. They’re coming along 554BD3E0-B502-44FC-BFAF-2E34BC93690A.jpegDA1CD19C-900E-422B-995F-158517781C46.jpeg4426AD7E-75E7-4F80-BDFB-F730B286B597.jpeg
 

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
maybe a bit too dark green? or maybe strain? or maybe nothing to worry about?

what's your nute regimen right now?
I do half to 5/8 of what advances nutes recommends with 24 grams of epsom. 8 gallons spring, 16 gallons of RO water. I really want to take away the RO and just use the system as a carbon and sediment setup. I won’t, I have to learn how to use it right. I feel I’m getting the hang of it and not watching them 24/7 waiting for something to happen and me keep fucking with it is helping. I’m going to do the GG4 one more grow and get it down and not stress them the fuck out. A buddy introduced me to another dude from my area. He gave me four clones. Jack heir, bubble gum, white widow and platinum OG. Someone ordered a bunch of clones and never paid the dude, so he asked if I wanted them for free so he didn’t have to throw them away. Have to two clones of each strain. I’m going to give him one of my GG4 clones I have going right now.
so, I’ve noticed some, not a lot, maybe 3 or 4 buds are starting to have the hairs dry and turn orange. It’s only a couple spots. That means I’m a couple weeks away right? I should do this week full nutes and the following just put my flawless finish in right? When you’regrowing a new strain how have you recognized the plants are about two weeks away from being done? I remember waiting until the plant was like 70% orange.
 

Incredible4Mr2E

Well-Known Member
Those are looking great! Frosting up nicely and not a sign of problems either. Should be a great yield.

:peace:
Thanks dude! I think me stressing them out in the beginning is going to hurt my yield honestly. My next grow I’ll be going in with some extra acknowledgment about what it likes and doesn’t like. I want to see if going to Jacks over this AN works better for me. The cost to run jacks over AN is a no brainer.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
I’ve noticed some, not a lot, maybe 3 or 4 buds are starting to have the hairs dry and turn orange. It’s only a couple spots. That means I’m a couple weeks away right? I should do this week full nutes and the following just put my flawless finish in right?
a pic would help.

and i run nutes all the way to the end. i run less EC though for the last 2 weeks or so.
 
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