Which would produce more DO in a DWC?

I posted this under "Plant Problems" but haven't gotten a hit, so I thought I'd ask here.

It's been several years since I've cloned, and I can't remember if this is normal. My clones are rooting fine, but the clones themselves look horrible.

I've got two bubbler totes with tons of bubbles. Bottom one has straight tap water, and the top has GH Floro nutes using their chart. When the clones on the bottom get a good set of roots, I move them to the top cloner.

Going by week 1 of the GH chart, I'm using 2.5ml/gal Micro, Gro, and Bloom. My tds was at about 400ppm when I started less than a week ago, and now it's around 260ppm. My pH is 5.9.

Bottom cloner - Plain tap water, no nutes. The healthy looking clones in the center were taken more recently from a more established mother. The others are 10 to 14 days old.
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Top cloner - pH balanced, 260ppm down from 400ppm. NOTE: On the top reservoir, I was thinking it might be nute burn, so I dumped the soup and filled'r up with pH balanced tap.

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GH feed chart:

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I think you are using too much light on them before they get roots and they are burning themselves out trying to veg. One 40W CFL about 10" above them for the first week or until they get roots is lots.

They just need an 18 hour day to stay happy and get their root on but excess light makes them try to add new growth and the only source of nutes is to eat themselves from the bottom up.
 
OldMedUser said:
I think you are using too much light on them before they get roots and they are burning themselves out trying to veg. One 40W CFL about 10" above them for the first week or until they get roots is lots.

They just need an 18 hour day to stay happy and get their root on but excess light makes them try to add new growth and the only source of nutes is to eat themselves from the bottom up.
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Thanks! I'll make some adjustments. Are these shot, or can they pull out if it?
 
OldMedUser said:
I think you are using too much light on them before they get roots and they are burning themselves out trying to veg. One 40W CFL about 10" above them for the first week or until they get roots is lots.

They just need an 18 hour day to stay happy and get their root on but excess light makes them try to add new growth and the only source of nutes is to eat themselves from the bottom up.
Click to expand...

Are my nute levels okay or should I be waiting longer before adding any?
 
In the pic above, where the roots are more established, is that a good time to start feeding? If so, can anyone look at the GH chart and tell me I should be starting at 2.5ml/gallon of micro, gro, and bloom?

Thank
 
Change of plans: I think I'm going to replace the 4 x buckets and use 2 x totes instead (plus a tote for the controller). I'm going to see if the 27 gallon HDX totes are in my budget. Those are supposed to be really good.

Reasons:
  • Even though I was able to seal the bulkheads to the round 5-gallon buckets, I'm very worried that nudging a bucket (which happens all the time) could cause the seal to break and start leaking. The totes have flat surfaces, which I'm sure will help tremendously. Plus, the totes will be heavier and more resistant to being bumped out of position.
  • The totes have a much larger capacity (8 to 10 gallon for two buckets compared to 24 - 26 gallons per tote)
  • The buckets/lids were cheap so there's not going to be a huge loss, plus I can use the netpots I already have

What y'all think? I know OldMedUser's going to think it's a much better plan :-)
 
JSB99 said:
Change of plans: I think I'm going to replace the 4 x buckets and use 2 x totes instead (plus a tote for the controller). I'm going to see if the 27 gallon HDX totes are in my budget. Those are supposed to be really good.

Reasons:
  • Even though I was able to seal the bulkheads to the round 5-gallon buckets, I'm very worried that nudging a bucket (which happens all the time) could cause the seal to break and start leaking. The totes have flat surfaces, which I'm sure will help tremendously. Plus, the totes will be heavier and more resistant to being bumped out of position.
  • The totes have a much larger capacity (8 to 10 gallon for two buckets compared to 24 - 26 gallons per tote)
  • The buckets/lids were cheap so there's not going to be a huge loss, plus I can use the netpots I already have

What y'all think? I know OldMedUser's going to think it's a much better plan :-)
Click to expand...

so basically you are stealing my design from about 5 years ago! lol.

i used shower drains on the bottom of each tote. ran 2" pvc from each tote to the control tote outside the grow room. just needed to mount them on bricks or similare to give enough clearance below.

my feeding system was a 400gph pump into heater hose which had a the kitchen faucet sprayer design on the ends to create the waterfalls.
 
rkymtnman said:
so basically you are stealing my design from about 5 years ago! lol.

i used shower drains on the bottom of each tote. ran 2" pvc from each tote to the control tote outside the grow room. just needed to mount them on bricks or similare to give enough clearance below.

my feeding system was a 400gph pump into heater hose which had a the kitchen faucet sprayer design on the ends to create the waterfalls.
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Shit, you found me out! LOL You don't have a copyright on that, do you? I admit that your setup inspired me :lol:

I had contemplated raising everything for better drainage, and had done that before. I had set up an aero system with multiple sprayers in each bucket, and no stones. The bottom of the buckets drained to the reservoir sitting below the buckets, so there was never remaining water in the buckets themselves. The res was an under-bed tote and worked really well. It was dangerous because if the sprayers got clogged, it didn't take long at all for the plants to react and start wilting.

Well, I hope you don't mind me borrowing your ideas :-)
 
Not bad for a day's work...

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The valves and everything are still really easy to get to. I also still have room to work in the tent from the side flap. That was something I wasn't willing to give up. I've got a bad back.
 
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OldMedUser said:
That's why I never nail anything down. :)

Those totes are pretty tall eh. Should work alright.
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They're actually around the same height as the buckets, so no modifying this time. I've actually taken the 2" pipes apart a number of times because of one reason or another. Mostly design changes. I used my heat gun to reactivate the solvent to where the pipes and adapters can be separated. Saves a hell of a lot money! ☺
 
I'm surprised the roots are not plugging up the return lines in these setups. I'm switching over to pails in the fall, just not sure how I'm going to set it up yet. My covered flood and drain system was a bitch until I got a handle on the roots going everywhere. Is there issues with roots? I use silk screen on my drain and it works well but I do need to clean it a couple times each run.
 
Budley Doright said:
I'm surprised the roots are not plugging up the return lines in these setups. I'm switching over to pails in the fall, just not sure how I'm going to set it up yet. My covered flood and drain system was a bitch until I got a handle on the roots going everywhere. Is there issues with roots? I use silk screen on my drain and it works well but I do need to clean it a couple times each run.
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That's why larger pipes are used. Filters can be used, but they can become clogged just as easily. With something like rdwc/uc, you check the system daily and do whatever preventative maintenance you can. Trimming roots when they start blocking pipes seems to be the method to prevent issues. Alien RDWC has systems with 4" pipes that looks like overkill, but it just helps prevent clogging.

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