Yellowish Leaves -- Organic Material Problem?

Hi there,

I've got an 18-gallon and a 5-gallon DWC setup. 250 Watt CMH lamp (which is awesome btw), GH nutes, and more-than-good-enough air stones. (aka I've got a 20 gallon air pump sending air to my 5 gallon dwc)

The plants were looking GREAT for the first 5-6 weeks. Lots of growth, tons of nodes, etc. etc. But me being the idiot that I am, had the net pots too close together on the original lid design. So as the plants got bigger, they were all up in each other's business blocking light, etc.

So I made a new lid with the net pots more spread out. When I transplanted them, there were quite a few roots that got ripped out due to the huge tangled mess in the reservoir. So I was a little worries that this would hurt the plants growth, but I went to my local hydro store and bought some "Superthrive." It's one drop per gallon if I recall.

So I thought that by adding that, it would help cure any problems from the transplant.

Well just days later, my plants started looking "droopy" and the leaves started hanging down. Then the next day, some of the bottom leaves started turning yellow. The day after that, 2 of my plants just folded over on themselves because they couldn't hold up their own weight.

I grabbed some dental floss to help keep those 2 plants upright, and I've added another air pump + air stone to the reservoir as well as about 8 oz. of H202 (hydrogen peroxide).

Nothing.

Tried pumping some more air through the air with my oscillating fan.

Nothing.

I've read articles online about root rot and such, and I originally thought I had that, but my water temps are fine, and the roots are getting TONS of air, so I don't know what the problem is.

I've got a bunch of dead leaves and other organic material that has been on the floor of my grow room for quite some time, and yesterday when I checked both the reservoirs, I noticed that there were tiny little leaves and stuff inside.

IS THIS WHATS CAUSING ALL OF THIS? I'm not sure if dead organic material like that will cause this, but I am out of answers. I will post as many pics as I can, and if you have any questions or need some more info, please post and I will respond.

PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Thanks everybody!

any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

There are several different problems, and the culprit to it all is your ph. Check that and fix it then they will recover. Superthrive has a tendancy to throw ph out of whack, that shit is strong. I have a suspicion that you used too much ST, which is real easy to do, it is far from being a miracle. Are you in veg or flower? Because if you are in flower ST will take them down real quick, been there done that with ST. Change out your res tanks and use all fresh water nutes etc. The nutes should be reintroduced at 1/2 strength. No ST this time. Luck

Ok, so I should just go back to to my GH nutes schedules with a cut in their strength?

No H202, no Epsom Salt, no Super Thrive.


Also, should I cut off the dying branches or should I let them be? Thanks

Yep cut off the dead stuff and by changing out your tank, only using 1/2 GH, and balancing your ph your plants will bounce back.