Couple questions about DWC

[Verbalist]

Planning and setting up a new DWC grow. No previous experience using DWC bucket so having couple questions regarding if some hydro expert could share couple tips

#1 lets say Im going to use GHE tripart (known as Terra aquatica now days) how well does the tripart buffer the pH? Is pH- supplement needed how often? — Tap water here is between 7.3-8 pH
Obv nutrients itselfs are some what acid so that lowers the pH for a bit. But especially at the beginning of the growth you want to keep EC pretty low. For example if following some of the GHE’s charts it says first week feed would be 0.5ml/l each from Tripart and EC between 0.3-0.8mS. With that dosage am I able to keep pH and EC in under the control without any other supplements/pH minus?

#2 As mentioned above tap water is pretty close to the neutral, slightly alkaline and its also very soft. With soft water you often run into Cal/Mag defiency. Again using GHE’s Tripart as an example: does the Triparts micro offer enough or at all Cal & Mag? (Cant find which specific micro and macro nutes it includes)

#3 Water temps. How much water temperatures are affected overall on EVERYTHING when growing in DWC? 22C degrees would be ideal, thats what I read. But the temps may vary especially during the day HPS and warm weather may heat the water(?) and during the night when overall temp lowers, the water temp lowers as well. — Do I need to invest in water heater?

Any helpful tips n tricks regarding Deep water culture are more than welcome!

 

[Modest Grower]

Hey @Verbalist very exciting entering the world of DWC. I am finishing my first grow and I must say it was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, I did not use the nutrients you mentioned so I am pretty much of no help there. I used Megacrop and rather than use EC or ppm for measuring nutes I went by weight and kept an eye on ppm. For me, this was super easy.

As for ph adjusting and calcium, I personally would plan on having a bottle of calmag and ph down on hand. I had to use a little of both every resevoir change.

On the topic of temp, I personally worry about the water getting too warm as opposed to too cold. I run my light at night to keep temps warmer and then a chiller to keep the reservoir temps consistent. I'm very new to hydro and dwc so maybe someone with more expertise can hop in but my first grow was a great success in my mind. Are you building or buying your set up and do you plan to have a separate reservoir?

 

[TorturedSoul]

Should have pH adjusters at hand. Those nutrients are stable, but you'll likely need to adjust nutrient solution to your target pH. Then, as plant consumes elements from solution, it'll change. You'll probably get reasonably competent at reading your plants and guessing what to add to your reservoir (in between changes) to bring it back (more or less) to what it was to begin with - which will tend to move the pH back. But that takes a little observation and practice.

If you choose to add a calcium supplement, add that first, then your micro, grow, and bloom. Mix well after each addition. THEN check and (if necessary) adjust pH. If you use a silicon supplement, that goes in before anything else.

If you're using a water softener, get your plant water from the bypass (and your drinking water, too). If it's naturally that way, I guess you're stuck with it, lol.

I've no opinion on minimum reservoir temperature. I'd try to keep it above 16°C, but have probably failed occasionally. Bigger reservoirs are better (IMHO) - and they lose heat slower than smaller ones. Don't place directly on cold floor; use a sheet of rigid insulation. I used to use 21 or 23 US gallon totes (but I liked few large plants instead of many small ones, and a longer growth phase), one plant per. Hand watered into plant got a root into the reservoir. Like SCROG, 8 square foot screen. By time plant had filled it and I let it start growing up instead of pulling the many tips back down and repositioning them to other holes, towards the latter part of the flowering stretch, the reservoir was full of roots and the plant was transpiring enough water each day that I had to add to the reservoir on a daily basis anyway. Kind of made changing the reservoir a PITA - but the plant would hang from the screen, heh. At harvest time, would saw through the trunk at base of plant, disconnect screen from walls, and have a friend help me carry it to dining room table. Was easier than trying to do a partial harvest (IOW, one plant of several when they wouldn't all be ready at same time).

Oxygenate, oxygenate, oxygenate - then oxygenate some more. People like air pumps and air stones. I also added an aquarium power head to each reservoir. A well-oxygenated root zone makes for a more efficient feeder, a plant that can shrug off heat stress, and discourages the growth of anaerobic bacteria. Plants don't drown - even in a soil grow, "overwatered" just means the roots didn't have access to sufficient oxygen. Position your air pump higher than your reservoir - that way, if there's a power failure and the check valve in the pump happens to be faulty, you don't return and discover that all of your nutrient solution has siphoned onto your grow room floor.

Search for and print up Mulder's Chart - it's round, sort of, and shows relationships between elements; too much of A causes plant to have difficulty using B, too much of C causes plant to not need as much of D, like that. Print up one of the toxicity/deficiency pictorials. There's also a chart that explains... like, pH falls EC rises means... kind of thing. @Rifleman has posted it a time or two, maybe he can tell you where to find it. Those three will enable you to "read" your plants and feed them what they need.

Get a good quality pH meter and read about initial prep, calibration, proper storage, etc. Lots of light, don't smoke in the grow room, get a carbon filter, don't piss off your old lady, blah blah blah. Get "palm scissors" like people who work in hosiery mills and have to use them all day long, five days/week use so they're not crippled by age 30. Your hands will still be sore the day after harvest. First world problems . . . .

 

[Rexer]

Hey TS! Great to see you back on here.

One question, what's the PPM from the tap? Or did I miss that?

And here's the chart

 

[Verbalist]

Hey @Verbalist very exciting entering the world of DWC. I am finishing my first grow and I must say it was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, I did not use the nutrients you mentioned so I am pretty much of no help there. I used Megacrop and rather than use EC or ppm for measuring nutes I went by weight and kept an eye on ppm. For me, this was super easy.

As for ph adjusting and calcium, I personally would plan on having a bottle of calmag and ph down on hand. I had to use a little of both every resevoir change.

On the topic of temp, I personally worry about the water getting too warm as opposed to too cold. I run my light at night to keep temps warmer and then a chiller to keep the reservoir temps consistent. I'm very new to hydro and dwc so maybe someone with more expertise can hop in but my first grow was a great success in my mind. Are you building or buying your set up and do you plan to have a separate reservoir?

Hey Modest! Thanks for the reply went through your diary and looks like it was a great success and very nice set up you got there.

Im going to buy a ”complete bubbler kit”. Looks like this one below. Its just a 15L reservior which comes with a lid + netcup. tubing, air pump and stone included.

 

[Verbalist]

Should have pH adjusters at hand. Those nutrients are stable, but you'll likely need to adjust nutrient solution to your target pH. Then, as plant consumes elements from solution, it'll change. You'll probably get reasonably competent at reading your plants and guessing what to add to your reservoir (in between changes) to bring it back (more or less) to what it was to begin with - which will tend to move the pH back. But that takes a little observation and practice.

If you choose to add a calcium supplement, add that first, then your micro, grow, and bloom. Mix well after each addition. THEN check and (if necessary) adjust pH. If you use a silicon supplement, that goes in before anything else.

If you're using a water softener, get your plant water from the bypass (and your drinking water, too). If it's naturally that way, I guess you're stuck with it, lol.

I've no opinion on minimum reservoir temperature. I'd try to keep it above 16°C, but have probably failed occasionally. Bigger reservoirs are better (IMHO) - and they lose heat slower than smaller ones. Don't place directly on cold floor; use a sheet of rigid insulation. I used to use 21 or 23 US gallon totes (but I liked few large plants instead of many small ones, and a longer growth phase), one plant per. Hand watered into plant got a root into the reservoir. Like SCROG, 8 square foot screen. By time plant had filled it and I let it start growing up instead of pulling the many tips back down and repositioning them to other holes, towards the latter part of the flowering stretch, the reservoir was full of roots and the plant was transpiring enough water each day that I had to add to the reservoir on a daily basis anyway. Kind of made changing the reservoir a PITA - but the plant would hang from the screen, heh. At harvest time, would saw through the trunk at base of plant, disconnect screen from walls, and have a friend help me carry it to dining room table. Was easier than trying to do a partial harvest (IOW, one plant of several when they wouldn't all be ready at same time).

Oxygenate, oxygenate, oxygenate - then oxygenate some more. People like air pumps and air stones. I also added an aquarium power head to each reservoir. A well-oxygenated root zone makes for a more efficient feeder, a plant that can shrug off heat stress, and discourages the growth of anaerobic bacteria. Plants don't drown - even in a soil grow, "overwatered" just means the roots didn't have access to sufficient oxygen. Position your air pump higher than your reservoir - that way, if there's a power failure and the check valve in the pump happens to be faulty, you don't return and discover that all of your nutrient solution has siphoned onto your grow room floor.

Search for and print up Mulder's Chart - it's round, sort of, and shows relationships between elements; too much of A causes plant to have difficulty using B, too much of C causes plant to not need as much of D, like that. Print up one of the toxicity/deficiency pictorials. There's also a chart that explains... like, pH falls EC rises means... kind of thing. @Rifleman has posted it a time or two, maybe he can tell you where to find it. Those three will enable you to "read" your plants and feed them what they need.

Get a good quality pH meter and read about initial prep, calibration, proper storage, etc. Lots of light, don't smoke in the grow room, get a carbon filter, don't piss off your old lady, blah blah blah. Get "palm scissors" like people who work in hosiery mills and have to use them all day long, five days/week use so they're not crippled by age 30. Your hands will still be sore the day after harvest. First world problems . . . .

Hi and thanks for this, I appreciate it!
Hoping that Im just over thinking it more complicated than it actually is.

Like if Im having chilled water waiting in separate reservior which has sat +24hrs so pH might have dropped close to neutral, can I just fine tune the pH down by adding nutrients? If not being too accurate and want to keep the scale somewhere between 5.8-6.2. Does the nutrients do the buffering most of the times?
Is pH minus more handy when lets say Ive 3-5 days old solution in reservior and I notice pH has rised but I still want to keep the solution rather than mix up the whole thing again? Instructions telling the reservior water should be changed every 7 days.

Then about Calcium and Magnesium. Does tripart micro include Cal & Mag? Or do I need to buy separate Cal/Mag supplement?

And about the bucket and water oxygenating. As mentioned above it will be 15L reservior with a lid and compared to the reservior capasity the air pump and stone should do the job in that small container. If the pump does not produce enough oxygen theres an option to switch it to dual output air pump and place two air stones inside the reservior.

PS. Hah, might just hire up a maid who runs between the bathroom and grow room carrying those water buckets. Joke, I love to the care of the plants and be able to affect them just in the way I want. Thats most likely why Im interested in DWC because theres whole lot more you can and you HAVE TO do. Growing in soil is getting pretty straight forward, so want to test something new. Not meaning that I would have mastered soil growing in any aspect, but everything when growing soilless sounds interesting which I want to learn. Hopefully I still agree halfway thru the next growth

 

[Verbalist]

Hey TS! Great to see you back on here.

One question, what's the PPM from the tap? Or did I miss that?

And here's the chart

Google says tap water PPM here should be between 0.0 - 7.6 (Idk how accurate is that lol) Dont have a TDS meter to test it right now.

 

[Rexer]

Google says tap water PPM here should be between 0.0 - 7.6 (Idk how accurate is that lol) Dont have a TDS meter to test it right now.

Id get a TDS meter as soon as you can and test it.

0.0-7.6 EC is such a drastic range, it's irrelevant. That's like saying somewhere between healthy and toxic. Now if that is actually PPM that's the cleanest water I've seen, and you lucked out.

The importance of it, and TS please correct me if I'm wrong...is that too high of a starting PPM can cause some problems, as you don't know what's in it. That's one of the reasons you see a lot of hydro growers using RO systems- it creates a blank slate for your NPK numbers. A great example is myself, I'm on a well, it has high amounts of iron and other minerals, enough so, that if I were to use it, I'd run the risk of nutrient lockouts.

That's not to say it can't be done, Copperrein is a great example, she uses well water in hydro without problems.

I've done hydro on city tap water without problems. Keep in mind that the chlorine and other additives in tap water can have a negative effect on beneficial bacteria (if use decide to use that in place of h202).

I'm not trying to scare you off, I hope you stay the course, hydro is fun once you get setup. I just want to give you the information- it's good to know stuff.