new to hydro and i have a calcium defeciency...need help fast

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wedginfool

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Hi all just to give you the rundown i'm using a flood an drain system with rockwell slabs and some grodan grocubes
i've been flooding for an hour with a half hour dry time between floods
I have a 55 gallon drum for a rez and it takes this long to fill and then drain.....without cavitating the drain pump.

my plants are 2 1/2 months old and on average are a foot tall and have been stem pinching the entire time they are mostly clones from a medi-bud plant from marijuanaseedsnl.com .......... and i have a couple other strains ....some arjanshaze #1 feminized from greenhouse seeds .....northernlights x elnino skunk feminized, white widow from g13 labs .........a pure affy strain from marijuanaseeds.nl...........

i've got a 3' x 6' area enclosed in panda plastic to the ceiling ..........top half for cloning and veg .......... bottom half for budding
using 2 250 watt hps and 1 400 watt hps in a home made cooltube...temps are right at 80 at canopy level which is about 16" off the floor..........outdoor temps are 79........I'm blowing air straight off an airconditioner through my cooltube by way of a diy manifold

plant spacing is tight i've got 54 plants in there 3 plants per sq ft and many tops on them some with five tops from the cutting stage

i've been using gh's 3 part nuts .....gro, micro, bloom
just bumped up to 1130 ppm veg formula (321)--(gro-mic-bloom)

the plants are looking fantastic (at first they were in shock because i used nutes on them too soon) but when i put them in the slabs and got the hydro going and they were in a good vegetative state I've noticed some rust...........it's only been a few days since i first noticed it and it's only on like 2 or 3 plants ...............and no it doesn't seem to be strain specific as it is on more than one type of plant.....................................after looking at some pictures on this site


http://www.mjp.com/ic/showthread.php?t=11688

there is no doubt that it is a calcium deficiency (at least in my mind)

and NO i cant show you pictures ........................you're just going to have to trust me that this is a calcium defeciency.....................I've been reading quite a bit lately and there's other post's about gh's 3 part nut's and people being calcium defecient

and the pictures on that post are exactly like mine and they are not ones that resemble any other symptom.............. like so many others do ......they are pretty much exclusive from what i can see

what i found to fix the problem is a liquid concentrate (and this the name)
NATURAL LIME...by RAINGROW

then it says

GET A LAWN for green lawns and gardens

it is a liquid suspended calcium and magnesium fertilizer that i think should work for my problem ........................my problem is that i don't know how much to add to my rez ..............

Ive been thinking that i would add it gradually to my rez until i raised the ppm 100 points...........................and see what happens


any thoughts ???????

the broke down gauranteed analysis is as follows

total calcium (Ca)........................................7.0%
Calcium Carbonate(CaCO3).......................17.0 %
Calcium Oxide (CaCO)................................9.8%
Total Magnesium (Mg)..................................4.0 %
magnesium carbonate (MgCO3)..................14.0 %
magnesium oxide (MgCO)............................6.7 %

Calcium Carbonate Equivalent (CCE)...............22.0%
Relative Neutralizing Value (RNV) ...................22.0%
Total Neutralizing Value (TNV) ......................22.0%
Solids.......................................................30.0%
derived from Dolimitic Limestone
Density .............1.5 kg/l (9.63 LB/gal)

I realize that this is going to effect my ph (not sure which way) which has been....... at least according to only fish tank tester drop's type and only goes down to 6.0...........so i've been keeping it at 6 according to that type of tester..........Along that note I have a digital ph tester but have no calibration solutions .....and i've read on this site somewhere that using evian bottled water has a certain ph value and that you could use that to calibrate your meter in a pinch ......... if there is any one out there that can verify this i would be very appreciative:D





please answer quick if this isn't a good idea and i might be adding too much
or for any other input for that matter
thanks in advance:D
 
yea i decided to add some to a 1 gallon jug to test it and the ec and ppm prior to adding 20 ml was and ec of .16 and a ppm of 120..........after the 20 ml's the readings are the same i wonder if this stuff needs to break down to work..............any ideas

I don't know wheather to use it or not???

please someone give me some help
 
I wish i could help you but i know nothing about flood and drain, hopefully someone with knowledge on that see's your post soon! Peace and Love!!!!
Roken.
 
imo..

your PH is to low locking out P, K and calcium.

It is deficiency but not in the nute solution.
Plant can't take any in, because PH is probably way off. im guessing
too Low.. but you dont know because your aquarium dropper ph testers
are pretty crappy.. goodluck.

btw i go to mjp also..
 
hi puff sorry i haven't posted anything in return, but no one was answering and so i made another post and got some replies.........since then i've got a good ph tester and got it calibrated .............at the time i must have had my ph too low because i checked the ph of the slabs with a syringe with some tubing attatched to it and the PH in the slabs was only 4.5 ...............since then i've flushed her with 200 gallons fresh water not ph adjusted my tap is 7.4 and this raised the ph and it looks like my problem has gone away but i'm still keeping an close eye on things ............. btw I switched to the lucas formula .....one day i had spent a lot of time working on them and it was getting awful hot in there so i went and had a beer or 2 at the local tavern good thing i only had one or 2 because i left the fill hose unhooked and had pumped half the barrell out on the floor when i got home ......................this is getting awful stressful this is the second time i've done this, so anyway i went ahead and drained her and switched to the lucas formula since then things have been looking pretty good.........i haven't used any PH down this rez and with just the buffers in the nut solution my ph is right at 6 in the rez i have raised the ph in the slabs some but am not sure if it is enough without getting some ph up.............which i dont have any of..........i have been awful busy lately these days as i'm still working on my set up and flooding my floor twice also had to clone today and yesterday cause i dont want them getting any further budded without getting my clones ..........I had some seeds that needed sexing .........good mojo only 1 male yee haa..............anyway i've been too busy to get a ph reading on my slabs but i will tomorrow before the first fill of the day
 
zip tie all your water connections...

also..

I think you are floooding way to much..

Some water: Flood for a Hour and OFF for 2 hours.

Some water: Flood for 30 minutes only 3 times a day with lights on ..
that comes out to about once every 3 hours.. Might want to look
into that.
 
you know i might be overwatering a little too much for the rockwool slabs but for the grocubes i have in one gal containers i dont think so ...........because the roots hang out a foot long and are sitting dry for that half hour ...........i dont know if this going to harm these plants or not........any thoughts?
 
I'm in a hurry and didn't read all the posts, but if you do hydro I am a big believer in having some CAL MAG by Botanicare laying around, especially if you use distilled water. It's good stuff and helps in a pinch IMO. Good luck with your problem BTW.
 

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