Foam In The Res

[terky]

Hello,

I have a question about the foam collecting in my res. I am worried that it may not be good for the plants, bacteria or something.

I mixed my res up a couple days ago. So it should still be good.

I have 4 air stones hooked to one of those big air pumps. Its about the size of a shoebox. There is enough air to churn the water. It looks like a fountain in there so its got to be aerated well .

I don't want to dump a peroxide in there because I want to get it to a healthy environment. Not just nuke everything.

My question is should I get some of the "good" reservoir bacteria stuff they sell at the hydro shop?

If so what kind?

Thanks

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Tell us about what nutrients you put in and in what concentrations. I have never found foam in the res to be a good thing.

 

[terky]

I use FloraNova series.

Floranova grow to about 600 PPM

Diamond nectar and growalicious to their schedule.

PH 5.5 - 5.6 Normally the PH will drift .5 or .6 up over 24 hours. But today when I checked it it was 7.3! So 1.7 up?

I am not sure of the res temp. Its on a concrete floor and its definitely not warm. If anything I am worried about it being too cold.

The system is a CAP E&G. This is my second run with it and IIRC it was doing that before too. I would put in peroxide once a week or so. When I chopped, the roots in the buckets were really good looking.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Are you using Flora Nova or the GH Flora series. The Flora Nova is not really a "series" of nutes--it has a grow formula and a bloom formula. Each is used by itself. The Flora series consists of growe, micro, and bloom where you use differing ratios of all 3 throughout the grow.

I have had some trouble with Flora Nova bloom and do not use it. I do sometimes use the Flora Nova grow.

How do you mix your nutes? Do you give the nutes time to buffer the solution before pHing?

 

[terky]

Fill it, let it bubble for at least 12 hours.

add the nutes, let it mix for a bit, check everything

wait a couple hours, check it again, adjust

check it again, adjust.

 

[Budders Keeper]

I'm with THG. I had problems with floranova on flood tables. I switched to GH3 and no more brown sludge and foam. I now run the CAP E&G with GH3 part. I had some serious air pumping through it just like you, which I believe creates foam all by itself with floranova.

 

[stevetberry]

I just finished my 8th grow and I battled algae the entire grow which made my resevoir bubble. Still not 100% sure what my problem was but I had to do the H2O2 thing for most of the grow. While I use the GH 3 part, I was also supplementing with Flora Blend and Floralicious Plus. I quit using both of these for the last few weeks and I think I was seeing improvements but I am not for sure because the roots were already dark brown and a little slimy. Something about mixing chemical nutrients with organic nutrients. The good news is that despite the algae I had a very good harvest, just had to unstop things alot.

 

[terky]

OK. Thanks for the input.

I will get some of the 3 part stuff and see if it changes anything.

Thanks

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I like to let the nutes sit for 12 hours or so to buffer the water before I pH.

 

[pcduck]

Something about mixing chemical nutrients with organic nutrients

Why would you want to do this? Aren't they defeating the purpose between each other?