Grow Mediums dwc grow - ec question

[GoodVibes]

hello guys, i am starting my first dwc up with 2 20 liter buckets with 30l of air going through each per minute.

my problem is i happen to live in an area where the tap water is exceptionally loaded, so my ec levels right out of the tap is 0,6-0,7.

i am starting them out with a seedling feed (vitalink - plant start), and my question is, how high do you think i could set the ec? the plants are very young, first set of leaves just showing.

 

[lykaboss]

Sorry i measure everything in PPM's on the 500 scale so i did a bit of conversion. If your tap water is .6 that is roughly 420 PPM. that is wayyyy to high for hydro. I think you could make it work with anything 100 an lower, but anything more then that can and most likely will be a problem. Get yourself an RO System. I got mine for 100 bucks off of ebay.

In hydro the water is the life blood of the plant, so why start out with poor quality?

 

[GoodVibes]

i have my eyes set on a RO system, but it will be at least another 3 weeks before i have one up and running, and as they have already sprouted im a bit impatient
furthermore i can see on sites like Canna - UK that they believe hard water to be 0,6 ec, and that it is fully possible to start out from that. but their feeding schedules is made for photos, so i wanted to know if anybody had some tricks i could use.

 

[KsjAuto]

Sorry i measure everything in PPM's on the 500 scale so i did a bit of conversion. If your tap water is .6 that is roughly 420 PPM. that is wayyyy to high for hydro. I think you could make it work with anything 100 an lower, but anything more then that can and most likely will be a problem. Get yourself an RO System. I got mine for 100 bucks off of ebay.

In hydro the water is the life blood of the plant, so why start out with poor quality?

Just because your tap Water have a high EC,, dosn`t state it`s poor quality,,
It only state that Theres minerals in it,,,,,
I have grown with hydroponic for years, with tap Water raging from 0,1 to 1,0.. EC,
Only problem i have/had is ph flux,,,,,
Just my 2 pennies,,,

Edit: atm my tap Water is 0,4

 

[GoodVibes]

Just because your tap Water have a high EC,, dosn`t state it`s poor quality,,
It only state that Theres minerals in it,,,,,
I have grown with hydroponic for years, with tap Water raging from 0,1 to 1,0.. EC,
Only problem i have/had is ph flux,,,,,
Just my 2 pennies,,,

Edit: atm my tap Water is 0,4

Thats what i thought, but do you have an idea of how high i can set the ec value, with a mild plant start feed, without hurting them?
i am getting a bit desperate atm, as i want to break them into the buckets as soon as possible

 

[KsjAuto]

I do not use dwc, so i whould wait for some of the dwc growers,, to give advice,

 

[lykaboss]

So, how do you get accurate readings? Maybe i am wrong but don't you want to know exactly what you are putting into a hydro system? When i thought about switching to hydro i got my meters and checked it, it comes out at around 380ppm, i knew this wasn't going to work so to avoid future problems i purchased an RO unit. Now water from the product line of my RO test lower then 10PPM..

I am not saying that you CAN NOT use high ppm water... but whats the point? TO know exactly what is in that water it would need to be tested. So if your using a nute lineup or feeding at say 250ppm at say week 3 of veg.... so you add 250ppm + 420PPM in his case... that is 670PPM. Thats like max PPM late flower :dunno:

I am sure you could get threw using lite nute doses with your water until you could get an RO system. I guess its just the way i look at things.... if i see a problem right from the start, i want to fix it before it becomes a serious problem

 

[GoodVibes]

As long as you're growing in a recirculating system that reuses the water, it should be the same i think?

 

[Duckster]

Sorry i measure everything in PPM's on the 500 scale so i did a bit of conversion. If your tap water is .6 that is roughly 420 PPM. that is wayyyy to high for hydro. I think you could make it work with anything 100 an lower, but anything more then that can and most likely will be a problem. Get yourself an RO System. I got mine for 100 bucks off of ebay.

In hydro the water is the life blood of the plant, so why start out with poor quality?

FYI - .6 EC = 420 on the 700 scale. On the 500 scale .6 EC= 300.

 

[GoodVibes]

So, how do you get accurate readings? Maybe i am wrong but don't you want to know exactly what you are putting into a hydro system? When i thought about switching to hydro i got my meters and checked it, it comes out at around 380ppm, i knew this wasn't going to work so to avoid future problems i purchased an RO unit. Now water from the product line of my RO test lower then 10PPM..

I am not saying that you CAN NOT use high ppm water... but whats the point? TO know exactly what is in that water it would need to be tested. So if your using a nute lineup or feeding at say 250ppm at say week 3 of veg.... so you add 250ppm + 420PPM in his case... that is 670PPM. Thats like max PPM late flower :dunno:

I am sure you could get threw using lite nute doses with your water until you could get an RO system. I guess its just the way i look at things.... if i see a problem right from the start, i want to fix it before it becomes a serious problem

I agree with you, but i still want to get going so i can get some experience in a hydroponic system.
The only thing i really need is the RO system, but i should be able to get some pretty decent plants with the setup i have atm, so i want to try it out, i was just looking for pointers and tips from the pro's