Grow Mediums DWC water turned white

[fatcalvin]

I just set up a dwc yesterday afternoon in 5gal buckets. I have 7 buckets with a EcoPlus5 airpump. I adjusted PH down to 5.8ish mark from 7.5PH from tap. (well water) I checked them this morning and the water in the buckets is a whiteish color and the PH is 8.5 now. I cleaned everything before i installed it all including soaking the hydroton in the bathtub. Im fairly certain that the air pump is oil-less. The room temp with lights on is 70-75 and the rez temp is 74. Ive ran DWC before and never had this problem. Does anyone know what it might be?? Thanks!

 

[fatcalvin]

I think I figured it out. My wife had some nail files that I used as name plates for each plant. Well they were getting wet and I think the color was bleeding into the buckets. I changed all of the rezs and hopefully that's all it is.

 

[TxOld Dude]

I have well water also and the white in mine (very slightly milky) was suspended calcium and silica which was precipitating out of the water. Had to go with jugged water until my little portable RO unit came in. Plants hated the well water, even at the proper pH. What is the ppm reading of your straight tap water? Anything above 200-250 might give you trouble. Mine was 395 ppm which is described literally as "rock hard". Hopefully, in your case it was just the nail files...



Fish

 

[Muddy]

I'm with Tx, most likely your well water, especially if you live in an area with a lot of lime stone. Do as he said, check the ppm of your water. I also suspect it's very high.