Greenleaf + res = ph drift?

[Mañ'O'Green]

If you aerate your water for a day or two before you use it PH will be more stable in the reservoir to a point. It precipitates some of the calcium carbonate. When the plants transition from veg to flower the roots will exude substances that will drop the PH like a rock. In the soil this action feeds the micro organisms that provide potassium to the plant stimulating them to provide more - cool huh. Not good in our reservoirs though. This will happen for a couple of days and stop. This is your clue to shift to full on flower nutrients. In autopots if you have big swings you should try mixing your nutrients a few days ahead with aeration then a final PH before going into the res.

 

[Greenleaf Nutrients]

Others using reservoirs may comment better, but it does not seem prudent add Sweet Candy to a reservoir , with this a product that delivers a broad spectrum of high-grade nutrients ("several different types of carbo sources, 20 amino acids, 70+ vitamins and minerals..."). There is probably a good reason Sweet Candy's contents are not included in the base MegaCrop formulation - fungi and bacteria will grow, the sugars will naturally ferment, etc. You want this to happen in your medium/soil, not the reservoir.

Consider normal, top-feeding to dose your plants with Sweet Candy and other 'organics.'

I think this is a fairly good answer. If you want to run organics/carbohydrates in this type of system like Autopots, eventually you will cause a lot of bacteria and microbe growth which can cause pH to fluctuate. So the answer is to either go sterile, (which you lose a lot of the benefits of microbes), or not use the Sweet Candy in the first place.

 

[BII]

I think this is a fairly good answer. If you want to run organics/carbohydrates in this type of system like Autopots, eventually you will cause a lot of bacteria and microbe growth which can cause pH to fluctuate. So the answer is to either go sterile, (which you lose a lot of the benefits of microbes), or not use the Sweet Candy in the first place.

You cite the only options for using Sweet Candy with AutoPots as either going sterile or not using Sweet Candy. But how about manually adding Sweet Candy (and/or other 'organics') in each pot's rather than the main reservoir?

 

[ver151set]

Thats what i figured. In the future I may use Bill's idea, for now I am am setting ph to 5.9 every 2-3 days and letting it rise to 6.3 before adjusting.
Also been cleaning lines and res once a week, no issues so far beside the ph moving and a odd smell if you stick your head in the res
If I left them alone for more than 2 days Id probably skip the sweet candy on that fill

 

[Boradan]

I ran RDWC with Sweet candy and just harvested 190g from one lady and 100g from the other one.
I do not mind the increase in bacteria caused by the SC as I run my reservoir at about 73F to promote bacterial growth and I load the system with beneficial bacteria using a 'Tea' (think Hydroguard on steroids)

I put my res (tap) water into a 50litre bin and hit it with an air pump and air stone for 48 hours before doing any pH measurements and adding the nutrients. This causes the pH to rise by at least 1.0 (through a combination of the Chlorine dissipating and the O2 from the air pump pushing out the CO2 already dissolved.)

This was the state of my Airstones/root mass on harvest - the res was never 'cleaned' through the grow, it was just drained and refilled every 10 days or so.