Grow Mediums Post Apocalyptic Grow Journal SYGAVLED 600W LED TEST

[Jimmy Joe James]

First of all thanks to everyone that helped with getting the grow equipment and all of the advice given in this forum. You guys are beyond amazing. After a very exhausting month with Amazon customer service trying to figure out what they could ship to me cause they didn't even know until a week after I placed the order half of the time. So no quantum leds or even the better brand stuff for me (sigh). But after seeing some positive reviews and combined with what my budget allowed I was able to get 2 of these SYGAVLED 600w from amazon and some bagseed to test if they at least give similar results to Vipar and Mars. I'm excited to see what happens and see if these lights are any good! So far the seeds have been about 2 days in rockwool.



One of the things I have found these past couple of days is that lemons or vinegar are not working for me as an effective PH down I have to adjust it every 6 hours and if left un adjusted for 24 it will skyrocket to 8.0 ph even higher than what the water comes out from the tap. I can't get GH or any other to ship any ph solution and I can't find them locally. Oddly enough they can ship PH up alone but not PH down or the bundle with PH Down. Amazon told me there a ban on shipping acids in my area so I guess I'm a little stuck. The two options I have left for PH down would be either Boric Acid at the super market or Sulfuric Acid at autozone. Which of the two should I go with in this case?

Asides from a bit of PH control everything else seems fine. Wish me luck! I'm nervous as this is my first DWC grow lol

 

[CoviklaFlaire]

Did you try with lime acid? I'm lowering my ph with it..

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

They finally popped!

And yes i did try lime acid problem is i have to use ALOT of it. Im not worried too much about it, tomorrow i will buy both and experiment which one works best. I might try a mix of both. From my understanding boric acid provides boron which the plant needs anyway.

 

[CoviklaFlaire]

My tap p.h is 8.6 and I add about 3.5gr of lime acid for 11l of water, to lower it to 6.5 ph. But I must tell you That I never let it sit around more then few minutes, so I dont know if p.h. would rise again after some time..

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

My tap p.h is 8.6 and I add about 3.5gr of lime acid for 11l of water, to lower it to 6.5 ph. But I must tell you That I never let it sit around more then few minutes, so I dont know if p.h. would rise again after some time..

Yeah I that's about the same I use. problem is also I live in a tropical environment and I don't have enough power to run an AC so temps fluctuate from 25C to 32C throughout the day dropping and rising. in that process my ph always goes up and rarely back down. Also the lime acid after 3 days has this nasty lemony fermented smell from adding so much with the fluctuations. I'm able to control it and keep it to 5.8 but only after 3-4 days of checking every 4 hours and adding obscene amounts of Citric Acid. I had a huge 4 lbs bag of citric acid it didn't last a week with so much I had to use. I cant afford an AC right now and I have 3 fans in the grow room. But the best I can do is keep it no higher than 32C and its usually for just 3-4 hours of the entire day. I got the boric acid and sulfuric acid today so I'll see how those fare in comparison.

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Day 3 and TBH it has been exceeding my expectations for such a half assed setup!

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Well i definitely aint going back to soil lmao it hast even been 7 days and one already hit the reservoir. From the looks of it the others are gonna also hit within the next couple of days. The sulfuric acid keeps the ph much more stable at 6.3 ph. Tap water had 127ppm after nutes its at 407 ppm (i put about 1/4 strength) maybe thats a little high but i havent seen any ill effects so far. Im just happy how easy its been. Honestly i expected this to be harder. I had more nightmares my first time in soil lol.

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

Well day 7 and they're looking pretty good! I found one of them with a little burn on the leaves. When I checked the reservoir the water was slimy and the ph was a 4.3, YIKES! Did a reservoir change quickly with a fresh batch of nutrient solution and 8ml of Hydroguard in the reservoir PH at 6.2 and the plant seemed to bounce back and happy again. I notice the effects on fixed reflect really quick on hydro as opposed to soil. DWC makes me happy that I can quickly see if I'm doing something wrong or right and correct it. Root growth has been amazing. Thinking of increasing nute strength in the next 2-3 days to around 700ppm.

 

[Jimmy Joe James]

So on Monday I got a little too excited and increased them to 650ppm in the morning. By 7 pm they had all dropped to 583ppm and and seemed to stay steady until today. The plant which dropped to PH to 4.3 previously had 3 inches less of solution on the rez. I noticed that one of the newer leaves started to show a little bit but TINY bit of yellowing on the tip. I checked the PH and it had dropped to 5.3 and the ppm's were at 484. The other plants did not consume as much water (only about 1.5 inches less nutrient solution in the bucket) and the ppm's only dropped to 573.

Idk if I messed up but on the plant that dropped to 484 I filled it with more nutrient solution and it went up to 600ppm stabilized the PH at 6.0. That was at 9am, I checked again all the plants PH and ppm at around 3pm. 2 of them are at 5.8 ph and still at 573ppm. The other one the PH was at 6.0 and dropped to 593ppm by 3pm. So far everything looks ok. I'm just a total newb to DWC so idk if all these swings are normal.

Day 11 pics of how they looked in the afternoon after everything said and done lol.

 

[Boradan]

Good job with the pH issue.
Nice going with the grow.

Here is a great sheet to use for DWC:

Gonna sub for this