600 HID, Res DWC, 4x4, Nirvana blue mystic First real grow

This is my second grow and first REAL grow.

Heres what I got

4x4 tent
600W HID with cool tube
DWC with a 14 gallon reservoir that I will probably change for a bigger

Nutrients
Floranova
CalMag
Silica K
Great white by Plant success

I will be growing Nirvana's Blue mystic FEM x5
I am aiming for 1/2 pound

I just put the seeds in the rapid rooters and I can't wait for them to get bigger
Heres some of my stuff



Those are plants i will eventually throw out. Freebies I wanted to test stuff with. I know the roots and water are brown. The roots are brown because they were in soil and the water is brown because of the nutes.

I put the seeds too deep in the rapid rooters and they have a hard time reaching out. I looked down the hole and saw that 3 out of 5 sprouted. I'm pissed because I was aiming for 4.

If they don't come out by tomorrow, I'll open the rapid rooter and put them in a new one.
I really hope I get my 4th one.

Day 1
I put the rapid rooters into DWC system.
The 2 other seeds sprouted and I am very glad.
One of the seedling isn't out of the rapid rooter yet.
They are under my 600MH at 50% strenght.
I didn't add supplements in the reservoir yet, I am waiting 2 weeks.

Day 5
I was scared of burning the seedlings so I put my light too far. Resulted in poor growth.
I just put 2'9'' distance between my air cool MH ran at 300W. Tomorrow I'll go lower if needed.

You got nothing but water in the DWC now? Can't do that. Seedlings need nutes right away in hydro so give them 200ppm at least.

Waiting two weeks is fine in soil that has some natural nutes in it but babies need more than water.

Decided to follow your advice.
When I checked the PH of my res, I was surprised to see 7.5 as I though my tap water was at 6.2.
Added some nutes and PH down which gave me readings of 5.9 PH and 170 PPM

Now you got them in a good place.

I so often hear people give advice that you shouldn't feed baby plants for two weeks after they sprout but that's if they're growing in soil and have some nutes available. Then it's decent advice. For DWC, and any hydro grow, some nutrients must be in the water or they are starving within a few days after they use up the tiny amount of food they are born with.

I'm very surprised to hear that your tap water comes out at such a low pH. Is this from a municipal/city source or your own well or something? Towns that have lower than 7pH water add something like calcium carbonate to the water to get it above 7 so it won't corrode pipes, pumps and other metal components of their system. You are calibrating your pH pen properly I assume.

Try testing the same glass of water 3 times. Make sure it is at room temp and turn the pen off after each test and wait a few min or longer before the next test. If any of them are more than 0.2 points off then you might have low batteries or the probe may fading or the reference electrode may be dirty or contaminated. They have 2-part cleaning solutions or you can soak for a while in low pH, say 4, then higher pH, say 10, solutions to help correct any unbalance. Soak overnight in each with a good rinse with tap water between. Between uses I store mine in proper storage sol'n and it greatly prolongs the life of the probe and helps keep it accurate.

I've been using the pH Perfect nutes for a few years now and honestly haven't bothered checking the pH since. The base nutes don't cost any more than others and I'm not sucker enough to pay through the nose for all the supplements. Base plus Rhino Skin and Big Bud is all of AN stuff I've used for almost 17 years in soil/soilless and DWC. Never even used any CalMag until few years ago and never saw Ca deficiency tho did see slight Mg deficiency that I added epsom salts to correct. Got me some Bud Factor X to try out. Had to order it in here in Kelowna while visiting and they gave it to me as a free sample. Stuff is around $80/L so my 500ml bottle would have been $40 or more. The new organic hydro nutes from AN aren't available yet in Canada but hoping they get approval here so I can try that in DWC.

Good luck!

I felt like the growth was still too slow for my liking so I put the light even closer. That did the trick.

maman.. Looking good.

Just changed the fan on my ballast. The old one was no noisy I couldn't stand it.

I replaced it with this one.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B072JK9GX6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can't even hear the new one and it was easy to install because of the omnijoint adaptor set. Took me about 10 mins.

Did a res change and removed the top feed system. It was full of slime from the floranova nutes. Once I'm done with the bottle I'll try something else. It smells like balls, stains everything, doesn't entirely dilute and makes everything look wrong.

My PH pen broke and I got a new one shortly after. When I checked my PH I saw 3. I was shocked. So I did a res change and upped the dosing of the nutes since the plant are getting bigger and more vigorous. I got a reading of 5.9 PH and 350 PPM after the new res change. Seems fine, PH could be better but its hard with the PH DOWN I have as it is very strong.

Plants seem to do fine except for one that got shocked during the removal of the top feed(the top left plant). The leaves curled up and became crispy and it fell down. 2 days later its back standing but looks like crap. pretty sure she's the one I'll take out since I only want to keep 4 out of 5. I'll post a picture this Thursday as I have stuff going on tomorrow.

Day 17
Not the best picture but theres not much to see yet.
I know the plant look like shit but remember they didn't stand before.
PH went up to 6.5 today. Will try to lower it soon.

My girls are getting huge and fast. They had a slow start because I had a hard time getting used to my new equipment.
Its weird, the last plant that germinated has at least 50% more size than the others.
3 of the girls are looking like sativa's and 2 are looking like indica's. I am debating whether I scrap the smallest one that had a rough start.

Had lowered PH to like 6.2 and went down to 6.1.
PPM went from 350 to 325. I guess that means I don't need as much nutrient right? Since they only drank 7% of the PPM?

I'll get some pictures tomorrow during the res change.
Can't wait for this harvest

Did my weekly res change. PH is 5.8 and PPM is 407.
There's this brown slime that is bothering me. I'm pretty sure its the Flora Nova syrup that just doesn't dissolve completely. Really hope its not root rot.

I'll post a pic in a couple of hours since the girls just woke up and they look droopy.

The girls are doing great. The growth is very impressive. I had a hard time with DWC at first but now I see the advantages.
I gave them 400 PPM feed last time and its going down. These girls are hungry. I will up the feed to 500.

I finally got some pictures to post. I didnt post earlier because I had a slow start and wasn't motivated. First I germinated them wrong, then I put the light way too far and then I got hit by a heat wave. Now that all is fixed, they are getting big fast!

Here is Day 23

Here is day 26, only 3 days later.
I did some minor training so that they would fill the tent more evenly later on.

Day 33
PH 5.8 and PPM 600
Can't wait to see some buds. Will switch to 12/12 in 3 weeks.

Girls are getting big very fast. Hydro is great.
Just flipped to 12/12 since the girls reached 16''.
I have 2 sativa dominant pheno and expect a big stretch.

Day one of flower. Switched to flower nutes and 12/12. Blue mystic still doesn't smell. Girls grew 3" in 2 days. Hydro gains are epic.

Lowered ppm to 500 from 600. Girls were drinking 3 gallons per week and ph was getting unstable.

Edit : Girls are standing at 18" tall.