Can you over-water a hydro garden? Please clear me up someone...

Alright, plain and simple, one of my plants is pretty fucked up. It was fine until Saturday morning when I changed the water/nutes, then shit hit the fan.... Since then neither of my plants has really grown very well and one is hurting real bad. Here's a link to the thread with pics.

Anyways, from what I've been able to gather through different websites ans whatnot, the droopiness in my plants is from A) overwatering or B) not enough oxygen getting to the roots. I believe that overwatering is more of a soil growing concern, I don't see how it could relate to hydro.

As for the oxygen getting to the roots, I've got at least a 24" flexible airstone in the tank (it may be 36") and I've been using plenty of h202, especially since this bullshit went down. Anyways, hoping someone could help clear this up for me.

How do the roots look inside the tub? When you did your res change, how long were they out of the water? Was there a drastic difference in water temperature between the res and the new water? I have done that and got the same results. How much space do you have between the water line and the bottom of the net pots?

you can add peroxide in your mix. doesnt matter if you have air stones. If your roots are too deep in the water, they're drowing.

Juicy Jay said:

you can add peroxide in your mix. doesnt matter if you have air stones. If your roots are too deep in the water, they're drowing.

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So what are you saying? Should I not fill my tank up with as much water or something? I've never had this problem my last 3 hydro grows, the only difference on this one being that its a bigger res, 10g of water vs. 6g of water in the previous ones.

LonghornFan said:

How do the roots look inside the tub? When you did your res change, how long were they out of the water? Was there a drastic difference in water temperature between the res and the new water? I have done that and got the same results. How much space do you have between the water line and the bottom of the net pots?

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Roots look just fine, not discolored, don't smell, nothing like that. I changed the res on Monday and put new nutes and everything in. Both the water before and after the res change was cool, probably in the 60/70s. There is probably like 2-3in between the bottom of the net pots and the water.

Gobias11 said:

Roots look just fine, not discolored, don't smell, nothing like that. I changed the res on Monday and put new nutes and everything in. Both the water before and after the res change was cool, probably in the 60/70s. There is probably like 2-3in between the bottom of the net pots and the water.

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haw big is your air pump, and is your tub wide or tall? i had a simular problem and found that one of my old air pumps was not pumping enough air. i have a 10 gall hydro dwc system that is wide 3' x 4' & 10inch tall. plants were yellowing and leafs were burning looked like nuit burn. i went out and bought a 76liter per min pump added 4 more air stones. and brought my sick girls back to health. ck your air pump they do go bad.

fishenfool06 said:

haw big is your air pump, and is your tub wide or tall? i had a simular problem and found that one of my old air pumps was not pumping enough air. i have a 10 gall hydro dwc system that is wide 3' x 4' & 10inch tall. plants were yellowing and leafs were burning looked like nuit burn. i went out and bought a 76liter per min pump added 4 more air stones. and brought my sick girls back to health. ck your air pump they do go bad.

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I have a single, 28gph air pump with a 36" flexible airstone that seems to be working just fine; it wraps underneath both my plants is produces a lot of bubbles. My reservoir is roughly 21x16x16, it's really not too tall or wide, but it is a little larger than is probably necessary.

I emptied out about 2 gallons of water from the res earlier to try and get more oxygen to the roots. Considering what you said I may not have enough juice coming from my air pump so maybe having less water will help (I'm 10gal also).

Anyways, thanks for the responses everyone, I will keep you guys posted if anything happens

Not much progress unfortunately.... nor are there many other suggestions or routes for me to take.

I just bought a new air pump that is good for up to 40 gallons; it's definitely a big step up from the previous air pump I had (still using the 36" flexible airstone). I'm hoping that this will help keep my girls from drowning.

Anyways, I will update with progress for all those people who are or will eventually experience the same problem. And as always, any suggestions/comments are always encouraged.

Gobias11 said:

Not much progress unfortunately.... nor are there many other suggestions or routes for me to take.

I just bought a new air pump that is good for up to 40 gallons; it's definitely a big step up from the previous air pump I had (still using the 36" flexible airstone). I'm hoping that this will help keep my girls from drowning.

Anyways, I will update with progress for all those people who are or will eventually experience the same problem. And as always, any suggestions/comments are always encouraged.

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u might want more air pumps and stones, i was using 2 pumps for a 100 gall tank and 10LPM pump. and that was not enough. so i bought a 70LPM pump that had 8 lines , so you can power 8 12inch air stones. so im using 2 pumps for 100 gall fish tank and the 70 LPM pump. thats a lot of air . there are no dead water spots in my tank. when u have those feeder roots in the tub it acts like a wingdam and fluid on the back side will be still. u need constant movement in your tub at all times. if water caries your oxygen to your roots, u can not afford for the fluid to stand still ever.

i found a pix , one week after adding the 70LPM pump. the roots were brown and slimey ,one week before this.

fishenfool06 said:

u might want more air pumps and stones, i was using 2 pumps for a 100 gall tank and 10LPM pump. and that was not enough. so i bought a 70LPM pump that had 8 lines , so you can power 8 12inch air stones. so im using 2 pumps for 100 gall fish tank and the 70 LPM pump. thats a lot of air . there are no dead water spots in my tank. when u have those feeder roots in the tub it acts like a wingdam and fluid on the back side will be still. u need constant movement in your tub at all times. if water caries your oxygen to your roots, u can not afford for the fluid to stand still ever.

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Awesome, thanks for the response, man. I have another powerful air pump and another airstone or flexible airstone, I will add those today. My roots have never gone totally brown or gotten slimy; they actually look and smell fine.

Unfortunately I haven't seen much progress in either direction. The plants have been more or less at a standstill. Some of the leaves seem like they're turning a little yellow but I don't think it's nutrient burn, I think it may be a side-effect of the overwatering. Thanks again for the reply, I will update later.

Last update: (for anyone who comes across this thread with the same problem)

Air was definitely the solution. I added probably about 10x more air than I had in the tank previously with other air stones and pumps that I had. After that improvement was visible overnight in both the leaves and roots.

Thanks to all who replied with help.

gobias11 said:

last update: (for anyone who comes across this thread with the same problem)

air was definitely the solution. I added probably about 10x more air than i had in the tank previously with other air stones and pumps that i had. After that improvement was visible overnight in both the leaves and roots.

Thanks to all who replied with help.

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any time glad to help. Air was the solution for me to.