how to keep hydroponic water clean
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- Today I will show you what you need to do to keep your hydroponic water clean. Clean water is a necessary part of hydroponics, and you will not have healthy plants without it. Dirty water quickly becomes overrun with bacteria and fungus, which will eventually attack the plant’s roots, weakening or killing the plant.
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Hey Joshua, good video. One tip I can give is I realize that while they're seedlings we shouldn't give them constant bubbling, it should be on a timer and something like 30 minutes on 1 hour off and not use products like kelp or humic folic acids until you switch to the growth phase and the roots are nice and strong. I do it enough to temperatures of 84 degrees res and it seems to work. To avoid root rot and algae blooms
"Because who wouldn't have a dishwasher in your grow room." LOL - love it!
Light seepage and warm water temps also contribute to root rot. Tape or paint those trays on the outside and add a water cooler depending on your geo location...
Totally agree!
Cheers mate I needed this video! Just picked up an IDOO hudroponic system and this video is helpful!
Right on Mr. Joshua. Thanks for sharing your insights. Keep them coming.
Have you ever try using an uvc aquarium submergible light to kill fungus and bacteria out of your water bucket? Of course you still have to take precaution with 😎 but 15 min. Of uv light will do the job. Great video!
I have not! Uv is usually expensive and I don’t have a budget for it. 😞 I do know that I’ve can sanitize a lot of water though! Good tip!
I run recirculating and non recirculating setups. The small amount of run off from the non recirculating setups setups helps to keep the recirculated system topped up. You should try to minimise the amount of nutrients you are dumping as its not great for your wallet or the planet ;)
I recently learned that air stones raise the ph of the solution so im trying to cut the airstones and maybe just buy one of those new air mixing sump pumps to kick on multiple times throughout the day and 10 min before watering cycles to try and slow down that ph rise.
In your experience what is the drift of your ph in your airstoned setup? What do you start your ph at?
I’ve actually never adjusted my ph. I check occasionally and it’s usually between 5.5 and 6.5. I assume plants can handle that swing. I mean in nature, you get what you get, grow or die. I’ve never had any stunted growth. Most of my problems are root rot associated.
@@jhonnyblade702 starting out after nutrients at 6.0 the next day it will reach upwards of 6.8
@@Trippopolis23 thank you
@@jhonnyblade702 you're welcome boss
Anaerobic... aka, stinky. Your dishwasher reminded me that I have things I need to wash... d'oh! Looking good, will be cool to see the expansion.
Lol there is always something to clean huh?
I appreciate your videos, thank you
Great work. I wanna make the same system, can you tell me the material you used to put above the tray? The plate you place the netting pots and plants on top of.
I’m struggling 😞thanks for the advice. I’d like to send you some pics of what I have. Mine are prototypes as well
Love the dishwasher! It would be great to see your thoughts about how you will upgrade past the prototype.
It’s still a work in progress and it will probably take years before I find a permanent setup I like. That’s the fun of it though!
The temperature of the nutrient solution can dictate your levels of dissolved oxygen aswell so keeping your water at the appropriate level can maximize the amount of dissolved oxygen in your nutrient solution
Yes, good point!
I also would like to ask which nutritions you used?
could you not filter the water in cotton wool similar to a fish tank?
You mentioned a lot of different water types but what about rain water? It's what i use for my grows.
The salt in water softeners are Sodium Chloride or Potassium Chloride. Both are great at killing plants. Nothing like the "salts" in your nutrients.
I like your video I found the set up equipment informational. Thank you 😊
Thanks for the feedback!
How does the water return from the reservoir up to the trays? Did I miss a pump? Great video. Thanks for posting.
6:46
The water in the reserver tank get warmup with the pump and that can cause also bacteria in the system, because bacteria loves warm temperature.
That is a good point!
thank you, very informative. Greetings from Germany
Glad I could help!
I would go black tubing with everything.
I indeed had problems with algae in the clear tubes. I have updated to black ones now.
Are you finding that your trays are a bit too shallow? Your roots seemed to be stunted. I was thinking about flatter trays but was afraid of them being too shallow for the roots of my plants.
mistponics & fogponics as well
Whu doesnt the chlorine in tap water kill bacteria.?
Im not trying to offend you , but I think you have much to learn with hydro :) Starting with using RO water and cal/mag instead of tap ( which will cause a lot of problems ),,,,never let your water get above 70 f , only use H202 for a temporary fix for root rot ( it will kill the much needed good bacteria as well as the bad ), it turns to oxygen/ water within a few hours , use hydroguard for root rot . Clear tubes will build up with algae,,. Lots of bubbles , temp between 64 and 69 f are the main things in hydro ., and also keep light out of your reservoir ( extremely important ) if one of those 3 things isnt perfect , you will always battle root rot and stinky , slimy water. And also try keep the dreaded fungus gnats out :)
No offense taken! I totally agree that I have much more to learn. I’m just teaching what I know and understand that works. If you see my recent videos I have made many changes to the system including black tubes. What issues do you run into when using tap water? I haven’t experienced any. I know that RO is pure water but also very expensive to make. If you can get away with tap, it makes thing much more simple.
Another question. What good bacteria am I killing with h202? I haven’t had a single issue with root rot using it.
my reservoir containers are white so plenty of light gets through but I make sure they water is always churning so I don’t get much buildup.
Thanks for stopping by and giving me your take on it! I really appreciate it!
@@joshuarudd6297 I bought a great RO system recently , and it wasnt very expensive at all and the replacement filters can be found on amazon even cheaper ( Hydrologic ) it was 99$ I think . It really depends on the TDS/EC of your tap water ,,too hard can cause salts to build up and eventually lockout and you know about too soft . I used to use Brita water but realized there was still way too much other junk in my water . I went from over 400 ppm to 007 after switching to RO water . There are many beneficial bacteria roots need to uptake nutrients better and faster . Look into great white products or hydroguard . I never let H202 get to my roots , I only use it as a foliar spray before flowering. The beneficial bacteria naturally kill the bad bacteria so they dont take over, basically smothers them so they cant grow. Bascillus or something like that is very beneficial .
If you ever have a fungus problem , mix 3-5 tbs of (3% food grade ) h202 in a gallon of water and use it as a foliar spray,,works awesome especially during the humid summers if you have them.
Awesome! This is good stuff. Thanks for the info!
@@joshuarudd6297 No problem bro...Happy growing :)
I just started hydroponics, I’m very new to it. I tried sprouting the seedling with distilled water because I have a distiller and after two weeks only 2 seedlings sprouted. One died quickly and the other one’s leaves became yellow 😔 I started over now with tap water. How can I use distilled water? This is really what I want but the wait and then the fail is unnecessary 😔
distilled water has nothing in it! you'll need to add a little bit of calmag and when the plant grows then you can add calmag and nutrients but at a very small amount also dont forget to ph your water after adding your nutrients hydroponics with Rockwell 6.0 and is ideal but hydroponics ph rang from 5.5 to 6.5
What kind of hose couplings are you using?
Tap water is the best as plants use chlorine as a mineral.
The Chlorine amount is low, about 4 parts per million, and it evaporates quickly from the water once used, especially with a bubbler or circulating hydroponic system, so it’s not good for a mineral in the solution!
What ppm is your tap water? Mine is 660ppm from the tap!
Mine is about 450 ppm. 1250 with the nutrients added.
ive had the same water in my dvc 5 gallon set-up for over a year and 3 grows . my water is cystal clear . alge is your problem cover all over your stuff in tin foil . if you hold to light and can see the light more tin foil ! i use a marineland 210 powerhead with a foam filter suck to the sucktion of powerhead. stick powerhead to bottom of bucket pointed straight up have air line out of top . fill with spring water add foxfarms big grow hrdro in bucket 4 tablespoons add cal mag and thats it close it up i have a small air pump i add to the air in line [more air is best] i keep 1 gallon of spring water on hand that has same stuff added to it . when water get low add water . easy pezzy
Wow! Never cleaning your reservoir! That’s amazing.
@@joshuarudd6297 never not 1 time .
01:38 what do u mean by "mils" per galloon? Is it the same like 4ml?
Milliliters
@@joshuarudd6297 thanks!
1 gram of hth pool shock to 1 gallon water.
Guaranteed you'll get no parasites.
Use a TDS/EC/PH tri meter to measure your solution. Once this kicks off that little buckets gonna be dry every week. Get a large black tub from Home Depot. Throw a cap of hydrogen peroxide in your solution with each water change. Looks like you’re using guano, great stuff but it will clog your pumps.
I like using smaller containers because you waste less solution. Most of the time you need to change the water weekly so if the plants drink most of the water by the time you need to change it then I call that a win.
Hello Joshua, thank you for your video. they are really useful. I have a question regarding air pumps. I currently have a really small tote with 6 plants and I have a air pump but it makes too much noise. Do you have any recommendations for quiet pumps? thanks.
amzn.to/32Pbq0N
this is the one that I use. It's very quiet yet provides powerful and adjustable airflow.
this is an affiliate link and I hope this helps! If not this one, then make sure the one you get at least has rubber feet.
@@joshuarudd6297 thank you for your effort. Unfortunately Its not available in the Netherlands. Thanks again
Wouldn’t your water last longer if you used a dark colored bucket with a lid?
Probably, I’ve learned much since then. Algae grows a lot more in white containers but It’s more of a nuisance than an actual issue. A ton of algae might shift the PH a tiny bit but nothing else.
Light makes the algae grow. Cover the pots.
Agreed!
Do I need to remove the nutrient water and replace it with clean water before added h202? Can I leave the H202 water overnight to run through the system?
Never leave h202 in water. I’ve learned a lot since that video and h202 will kill your plants faster than root rot. Use hydroguard to kill root rot instead. I never use hydrogen peroxide anymore.
@@joshuarudd6297 hydroguard not accessible in my country. I may hv to import it. 😂 I saw several article that treated the root with h202. I have hydroponic circulating water but with algae problem at the root. I wonder if i can circulate it for few hour before replacing with clean water.
@@joshuarudd6297 I was actually going to comment on that. The only way to use h2o2 would be if you using something like GH rapidstart. No beneficial bacteria will go good with h2o2. It was that combination that killed your plants. Try different nutrients too if your water is looking like that it definitely bad for your recirculating system.
hi, just wondering while ago about filtering water for the system, I use exactly same type as you. Actually because I am new to it and had no experience, I just went on logical solution and did flow system with one "central" bottom bucket with air pump and lights. But my question is, how about Fluval filters? they works perfectly in aquariums, reason I ask is I have one from old times, and it is very efficient pump water yet also has great filtering capabilities. The only thing I am worried about is to use their proper filtration materials like carbon or the white stuff they put there, to not filter the nutrients from solution as that will make no sense to it. Instead I would use sponges as usual to filter large particles and clay pebbles as they are to use with hydroponics anyway. Will that work? How do you think? My Fluval is Fluval 105 Canister Filter. And quite strange those are still on sale even are about 15 years old.
use pool socks instead: amzn.to/3BG8p2w
you just want to get the big stuff that will clog the tubes and pump. activated carbon may absorb nutrients.
It's a bit late, nonetheless:
That's actually a great idea!
I've had a system including an aquarium canister filter running for years and it works absolutely great. Kept the filter running 24/7 for agitation and aeration of the nutrient solution and had a second pump in line for irrigation.
Your thoughts about the filter material is basically spot on as well. I always made sure to use a few different filter media to make sure there's a nice place to live and thrive for all the different bacteria I kind of cultivated in there, from aerobic over facultative anaerobic to beneficial mycorrhiza fungi - everything had a cozy place somewhere in there. It was mostly blue filter foam, Leca and silicate filter stuff but a bit coconut husk, rockwool, bark and some other stuff found its way in there in small amounts as well.
Inoculated the filter with a bit of worm castings, aquarium starter cultures, a wee bit of delicious smelling forrest floor compost (kind of dangerous though) and agricultural bacteria and myco products.
Then just kept adding a little bit of organic matter of different kinds to the nutrient solution, though the root exudates and organic matter from decaying roots, root hairs and sheaths etc. should already be enough to not let them die.
It worked so extremely well that I could just put plants with root rot in there, irrigate them 24/7 and they'd just continue growing in their own rotting roots, while not being able to infect anything else in the system.
Even "stress tests" like accidentally putting the aquarium heater to 38°C over ~10 days, ergo starving solution and roots of oxygen did nothing at all and even putting a rotting plant in there and dumping two shot glasses of molasses and one glass protein hydrolysate into 25L / ~6 gallons of nutrient solution didn't wreak havoc - and after just three days, iirc, the nutrient solution smelled like healthy, living soil again.
If done right it makes for a system that's extremely tolerant versus pathogenic sht that otherwise might lead to catastrophic results.
Anyway, if you still got it at home - put it to use!
Even if you just let it run without inoculating or feeding the microbes they're definitely going to thrive in there eventually. Will just take them longer to get started and you might never reach the same diversity, I'd bet it's still beneficial nonetheless.
@Joshua - Such a biofilter makes H2O2 obsolete and is the fix for basically any and all rot problems once it's well run in.
And btw - it's a bit ironic, but don't listen too much to YT comments, "growers" and hobbyists in general. They often, up to mostly in some areas, repeat myths, nonsense, marketing and "knowledge". Just like those folks recommending a bottle cap of 3% H2O2 at every reservoir change. That wouldn't even be effective if it was 30% or more ffs!
If you really want to know about something specific there's lots of actually professional horticultural resources online and in each and every library, though it gets harder to seperate the actual professional online resources from those that merely try to appear professional.
There's always google Scholar though, and in the field of horticulture/agriculture there's hardly any reasonable question that hasn't been studied.
Anyway, good luck and happy growing!
@@heinzhaupthaar5590
Mycorrhizae soluble ( bennies) is definitely the way to go! Trying to keep a rez sterile with pool shock, h202 etc is a uphill battle. Good comment!!👍
sorry but that's not NFT system
Too much oxygen will stunt growth, plenty of Videos on TH-cam. I use a DWC with oxygen on 15 minutes on, every one hour, with a little H202 once a week. Never had a problem in 10 years with no root rot or stinky water. My NFT system and Dutch Buckets no problems.