DudeMan

tested my well water today and came up with 435ppm 6.5ph

looking at the flora micro for hardwater, but im not sure how to use it (hydro newbie)

my question is what does this hardwater macro do? and do i still need to mix normal nutrient solutions to this like the FloraGro for veg. then FloraBloom to flower?

Lizzie Borden

GH Flora hardwater Micro is for use with water with a total PPM of 200+ or calcium PPM of 70+. I have both of them and comparing labels the only differences I see are hardwater Micro has 3.7% nitrate nitrogen and 1% urea nitrogen compared to 4.7% nitrate N in the regular Flora Micro (both are 5% total nitrogen, with .3% ammoniacal N, 5-0-1 NPK) and the hardwater Micro has 1% calcium while the regular Micro has 5% calcium.

Whichever one you use, it only affects the Micro component of the series. You still need to use the Gro and Bloom at least.

DudeMan

major help.. thanks

I think i know what i gotta do now.. if only i did'nt skip math class so much to get stoned anyone know a good formula to follow with something like 20gal. water and the hardwater micro and the FloraGro?

bluecheese

That all depends on what stage your plant is in - veg, transition, or flower - and how high the PPM should be. Experiment & write down the results of the formulas you make so that you can repeat them for another grow.

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DudeMan

roger that..

i have not started yet. got it all built. (waiting on lights) just trying to figure out what all i need for nutrients, and how to get it somewhat close to where i can start up.

Lizzie Borden

There are general instructions on the GH labels for different plant phases, I've seen the attached ones passed around here as being better for MJ than the label directions, that has been my experience too, although I've only grown a few hydro crops so far. I don't use any of the listed supplements or foliar sprays, but do add calcium, magnesium and silicon to the Grow, Micro and Bloom.

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delta9nxs

hey, dudeman, i think i have an experience that may interest you. when i moved into my new home about 8 mos ago the tap water fluctuated between 210 ppm and around 360 ppm. many hydro growers in the past have described this as liquid rock. my situation was particularly bad as it would change everyday. it was wreaking havoc on my plants because of lockouts, radical ph changes, things actually precipitating out of solution. it's kind of freaky when you put nothing but what you think is regular water and good quality nutrients in your res and the next day you have some kind of gelatinous sludge all over everything.

switched back to gh flora series which i didn't want do because i'm trying to go more organic. except i used the hardwater micro instead of the regular formula. things did improve, but i still had a lot of problems. the plants just didn't look good, grew slow, low yield. still a lot of radical ph swings.

bought a ro filter. pure clean water. went back to pbp but quickly found out that i had to use cal-mag plus. incredibly, still problems, but now mostly restricted to rapid ph changes causing temporary lockouts. still no good.

solution: called 3 major nute manufacturers hotlines and they all basically said their nutes were blended to work best at around 100 ppm tap. which is an average of most water systems in the us, i guess. it just makes sense from a marketing standpoint to market something usable to the greatest number. i started mixing my tap water and ro water to between 90 and 100 ppm in a topping tank connected by float valve to the res. guess what? everything straightened right out. i was able to stop using the cal-mag. ph runs dead stable all the time using nothing but pbp and lk. plants love it. in the last 4 weeks i have only had to add 20 ml ph down to 65 gal. ph 5.8 to 6.1

ok, the upshot of all this is that i now believe that if your tap ppm's are just slightly too high the hardwater micro is probably allright. in your case and mine, but especially your's with super hard water, you have more significant problems with the water chemistry than the hardwater micro is supposed to offset. good luck

DudeMan

well thanks for the help all, but I have talked myself into doing it the right way and getting a RO filter. I have spent much time researching on a bunch of sites and some say I can some say no some say maybe. so im going to get clean water so I don’t go threw something just like you delta9nxs.. it would prolly cost me money when I screw up my plants and get pissed and break shit so I’ll just spend it on RO filter.

what should I look for in a RO setup? some I see are quit expensive and others are cheep. my grow will not be to big. maybe 20gal in buckets and a 20gal res. (DWC)

eBay: New Reef 6st 100GPD Reverse Osmosis RO+DI Water Filters (item 120086142050 end time Feb-18-07 20:09:44 PST) found this on ebay its cheep and easy 100gpd. anyone used this?

delta9nxs

i went through two grows dealing with all this before i figured it out. it was not at all obvious what was wrong. i had to do a lot of research before i found a way to fix it. i learned a lot but it cost me a lot of bud too, since yields went way down. i think you will find the ro filter to be a big part of the answer for you. keep in mind that this all is subjective experience on my part but i think if you switched to more organic ferts it might help too as they react differently with your water chemistry than chemical salts. pure blend pro with liquid karma and my water corrected to 90-110 ppm does it for me. i now get the rapid, luxurious growth i expect with hydro.

i got a 100 gpd unit from lowes for around $160, but i was in a hurry. i understand there are some real deals online. later