u/Loose_Difference4821

Day 49
My plants are very big
I went to hollydays for two weeks and the branches got to the light while my friend was taking care of the rez. But not branches of this plant that is smaller than the other, but still it was very hot. And at some point my friend did smthg that made the aeration aluminium tube to go from outside to inside the tent.
Now one of my plant (4) has issues.
Can you help me diagnose ?
I just want to be sure i dont over feed.
I am at 2 ec and have been since week 4 and it worked like a charm.
You can see it is principaly on the upper leaves.

Setup :

1m square tent
4 plants
Light : Mars Hydro FC3000 at 30cm of the highest plant and 45-50 for the others, at 100% for 18/6 since week 3
8 liters plastic pot
Regular duo Autopot system
No training besides some leaf tucking sometimes
No real control of temperature and humidity, very hot here, like 30 deg in the tent, and between 35-55 RH.
RO system + 0.4 EC terra aquatica calmag + Ph Perfect A and B Grow at 6ml/L for a total of 2.0 EC since day 23, before 1.8 since day 14, before 1.6 since 3 and 1.1 at day 1.
Air pump installed.
50/50 Coco/Perlite
Grow Genious Silica
Started hand feeding with trichorderma for 2 weeks, then started the autopots and stopped trichoderma.
Used voodoo juice root product to weed for 3 weeks even in the reservoir before realising it was not mineral. Stopped after.
Have been in hollyday for two weeks and the stretch went crazy, it started to touch the lamp so there are some temperature / light dammage.

Setup :

1m square tent
4 plants
Light : Mars Hydro FC3000 at 30cm of the highest plant and 45-50 for the others, at 100% for 18/6 since week 3
8 liters plastic pot
Regular duo Autopot system
No training besides some leaf tucking sometimes
No real control of temperature and humidity, very hot here, like 30 deg in the tent, and between 35-55 RH.
RO system + 0.4 EC terra aquatica calmag + Ph Perfect A and B Grow at 6ml/L for a total of 2.0 EC since day 23, before 1.8 since day 14, before 1.6 since 3 and 1.1 at day 1.
Air pump installed.
50/50 Coco/Perlite
Grow Genious Silica
Started hand feeding with trichorderma for 2 weeks, then started the autopots and stopped trichoderma.
Used voodoo juice root product to weed for 3 weeks even in the reservoir before realising it was not mineral. Stopped after.

Here is the ppfd map of my Mars Hydro FC3000.
I have it since 2022.
How would you use it in term of % of light for each phase and what cycle (24/0; 20/4; 18/6) would you do ?
Also, i put it at 30 cm of my tallest plant, so it is at 55 cm of the 3 others.
I am looking for the autopotamus kind of result, big plants like we see on the autopot subreddit.

Hi everyone,
I’m posting because I’m honestly running out of ideas with a reservoir pH drift problem, and at this point I’m mainly trying to figure out what people are actually using to keep their reservoir clean in terms of bacteria / biofilm.
I’ve made several Reddit posts about this problem already, tested a lot of different things, and so far nothing has ever really worked.
When I see other Reddit posts about pH drift, most people seem to be dealing with much smaller drifts than mine. In my case, I’m talking about something like pH 5.5 drifting up to 6.5 every 24 hours, and it keeps continuing after the first 24 hours. So this really doesn’t feel like normal minor reservoir drift.
Here’s what I already tried, and none of it fixed the core issue:
• Hard tap water at first.
• Then switching to RO water.
• Remineralizing RO water with CalMag to around 0.4 EC.
• Mixing RO water with tap water.
• Multiple nutrient lines: Plagron Coco, Canna Coco, and now Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect.
• Different pH down products / acids.
• Running circulation in the reservoir.
• Running without circulation.
• Letting the reservoir / nutrient solution sit for 24 to 48 hours before use.
• Better sealing / closing the reservoir.
None of that solved it.
I was especially surprised that even pH Perfect didn’t solve it. Right now, what I’m seeing is that the solution can stay pretty stable for about 24 hours, and then after that it suddenly stops being stable at all and starts drifting hard again.
At this point I don’t have many ideas or theories left. I am interested in your own guesses, but my current hypothesis is that this may be some kind of bacteriological / biofilm development issue.
The reason I’m thinking that is because the pattern almost looks exponential: things seem relatively stable at first, then after about a day it suddenly takes off. That makes me wonder whether the last serious thing I haven’t really tested yet is a proper sterile approach, meaning actual anti-bacterial / anti-biofilm reservoir management.
So my question is:
What products are you actually using to keep your reservoir clean and stop bacteria / biofilm from causing severe pH drift?
For example:
• Hydrogen peroxide?
• Hypochlorous acid / products like Athena Cleanse?
• Something else?
• Shock treatment between fills?
• Continuous low-dose treatment?
I’m especially interested in replies from people who had genuinely severe pH drift and actually solved it through reservoir sanitation / sterilization.

A picture of the girls just for fun :

Thanks.

Look at the difference between the 2 plants on the 2nd picture.

The weird one is 6 days younger, and has been topped wheras the other has not.

It also have many many branches, and they are not as thick as the other with less.

Other details :

Autoflower

Coco perlite 50/50

Autopot

Mars hydro fc3000 for 1m square

Temp 25 RH 53

EC 1.6 With Canna coco

Ph i aim 5.8 but it drifts upward a lot in the rez so i aim 5.5 as Autopot advise, but still it drift a lot so the mean ph over time may be more around 6

I’m running AutoPots in coco, and I’m trying to understand how worried I should be about tray/root-zone pH when my reservoir already has a pretty strong upward drift.

My reservoir is not very stable to begin with. I usually set it around 5.5, and it’s not uncommon for it to rise to around 5.9 after half a day, or even to around 6.2 after 24 hours. So I’m already correcting the reservoir once or twice a day just to keep it in range. In other words, I’m aware that the reservoir itself is drifting upward, and I’m trying to manage that as best I can.

The issue is that I’m worried about what happens once that solution reaches the pots, because at that point I can’t correct it anymore. My understanding was that in AutoPots it’s normal for the tray/root-zone pH to be somewhat higher than the reservoir, which is why people often recommend keeping the reservoir lower, around 5.5–5.6 in coco. But what I’m seeing seems pretty extreme.

Right now my tray pH readings are roughly:

- one tray at about 7.0,

- one at about 6.5,

- and one at about 7.1.

The middle tray is lower, and that’s also where my two biggest plants are, so I’m wondering if the higher demand/uptake there is helping keep things more stable. But overall, these values seem high compared to what AutoPot users usually aim for.

My concern is this:

1. Is this actually a serious problem, or is tray pH being that high still within the “normal AutoPot weirdness” range?

2. Could my reservoir drift be causing a gradual accumulation of higher pH in the tray/root zone over time?

3. If so, what’s the best way to correct it without overdoing it?

What I’m hesitant about is this: if I try to compensate by pushing the reservoir even lower with more acid, I’m afraid I’ll just send overly acidic solution to the pots and create a different problem at the root zone.

One of the plants has some issues showing on her leaves but the other are ok but i am scared it will affect de density of the buds.