Woo Hoo! Looks crystal! I wouldn’t do anything extra until you know it’s stable over the life of it. The more barebones you keep it the easier it will be to rule things out as you add things on… Do you have some sort of lid on the res? I don’t see a reason to use the peroxide that often bro.
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The res has the trash can lid.
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Perfect. The only thing that peroxide can negatively impact is with the iron in the mix (if it’s not dissolved,) it can also contribute to drift by introducing oxygen. Probably not at the rate you are using it, though. Just putting it out there.
How long do your reservoirs typically last?
Not trying to push you or anything. Just trying to help make it as simple as possible for ya. Once you establish that routine that turns out good every time the better your results will be. Also it’ll be nice not to have to stress about it.
Hope it trends this way!
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If my tent is full the res lasts almost a week. With the tiny plants in there now it will last a lot longer. I made up 15 gal. Should have done 10, but i didn’t.
Edit - i expect to be throwing out several gallons.
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That’s an impressive life span! If it loses some clarity after 3-4 days I wouldn’t be too concerned. Obviously any sort of film isn’t good. Tap can lead to calcium build up on walls, nooks, and crannies. So in the case of using tap or supplementing tap that’s a possible and normal thing.
I think between reservoirs is the perfect time to clean. Spray walls with the peroxide water mix. Light scrubbing (I use a toilet brush) and then a rinse. If you don’t have a way to fill and drain easily, just spray and wipe with a clean rag that doesn’t leave behind any lint. For reservoirs with a life span like yours, the simpler the mix is, the better.
Edit
Once you get your routine down, and what works for you down, you won’t have to worry about dumping anything man. It’s a sh!tty place to be.
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Calcium build up is my down side of the Auto pot res’s but not to bad every other change they get cleaned, up side is they do get enough Calcium.
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Tap is actually great if the city isn’t dumping an absurd level of sterilizers in. The build up is the only downfall. When we had our lab tested the majority of the ppms were calcium, but also contained a small amount of micros. Even a pinch nitrogen if I remember right.
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We are on a well, that comes up from 110 ft and 50’ below a river bed.
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I always think of “tap” as city. lol. You should have some sulfur in your water then too.
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Ive had a hard time telling if I have build up or algae this round. They are both white when i blow out the tubing. I agree on the clarity. If it doesn’t look biological, I’ll keep using the solution if its a little cloudy.
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The 5 gal girl is coming out of her funk. Trained her some again today.
Reveg project looks like she is making some new leaves. Might have to wait for her to flip. She looks peomising for frost.
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I made it 4 days. Res is totally cloudy today. No scum on surface, so gonna give it a day to see what happens from here. Starting to feel like @Low now. Except Im far less detail oriented.
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Sad to see it, Hate to say it, because it’s ridiculous… try filtering part a prior to adding. See if it works. My first time I used cheese cloth…
This was just Epsom, A, and B? Also is that heater unplugged?
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Epsom, a then b. The heater is on to keep the temp above 65. I cant heat the lung room above 60. The only other thing in there is peroxide. Yesterday it was still crystal clear.
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Other than looks, what is the impact of the cloudy feed?
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It drives us nuts!
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Peroxide at worse will get you a more red reaction. Because it reacts with the iron in part a. So rule that out. Cloudy technically means separation of nutrients. Or nutrients were introduced to each other too concentrated. HOWEVER every time mine has clouded the ppms stay the same, cloudiness, if build up follows turns to gypsum. Which is basically calcium. Jacks says if it clouds start over… bro… it’s become a chore to avoid the cloud. 5 gallon buckets seem stable, longer, but different with a reservoir for some reason…
I hope you don’t deal with this as long as I have or have to jump through the hoops to make it work… I feel like the heater wouldn’t milk up like that, it would just be a starting point for bacterial growth. Below 65° has the potential to not allow each part to mix fully, so if you don’t have them absolutely dissolved they may react.
I never got a direct answer from jacks on the clouding, they just offer replacements. The only thing that stopped it for me was taking twice the normal time mixing, and allowing dumb amounts of time time between adding parts. And adding the parts slow AF.
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Hmmm. Too bad i just opened the next 5 lb bags of jacks. Might consider trying the megacrop (i think) that others have been using.
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Understandable frustration… wish I could jump but the price point shift would be just too drastic. IMO it’s hard to make jacks res stable. Didn’t use to be this way. I started in a 30 gallon set up… I had reactions occasionally but now it’s crazy. Had to build my whole set up around making it work.
How alkaline is your starting water? Someone in this forum mention starting with high alkalinity for the mix, tested that and instant milk. Like within seconds.
Starting with tap may be having a play depending on what it consists of.
Edit again
Jacks has Jacks Tap- which is one part. I’ve only used it for veggies outdoors though so I’m not sure how it would handle a whole run.
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