Hello all im a new grower and i think i got all the essentials to start. I got a few question about my set up tho. I Got a 4foot by 2 foot by 5 foot tent to start with. i got 5 gallon bags to grow in aswell. I went with the Classic Auto flower pack, so Ak47, super skunk, and sour diesel. For my light i got a vivosun vs2000 leg grow light with samsung lm301 diodes. i also went with the Fox Farms Ocean forest soil. Now for water im thinking about running distilled water because my tap water is coming in just under 8 Ph levels. and if i do go with distilled is there anything i should be doing to it to make it better for my plants? and any recommendations would be great! also was wondering if its ok to grow two strains in my tent at once or should i stick to one strain at a time.
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Welcome to the happy zone. New myself and dont use a tent.
Again, welcome aboard. We love growin.
Welcome!!
Well you’ve got a pretty good start!
You can by pH Down on the cheap as it would be better using tap water with all it’s minerals than distilled water with zilch. What is the pH of distilled? I wouldn’t assume it’s neutral @ 7.0
But early on with seedlings won’t matter too much on minerals.
Your light will work fine in your tent… That’s 200W - recommended to be 35W per sq. ft. So you’s need 280 to max out the grow… but 200 will get you some fine weed! I’ve got four(4) Vivosun 1000VS myself in my 3x3. They work great!
What stage are you? Dropping seeds in water to pre-sprout?
Two strains are fine. I grow 4 different ones.
currently Taking notes stage seeds will be here tomorrow, and rest of tent supplies will be here tomorrow. im creating a journal for it and gonna keep track been testing my ph in my tap water daily its running anywhere from 7.4ish to 7.89 is the highest sense i started. I read the grow bible already and plan on getting a bigger 4by4 tent soon but wanted to do a couple harvests before i commit to anything bigger. ill post pictures as i progress here.
Sounds great. You will need to get your watering pH down to about 6.5
What medium do you plan on using?
What about nutrients?
I ask because typically when I mix my nutes, the nutrients make the pH of my mixture drop into range. You will need pH up and pH down, as a little tinkering is needed
would Using a few drops of vinegar be ok to use to bring the ph down or would to be bad the the plants?
Welcome to the community , after you start using veg nutes or Bloom nudes mixing in your water will drive your ph down. You will probably need some PH up to get back to the sweet spot.(6.5 PH)
That is if you’re planning on feeding and not going totally organic. Just my thoughts good luck
I believe it is better to use a product like General Hydroponics (GH) ph up and down. They are stable and inexpensive. I don’t recall specifically why vinegar is not generally recommended. In an emergency once in a while but not for routine ph adjustments.
I ordered the nutrition pack from here so I think it should be ok on that just wasn’t sure if using tap water with it or distilled would be best
Distilled by definition has no PH. Water below around 100 ppm you can’t get a reliable reading. I don’t see any mention of the TDS of your tap water but if it’s soft water it would be fine to use. My old muni water was 550 ppm and there was no way to really use without treating so all grows were with R/O. If your water is under 200 ppm it’s fine to use as is.
Distilled water has no pH?
So no free + or - ions? Gosh, I did not even think of that.
Yeah; distilled will instantly adopt the base PH of whatever it’s mixed with. Even fairly soft water like mine now (130 ppm) isn’t bad as is and I don’t even bother to PH it. Once I add nutes it’s a different story. R/O is the same as distilled.
Before using tap, id get all the numbers. PH and ppm/tds/ec. Thats the benefit to distilled, you know EXACTLY what they are eating. Nothing but what u supplement.
That said, any tap under 200 ppms is food to go imo. Like mentioned, the nutes will drop pH. Ive seen my water get into the 5’s before pouring and I had to adjust up.
Also like stated, i prefer pH up and down to vinegar and lemon juice. They both work in a pinch, but dont hold the level for extended periods.
You are talking about naturally soft work vs softened water correct?
Yes; not conditioned.
We are far north of the Edwards aquafier, our well is part of that and is very soft. I didn’t know that aquifier reaches up into Taylor county as per water well driller.
Our area, looks like hill country, thousands of live oaks. Live creeks, we have beaver here for 130 yrs.
And we are west central tx.
So my tap water reads 45ppm when it comes out. And when I mix my nutes it’s almost always ph 6.7 is that because my water is taking the ph of the nutrients? Like distilled water? Because of the low ppm’s?
Yes; you have very good water.