@newbie_MN I grow rdwc so I know your pain in flush I try to keep ph as close to 5.5 as poss and I don’t add water till the ph drops to 5.0 then by that time water lvl is low enough to add water to bring ph back up but if you need add water at a ph of 7.5 and that will put a 15 gal setup to a nice 5.8 ph
What does “excessive water uptake” mean @BigDaddyCain ? Sorry for the stupid questions! 
I was gonna say that was a soft, delicate looking hand for a man.
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Dainty even. But im sure the polish would bring out the color in his eyes 
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How big is your res? To be honest, you should be looking more to keep it between 5.5 min and 6.0 max. 6.5 is more for a soil type grow. And like @BigDaddyCain says those wide ph swings would explain what you seen with your plant.
I suspect small res is the issue. When your plant gets larger the root ball starts to take up substantial volume of the res. So even when it’s full, there’s less water/nutrient solution available. As the plant uptakes there’s even less available. Couple that with a ph out of range and locking out nutrients, the ph can get out of control fast.
res is just over a gallon… (i think that it being that small is mostly the issue, and am planning on re-assessing the setup after this grow).
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I would almost guarantee that’s your issue. Try doing something like a 5 gallon bucket build, or even a 7-12 gallon tote per plant. Will be a lot more stable that way.
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Thanks a lot @dbrn32, you helped me out with suggesting my next light too! Very helpful, i’m just hoping I can get some usable smoke out of this one!
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No problem! Hopefully it works out, if not just be persistent. You’re well on your way to getting there.
Mine is a rdwc 5 5gal buckets 4 plants and it’s a 20 gal system so at week 8 of flower it holds 13 gal total with roots
Ok, finally harvested and yielded ~1.5 ozs for my first grow. I’m ok with that as I know my system was not nearly what it should be… Going to upgrade my system to a 2x2 or 3x3 tent with exhaust, new aeroponics setup, and a new light… question is on the light… I know @dbrn32 is a lighting genius, will this do? Budget is around $150-$200 (just for the light):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C57J7XX?tag=greenrel-20
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For $150 that will be a very nice light in a 2x2. It’s very similar to th diy builds that @MattyBear and @Drinkslinger and a couple of others use. If you select their profile and scroll down to their topics, take a look at their journals. I’m sure you’ll be impressed.
For a 3x3 I would definitely recommend going with something bigger. Like the xw 260 kit or something in line with that.
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Thanks! Read through this and I like it! Can you tell me @dbrn32, how do you choose the light color? Looking at the bridgelux strips on DigiKey’s website there are a BUNCH of 3500K available, but I don’t see anyone using them… Is there a reason for that? Will they just not work? I would be looking for a light that can go from start to finish as I don’t have the want or need for multiple tents. Or could a guy mix some 3500K with some 4000K or others on the same board?
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You don’t see anyone using them, yet lol. When I built light originally I used 3000k, they were all pretty much same price. Now digikey and arrow have 3500k cheaper than arrow has 3000k. Get the 3500k.
Mattybear has 3500k qb and does great with them. I believe @OldSkunk and @growit both have 3500k leds too.
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I’ve got a mix of 3000 and 3500 on one, and all 3500 on the other.
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I almost added you too, but I wasn’t sure. And figured I had tagged you enough today lol.
Enough of you are doing them it’s getting difficult to keep up with who has what.
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Sorry if this should go on a new or another thread @dbrn32, but now I am reading about the COB type vs. the strips? Any advantage? Also, I have some aluminum wall panels that were used as office organization panels at one of my old offices, would they work as the passive heat sync? Similar to this (other than i think the back is flat…:
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They both have advantages and disadvantages. I can tell you the strips are definitely more popular as first builds. It seems as they are less intimidating.
You could probably run strips on that profile, they would just overhang the edge a smidge. Not a big deal though as the transfer tape we’ve been using is 20mm and that will fit. That’s all the surface contact you end up with anyway.
Cool! Yeah, these panels i have are not to this size, that’s just an example of what they look like.