# nutrient solution.. please help?



## Zone505 (Aug 31, 2011)

Ok I have a Hanna DIST 4 EC Tester

- Without dipping it in the water it reads 0.00

- Dipping it into the water it reads 0.22 ( Dose that mean 220ppm? )

ok, so if it reads 220ppm and the plants are young I want to bring it up to 400ppm, Do I add 400ppm of nutrient solution A&B Grow? or do I add 280ppm of nutrient solution A&B Grow to the 220ppm water? if I add just the 220ppm of nutrient to the water that would give me 400ppm of nutrient?

as of right now I just used my Hanna DIST 4 Tester and put in half of each A&B in tel I reached 400ppm ... is this the way its done?

Thanks, I hope I didn't make that to confusing


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## mr_chow (Aug 31, 2011)

Zone505 said:
			
		

> as of right now I just used my Hanna DIST 4 Tester and put in half of each A&B in tel I reached 400ppm ... is this the way its done?



yes.:aok:


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## Growdude (Sep 1, 2011)

Zone505 said:
			
		

> Ok I have a Hanna DIST 4 EC Tester
> 
> - Dipping it into the water it reads 0.22 ( Dose that mean 220ppm? )


 
No it does not mean 220 ppm, here is a chart for conversion
What your meter reads is EC


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## Zone505 (Sep 1, 2011)

Growdude said:
			
		

> No it does not mean 220 ppm, here is a chart for conversion
> What your meter reads is EC



Very intrusting, that chart is a keeper, One good thing though I never over nuted my plants 

So if I want to get my nutes up to 400ppm I need to have my EC reader say 0.80 according to the chart "Hanna DIST 4"...


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## mr_chow (Sep 1, 2011)

Zone505 said:
			
		

> Very intrusting, that chart is a keeper, One good thing though I never over nuted my plants
> 
> So if I want to get my nutes up to 400ppm I need to have my EC reader say 0.80 according to the chart "Hanna DIST 4"...




now, i'm confused...  zone, i thought you had said that your hanna read .22, but then followed that up with the fact you changed it to read 220ppm.  then you said you added nutes to get you to 400ppm.  that's how you do it, fo sho, but if your still dealing w/ decimals, as growdude pointed out, you have to adjust/calculate for the ppm.


peace,

mr_chow


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## Hushpuppy (Sep 1, 2011)

When feeding your plants you have to remember that there is a schedule of feeding that you should follow so that you don't over or under feed the plants, and so that you can keep track of what and how you feed.

If you have fed them say at 200ppm and its been 3-4 days ago, the reading that you would get in the water at this point doesn't represent viable nutrients anymore. That material still shows up on the meter as being a disolved solid but at this point it is pretty much waste.

If you have fed them only an hour ago and you realize that you only put 300ppm and you wanted to go to 500ppm, then you could pull out some of the water and add to it then add it back in and see if you get up to where you need to be, but you have to be careful about doing things like that.

The best way to feed, in my opinion, is to set a schedule of feed-water-feed. Then start out with young plants(less than 4wks) at about 200-300ppm for a week. Then up that the next week to 400-500ppm for a week or two depending on how they are doing. Then increase to 600-800ppm and run for 2 wks b4 going to 1000ppm(if plants are doing well and not showing any nute burn). 

Usually at this point you are reaching the flowering phase(depending on the strain) and at this point you would switch to flowering nutes while maintaining ~1000ppm. Some go higher with nutes, but I have found with my strain so far that 1100ppm is as high as I need to go.

Make sure that you have a PH meter so that you can keep the PH between 5.3-6.2 for hydro, and 6.3-7.0 for soil. This is critical for healthy plants.


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## Zone505 (Sep 1, 2011)

mr_chow said:
			
		

> now, i'm confused...  zone, i thought you had said that your hanna read .22, but then followed that up with the fact you changed it to read 220ppm.  then you said you added nutes to get you to 400ppm.  that's how you do it, fo sho, but if your still dealing w/ decimals, as growdude pointed out, you have to adjust/calculate for the ppm.
> 
> 
> peace,
> ...



Dam I'm out of Calibration Solution.. On the Calibration Solution bottle it says 1000ppm, Guess what I have been Calibrating my Hanna Dist 4 to read 1.00 all this time, thinking was 1000ppm GRRRRR....

So according to the chart  I need to calibrate Hanna Dist 4 to Read 2.00 when I'm Calibrating my Hanna Dist 4.. thats f*8ed up GRR I cant be leave I have been so wrong all this time.

EDIT... ok just got back and have more Calibration Solution so I will set my Hanna Dist 4 to Read 2.00 because the Bottle says 1000ppm.. I hope I'm right?


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## Growdude (Sep 1, 2011)

Zone505 said:
			
		

> Dam I'm out of Calibration Solution.. On the Calibration Solution bottle it says 1000ppm, Guess what I have been Calibrating my Hanna Dist 4 to read 1.00 all this time, thinking was 1000ppm GRRRRR....
> 
> So according to the chart  I need to calibrate Hanna Dist 4 to Read 2.00 when I'm Calibrating my Hanna Dist 4.. thats f*8ed up GRR I cant be leave I have been so wrong all this time.


 

For now until you get some cal. solution just double your reading and it should be close enough.


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## Zone505 (Sep 1, 2011)

Growdude said:
			
		

> For now until you get some cal. solution just double your reading and it should be close enough.




ok just got back and have more Calibration Solution so I will set my  Hanna Dist 4 to Read 2.00 because the Calibration Solution Bottle says 1000ppm.. and according to the EC chart 1000ppm is 2.00 on my Hanna Dist 4...  I hope I'm  right?

If I did the Calibration the right way then when I dip the EC Reader into my nute's I get a reading of 1.65 EC and according to the chart that would make it a tad over 800ppm.. that would be to much because my goal was to be only 400 ppm because they are only 1 week old right?...

Sorry about all this I'm just trying to make sure I understand what I'm doing....

ok, the roots are almost touching the bottom of the 5Gallon bucket, seems to be lots of roots... should I leave it at 800ppm or should I dump 1/2 out and ad water and do my ph again?


looks like I will be using that chart all the time, so I printed it off..

*EDIT: Ok changed out half of the nuts and got it down to 0.80 according to the chart that's 400 ppm.*


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## Hushpuppy (Sep 1, 2011)

You say your plants are only 1 week old and the roots are almost touching the bottom of a 5gal bucket? Do you mean they are 1 week into flower, 1week into veg from clone? Are you in DWC?


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## Hushpuppy (Sep 1, 2011)

You say there's a lot of roots for 1 week? If you are going into flower then your mix ppm is ok.


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## mr_chow (Sep 1, 2011)

Hushpuppy said:
			
		

> You say there's a lot of roots for 1 week? If you are going into flower then your mix ppm is ok.




yeah, i've seen mixes as high as 1600 ppm in some dwc's...


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## Growdude (Sep 1, 2011)

Zone505 said:
			
		

> ok just got back and have more Calibration Solution so I will set my  Hanna Dist 4 to Read 2.00 because the Calibration Solution Bottle says 1000ppm.. and according to the EC chart 1000ppm is 2.00 on my Hanna Dist 4...  I hope I'm  right?
> 
> If I did the Calibration the right way then when I dip the EC Reader into my nute's I get a reading of 1.65 EC and according to the chart that would make it a tad over 800ppm.. that would be to much because my goal was to be only 400 ppm because they are only 1 week old right?...
> 
> ...


 
How big are the plants? 800 prob a little high but if there decent size healthy plants it could be ok.


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## Zone505 (Sep 1, 2011)

Growdude said:
			
		

> How big are the plants? 800 prob a little high but if there decent size healthy plants it could be ok.



they are in a 5 Gallon bucket DWC and have been for 1 week, I see about 6 to 7 long roots on each plant touching the bottom of the Palls, and tuns of small roots also...

I have taken it down to 400 ppm just in case...

*But could you have a look at my post #9 and let me know if I did the Calibration right? I think post #9 is really needing the attention now... so I can have a full understanding...*


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## mr_chow (Sep 1, 2011)

Zone505 said:
			
		

> *But could you have a look at my post #9 and let me know if I did the Calibration right? I think post #9 is really needing the attention now... so I can have a full understanding...*




i think you're correct.  ... 0.8 would get you a 400ppm.

that's some pretty good root growth for 1wk in a dwc...i'd step up the nutes daily, you'll be able to tell how much is too much.


here, this may help you too.
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=174969&d=1314730527


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## Hushpuppy (Sep 2, 2011)

Zone505 said:
			
		

> ok just got back and have more Calibration Solution so I will set my  Hanna Dist 4 to Read 2.00 because the Calibration Solution Bottle says 1000ppm.. and according to the EC chart 1000ppm is 2.00 on my Hanna Dist 4...  I hope I'm  right?
> 
> If I did the Calibration the right way then when I dip the EC Reader into my nute's I get a reading of 1.65 EC and according to the chart that would make it a tad over 800ppm.. that would be to much because my goal was to be only 400 ppm because they are only 1 week old right?...
> 
> ...


I believe that you have correctly set your meter.   With an EC meter, the electronics in that meter has no tie to ppm. EC is just a small electrical current that is run through the water from one point on the probe to another point. 

What you are actually measuring is the ability of the solution to conduct electricity. If you have pure H2O, then electricity will not conduct through it (like ground water or tap water). When you add chemicals to the water, you are disolving chemicals (into a solution)that will conduct electricity. You are effectively building a bridge through the water for electricity to travel. The greater the concentration of chemicals, the bigger the bridge.

The bigger the bridge that is created by the chemical concentration, the more electricity that flow across it from the starting point on the probe to the recieving point on the probe. The meter is able to read this flow of electrical current and tell how much is flowing at any given moment. That is why if you hold the meter still you get one number, and if you swirl the meter probe around in the solution, that number goes up. It is running into more of the electrically conductive particals of the chemicals added to the solution.

It is very similar to taking a "volt/ohm" meter and checking the resistance in the water, and giving you a readout in a number. On the EC meter that can be calibrated, This allows you to adjust the number output to correspond with a preset ppm that you require. In this case you are setting the meter to correspond a reading of 2.0 with 1000ppm.

 I think you could have as easily set it to 2.0 corresponding with 2000ppm.(setting it that high tho might make it less accurate at lower readings..not sure) I have a Hanna TDS meter that does exactly the same thing but the difference is that it was preset at the factory to give me PPM. 

If you take a close look at some of the different nutrient brands(feeding schedules) you will see that they give the required nute levels in both ppm and EC. You could as easily go by just the EC reading and correspond that to the nute regamine from the manufacturer schedule. However, since you have calibrated it to 2.0=1000ppm, you are able to follow the nute schedule in either ppm or EC. 

If your nutes brand gives you information on the bottle or schedule in ppm rather than EC, you are set to proceed.   I hope I haven't just confused you with the "science" of measuring the Total Disolved Solids(TDS) but I wanted to give you a better understanding of what you are actually measuring.


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## Zone505 (Sep 2, 2011)

Hushpuppy said:
			
		

> I believe that you have correctly set your meter.   With an EC meter, the electronics in that meter has no tie to ppm. EC is just a small electrical current that is run through the water from one point on the probe to another point.
> 
> What you are actually measuring is the ability of the solution to conduct electricity. If you have pure H2O, then electricity will not conduct through it (like ground water or tap water). When you add chemicals to the water, you are disolving chemicals (into a solution)that will conduct electricity. You are effectively building a bridge through the water for electricity to travel. The greater the concentration of chemicals, the bigger the bridge.
> 
> ...



Thanks Hushpuppy, and everyone... Now that I have the ec-2-ppm chart and have set my Hanna dist 4 to 2.0 to give me a 1000ppm I'm able to use this chart to keep track of what my babies like...

I'm at 600ppm and my girls are smiling... if there smiling I'm smiling 
Thanks again!


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## Zone505 (Sep 2, 2011)

ok, so can you tell I'm new at this? so I thought the DUTCH NUTRIENT FORMULA chart would have been in PPM, but taking a look at the chart its in EC.. I Uploaded the part of the chart that I'm on because I'm only in Veg stage..

should I fallow this chart or should I just stay average ? I dont no how to convert 700ec to ppm


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## Zone505 (Sep 2, 2011)

Cool I found this: http://www.4hydroponics.com/convertPPM.asp

it will convert EC to PPM or PPM to EC 

If I'm right and that site is right then ( 700EC ) Would be ( 490ppm )


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## Growdude (Sep 3, 2011)

Just stick with EC Thats what your meter reads anyway.

700 EC is .7 EC MS/CM its just a decimal place move.

EC is constant, different meters convert it to PPM differently.
This is why its best to stick with EC and forget about PPM.

If you look at the chart 700 EC = 350 ppm for Hanna, 448 for Euech and 490 for Truncheon.


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## Deathsmile (Sep 4, 2011)

I just got my Hanna meter today and im having some troubles too. Either that, or my plants love high PPM. Its a HM Digital COM 100. Its has a bunch of diff modes for PPM (us. mS, ppm, ppt) and under ppm it has (KCL, 442, NaCl) which one do i use, very confusing.

My mS is 6.72, and when my meter is in ppm KCL mode it reads 352x10 which is 3520ppm. I think the guy at the store may have messed up the calibration when he tried to set it up.

My plants look great, nice and dark green fan leaves, new bud sites look awesome, nice bright green new growth, i dont know, is it possible they like the ppm's? I change my water and nutes completely 2 days ago.


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## Growdude (Sep 4, 2011)

Deathsmile said:
			
		

> I just got my Hanna meter today and im having some troubles too. Either that, or my plants love high PPM. Its a HM Digital COM 100. Its has a bunch of diff modes for PPM (us. mS, ppm, ppt) and under ppm it has (KCL, 442, NaCl) which one do i use, very confusing.
> 
> My mS is 6.72, and when my meter is in ppm KCL mode it reads 352x10 which is 3520ppm. I think the guy at the store may have messed up the calibration when he tried to set it up.
> 
> My plants look great, nice and dark green fan leaves, new bud sites look awesome, nice bright green new growth, i dont know, is it possible they like the ppm's? I change my water and nutes completely 2 days ago.


 
mS OF 6.72 IS WAY HIGH!! 
I would double check my calbration.

You too should stick with EC to avoid the confusion of the conversion factor.

NaCL = .5
KLC= .51
442 = .7


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