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jeembeaux

Yet another newbie with questions

jeembeaux
14 years ago

I live in north Georgia, where it's warm enough to have a hydro system on my weatherized back porch, and it doesn't get past the mid-50's on most cold nights.

I have two raft systems, one is 30 gallon, the other is 20 gallon. I have an aquarium heater that I use to keep the water temps around 70. I'm growing mainly herbs - basil, cilantro, a couple kinds of lettuce, mint, and hopefully peppers soon. I'm using some hydroponic nutrients that I bought at Flora Hydroponics in Athens.

For lighting, I'm using both a 400 watt MH and two 63 watt CFLs. I really only brought out the MH lamp to get the plants jump-started. I plan on using a second two-bulb CFL system once I feel like the plants have firmly established themselves. It's going on three weeks since the seeds sprouted, and I'm getting pretty decent growth and have begun to see roots peeking out of the Netti potts I'm using. I also used clear plastic cups on top of the Netti pots to create a mini-greenhouse for each plant. They'll outgrow them quickly.

My biggest question is about nutrients. I used a weak solution to get the seedlings going, and am ready to switch to full-strength according to the label directions, but I'm not sure how often I need to exchange the water. Hydro chemicals aren't cheap, and I don't want to change the water more often than I have to. Anyone give me some ideas on how to know when to change the water? Do I need to get something to measure the TDS?

I also have a few comet goldfish that I added - there's only a few of them, and I give them fish food daily, so I don't believe that they'll start eating the plants, but am I wrong about this?

I'm also going to be picking up a few Otocinclus to help control algae. We'll see how that goes.

My last question is about lighting. I leave the lights on 24 hours a day. I know that this will not work with flowering plants, but with all these plants I'm looking for vegetative growth, not flowers. Is it more likely that I'm helping the plants by keeping them on a 24-hour cycle, or that I'm hurting them with this cycle? I've read that all plants need a period of "rest" with the lights off, but am not convinced if this is just a rule of thumb that applies mainly to flowering plants (fruits, veggies, etc). Your feedback appreciated.

Jim

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