HELP! Please help with my first DWC grow

[SmokeyJoe]

This is my first DWC grow with drip ring set up for top feed. I’ve grown many plants with great success in soil and felt maxed out with my set up for soil grows so I wanted to upgrade. I got a MarsHydro 2 bucket DWC kit. I’m running 2 super skunks now for first grow and they are not looking happy right now and I don’t know why. All my numbers are good, PH, temps, ferts, etc…..they seem to be getting worse by the day. I’m changing the res once a week and using GH flora tri for fertilizer at 50% strength. The symptoms include, yellowing of leaves from tip in with some browning. There’s yellow in the veins now starting to show and the leaves are beginning to wilt. It looks just like it’s been over watered but I didnt think you could overwater when growing in DWC considering the roots live in the water. Each bucket is 5 gals w/ 3 gals of fertilizer solution. Leaving a 2” air gab between bottom of screen pot and top of water. Plants are going on 3 weeks old and not looking like they should I don’t think. I have a couple outside in dirt that are growing twice as fast. The SS’s seem to be growing very slowly. Can anyone enlighten me as to what I’m doing wrong. I would love to get ahead of this before it ruins the whole grow. I’m down to my last seeds and don’t want to wast them. I think I’ve explained everything if there’s something I missed please ask. I’m dying to fix this any advice/comments/concerns are greatly appreciated. Pictures follow

 

[SmokeyJoe]

Any insight would be appreciated, anything would help at this point

 

[SmokeyJoe]

Is it possible to over-water in a DWC?

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Is it bubbling oxygen into the water. That would be a cause of "over watering" in a DWC. If the water is fully saturated with oxygen then the roots can be fully submerged.

Do your temps fluctuate? Maybe the water in the res gets too warm or too cold? Maybe pH fluctuations during those warm and cold cycles? Those are the only things I can think of unless she wants more food? That's why she's light in color? Maybe?

Hydroponics are so finicky. Any little thing is off and it will show on the plants right away. Have you tried using water soluble fulvic acid? It makes help with uptake of nutrients in a wider range of ph in hydro as well as temperature tolerance. Just make sure they're water soluble so they don't clog any lines.

From the pictures the plant doesn't look too bad. Hopefully someone with more experience in hydro will get back to you. It could really be anything starting with the water source or it could be something simple like the air stone not bubbling enough oxygen into the water. Maybe the pumps heat up the water as they move it and the temps go up during lights on.

I hope that helps some in evaluating what it might be. My hydro knowledge is limited... For now.

 

[SmokeyJoe]

Yes I have an 8 watt pump with air-stone in each bucket. The air pump also powers the drip ring I have set up for my top feed

 

[SmokeyJoe]

I was thinking they want more nutes myself just wasn’t sure enough to increase levels. All the symptoms resemble an over-watered plant growing in soil so it’s really throwing me off. I’ve always had great success with my soil grows and have not yet seen any deficiencies so I don’t really know what to look for

 

[No3odiesShad0w]

Yeah and that's usually a situation where the soil is waterlogged and the roots can't get proper oxygen. That's why I was thinking it's either too low nutrients or the stone just isn't bubbling enough oxygen into that water. Remember the warmer the water is the less oxygen it could be saturated with.

 

[SmokeyJoe]

Update: Just more nutes is all they needed they look much better a day after adding more. The color is rich and a darker tone. Hydro really is finicky.