I've been having great luck with rockwool lately. Not sure what your reasons are for going to hydro etc, but I think if you are in an environment where you are having issues keeping a res cool enough you might be better off going another route. drip fed, or even hand watered rockwool is pretty easy.
How are you PH'ing your water? are you adding ph up/ down prior to the nutrients or ? The whole schtick about that ph perfect line is that it's supposed to be buffered properly to achieve a perfect ph every time..... it obviously is not.... wonder if maybe you got some old yucky nutes or something that they are so unstable?
Also, what additives are you using? i see you mentioned "hobbyist level" additives. If you are just getting back into things w/ hydro, i'd suggest keeping it as simple as possible. 2 part, or a 3 part line, Cal/MG booster and that's it. Once things are working well for you there, maybe then experiment with the extra stuff. Also if it's not from AN, i'd question how it plays with the AN buffering in those PH perfect lines.
I've found that I can still pull a respectable yield off a pretty basic hydro system without all the fancy bells and whistles and snake oils out there.
I also would suggest RO or RODI or distilled water, then you dont have to worry about what your city water treatment plant does to your water chemistry.... it removes a variable. I've had much more consistent results with more consistent water.
THC
High THCaesar. You ask some great questions and bring up some great points. My reasons for playiing with hydro is that Im playing, experimenting, etc. I like the yield hydro brings and I'm learning what not to do. I've never had good results with rockwool. Setting up a top feed drip system in this flower room is not n option - I need to stack the tray on the rez and I don't really have the ceiling height for that with he platform I built for the plants to sit upon.
Like I said before, I'm really not sold on the pH perfect line. I always ran the old Sensi Bloom with great results. They rebranded that into the Jungle Juice 2 part which i still use. I'll give the new Sensi Bloom one more shot though. I want to give it a fair chance. The heat wave we just had brought the temps up too high and brought the funk, I think. So, I have a plethora of cuttings rooting and one lucky girl will be chosen to be the next to die at my hands in the hydro bucket. LOL. Hopefully not.
The Nute Line up is:
Sensi Bloom A&B
B52
Big Bud (after the first week in flower, until week 6)
Voodoo Juice (1st 2 weeks of flower only)
Overdrive - week 6- half of 7, plain water after that depending on the flowering time of the strain
the chiller is hooked up and working well and will be in use until outside temps hit the 30's at night on average.
My water is filtered with a Hydro Logic Evolution RO system with the DI post filter. My water reads zero ppm. I did mix in some tap thinking that might help stabilize the ph, but it didn't.
this is a relearning process. I'm gonna kill a plant - I'm prepared for that. By posting this, perhaps someone else will learn as well and not make the mistakes I'm making.
You might want to dial the air way back, as aerated solutions + beneficial bacteria (Voodoo Juice) + solution temps > 70°F will result in an overabundance of bennies that in and of themselves will mess up pH. Then there's the whole pythium thing....
Larger res and a chiller would help; barring that, frequent change-outs of frozen bottles of water. You could also scrap the Voodoo and use a steriliser like H2O2 or Zone. Is the B organic as well?
Here's Current Culture's Grower's Guide,
http://cch2o.com/rdwc-hydroponics-growers-guide/
many of the Nutrient Considerations suggestions hold true for aerated DWC solutions as well.
Hye thanks for stopping by, airedog. That's great info about the benies and excess air. I'm moving a ton of air through the with the almost 1300 ghph pump and 2 big air stones. I'll cut back to one air stone and see how that goes.
Couple good articles on water quality and it's implication on hydroponics, organic or otherwise.
http://maximumyield.com/blog/2012/06/01/tap-water-and-its-impact-on-hydro-products/
http://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/4427/chlorine-vs-chloramine-both-harmful
Some of the chemicals that the city / county may introduce to the water supply can cause harmful effects to your plants, especially if you are using organics / bacterias in your nutrient mix, some of what they put into the water are dis-infecting agents that will kill your additives and cause excess waste to build up in the res.
THC
with my filters there's nothing in my water with hydrogen and oxygen. Thanks for posting the articles and stioppiung by. I truly appreciate y'all
thank you!
