jd jd Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 hi my food is green haze a and b. I normally flood system to full level then sit the cubes an 1" in water then fill around cube with pebbles then drain. So my cubes are sat in the water only an 1" every time it floods. Update on the little ones. After flushing res out with the 0.8ec mix i refilled with 0.6ec it stayed more stable and took 3 days to rise to 0.7ec. So today ichanged res again 100ltr put in 30mm roots excelurator (HOUSE GARDENS) and 25mm super thrive then added a and b to make it to 0.5ec and 5.8ph. But then ran it from a spare pump on a hose and fed then from the top to give them a good wash. As you know it ran to brain then back to res. Checked ec and ph 0.5ec and 5.9ph so thats all good. And i will do that every 4 hrs for the next few days and hopefully they will start taking food. I have 8 littles fellows and it is only 2-3 looking bad the others are booming. So it has to be the 2hr flood times. That has affected the others. In each pot i have a air ring with a 8 way oxy pump so i thought it would be ok watering them every 2 hrs. But from my experience dont bother. Greed is a killer as i know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jd jd Posted September 26, 2011 Share Posted September 26, 2011 After 1 by 1 then getting worse. I finally pulled the lot out and relised that before i put then in the kit I had then in a base of a propergator with allmix half way up cube to prevent damage to roots. When i put them in i washed as much soil of as possible thinking it would be ok. When i cleaned out the res and the brain and the chiller there was lots and i mean lots of brown gunk soil. So the roots was soaked in soil every 2 hrs whrn it flooded. I was told having soil on the roots would not do any damage. Its a lie it will fuck them up with in 2 weeks. Trust me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathkrul Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Ok guys, bad news is the IWS root blockers don't work just finished my grow using them for the first time, pipes including root blockers were blocked with roots, don't waste your time buying them waste of money. I might try that copper olive inside the pipe method, let you know in 2 months if it works 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superx Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 other people on this thread mate have said they work fine?so your buckets wouldnt drain then i take it? how long after was this well in to the veg time or flower? reason i ask is i run the system myself and was looking in to getting them.. wat i do at the moment is rotate buckets every day or two, helps train the roots and stops them from going down in to your pipe work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathkrul Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 (edited) Bearing in mind that they've only just came out during the past few months so you wont get much feedback about them till other people have finished their grows, so wait and see, but this is what happened when I used them. They work fine in the begining of your grow, but as it advances to the flower stage more so at the last few weeks I noticed they werent taking up much water and when I checked they were blocked up. The root blocker was full of tight roots and to think I was telling people to get them ?? Going to try and put a bit copper pipe on the end and a smaller bit inside the pipe and see if that slows em down. Plus Ive already wrote to IWS letting them know they're no good. Plus with the root blocker being about 5 inches long the roots wrap around them preventing me fron turning the pots, and when it came to take the inner out I had to apply lots of force, soo much so that the whole gland was was bending warping the bucket, had to slip my hand in which hurt and push the roots away from the root blocker to get the inner out as it was soo tight. Edited October 25, 2011 by nathkrul 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nathkrul Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 Just had IWS phone me on my mobile, and even they know that the root filters (not blockers) her words she said are still not 100% But on a plus side they may compensate me on having to buy them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superx Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 fuck mate sounds like a rite bummer that does..i got the 48 well broke down to 36, came with the copper mats which i can tell you they are bull shit..had to strip down a line of six buckets to sort the blockage out in the forth week of veg nightmare water all over the place then the same thing happend in the second third week of flower only this time two lines of six were blocked.. i put tights over the inner buckets this time and rotate buckets every day or second day this i can tell you works a treat.. also i do 5 min floods in between the main feeds just to keep changing that little bit of water that sits in the bottom of them..best of luck wit it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superx Posted October 25, 2011 Share Posted October 25, 2011 just read that mate nice1.. will stay way clear myself i knew it was to good to be true Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomberman Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 i'm totally disgusted with this, have to agree on previous comments. i was wondering why everything went tits nd arse up with my last one, closer inspection when all was done revealed evey blocker packed to the gunnels with roots.....abso disaster, thought it was a nutrient problem as you can't pull up pots without ripping up root system, pure gutter! to wait so long for a manufactured solution then this is what we get pfffffft.......who officially tested these then gave the green light. @superx what happens with the tights idea, do roots eventually pop through these but don't have enough time to block pipes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 24 pot setup, old style pots with holes drilled in inner bottoms. Don't need to heat the tank, was always smashing the bloody things anyhow stirrin the mix. But tank is in growroom keeps around 20 degrees Celsius from ambient in the room. Get a second 300 litre water butt, a submersible pump and float switch and add a top-up reservoir of pH'd water to buffer your EC. Attach the float switch using a zip-tie to the delivery pipe inside your nutrient tank (the one with pump at the end) and slide up or down to set the level. Every feed you will be topping your reservoir up to max from the second water butt. I don't ever use nutrients in the top up tank, just pH down and either oxy or an Ozone Generator to kill any nasties. Water should always be moving, both my tanks have separate pumps sitting in the bottom circulating the water. If like me you recycle your pebbles you will be used to seeing a fair bit of organic matter coming back up from the pots into your reservoir. Get a fish tank pump with a foam filter to keep your nutrient mix crystal clear. Just wash out the sponge each time you change your nutes. A good one will circulate the mix and aerate it too. Best toy has to be the Bluelab combined pH/EC/temp meter. Pricy but worth it, just drop the business end in resevoir, sorted! Roots, in yer 'ole, I'm brutal, will probably invoke the wrath of everyone when I say this but... Stripping time, 1-2 weeks into 12/12, scrape the bottom of the pots clean of roots with a big knife! Lolol Peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 Oh I forgot, sticky float switches in the "brain bucket". Only had this issue once or twice, giving the float switches a good clean seemed to resolve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted December 15, 2011 Share Posted December 15, 2011 Over recent weeks I've been thinking about how my 24 pot IWS system could be improved. I've had a couple of ideas on the subject and I'd welcome your opinions on them. 1. Copper is known to inhibit root growth, I wondered if replacing the IWS tee with a plastic barrier pipe tee and using a couple of inches of 15mm copper pipe to deliver nutrients to each of the pots would prevent roots from growing into and blocking the feed pipe. Would using copper pipe have any detrimental effect on the plants overall growth? 2. Also as I'm replacing the tees that feed the pots I may as well replace the straight runs between pots with 22mm PEX pipe and use a 22mm x 15mm x 22mm reducing tee to feed the individual pots. Should ensure that root growth will never inhibit the flow of nutrients to other plants on the same supply pipe. One of my biggest issues is getting old root stuck inside my delivery pipe, with the thick flexible pipe it's almost impossible to tell if you have got your pipes clean after each grow. My pots are spaced equally in 4 rows of 5 pots and one row of 4 and the brain bucket, the distance between pot centres is uniform throughout so I can simply cut enough 50cm lengths of 22mm barrier pipe to fit between all the pots and just retain the black flexible pipe to connect the 4 and 5 pot runs to the brain bucket. At the end of each grow the pipes and fittings can be dismantled easily, cleaned and reassembled. When not growing the pipes and fittings can be stored far more easily and compactly because they can be dismantled unlike the IWS pipes and fittings. The alternative to this is putting in-line filters between each pot which I don't like for various reasons. I'd welcome your opinions. Peace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ace1000 Posted December 16, 2011 Share Posted December 16, 2011 Hi All I'm really not sure how copper piping will impact the system, i would imagine that it wouldn't cause any issues but i don't know. Has anyone had any issues with the timer repeatedly initiating floods - my system is only 2 gos old. Sometimes - not always when the timer turns the flood pump on it drains and then almost immidiately floods again. I only noticed when my plants looked over watered. If i turn the timer maunally it doesnt always happen. Has anyone noticed this or experianced it or anything like it - or have i simply got a dodgy timer alreay?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomberman Posted December 22, 2011 Share Posted December 22, 2011 what about the copper discs we use at bottom of pots, could we not get that material and wrap it around the circumference to block roots? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laphroaig Posted December 25, 2011 Share Posted December 25, 2011 what about the copper discs we use at bottom of pots, could we not get that material and wrap it around the circumference to block roots? The consensus is they don't work, Do more to cause blockages than prevent them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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