Monday, June 10, 2013

DWC babies have grown up!

It has been almost three weeks now since the last post. I have only let the system run in peace, two weeks ago I added another 25 ml each of Gold Label A and B. My beans are showing some spots on the leaves which I think is a sign of too little nutrients. I realized I will not be able to guesstimate the amount of nutrients needed all the time so I ordered myself an EC meter from eBay. The EC meter is called HM Digital COM-80 and I got it for $40 and another $12 for shipping.

HM Digital COM-80 EC meter
HM Digital COM-80 EC meter

This meter can measure the electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS) and the water temperature. It can measure EC in µS and mS, TDS in ppm and ppt. Fancy. I hope I don't have to care about all of this. I found a chart of different desired ppm levels for different plants so this is the only measurement I care about at the moment.

Measuring the ppm of the nutrient water
Measuring the ppm of the nutrient water