Megacrop in “nearly” Organic so you will get algae forming. To keep algae at bay keep the solution temperature in range. 68f and bellow algae can’t thrive. I had a similar issue with MC in the past. I was left with green/brown sediment in the bottom of my rez. I’ve managed to limit by ensuring the solution is moving constantly and that it was plenty of oxygen in the solution from a air pump and a “decent NON Chinese” air stone
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i made a one gallon concentrate of MC, the new version, and i noticed what looked like colonies forming at the top of the bottle. next time i mix up concentrate im going to add 1.5 grams sodium benzoate as a preservative
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I’m still trying to figure out the whole res thing after getting a 44gal brute. I’m trying to find a sweet spot between pump aerating the solution and leaving it on too long and heating the water. I believe I’m using a submersible pump that’s 400gph max, although it’s probably much less with the smaller adapter on it. I have that attached to a hose running up through the lid and back down the other end making a kind of waterfall. My water starts out very cold (50-55f) but within a few days usually the solution starts to smell like crap and gets above 70f eventually. I currently have the pump on for 10 mins every 3 hours while lights are on and periodically run it a few mins during the day to keep it mixed. Is my pump too weak/not aerating it enough or maybe I’m running the pump too often and heating the water? I believe it’s 25watt not sure how to calculate how long it would take it to heat the water. I’m sure the room heats the water too but seems a little extreme after only a few days, 20f climb. The res goes from sweating with condensation from being so cold to smelling when I open the lid. I feel like I am wasting a lot of nutrients by having to use up my res faster than I should. I would like to try and fix this before I grab a bag of the v3 (or maybe v4 that doesn’t exist yet).
Does the v3 still have those massive pebbles that seem hard to dissolve? Would love to see a more homogeneous powder or even better, granular so I don’t have to hold my breath/wear a respirator to safely use the stuff. Also think a 2 part would be a great idea. A bloom version with lower or even slightly lower N level would be great in order to add a bunch of calcium nitrate for coco coir.Seems to eat the stuff. I’m more than halfway through my massive v2 bag (mostly from being insanely wasteful having to dump out half full res) and on the fence about the v3 but will probably wait if something is in the works.
Aside from the few issues I have been pretty happy with using the stuff, considering it’s avail in Canada unlike 4/5 of the nutrient companies I’ve wanted to try in the past.
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I’m still on v2 bro. I pre mix it in boiling water then add that to the control bucket a little at a time until I reach the desired EC.
My submersible pump is 1000lph and it runs constantly. I usually run sterile so the higher temperature won’t be a problem with algae. The air pump also runs 24/7.
In the winter Its fine. Sits around 65 - 68f but in the warmer months I’ve been adding frozen bottles 3 x a day to cool the solution down. I plan on buying a chiller at some point when I’m in a better position money wise 
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thats just sediment that doesn’t fully dissolve, i have pictures of just that and have even decanted off that sediment and dried it out and weighed it and it worked out to be around 7% of initial weight so my guess is the calcium and other things like the kelp extract and the likes, i just decant off the top and put the liquid into another bottle cause that sediment usually just ends up in the bottom of my reservoirs doing nothing anyways.
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There is no way 7% is insoluble sediment. Can you post a picture of it?
Colonies can form from the organic portions, as fungus decomposes some of the organic matter. Not really too much of an issue imo
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yeah when i get home i can post some concentrated bottle photos of the sediment, im not sure i have the dried out sediment weight pics, but i tried it a couple times and it ranged between 5-7.5% when dried, my lower readings were more cause i lost some in transfer, but dried out in the oven at lower temps just to not skew results with any leftover water weight.
Saying that though and this ive noticed with maxibloom as well, is that when mixed up into a concentrated solution its almost like the calcium or what i presume is the calcium drops out of suspension, where as when mixed up in non concentrated form it actually dissolves pretty much fully at least for the maxibloom, and i easily can do some tests and photos to show that.
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People keep doing concentrated mixtures, which is not following the mixing instructions btw, then get confused about sediment. There is some misinformation circulating on forums that you have to “premix” Mega Crop. Its pretty common that we get emails about this “someone said on the forums!”
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well you did suggest doing concentrated batches above…
does help get a more even “dosing” for us smaller growers
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Sure, but nowhere does it say “decant off the top liquid.” The proper way is to shake the concentrated mixture and then pour that even mixture into your water tank. The small white pieces will dissolve eventually.
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they dont not fully and i even pre grind mine, a lot of people have sediment pics and i have done side by side runs with maxi series where its only megacrop that has sediment.
But im not arguing or anything its just my observations for what ive seen so far that’s all, nothing more than that.
But seeings how your on the forum right now, whats your observation or comment on the pH discrepancies between the v1 vs v2/v3 being quite low when mixed ?
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Why would you grind the mix, and also make a liquid concentrate from it? Small micro-growers can do an either/or if they are worried about homogeneity, but you wouldn’t do both.
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Well the grinding was initially to make a more homogenized mix for when making up smaller batched due to particle size differences in the stock megacrop mix, and what your apparently doing with the new stuff coming out anyways because of people suggestions and comments ? at the same time and with your suggestion above i also started doing concentrated batches with an unground version to achieve the same result and would just shake and take off what i needed to make a batch.
In the end i just adopted both cause initial break down of mixing up a batch happened quicker, and the bigger particles wouldn’t float to the top per say when in the bag “well jar” cause i adopted jaring due to the v1 hygroscopic tendencies.
Also explain why would it matter that you shouldn’t do both if either is acceptable ?
On the decanting note i only started decanting because i was noticing that sediment wouldn’t break down even after thoroughly mixing whether ground not ground, pre concentrated or straight from the bag, just did matter but when decanting off a concentrated batch, i ran into no more sediment issues so that’s why i went that route.
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Here you go
These three pictures are of the same concentrated batch i made of the v3 if i remember correctly, but would coincide with the dates.
First two pics are of the sediment after i mixed it straight out of the bag with about 2-3 days of on and off shaking to just try and dissolve everything, batch was made up into a 80g/1000ml solution.
The third pic is of the same batch which was in a sealed container and stored in a cool dark environment “lower cupboard” and shaken every 2-3 days for about a month if you go by the dates of the pictures.
month later
Here is a sediment shot of a ground up batch i made at the start of this year, sediment was just finer but you cant tell in the picture but it was made up to 160g/2000ml which is less than your previous recommendations but i only did that cause the weaker batches i cycle over quicker, but i did that batch specifically as a test to weight the dried sediment once i decanted off of it.
And here is the dried out sediment where i had just boiled off the water to a point where it was still somewhat wet but then dried out fully in the oven, as i didn’t want to overheat and offgas any components or change them chemically where the weight would change, like how you can bake sodium bicarbonate to make sodium carbonate but you lose weight in the process due to the dissociation.
And i weighed the patchement dish before hand so i could calculate that out of the end weight, don’t have a picture of the weight but looking back at a discord chat when i was doing that test i said i got almost exactly 12g dried from the 160g that went in making it about 7.5%.
I just did that all for my own curiosity sake, and due to the weight and make up of it is why i was guessing it was the calcium amongst other things that was not fully dissolving, or reforming or dropping out or whatever.
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Hi @Mr.Sparkle, I had noted precipitation at a certain PH threshold for a non-concentrated solution (titration towards a basic PH).
Did you happen to measure the PH of your concentrate before/after? Is the resultant precipitate soluble in a tap water (~7.0)?
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The principate wasn’t soluble in tap water, or at least majorly from what i remember, as one previous test i washed the sediment like how you would wash leftover yeast from a beer batch by adding water then decanting off the top when the sediment/yeast had settled and repeating a couple times.
but the precipitation that i do believe im experiencing is possible on the other side of the spectrum, but im only basing that of say my observations with maxibloom like for example below is a concentrated batch of maxi bloom “30g/200ml” and that sediment dissolve pretty much completely once actually mixed into a batch of water, but takes some time to do so, but my observations with megacrop is there is still a lot of sediment.
As for pH readings i can grab some but they will be ballpark ones as i use indicator drops, but the concentrated batches are usually always low pH they are just less so when mix with my tap water, but still on the low side with the v2/v3 megacrop
but i need to mix up some water tonight and will grab some readings
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Yeah no decanted megacrop even if in a diluted concentrated solution is still low pH like around 4 or so or lower, mixed up to 1.4ec is around 5ish, my tap right now is around 6.8 at 0.035ec.
And the pH differences was actually what i was really talking about as my question at least for this new stuff and older v2/v3, the sediment issue is something i already had worked around and wasn’t my concern, as you can always wash out res sediment and or decant off what i was mixing.
but literally just ran out of indicators drops just now which i was expecting in the next couple of watering anyways, but gives me an excuse to go get some new coco from the local hydro store as well apart from more indicator solution, which was the plan.
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If you mix a high concentrate, there is going to be insolubles, there is nothing unexpected about this.
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Thanks. Yeah, if it’s not soluble there seems to be a reaction going on there or you’ve reached the solubility limits. But, if you’d hit the solubility limits of the concentrate, I’d expect it to redissolve into fresh tap water. The participate I’d seen previously (white) could redissolve and the PH was basic somewhere 8+ (but also at normal concentration).
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Yes exactly. After you mix a concentrate, the proper way to use it, is to mix the solution very well, then it will be uniform in liquid and take your dose from this.
Once you add the concentrate back to normal water, then the particles will dissolve (it may take several hours for the particles to fully dissolve)
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