First Grow, DWC NightOwl Heartbreaker

3/23 - start of week 3! (aka day 15 since sprout). The girls are looking happy, so I'm not changing anything just yet. They are still drinking an equal portion of nutes to water, and the pH has remained right where I want it. Increasing the light intensity has added a few more degrees to the tent, but well within the desired range. It has been difficult to maintain the desired VPD as this implies a consistently high RH %, and I'm worried that keeping my RH % higher than 75% will cause issues. Roots on both plants are super vigorous and healthy! They are loving the aeration of these bucket air stones! Potentially doing some LST later this week, depending on how quick the growth is Heather: 450 ppm 5.95 pH Helen: 385 ppm 5.89 pH 3/25 - Ok, we have our first deficiency/issue! I'm not 100% sure what happened, but I'm suspecting it was due to one of the following: potentially too much water in the buckets (not enough gap between the netpot and water) and not enough nutes. This is causing slight curling at the tips and droopiness in the leaves, although they still look a healthy green. I did a full res change today. I lowered the water level a bit, and upped the ppm on both, so hopefully, that will take care of both issues. I also got really neurotic about VPD and flipped the tent around so that the humidifier is in a different position to more evenly disperse the vapor. I'm currently re-calibrating both sensors as well since they were pretty different results for being 2 feet away. Since I changed the tent around (including the camera to not get in the way), the continuity of the timelapse will be...interesting haha *** res change day *** pre-res change> Heather: 416 ppm 6.25 pH 71.4 F water temp Helen; 354 ppm 6.31 pH 70.3 F water temp post res-change> Heather: 568 ppm 5.75 pH 58.1 Fwater temp (will rise quickly) Helen; 568 ppm 5.75 pH 57.2 F water temp 3/26 - Posted a question earlier b/c the girls were still not improving after the res change, and actually look a bit worse. Going to trust the advice of the veterans and chalk it up to growing pains. The roots on both girls still look white and healthy and there are even new roots popping out of the netpot still. Just seems like she isn't elongating more, but perhaps that's just the indica bushiness. I took a reading tonght and the ppm is noticeably higher on both at ~ 650 ppm, and the pH has crept up to 6. The temp is already back to 69/70 as expected, but the insulation helps keep it there. I'm replacing some res water with some pHed distilled water to try and lower ppm a bit. Crossing my fingers that I'm just going to wake up tomorrow to some better growth. Lights are at 75% intensity now, still the same distance away from when I started. *after replacing ~.5 gal in each res bucket with .5 gal of pHed distilled water * Heather: 531 ppm 5.94 pH 68.3 F water temp Helen: 588 ppm 5.88 pH 69.3 water temp 3/27 - Unfortunately, the deficiency still seems to be setting in, and I'm not sure what the issue is. All the symptoms seem like root rot, but I feel like I'm doing all the right things: res is at least 1-2" below bottom of netpot, strong air stone with 10W air pump, hydroguard, insulation around bucket to block light, water res at 70F....what am I missing here? I'm going to post a new grow question now that the symptoms are more pronounced, so there will be pics showing the splotching on the leaves. There are still healthy new white roots being developed so I'm really confused why the plant seems stunted, and leaves are drooping and curling. The ppms and pH are the same from the other night which is a good sign (I think). 3/28 - Alright, I think we're making some progress now - at least, they're not appearing worse. The challenge is, there were likely several issues, and a lot of these issues have similar symptoms, so we'll never know for sure. I think it was a combination of the air stone bubbles soaking the rapid rooter medium and causing the drowning-like symptoms, cal-mag issues (evident on the splotches on the lower leaves where they were rubbing against the pot), and "potentially" no sleep! I asked a couple of questions here and Reddit, and I'm going to try a 20/4 or 18/6 light cycle for now, which was suggested by several experienced growers. I think it's crazy that it's 2021 and we don't know for sure what is the optimal light cycle for autos, but I suppose the genetics of every plant are slightly different, and it's hard to be exact. Crossing my fingers that this allows them time to recover and start strecthing. While the leaves seem to be the right size, there is zero stretching (probably from the 'drowning'), and it's going to be an issue later if they're all blocking light. ppm and pH looks good from the other day though! I know some think the nutes are high, but the plants are telling me it's working based on the day-to-day differentials. Heather: 552 ppm 6.03 pH 71.2 Fwater temp (hoping Hydroguard helps so I don't need to decrease temp) Helen: 569 ppm 6.04 pH 70.5 F water temp 3/29 - What a day, where to start. The ladies are looking much, MUCH better. They are actually drinking a lot of nutes! I may need to increase even more next res change. I added 2mL of hydroguard to each res...just because. The root system in both are looking healthy, but the gap between the res and the netpot might be too large now (~5 inches). I'm considering running 2 air stones. Also, (see pics) I felt like the new growth from the top was sufficient to start LST, so I did. Helen took it a lot easier, as Heather's stalk is already starting to firm up, so I didn't want to push anything. I'll likely have to readjust this at some point, but it's a start. I actually didn't realize how many new growth sites were happening underneath all these bushy leaves. I'm sticking with the 20/4 light cycle for now. Heather: 494 ppm (someone was thirsty!) 6.01 pH 69.9 F water temp Helen: 518 ppm (also thirsty!) 5.99 pH 69.2 F water temp 3/30 - Ladies are looking great and spreading out thanks to some leaf tucking and LST on the main branch on both. I may need to do another one tomorrow. I am preparing for not only a res change but a bucket change tomorrow (see pics). I have *NO* idea how I missed this idea, but I am convinced this is the best way to do DWC sans a real water chiller, which just seems excessive unless I'm doing legit rDWC (which I'm not...yet). DWCooler is the way to go, and I don't know why more people aren't doing this vs. the generic 5 gallon bucket + insulation (like myself). Anyway, hopefully, this will help spread the word. The ppm and pH is still in check, so I'll be continuing with my nute schedule and going into the transition week feeding. Tomorrow will officially start week 4! Expect more pics once I get the ladies in their new homes. The cooler water will give more oxygen and Helen needs it. Who would have thought in week 1 that she would be the problem child? Clearly, I'm excited by this new transition to DWC greatness. Heather: 481 ppm 6.07 pH 71.2 F water temp Helen: 516 ppm 6.02 pH 70.7 F water temp Thanks for following 🤙 Always, appreciative of tips or suggestions