Hello Everyone,

I've a hydroponic system that I'm trying to grow hot peppers (carolina reaper, trinidad scorpion and so on). My hydroponic system has 2.2L total capacity water with leds light on top and runs through 16 hours. I tried to do everything "by the book" and per suggestions everywhere. pH levels should be around 5.5-6.5 or 6.0-6.5 and now with the fist true leaves my EC should be around 1.0-1.2

I'm monitoring everyday my pH and EC levels and what's strange is that my pH levels rise everyday to 7.someting but my EC also rises (not too much) which is pretty weird, it is supposed to drop my EC and rise my pH which ment plants are feeding... I change the water completly every week and insert the nutrients once more.

My nutrients are Flora series tripart by Terra Aquatica and are for hard water.

My plants have now their true leaves but they seem to be with a strange look and starting to have a dark/brown color on them. My roots are looking fine. I'm attaching photos to have a better look.

What I'm really confused is that my tap water (which I was normally filling the tank with) had a pH of 6.9-7.0 (pretty normal) but realized that it had an EC of 0.823 which is pretty high! So yesterday I filled up my tank with brita carbon filtered water which measured a pH of 5.97 and EC of 0.491, so only yesterday I made this change. With these base settings of a filtered water I added up the nutrients but for having an EC of 1.0 i should be adding my nutrients until my EC meter measures 1.491 (1.0 nutrients + 0.491 of water) right?

Can anyone have also an idea of what could be the cause of this brown on my leaves?

Thanks!