Home remedies for ph down in hydro???

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by onlyoneplayer, May 24, 2010.

  1. Quick question, say if u have a hydroponic garden and u need to bring down the ph, can u use citric acid to bring it down?????
     
  2. Citric acid and/or lemon juice will work but you are also introducing sugars. Depending on how much and how long, you may start growing things you dont want to or attracting insects.

    You can hit up just about any grocery/superstore and pick up some pool PH down and mix your own solutions. Just wear proper PPE when handling strong chems, strong acids and oxidizers will fook you up.
     
  3. Ok, say it i have a 7 gal reservoir, how much lemon juice should i use to bring it down?
     
  4. No clue. Whats the PH at now? Add 1ml at a time, stir and recheck in 10 mins. It all depends on the concentration of the acid you are adding. It may take 3 tablespoons of lemon juice to lower from 6.0 to 5.7, but it may only take 1 tablespoon of Nitric Acid to do the same. Its all try and test, small increments until you figure out how your acid moves your PH.
     
  5. Also, I hear that it is recommended not to adjust the pH more than 0.2 per day in an active hydro system (one which has plants already in it) :smoke:
     
  6. i just checked and the ph was at 8. Too damn high!!!
     
  7. You need to dump, flush, and restart your reservoir. PH of 8 will lock out just about everything. Something has gone wrong.
     
  8. my bad it was 8 it was 7, before it was 6.5. the ph went up becuz i added this nute that adds strength for stems.
     

  9. If you're adding any nutes to the water, always check the pH AFTER, then adjust accordingly. Also, if you use chemicals (pH up or down) don't use them together in the same reservoir. They'll cancel out each other's effects and you're pH will go crazy. So if one you add pH down and the pH gets too low, do NOT add up to adjust it, as someone stated above, you'd want to dump the water out and start again.
     
  10. I use vinegar to bring my ph down...
     

Share This Page