my setup consists of 3 5g buckets currently(waiting for 4th seed to germ) My plants are probably a week and half old they are starting to get their second set of leaves. I have added no nutes Im using a-ok starter cubes and put them in hydroton. I dipped the cubes in 5.5 ph'd water the whole time for germ and i rinsed the hydro off well to get the dust off. I have to change my water every day in my buckets My ph from tap comes out at 9 ph, i lowered it straight in the buckets to 5.5-6.o with distilled vinegar, already used all my ph down in leas than a week. After around 10 hours my ph raised back up to 9 in 2/3 buckets. One stayed at 6.2. I'm not sure what to do. When i have to add nutes they are going to get lock out or shock from ph change or something. I ordered hardwater grow nutes to use instead of micro from the gh trio. I'm using 4' air stones with alot of bubbles and blue lowes buckets. Need some advice quick. I can't figure it out.
I don't know about vinegar for lowering pH - I doubt that it's as stable as pH down - I could be wrong. Why are you not using nutes? How do you know you need hard water micro? Did you have your water tested for calcium and magnesium content?
Try preparing your water in a separate reservoir tank. Add nutes at quarter strength and mix thoroughly, PH to around 5.8-6.0 mix again and let it sit for 24 hours then measure PH again, if it has changed drastically PH again and let it sit a few more hours then measure again before replacing the water in your current buckets. Otherwise get some new PH down or re-calibrate your PH meter.
Well vinegar is a lower ph and it worked. Ph down was doing the same thing. My water is coming out at around 300 ppm and 9.0 ph which made me think its pretty hard. My plants still have cotyledons so i didnt think i needed the nutes yet
I've been doing that all along. The water stays the same in the other container. I actually did this with the nutes too and the ph in that looked good still after like 14 hours or so cant confirm 24 untill later today. But i'm assuming the same thing will happen. Its just the ph in my buckets the plants are in for some reason.
It's your hydroton that's causing the pH rise. When I did waterfarms the same thing happened even though I rinsed it thoroughly - it eventually levels out but you have to watch it several times a day.
What do you think I should do at this point? I think my plants have a small root system in there. Just keep pouring water down thru the rocks? To rinse or something
If you're going to pour water through the rocks - it won't hurt anything - just make sure the water is ph'd to about 5.8. It will probably help. Did you rinse the hydroton before you used it?
Yeah i rinsed it pretty good in the bath tub untill the water was clear coming from them. I feel like my plants are going to end up dying from the ph flux though after i have nutes in there. Not sure what to do
It'll stabilize - just follow your plan and run a bunch of pH'd water over the rocks. It can't hurt and it's too early to give up. Good luck.