Yes actually it does when new and slowly rises. Iirc it has a solid core activated charcoal filter instead of small gravelly pieces. I have low 100's from my tap so its not working too hard. I mostly use the water for misting and Lucy & Ethel and the occasional bong refill
Thanks everyone for all the help. I went out and bought a temp/hum meter 82 degrees & 47% humidity. I will make the res light proof, and will probably get a little bit bigger one. I had a few different forums open, some from other websites when I posted my initial question. I did read this forum from beginning to end, but not before I posted. Based on photos I saw on other sites what I thought was nute def. was actually to much nutes. I switched over to flowering today, and only used 2/3 of the manufacturers suggested dosage. Hopefully I can get my pH EC meter to calibrate tomorrow. After that all I need is the 5kv mogul socket for my 125w cfl top light. Thanks again everyone for all your input. I really don't think I could have gotten this far by myself. It really is great that people can come together to help complete strangers.
I'm right with you on the gratitude. There are some very experienced, accomplished growers on here who donate their time and effort just to teach us noobs. And I'm surrounded by living proof their shit works
Yo fenabar, have you checked the PH of your zerowater? I checked mine for the first time just recently because I couldn't figure out what was going on in my res, and it turned out the zerowater PH is really low. Also, the reading on my PH pen swings around a lot if I stir it in the zerowater, like +- a full point, where it's pretty stable if I stir it in tap or my nutrient solution. I'm wondering if I got a dud filter or something, but it's only the 2nd one I bought and I never thought to check the PH before. I'm getting 0 PPM, and the tap water going into it is about 200 PPM and 7.5-8 PH so I guess I can't complain. Just curious if you or anyone else is having this issue.
Theres nothing wrong with your meter youre having this issue because O TDS water has no buffers(negative or positive to keep it simple) so it is unstable. It is the acid buffers in combination with alkaline buffers that give you a Ph reading. If this filter really makes the TDS 0. then there simply nothing to measure a charge of (hydrogen VS hydroxide). Do a little research on Ph if that didnt make enough sense
Makes sense to me. But I'm a mensa certified nerd any good books that deal more with the science of it then just a step by step guide? Give you rep if you know this quote: "To understand a thing is to control a thing."
Naturally, but this doesn't explain why it's always in the same range (high 4 to low 5). If it's just the lack of buffers I ought to be getting readings of 9-10 as well, and everything in between. Nor does it explain why the zerowater appears to lower the PH in my res. I'm going to write to the company and see what they say.
Tho things on ph Text <-----this one just going over what it is. Text <----- This one tells you why your ph starts low when using the carbon filter. It is from dissolved carbon in the water. Oppm water should have around a 7 ph or a little lower after it sits out and absorbs some o2.
[quote name='dopeshow']Naturally, but this doesn't explain why it's always in the same range (high 4 to low 5). If it's just the lack of buffers I ought to be getting readings of 9-10 as well, and everything in between. Nor does it explain why the zerowater appears to lower the PH in my res I would think this has to do with the increased surface area exposure to carbon and a meter thats not actually reading complete zero (which is actually quite difficult)
Wow I just realized I typed tho instead of two. smh... Thanks guys glad you like the read. That site if full of great info.
wow ok. This is exactly the kind of info i was looking for. And when i checked the ppm and ph this morning i noticed a huge difference from plant to plant. My big buds were eating and drinking a lot, the blueberry was eating but drinking only a little, and that damn trainwreck was not eating or drinking at all really. only 7 ppms since yesterday. So i added nutes back up to the values I started them at this last nute change. The big buds back up to 450, the blueberry back up to 400, and the tw i just topped off. Low and behold after 20 minutes to let things stabilize all of the ph's are back to 5.8, without any ph down! So i think i was creating the bs by ph ing them right away and only using the ph'd ro to top them off. So do you guys just add your nutes directly into the rez? Mix with the ro water first? top off first etc? I added plain ro water(and adjusted each bucket seperately by adding my micro grow bloom and calmag directly to my rez. Is this okay? What is the right way to do it? I would be happy to not have to use my ph up and down so much.
I've found EC is easier to track because it has a much wider range than TDS, and tds readings differ between meter manufacturers, but EC is a constant
^^LOLs .. completely true, not even debatable^^ I still keep my BlueLabs set in PPMs though..... "old dog" I guess
For every .1 change on ec you have a 50ppm change on the .5 scale and a 70ppm change on the .7 scale. I like to be as precise as possible and ppm changes are more sensitive. Yes ec is more constant through manufactures but ppm changes the same in relevance to ec' for every meter. .1 ec change equals a 50ppm change weather it starts at 100 or 1000. I have even been thinking about using a parts per billion pen (PPB) to get a even more sensitive meter. If EC had a thousands number instead of just a tenth then I would use them also. Other then that I prefer the most sensitive meters I can get and that is ppm and ppb.
Mix the nutes before they hit the roots or else the nutes contact the roots in variable doses. If you need to raise the ppm then do it by premixing a stronger nutrient solution with water and adding it to the reservoir. IMO Its best not to ever add raw nutrients into a system with plants in it. Also you should not add raw ph adjusted into your reservoir, its best diluted also. If your ph is constantly fluctuating then either your feed is off or you have bacteria growing in the water. You will get a more stable system with feeding more lightly and with less additives.
I mean I'm really picky, but ppb is getting a little ridiculous imo. plants wouldn't react in such a great difference to rationalize using that. my ec meter goes to .01, so I don't have an issue with being off. a 5ppm estimate is plenty close enough, at least when dealing with the higher numbers.
Over the past seven or eight years of growing I have had a difficult time properly managing my synthetic nutrients. It seems just adding the amount specified on the back of the bottle at anytime can simply kill your plants. So I have been doing a lot of experimenting about cannabis and its true need for nutrients. In the attempts to debunk the myths of the so called required nutrient ec's, required calcium and magnesium levels, or any other required mineral level. Often you hear you need to be at this or that of a certain mineral, or you need to have a certain amounts of nutrients in your water in order for your plant to survive. Growing this way in the past has lead me to owning every nutrient additive known to man kind and still constantly burning my plants and even killing them. A vigorous and healthy plant can be pushed to higher salinity levels. Cannabis can tolerate some very various levels of nutrients. I have flowered plants with less them 50ppm, 1800ppm of nutrients, and everywhere between. I have used every additive in the book, and I have used none. Each grow producing a smokable final product and each having a level of nutes that will burn the plants during flowering. I have had some smaller but higher quality buds with less nutes or less nutritional stress during flowering. Low nute level plants have never killed my plants and always have a insane smell and resin content but will never give me those two liter bottle sized colas that the 1800ppm grows would. Some problems with too low of a ppm is late flower leaf drop/yellowing and smaller plants and yields then I would be expecting. Plants having such a low tissue salinity seem to not be able to properly uptake nutrients once deficiencies start. I got bigger plants with bigger buds with higher amounts of nutes but while I was constantly upping the ppm in flower I would be changing the plants parameters at the wrong time which would lead me to large airy buds with curled leaves, foxtailing, plant burn, longer flowering times, and less flavor. Obviously you will get a bigger plant with a higher yield running high nutes but there is a problem with this push; everyone tries to do it in flower. By this time the plant has already made its parameters (already decided what it wants to do). Once you over do your nutrients and the plant already has its parameters set then that is when you encounter water uptake restriction (curling down leaves) and then deficiencies will usually start (assuming that your environment is already dialed in) This can happen regardless of the amount of nutes that you are running. The trick to growing a supremely healthy and dank plant is to keep the plant transpiring properly with all its stomatas wide open. This will lead you to faster flowering times with denser buds. For me the best way to find the plants tolerable nutrient levels is to slowly do it in veg. Once you have reached a equilibrium at a acceptable ppm or ec then you can raise the ppm again. Slowly you can do this up to your preferred ppm or tds for each strain. The final number you have found a equilibrium at is where your plants preferred salinity level will be at during flowering. This is the amount of nutrients you should try to maintain during flowering to grow a healthy and dank plant of any strain. Keeping a nutrient equilibrium will keep your PH stable and your plant happy regardless of your ppm or ec level. A couple edits for newer growers- When I say equilibrium I am referring to a stable PH and PPM, meaning the numbers are not changing too much. That is usually a safe time to raise the ppm if you feel the need to. That and if your ppm is dropping while the ph is raising often signifies underfeeding, as stated in OP. When I say raising the salinity or tissue salinity that means the salts or nutes in the plant. When I say raising the ppm into veg I assume that vegging is until you are actually seeing buds form. Usually a couple weeks after 12/12 you are actually still vegging...from the plants point of view.