Is my pH down of poor quality?

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by GrowerGemini, Jul 10, 2017.

  1. Using General Hydroponics pH Up/Down and I'm having to use massive amounts to get my pH down to 5.5-6.0 range. I mean like literally 1/12th of the bottle to do this for one tank, I've stopped leveling pH until I get this solved because I'm afraid I could damage my plant by putting so much in. I'm using filtered water from my fridge right now which normally sits at 7.5 and goes up to 8.5 after putting nutes in. I have this same problem with pH down when also using distilled water/nutes. Any help would be appreciated!
     
  2. I had the same problem I went to the hydroponic store and got some image.jpg it's a lot stronger and uses way way less to do the job.
     
  3. How many mL's does it take to get down to 6.0? I think I may end up buying a different brand but I want to make sure poor quality product is my actual problem.
     
  4. From 6.2 to 5.8 in 10 gallons of nutrients solution takes about 1ml. In one week I used the hole bottle of ph down that I had. This stuff I refilled the same bottle and used half the same bottle in 55 days.
     
  5. Holy fuck. Ok I'm definitely gonna grab some of this next time I'm in Austin. Really appreciate the help brother.
     
  6. Some times it takes a little more less. Strate water deficiency takes way less like 5-6 drops. Start small and figure this stuff out
     
  7. The pH down should work for you. I'm surprised by your results (though you don't say how big your tank is). It seems to me that it is usually about 4.5 mLs for me to drop 5 gallons to 6.0
     
  8. It depends on what's in you'r source water that's making the pH high. A whole lot of municipalities put a buffer into the water to keep the pH from dropping below 7 to keep the acidity from leeching metals from the pipes. High hardness can also create a buffer. A refrigerator filter is good for removing particulates and it's carbon filter is depleted relatively quickly, as it's really only meant for glasses of water at a time. Carbon filters take in chlorine by adsorption and once it's used up, it's done.

    Certain nutes also employ buffers.

    So, plain old RO with nothing in in takes drops of pH down to get it to 6. Start adding stuff to it that raises the pH means that more and more pH down will be needed.

    So, short answer - RO water will likely get you using less pH down. A small unit costs about $150
     
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  9. That may be the problem. Another thing I realized is that my pH meter wasn't calibrated so my readings were way off. I'm going to recalibrate it today and see if that fixes the issue.
     
  10. Also Distilled water vs tap water in your opinion, which is better?
     
  11. Not true. You can get a very reasonable 50 gallon per day RO Buddie system for about $70. Petco, Aquatic Life, lots of sources. Works great.
     
  12. It's a tough question to answer without knowing your tap water quality. But using RO or DI takes out all the guesswork and you can put into your mix exactly what you want without the concern that stuff that's already in the water that could cause issues.

    Many people can use use tap water no problem, and other tap water will harm them.
     
  13. Um just something worth asking, do you have GH pH up/down or GH pH easy up/easy down? I made the mistake of buying the easy up and it's basically pre diluted

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  14. Not sure I understand the difference? Can you be more specific? Does it say it on the bottle because I seem to just have the standard GH pH up and down.
     
  15. No, it's my bad I think I confused the brands sorry lol
     
  16. No worries dude
     
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  17. Here's my thoughts, I'm having a issue with my ph as well, but I'm told that this is due to the fact I'm not waiting between each addition of nutrients. Your supposed to let your water sit out 24-hours, check it, add 1 nutrient wait 24 hours, check it etc this gives it time to stablize.


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  18. I disagree with that I do all mine in one shot I start with the silica so it doesn't jellyfish then the micro then grow then bloom than any other I have. I start with water that is 5.6 then after all my nutrients it jumpes to 5.8
     
  19. PH changes with time and temperature, if you use a PH product they are designed to change slowly. Ask anyone who maintains a pool it usually takes a few days to a week.


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  20. A pool is thousands of gallons we're talking about 5-20 gallons and max of 3 ml of ph down for a drop of 6.0-5.8. If I wate 24 hours between my 7 different nutrients I'll be out of solution to add it to. IMG_4204.JPG
     

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