I am on a tight budget, would the following PH meter be a good choice or is it likley that the quality will be poor? NEW DIGITAL PH METER FISH MARINE AQUARIUM, HYDROPONICS on eBay.ca (item 350295477812 end time 14-Apr-11 02:42:35 EDT)
you can get an aquarium test kit from wal mart for like 10 bucks. you put like 10ml of water in the test tube. drop in like 3 drops of the solution and compare color to the chart. 100% accurate. you never know if a low end ph meter is going to be accurate. the test kit im talking about i believe you can get about 150 tests before you need more solution, it also comes with ph up and down to adjust accordingly.
Do the wal-mart and aquarium kits go through the proper range for growing weed? Some of them don't go down to the 5s, which is kinda necessary. I got this one it works pretty well. SALE! NEW HANNA HI98107 98107 PH METER TESTER CHECKER on eBay.ca (item 300403243764 end time 28-Apr-11 10:08:38 EDT)
Bought the the liquids for 10 bucks on amazon.com. Its clunky inexact messy. They make a better one. And they make meters. I sent for a Luster Leaf 1818 Rapitest Mini 4-in-1 Soil Tester for $11.35 at amazon
It's related to the EC of your water and has to do w/ the amount of dissolved solids in it. It needs to be between 5.5 and 5.8 for plants to be able to take up all the nutrients they need in hydro.