Need help getting my pH to stay in the range I need it. Obviously know you have to monitor it often but it seems like I'll put some pH down in the res tank to bring it down to 5.5-6.0 and a couple of hours later it shoots back up to 7 or 8. I have two aqua stones in the tank (5 gallon bucket) and am running a Viparspectra Reflector series 600W light. Using Perfect pH (Grow,Bloom,Micro) Hydroguard and General Hydroponics pH up & down. Any help/criticism would be helpful.
That is concerning. Double check your pH measuring device/method. I've seen disagreements among strips, drops, and meters. It's possible there's some biological agent in the tank messing with pH. New reservoir fill fixes many problems.
Hey Gemini So I get this exact same problem and not just every now and then....EVERY single time I change the water it happens Having said that I've come to terms with it and feel it may even be helping in a way My routine is I change the res, add nutes then ph to 6 once I'm happy I drop the bad boy in and boom within a few hours ph is back to where it started I have a few theories for this; 1. I have a temp difference from where I ph my h20 and my grow space, sometimes 5 degrees maybe more 2. My ph down is of low quality and maybe depletes over time? 3. I use the hard water flora series which may have some effect These maybe be something but maybe nothing at all to do with it Now for why I think it helps, I find that if I just leave it after a few days and after she's had some of the water the ph starts to drop right down to where it was at first and even lower then I'm just using regular tap water left uncorrected to gently bring it up everytime. I don't get any problems with this method and feel that although the swing is massive 7 to 4 sometimes I'm covering the entire element table so she'll always get a bit of everything Hope this helps Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Yeah I'm also using the flora series, I have wondered for a while now that maybe my pH down/up isn't of the highest quality hence having to use more than I would like. Do you use air stones? Because I've read that maybe that has to with with affecting the pH levels, considering I have 2 in my tank right now. Also my room tempature rises from 5-10 degrees from night to day so I wonder if the temp change is affecting my pH levels also, considering putting some frozen bottles in my tank as a temporary fix until I get a chiller or something. Thanks for the input though brother.
Do you think airstones/aquastones could be part of the problem? I'm using distilled water as of now but when I put my nutes in it still rises so I dunno, not really noticing a difference between tap/distilled water on this particular issue. I'm going to do some more research on this today to see what I can find out.
Yes air stones in stand alone dwc I find that after 5 days or so I'm actually fighting to keep the ph up I've read all sorts of answers like evaporation that you mentioned low quality products but have yet to find a solid answer I'm still leaning towards my ph down being phosphoric acid not something better but my knowledge of these acids are limited Do you stand your water before using it? I've tried both ways with no avail Heard that it was something to do with chlorine evaporation so tried vit c (ascorbic acid) but same thing happens Is their anyway way you can just leave it and play it to your advantage? Growing autos and I find that the later on in life the babies are the faster they bring down the ph of my water after the initial spike For example changed water two days ago, Ph was 6 when it went in, few hours after checked ph again it was just under 7 but left it as I've been doing and within 2 days ish it was back to where I set it. Plants are 3 weeks from cropping where as at the start plants were consuming such little water the ph was hardly changing so I was forced to lower it again I don't mind the high ph spike but for only a short while, I'm sure long exposure will have big effects Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk
Nope I don't stand it at all but I'm going to do that next batch. Yeah I think the product quality is potentially the big issue so I'm going to order from a new brand soon. Yeah I'm where you were right now, nowhere near cropping yet because I cloned her from her mother when she was deep in flowering (got lazy lol) so she's revegging right now. Once she's bigger she'll naturally start lowering the pH by drinking a lot but I just would love to stabilize my pH without waiting for that. I think I'm going to just adjust the pH once a day and live with whatever happens.
I'm using GH Treo also I ph the water add my nutrients and ph it agin to 5.8. For the first two days it rises faster than normal. Then it settles out. Using RO water and airstone in my Rez. If your in a 5 gallon it will go move faster. Bigger the Rez slower ph will move.
I know from another thread that you were having issues with root rot. This can cause your pH to fluctuate a whole lot as the roots are breaking down. I think you had that root rot kicked tough, yes? How is it dong now?
It's almost virtually gone, I cut the dead roots out and now almost all of them are white. I was thinking about stopping the peroxide and just keep using hydroguard, do you think that is a good idea?
lol just realized that was you telling me to lay off the peroxide in my last thread. Ignore that last post lol.