does my water have to be a certain temperature for my nutrients to dissolve properly? ive been having problems ever since i used canna boost but the weather has also gone cold so im unsure what is happening.. basically ive been adding the recommended amount of nutrients and instead of my ec pen reading within the range canna give you.. its alot less amount. instead of it being 1.5 - 1.7 ec its 1.2 ec which i know is completely wrong because ive put less in before in veg and got a higher ec. at first i thought it was my ec pen but a mate tried his and its the exact same reading as mine. 1.2. the reading should be closer to 1.7 with the nutrients ive put in. so here i am now wondering if it could be to do with the temperature of the water? i noticed this morning after emptying the tank and filling it with fresh there was alot of salt up the side of the tank that clearly had never been dissolved . Sent from my Redmi 4X using Tapatalk
Have you got any calibration sol'n for your pen? If you don't then get some and check your pen properly. And you don't even mention what temp you have. 65F -68F is about the best temp to have for your nutes and you'd have to be damn near freezing for any salts to crystallize in your nute solution and cause the ppm pen to read lower. More likely your pen out of spec or your math is off.
no i havent calibrated it pal but i checked with another pen and its the same reading. the maths is right as i did it myself and made up a chart on the official canna site which read exactly the same measurements. my tank is inside so it does'nt really drop below 15c ever but when im filling the tank with water its obviously cold because its come from outside. i normally leave it 24 hours before i add anything to the water, so its had a chance to heat up but im unsure how much. thanks for the help by the way Sent from my Redmi 4X using Tapatalk
I keep a thermometer in my DWC tubs so I always know the temp. It's improbable that both pens are off the same amount but not impossible. Calibration takes the guesswork out it and for pH pens too. I'm fussy about measurements since taking chemistry to get my diploma almost 30 years ago. Can still see those little red circles around my boo-boos. Sometimes a fresh set of batteries will zero them in too.
Several things can affect solubility, including temperature and how much stuff you're trying to dissolve. The colder the temp, or the more you try to dissolve, the harder it is. One post I saw advised dissolving the nutes in a small amount of hot water, and then adding the remaining water.