what is the easiest way to maintain ph? and if i have to leave for a few days?

[ephyx057]

i have the drops so my detection methods arent that precise. but how should i go about changing ph daily? should i add nutes with lower ph water and just continue to dump it in? remove a little of the higher ph water and replace it with something a little closer to 5.9 or even maybe lower?

so far my plan is to siphon and replace a gallon a day and have it replaced with 5.9ish ph with 3/4 nutes. and then do a full drain and flush of the nute/water mix once a week. does this seem like a good plan?

what do i do if i have to leave for 5 days or so ( trip to jamaica coming up in oct)

[keylime]

i have the drops so my detection methods arent that precise. but how should i go about changing ph daily? should i add nutes with lower ph water and just continue to dump it in? remove a little of the higher ph water and replace it with something a little closer to 5.9 or even maybe lower?

so far my plan is to siphon and replace a gallon a day and have it replaced with 5.9ish ph with 3/4 nutes. and then do a full drain and flush of the nute/water mix once a week. does this seem like a good plan?

what do i do if i have to leave for 5 days or so ( trip to jamaica coming up in oct)
I would highly recommend you get the biggest reservoir possible....because that is the best way to keep your nutes stable... not only in PH, but also in nutrients and also in water temperature. Whatever you have now, just double or even triple it, not only will you feel better when you leave, but your nutes will be much more stable.

keylime

[ephyx057]

well that is going to be kinda hard to do.... when i made my setup i didnt leave much room for more stuff. so far i have a 10 gallon tote that i run about 7 gallons in. i could probably toss another gallon in there but dont have room for another tank. you this 7-8 gallons will last a few days?

[keylime]

Well, I don't think I really know how many plants you have, and at what stage of their life they are, but you realize, the bigger they get the more juice they need.... I have left for 8 or 10 days at a time, and I put another reservoir tank either directly above or in a remote location at a higher elevation, then run a 1/2" tube to the original res, and put a float valve on it. This way when the original starts to empty, the float valve opens up and fills the original tank again.

KeyLime

[ephyx057]

yea i guess i can try that ... pretty good idea. when i go on this trip it will be towards the end of my plants life. 6 plants all autoflowers with an 8 gallon resevoir i thought about having my wife take care of them but everything she touches dies so i would rather not have her involved in it

[Prodaytrader]

You should use a different nutrient. I use GH's Maxi series of powders. They are pretty cheap, contain cal/mag elements, ph buffer, and everything needed for that stage of growth. There are 3 bags. One for veg, that's for while your in 18/6 light, the flower bag for 12/12 light and finally a kool bloom for the final 2 weeks as an additive. I also use coco as my medium which is ph neutral. With the two combined I rarely adjust ph ever. I thought I was gonna need to adjust up once, but I discovered I really needed a new ph pen. LOL

I have 2 separate 15 gallon reservoirs that I maintain, one for veg and one for flower. The veg side tends to need a little more maintaince in terms of ph for some reason but on the flower side all I ever do is continue to add more nutes and water. The veg side needs a lower ppm so I cant add as much nutes therefore that ph stays a little higher as I refuse to chase ph unless it's way out of whack. Usually that's the sign to change water for me anyway. It takes about 3 weeks before I feel the need to change the water.

[bronc76]

hey prodaytrader i am useing 2 eb and flows with 15 gal in each res as well. The guy at the hydro store said to change water every week. Is he just trying to sell more neauts. I was planning to go like 3 weeks like you adding neauts and water of course as needed. Do you run a filter? I seem to have like a slight frothy foam in my res and some suspended solids of some kind. Is this normal? Water and neauts are about 4days old ph at 6 t0 6.5.:rasta: