Water & Nutrient Probs

Hey guys,
I have recently had a few different issues, firstly the leafs were going yellow and the tips curling. I narrowed that down to the water in the reservoir evaporating and the nutrients remaining and being a little strong for the little fellas (young clones under a 600wHPS).

To fix this problem i changed the water to plain tap water and let this go through the system (halo drip) overnight. Hopefully this cures this problem.

Today i checked the ph of the water and its a shockingly high (for me lol) 8.9!!
Thats before i even added any nutrients..

So i used the usual nutrients OPTIMAL A & B, and some PH Down and will check again this afternoon to keep on top of the PH.

Basically my question is this number as shockingly high as i think?
What Numbers are you guys getting straight from the tap?

Yea that does sound kinda high for tap water...usually you hear like 5-7.

Dive:stoned:

ladies...theyre ladies not fellas.
sounds way high. are you testing the ppms?

My tap is 8.5. Very hard water, 400+ppm. I have to use RO. I'm no hydro guy, but if your water is evaporating, try chilling it in your res. Chiller, bottles of ice, whatever.

wow, 8.5ph, thats high!
so you might want to stop flushing with the 8.9ph water.

if using Reverse-Osmosis water, you need to add Cal-Mag+, to replace the missing calcium and magnesium (usually about 10ml per gallon) ... you'll also remove other critical minerals, (a good reason for me to stop using my RO water) ... I would look for a nice source, like a local spring, creek, etc., (but their pH may vary from day-to-day), or work with your present tapwater ... chlorine is usually the only major negative, regarding tapwater, but it evaporates overnite, especially if you can aerate it, with a bubbler ... chlorine doesn't hurt plants, but it kills the beneficial organisms in the soil, or hydro solution ... good luck :thumbsup:

What! 8.9!!!!!!!!!!! fuck meeee gently.

Get it down to a stable 5.8 - 6.0, find out the ec of your tap water for us. Dont expect recovery overnight, run nutes at half strength for a week and see what happens. Just about everything will be locked out at 8.9. keep us posted.

Subzero. :thumbsup:

Thanks for the speedy reply guys :)
I think ill look into using distilled water from now on or watch my ph levels alot more closely. As for EC i cannot actually afford a tester at this point as i'm a single father and he's my first priority.

But soon enough, i sorta jumped into the deep end without all the necessary stuff e.g ph tester (using a mates) although this is really a learning process for me and everyone's assistance is greatly appreciated.

p.s i have a grow log going and also have some piccies in my album. Feel free to look :smokin:

p.p.s i've ordered some celtic hash seeds from planet skunk and am patiently waiting (should have gotten some testers although i ordered the seeds before i tested the water) :(

8.9 seems awfully high. What are you using to test your ph? If it's a color-coded result...check the colors under different lighting, and see if there's a difference. Or have someone else check the readings. (my wife's eyes are better than mine, for instance)
Tiz sooo much easier and cheaper adjusting the ph, than purchasing the distilled. And R/O does not change ph.
My well water comes out of the tap at 7.9 so I adjust with ph Down. (General Hydroponics) 1 gallon is $30.00. 1/4 tsp adjusts 1 gallon from 7.9 to 6.8ish. Usually I just mix 1 tsp:five gallon bucket, and the ladies are fine with that. Anyway...it breaks-down to just over 1 cent per gallon to adjust my ph, and I have had the same gallon for over two years.

Temperatures artifically alter the ph. That's why some ph pen calibration solutions have the temp : ph ratios. (don't like your ph...? Turn-on the A/C, lol) Testing ph at the same temps every day helps you to be consistent.

This is a hydro grow isn't it? ("halo dripper"). If so, get your ph to 5.5 and let it drift slowly up to no more than 6.2. If not, my apoligies, high 6's is perfect.

Pure ro water has no Potential of Hydrogen but the ph will change when exposed to air and not only will you get false readings with a ph pen it will damage the probe. Thats why a little ph up or down goes along way compared to tap.

Your tap water as it is will cause problems.

Subzero.