Ph issues???????

Hello, This is my first go round with hydro i have always done soiless so im kinda puzzled. Ok this setup is the living system with 3 ice clones 4 wks old. I am using the gh 3 part nutes Grow,Micro,Bloom with some added hygrozyme. When i mix my nutes i have to ph it down to 5.5-5.8 wich is fine but usually with in a day or two the ph has gone bezerk. Like sometimes the res. will say like 3.90 and the bucket will be higher like7.67 or something like huge diffrences why is this and how can i keep it steady? Any help with this whole hydro setup would be much app. as i know very little about this they do seem to be doing ok as far as i can tell???????:confused:

The only thing I can think of is that your meter may be off? Your plants look great so it's hard to believe you have a huge problem.

check your batteries

:thumbsup: thumbs up for the plants, they look amazingly healthy!

l8r mate :cool:

"with in a day or two the ph has gone bezerk"

In hydroponics that is normal. The plant will use up nutrients and deposit back others that it does not need or use. That will change the Ph of the water and then the available nutrients are change as well.

A proper hydro grow requires you to monitor the Ph and make adjustments when needed. Most of us that means check it twice a day and adjust when you need to. Twice a day is not out of the normal. Depending on the size of your rez and how much water you hold. All the buffers are in the base GH NPK so the more nutrients you use the more buffers you have too. That does not mean to go wild on the nutrients so you have more buffers. Just know that is where they come from in the feeding process.

It's normal to adjust ph once even twice a day depending on the cycle the plant is in.

Hope you understand that.

Happy growing.

I have to agree with WH that your plants look healthy so it can't be all that bad ;-)

I'd go with a drop tester to verify your meter readings and if you find the meter is accurate maybe it's something goofy with your nutes...maybe they aren't mixed completely or something and after a day or 2 being spit around they cause the ph to drop considerably...that wouldn't explain the rise and fall though so I'm kinda stumped

If it's your first time using the system (tubs and res chamber) maybe there is a chemical that wasn't cleaned out that's making the meter read funny? or the ph go crazy before it stabilizes...it's a stretch but I can't think of anything else

Any news on the cause? Or atleast ruled some things out?

yeah ph is something you take care of everyday, even if its not necessary to ph up or down u should always check it, most dwc's run into this problem when they have a res and a rootchamber that pulls water. The plant ups the ph in the root chamber simply by just eating, so check them both mainly the root chamber .

i have come to the conclusion my ph meter was on the fritz!! I usually have to drop my ph about half a point every day to keep it at 5.8 not to bad! Ill post some new pics in a bit. They are at 2wks of flower now.

+And if you ever get worried because you have added too much, ph up...ph down...ph up...etc. Mix a fresh batch. sometimes the best thing you can do is to mix new batch.

My other thought was; Are you allowing 5-10 minutes after mixing nutes to allow buffers to adjust? That might be a problem. If you check as soon as you mix, and you have stubborn water...like I do (pre-Reverse-Osmosis)
and immediately ph down, then check and walkaway...You might be lowering the ph...yourself!? Just a thought. Later

No shit LW when in doubt change the rez with a proper mix. You have to check Ph on a constant basis. I mean thats what you are in this for is to get a final product that kicks ass. Baby your bitches (BYB)!

Peace :stoned: