Ph is rising, can't seem to stabilize

For the past 36 hours now I have had my clones in my aeroponic system.

For the first 12-14 hours or so I did not have any meters yet and so the ph was around 8.6 and the ppm around 400.

I have been keeping the ph between 5.2-5.8 but in the past 6 hours it rose to 6.7!

I have been reading my eyes out of my skull it seems and I have found that my filter mounted on my tap might be contributing to a high ph due to the water softening process, so I have put a gallon of tap water plus 5ml / gal of liquid earth's vigor and grow.

The ppm right now is at 690 and the ph is at 5.6.

Is this highly volatile ph dangerous to my plants if I can keep it within 5.0-6.0?

I have been following MVP's thread about his grow and I am thinking if the ph does not stabilize as I flush using plain tap water I am going to switch to completely RO and 300 ppm of calmag. Does that sound about right?

It is hard to diagnose these issues by looking at the plants, because when I picked them up they already had some discoloration and wilting; but I have attached a couple pictures just in case someone might spot something I missed.

My girlfriend says I need to be patient with them, let them adapt to 400 hps and nutrients and whatnot but moving from flouros to hps shouldn't cause this constant rising in ph, should it?

Thanks for the comments :)

With fresh RW and hydroton, an initial pH rise is normal. Keep checking and lowering- it should stabilize within a few days. Try for 5.8 as a goal. 5.0 is a little low; a working range in the upper 5s is safer.

Thanks for the quick reply stinky; I've been watching my meter for about an hour and a half now and the ph has stayed at 5.6. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come :)

Would a guess that the clones are about 3 weeks old sound accurate? There are roots coming out most sides of the rockwool, about 1-2 inches in some places.

Today I am going to be working on setting up a screen of chicken wire about 10 inches from the planting medium for a SCRoG when the ph has stabilized.

For now, I need to figure out how to flush my system. 15 gallons is a couple too many for me to be hauling the damn thing down the hall to the sink to drain. I was thinking using my level indicator as a siphon and adding a gallon as it drains out. Whadda ya think?

You really need to do some more studying about pH, nutrients and mj growing in general.

To begin with, your pH target should be around 5.6-5.7, in that vicinity - 5.0 is way too acidic. Secondly, you have way too much light on those young plants. They need to adapt to the stronger light. I hope you have that hps a good distance away from your clones.

As far as your nutes go, right now you should be at about 1/4 strength, and I doubt that 690 ppm fits that criteria. I've never heard of using CalMag+ as a stand-alone nute. Why don't you make things simple and follow a tried and true regimen of nutrients instead of trying to reinvent the wheel on your first try?

Your clones are probably only about 10 days old judging from your description, and they need to adapt to life outside the cloner. If I had brought those clones home, I would have put them under flouros with r/o water and B1 + a tiny amount of Superthrive. After a couple days with the B1 I'd switch to 1/4 strength nutes for 3-4 days, then 1/2 strength for 4-5 days then up to full nutes, if the plants look strong enough to stand it. I'd give the plants at least one week under the flouros before switching to stronger light.

Your plants are going to be like young babies for a week or two and you need to treat them as such. Giving them a lot of light and a lot of nutrients at this point in time will do more to harm them than help them.

PC :smokin:

PharmaCan,

Thank you for your informative post. I will be sure to keep the ph around 5.6-5.7 from now on.

The HPS is right around 30 inches (76cm) from the planting medium and about 20-22 inches (53cm) from the top of the leaves. Does the light need to be raised? I can raise it another 6.5 inches (16.5cm) easily using the chain but I could get another 3-4 inches (9cm) if I needed to.

As far as nutes go, is 1/4 strength in reference to the recommended dosage on the bottles or is that referring to a total of about 1300, divided by 4?

My tap water has a base of around 420 ppm, so I have a total of around 270 ppm of nutes in it. According to Diagnosing Marijuana Cannabis Plant Abuse Problems Charts and Photos
water with over 200 ppm starting out is too hard (too much Ca) which can lead to a mg def. My starting water is 400+, so I need to lower it somehow. Referencing onlinepot.org again, it says that using 1/4 teaspoon of epsom salt per gallon of water will reduce the lockout. What do you think?

Again, I really appreciate the help :)

Your water is 400 ppm? Lose it and go with RO or distilled. PC is right.....you don't seem to have the idea very well of exactly what to do and so you are trying eveyrthing you can think of. Stop it.

You have regular tap water...plus CalMag.....WAY too much minerals etc in there if I am reading this correctly. Either way..(even if you don't) ..I'd dump EVERYTHING and start over. No wonder your plants look sickly.....I think you are burning them and that's why your ph won't stay down. As Stinky says...the issue could be your hydroton....but I have a feeling its much more your feeding "schedule" etc..


If you are interested I would try this.

RO water
CalMag....200
Grow nutes 200 (what kind are you using btw? A one part or three part)

and leave EVERYTHING else out of the equation. Everyone seems to think the answer is to add things....ANYTHING....instead of that perhaps they just have too MUCH junk in there already and it's causing toxicity problems. In THIS particular case I'm already POSITIVE there's junk in there.....what's the 400ppm of your water? Dirt? Sulpher? Who knows even what is IN your water so get rid of it.....and any problems it might be adding to your grow.

I'm guessing here....your info is sketchy and vague-ish....but that would certainly be my first guess in this situation.

Good Luck.

Revised: The Complete Guide To Sick Plants,pH and Pest Troubles - PlanetGanja.com

This is a very good troubleshooting forum as well.....definitely worth a look. ;)

Weedhound - Thanks for your reply :)

The water coming straight out of my tap measures in at 420 ppm. I do not have any calmag.

I will go to the hydro store today and pick up 15 gal of RO water and some CalMag. The nutes that came with my aeroponic's kit is Liquid Earth and it has three separate bottles; A vigor, bloom, and grow bottle.

I don't mean to be vague, let me know anything you don't understand and I will to my best to clear it up.

Thanks for tolerating my dumbass long enough to respond, the help is greatly appreciated. I am looking forward to becoming more adapt at growing in general, as this is my first ever grow. However, I am completely determined to see this crop out to finish, whether it takes twice as long with no smokeables in the end or not :)

cmasfca - Listen to Weedhound. She knows a lot more about hydro than I do.

As far as the lights go, I'd get them up as high as you can. I've never taken fresh clones and put them under an hps, so I don't know for sure. Just don't cook them! Once you get your nute problems resolved, the plants ill start to grow, then they'll start to grow rapidly. When the new growth starts, You can lower the lights a little at a time - just watch how they react.

PC :smokin:

CM...I'm sorry if I came off rude.....I'm an old curmedgeon...didn't mean to be a crab. :)

I think that is definitely your best bet here. That 420ppm in your tap water....just plain scares me. That stuff could be ANYTHING in there.....we don't want it clogging up your grow and for all we know WHATEVER it is it could be locking out some of your needed minerals etc...

Stinky's point about hydroton is also something not to be taken lightly. I had issues with it as well and you have to watch your ph very carefully until it stabilizes. Interestingly though, only some people seem to have this problem with it.....I had horrible problems and gave the stuff to my friend (the rest of the bag..unused) which she turned around and used with absolutely NO ph issues at all.....EVER from the VERY same bag!!!

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the Earth Juice nutes so cannot really give you a starting point for them. I use Botanicare ProGrow (a one part grow nute) so you may want to ask your hydro guy what is a good number to start with. Some of these 3 parts nutes are measured out differently....which is why i hesitate to tell you to take a 3 part nute to "200ppms". I just don't know enough about them I'm afraid to give you precise directions on their use. Perhaps someone else here uses them......and will know.

PS....Good luck. You're not too far off.....but are making things more complicated than they have to be...hydro is pretty self sufficient if you have all the working parts together correctly. That's one of the reasons I like the one part nutes....anything that's easier and more convenient works for me. :D You'll get there.....don't worry. :)