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I have a five stage r/o system that i would like to use for watering my babies. I have read and understand about using CalMag plus in the r/o water, but does cal mag adjust the ph? my r/o water ph tested with an oakton tester came up to 9. will i still have to use a ph up and down to adjust. I am using fax farm trio and have noticed that by adding the ff it lowers the ph to around 7.7 but of course that is still to high
FYI i am using ff ocean forest soil.
taking the pH of ro water makes no sense. When you mix cal-mag to your base nutes it should stabalize the pH. Make sure you are using the correct ratio of cal-mag to base nutes. You may still need to use ph up or down but unlikely if your ratios are correct. Start taking the ph after you mix your nutes. First cal-mag then base nutes and then check pH, If it is off you may need to adjust your ratios. If you are confident your ratio is correct, adjust pH after you mix the nutes.
Why doesn't it make sense?
so the cal mag and the nutes should make the ph perfect as long as i put the right amount in.
dang this is confusing lol im just a country fcker tryin not to fund terrorism.
Do i need a tds tester to make this perfect? or is my ph tester fine?
How do you figure out the ratio?
any one on the ratio?
Do not read what I wrote it does not make sense, go to the bottom of this post and what does make sense is in bold.
It might not make the pH perfect, def if it does it will not stay perfect for long. It should stay stabalized quite nice.
Electrodes mesure +H ions. I do not know for sure but I do not think there is any in pure water. I just read on another thread that it is actually bad for the electrode to even try to test pure water. They explained it similar to a short circuit, something like that. It does say on my hanna pen directions to not put it in RO water, mabey it does mess it up. Anyone that has knows the pen does go crazy and jumps all over the place. You can test RO with the liqued stuff but like I said it does not mean anything.
I am not sure the correct ratio cal-mag to base nutes. I am still trying to figure that out. There is a sticky on these fourms in the hydro section, the one about botanicare nutes. I have been using that to figure it out.
weedHoud made it, I do not follow it perfectly, I use a bit more base to cal-mag. His formula does stay very stable, at least for me. My last grow I left my home for 10 days and the pH was perfect and the TDS droped just a bit. I was very suprised. My plants love it.
that sticky helped me out big time. It is my fav nute style that I have read on the internet so far.
http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponi...otanicare.html
I started my grow with GH nutes but still followed his ratios (with a bit less cal-mag and a bit more base) and my plants loved it.
I ended my grow with botanicare base. So I guess it does not matter much what nutes you use just stick to around what he uses for cal-mag.
I am in no way saying your nutrients will stay stable using the ratios that weedhoud used or any ratios at all, all I know is for my grow my plants thrived when I mixed my nutes and added cal-mag and propper amount of base nutes to stabalize the pH and it ended up being very close to what weedhoud does, which made me think I was doing the right thing.
I know cannabis takes up acidic nutes better and pH tends to rise. I grow hydro. I do not know much about dirt but people on these boards always have problems with there buffers running out and the pH droping.
here is some stuff from the cervantes book
Element Average Limits
N 150-1000 250
Ca 100-150 200
M 50-100 75
P 50-100 80
K 100-400 300
I am still learning. I am having a fun time trying to figure a nice ratio out. I think it is important to learn the proper ratio of cal-mag to base nutes for each strain you grow. This is just my growing style. I rarely use any pH down or up since I started doing this. I just top my res a couple times a week and my plants are happy.
Remember this is just my style, I think most growers need to use pH up and down after they mix there nutes, this is fine there plants kick ass. It could also be that the nutrient I use are stabalized. I use botanicare cal-mag and there base so I am sure they make there nutes so when you mix the two the pH stays in range.
It might not be a good style for you. I am in rockwool and you grow dirt which requires a higher pH. When I do my mixing with similar ratios to Cervantes book which is also similar to weedhouds nute style my pH is low around 5.5 and that is no good for dirt. (I just thought of this) at this point is you are still reading this you are prob even more confused as well as I am confused. Is it coinsidence that my pH stays stable? I am lost but this is where I am at in my learning of growing cannabis. So what would I do if I were in dirt, mabey add silca to bring the pH up or use different nutes designed more for dirt. I do not know. I am so lost, now I have questions. Why is it when I add these ratios my pH stays stable and my plants thrive? I used to mix my nutes the botanicare chart way and the pH was crazy low, I started adding more cal-mag or lowering the base to make my pH around 5.5 and this endend up looking less like the botanicare chart and more like weedhounds style. My plants love it.
Mabey it is just a coincedence but it is just to big of one.
I do not know if anyone else does this kind of experimenting but it is really interesting. I know there is buffers in nutrients and companies always try to sell you stuff by claiming "using our product you will not have to pH your water" the strage thing about this is following there chart I would have to raise my pH but if I follow my way which is almost the same as weedhouds way my nutes do stabalize and the pH stays stable without needing any adjustments before feeding my plants. To confuse myself and who ever reads this even more the way I figure out how much base nutes to use is i feed my plants and test the solution before and after. If the tds goes down I add more nutrients and if the tds goes up I use less. I like my mix to slightly drop in tds. This is my growing style so far. I do not follow charts or anything I just mix my mix and make sure the pH stays stable, and my tds stays constant with a slight drop. The pH of my medium does rise, which is normal because the plant sucks up the acidic nutes eisier. My res stays stable. I do not think any of this makes any sence and I really do not think anyone is reading this. I guess I am just thinking out loud and writing my thoughts. This is where I am at in my growing. I am all about cal-mag to base. When I figure this out I will work on how additives play a role in stabalization. You grow dirt, I think all what I wrote is more of a hydro thing. All in all I am really lost, but my plants are doing really well ever since I started thinking this way. I conclude with I don't get it and the answer you were looking for is:
cal-mag suggests 5-7 ml, I would start of low see how the plants do and work your way up. Add cal-mag first and then mix what ff recomends, I would also start low. If the pH is off correct it. Your plants will do great. Just make sure to check the pH after you mix the nutrients not before. I do not know how to answer the ratio thing because I do not get it and it does not matter, the nutrient companies take care of it for you.
sorry did not mean to post this.
7.7 is high, it is not your water it must be the way ff makes there nutes.
nothing bad, ff makes really good nutrients I just do not know about them.
What is the pH when you add cal-mag?
cal-mag raises my pH but my base nutes start out very low.
I have read some people add cal-mag and it lowers there pH, I always thought this was crazy but it might be because there nutes start out high.
Very big help bro. now that you mention it, i did notice my ph tester jumpin all over the place a day after i tested the r/o water. now it makes sense.
I have not got the cal mag yet. pretty much doing my research before i go buying this stuff.
I thank you very much for the great info.
Happy growing
J
If you learn anything post here what you learned and if you end up getting cal-mag can you let me know what happend with the pH. I subscribed to this thread. so even if it is a while from now it does not matter. just post up if you find anything interesting.
absolutley. ill keep this thread up dated, till i get it totally figured out. thanks again for your advice though. got my on the right track
only take the abvice in bold. the rest of the stuff are the things I am experimenting with.
It is just strange that you have ro water and when you mix the ff nutes it settles at 7.7
most nute companies make it so when you mix, the pH stays about where you want it. ff makes really good nutes so I am just trying to figure out there style.