Quote Originally Posted by Weedhound
Ok I have personal issues with hydroton myself.....I think it leads to fert build up issues. I used it for about 6 months and finally changed but lots of people seem to have no problem with it so sometimes I wonder if it's just me.

I have pretty large plants in waterfarms (about 2 gals apiece) and my ph doesn't start rising like that until about week 4 of flowering and on and I used to have to adjust it constantly. Now I recirculate the nutes and that helps keep the ph down but it is considered normal pretty much at that point.

However....you aren't at that point and so yours should not be rising like that unless they are suddenly taking a huge grow jump or something. So it's pretty much up to you to watch and see if the nute level is too much which can also definitely cause ph to rise. If you want to find out for sure....drop back your ppms and see if your ph stabilizes. If so....stay on the lower side. If not....I am still wondering about the metal in your system and did you use a flushing agent when flushing the system?
Those would be my other two thoughts.
Whats up Weedhound I know this thread is bout as old as the hills but hopefully you might see it! Im having pretty much the same problem but unfortunately my PH hasnt stablized yet! I was reading over this thread while lookin for answers and noticed the underlined statement you made about using a flushing agent when doing weekly/biweekly flushes. I actually did use Clearex when I flushed during my res change from week 4 to 5, can you tell me how this might be affecting my PH?
My initial problem was that my PPMs were rising and this had me stumped until I realized that PH down does influence your PPMs. I wouldve realized this earlier but like usual there's alot of bad info on some of these forums
and alot of posts claiming that PH adjusters dont influence PPMs and Ive been a long time dirt farmer and this is my first time coming over to the wet side so obviously Im a little new to hydro! At first me and a buddy that owns a hydro shop thought the PPM rise might be due to the Clearex I flushed with causing the medium to reject the uptake of nutes, thus causing my plants to only uptake water, leaving the nutes behind to raise the PPMs.
ANYWAY I realized the PPMs were rising because of the PH down I was adding which led me to realize that my PH rising too quickly and having to adjust is whats causing such a drastic increase in PPM! So whats causing this drastic increase in PH?
Im using a 2x4 E&F table w/conditioned RW cubes.
27 gal res w/20 gal of water, w/a small pump to circulate water and an airstone w/sponge around it to give the bene's a place to colonize. The res does have a lid so no evaporation.
Im using the entire Advanced Connoiseur Line plus Rhino Skin and Bud Factor X and following the light feeding schedule fairly close. I stopped adding beneficials after wk 2.
My PH after adding nutes is always right at 5.9 but within a day or so it usually goes up by a point or more.
Im in week 4 of flowering, week 5 starts on Tuesday. My PPMs are peaking over these 2 weeks at about 1300 but w/the addition of PH down to keep the PH in range Im up to 1900 PPMs! Since dif nutes are absorbed at dif PH levels I let my PH fluctuate between 5.5 and 7, sometimes 7.5 if Ive already added alot of PH down that week.
Im hopin you come across this, and would really appreciate any help you could give. If there's any additional info needed to help with diagnosis just lemme know.
PS Sorry for "thread jacking" but I dont see any way to PM on this site and since its been inactive for so long hopefully nobody will mind!
chiefgreenleaf Reviewed by chiefgreenleaf on . PH KEEPS RISING! PLEASE HELP!!! Hello, I am running a recirculating top feed drip system in six of the 5 gallon buckets with pure hydroton and a 10 gallon reservoir with ice to keep it cool. Feeding goes on all day with 2 minutes every 10 to help it drain. I am using the three part advanced nutrients with silica, that fulsomething acid, nectarsweet, calmag, wet betty, and supervit. I have a CO2 system. Change the water out regularly. I am using RO water. Here's the problem. A week ago my ph began to rise, I figured it was Rating: 5