Ph up & down

[tinytoon]

Anyone use the dry bulk form of ph up and down?? Looking to find out how much of a pain it is to mix and use and such

tinytoon Reviewed by tinytoon on 07-26-2010. Ph up & down Anyone use the dry bulk form of ph up and down?? Looking to find out how much of a pain it is to mix and use and such :) Rating: 5

[sergentjunk]

Hey Tiny. Been a while since I've been here, but thought I would lend my experience.

Earth Juice is the only dry PH adjusters I've used...and I love 'em. They're 100% natural, and a little goes a long way. Dissolves fast, very easy to use.

I got tired of GH's adjusters. Also...GH's Down is sodium bicarbonate. Earth Juice's is Potassium bicarbonate. Didn't like the idea of adding more salt to coco. Haven't noticed any adverse affects of GH's, just helps me sleep better knowing I'm adding K instead of a sodium derivative.

Hope that helps.

[tinytoon]

Ty and WB :thumbsup:

[Horsemanrocks]

Yeah Tiny, BGhydro stopped selling the GH Ph up in liquid form (due to shipping I guess). So I bought the dry form.

I mixed it 1C dry to 3C tap water (not knowing how strong to mix) and ended up with a very strong solution compared to the liquid version. I would guess that 1/4C would make a solution closer to the liquid version.

I called a GH tech and he was unwilling to venture a guess as to ratios that may be equal to the pre-mixed.

I also made a mistake in that I put the dry mix into the bottle before adding water. It pretty much clumped up in a lump and was very hard to mix. I think adding the dry mix to the water would have worked out much better.

The biggest plus is that dry mix is going to be very inexpensive and will last a long long time.

The drawback is that you will have to relearn how much to use.

Hope that helps,
HMR

[sergentjunk]

Ty and WB :thumbsup:

NP Tiny, and thx on the WB.

[Prodaytrader]

Dont tell anyone but I got a one time steal on a large tub (16 lbs???) of ph down. I thought to myself, this will be the last time I ever have to buy ph down. I had been using the orange bottle, is that GH? My dry powder is from the same company, again I'll guess General Hydro. I had no idea of the ratio so I just filled the old 1 liter bottle of ph down with water and started adding powder. I had to add a lot before I was happy, but at least it became more concentrated then the old stuff. For whatever reason about the same time I started using it, I also started to get massive fluctuations in ph as well. It was getting so bad that I was adding in a good portion of my ph brew every day. I swear the more I added of this damn powder the more my ph rose the next day. WTF??? Maybe it was the powder, maybe it was something else I dont know, but man did I ever have to use a lot of it. It started to worry me so I researched other means of controlling ph. Currently I use so little acid that I can go 3/4 days before needing to even think about it. Many times even then I dont adjust, I just think continue to think about it. :P

I'm currently using the GH powder series (Maxigrow & MaxiBloom, Koolbloom) which supposedly has a ph buffer in it in addition to using coco as the medium. I flood my table every 12 hours now instead of every 15 minutes or so with hydroton. My water is cleaner then it's ever been, the ph fluctuates so very little now and my plant growth has been much more steady. I'm not saying yours will get better, I don't think I can judge that, but since I was having some lingering problems with ph, over watering and such, all that has now gone away with my current setup. The plants are much happier then ever before since they have a much more stable environment then what I was providing before.

Ph adjusting is a nitemare.

[tinytoon]

Ty some much for the replies. When all I was doing was a small E&F setup and 4 DWC buckets the liquid has always been fine but then again I was dealing with 6 Gals of water max. Now I have a 55 Gal rez and atm when they are flowering I start the week with 40 gals and takes a bit of the liquid to get where I want to be.

HMR for some stupid reason I thrive on learning things :thumbsup:

[sergentjunk]

HMR for some stupid reason I thrive on learning things :thumbsup:

That's not stupid tiny.

I got tired of GH's adjusters. Also...GH's Down is sodium bicarbonate.

Need to correct myself. I meant PH Up. Was a bit distracted yesterday.

I was actually getting really frustrated in noticing some instabilities with GH's liquid PH balancers. Never had a problem before the last grow, but this last one I was getting wicked PH fluctuations. Somewhat to what prodaytrader was explaining. Someone had recommended EJ's dry. Tried, loved it. Super stable and like I said....a little goes a looooooong way. Might be beneficial for a 55g rez.

[Horsemanrocks]

The (Base) solution or Ph up is formulated from Potassium Hydroxide and Potassium Carbonate

The Ph down solution is formulated from Phosphoric acid


HMR