DWC, I need some advice and guidance

[tinytoon]

Plain PH'd water is exactly what you want for first couple weeks and hand watering will be the chore until roots pop out of basket and head for water. What you wrote for soaking is correct. just rinse and repeat until water stays at the PH you put it at before soaking.

[Salvein211]

Thank you Tiny and SMP

[Salvein211]

I had a question about soaking the tron. The first soak didnt do the trick, so do i need to dry the tron before soaking it in lower ph again? Or can I just soak for a while, check the newly raised ph, strain the tron, and place back in another container with say 5.8 ph? Also, is it effective to use lower then 5.8 initially to make this process quicker?

[tinytoon]

no need to dry tron, just dump water and start again. It might take 3-4 soaks before you get PH down. You could try lower than 5.8 but remember if you go to far then it has to be brought up and trust me you dont want to play seesaw with PH. How long you soak it for? Only takes couple hours or so per soak.

[Salvein211]

Hey Tiny thanks for the reply. The first soak I did for just over an hour, the 2nd I did for about 3 hours. The third soak has been over night but I think they are Ph'd now.

I've had another Ph question since the dawn of time and now I remember to ask it. So when I was dropping the ph of the water before I put the tron to soak, I went to far down, had to bring it up, then slightly down again. I remember in my first few grows, I was juvinile and when adjusting Ph, I'd go to far down, then up, then down, about 4 times. I just really would like to know if this has any affects on anything? I notice once you have some of the Ph up or down in, the rate at which the Ph increases or decreases per same volume of added mix isn't as much... It makes sense to me that the molecules need more to grab on to since the water isnt as pure, or is it a dissolvent thing? In this case, does temperature matter?

[Salvein211]

I just checked the Ph of my over night soak and it was 6.7! It seemed to be holding at 5.8ish before the last soak and I know I ph'd the 3rd water batch before I dropped tron in there... so Im not quite sure what happened.

[tinytoon]

If it was new tron did you rinse the tron before the soaking? The thing you want to remember about PH adjustment is a little at a time. As far as temp I believe temp swings must change the PH to a certain extent, if not the why would a PH pen have Temp compensation? lol. there was a really good ph write up that someone posted a while back, I will see if I can find it.

[Salvein211]

Yeah I ran a garden hose through the tron bag for an hour, tried to shift the pellets around through the cycle. (I poked a lot of small holes in the bag bottom before I rinsed of course. Wasnt seeing any red residue afterwards. The hose water pH was like 7.3 . And I guess I was foolish with the soaking because I used hose cold water. I should just plan on using heated bath tub water from now on? How else can you get large quantities of good temp water? Yeah I kind of learned my lesson with the pH swings.. I just was wondering if it had immense consequences or what not. I took chemistry in college so I understand a lot of the molecule reactions, but still with pH, I never considered temp I guess. But with chemistry, we studied solubility and concentrations, not so much levels and consequences. I guess thats BIO Chem.. lol Yeah If you find that link I'd love to take a read, thanks.

[tinytoon]

http://boards.cannabis.com/hydroponi...luctuates.html
Not exactly what I was thinking it contained but still very good read with allot of info Hydro growers should know :jointsmile:

[Salvein211]

Thanks for posting that Tiny, that was a good read. Takes me back to when I was in chemistry class talking about the molecules. Even with an understanding of it, it still seems way over my head to adjust pH by making your own nutrient base. I personally will stick with a premade buy in the store nutrient pack. I heard about FF, so that's what Im going to run with unless anyone knows of cheaper or better for your buck nutes. Back to chem class, I know temperature directly effects solubility, so it does effect pH levels but only in a sense of maybe how easily the plant can uptake nutes? But as for my previous posting I am still fuzzy on pH. When making a water bath to soak the tron, Im just going to use room temp from now on. My only theory is if you check the pH of water that is somewhat cold, and by adding your ph upper or downer, it wont fully dilute until it hits room temp? So therefore, if you get an acceptable ph level at cold temp, its going to be altered at room temp... due to the excess molecules finally being absorbed.. Haha I hope thats all it is!