Ph problem

[Jdzzl03]

Hey guys, I'm a first time grower and decided to start with hydro. I had been reading for months and thought I knew pretty much how everything worked. For the most part everything started great.I started in Feb and wanted to do a test run with some nice bag seeds so that I could get the hang of things. Ok so as far as equipment goes I am using one of those 45 gal rubbermaid containers,reinforced with six holes, water pump and plastic tubing and the floranova nutrient solution. As far as lighting is concerned I am using a 175 MH light with a couple flouros until my 400 HPS light and bulb come in. I am also waiting on my ppm meter so I am keeping the nute solution relatively low. My question is this. Before I went on vacation, checked the ph and it was 5.2-5.5. Everything seemed fine and the plants were doing great. When I came back ph was almost 10. Plants were stunted to say the least and it seemed that the nutrient solution was too strong. So after finding this board and doing so research, I decided to flush the plants and redo the water with half the nutrients i used previously. I checked it that night and the ph was 5.2. I woke up the next day and it was at 6.5. Is this type of ph change normal? It seems like I cant seem to balance the ph for more than a couple of hours. I went out yesterday and bought a water purifier(faucet kind) and changed the water using that. Still not sure if this will do anything but I dont know what else to do, other than check it like every 8 hours. Any suggestions guys?

Jdzzl03 Reviewed by Jdzzl03 on 03-17-2006. Ph problem Hey guys, I'm a first time grower and decided to start with hydro. I had been reading for months and thought I knew pretty much how everything worked. For the most part everything started great.I started in Feb and wanted to do a test run with some nice bag seeds so that I could get the hang of things. Ok so as far as equipment goes I am using one of those 45 gal rubbermaid containers,reinforced with six holes, water pump and plastic tubing and the floranova nutrient solution. As far as Rating: 5

[friendowl]

i would like to know this also.
good question

[karmaxul]

Organic nute ph raises as bacteria and microorganisms break it down. There are different methods to stabilize the ph at the lab where it is made but not knowing the ingredients it would be difficult to say. Basically you used to much I would think. Did you ad ph up at first at all.

Hanna sells a meter you can check via cell phone. I called them wiinter of 2005 to ask if they had a meter with a remote control so I could switch back and forth from ph to microsiemen reading while I was experimenting with different ratios of nutes at my home. I had the hanna 9044 which is a constant monitoring but the display screen with the buttons was a few feet away and I was feeling lazy. Well they did not have one but they told me they had just made a meter that had not hit the market yet that I could check via cell phone. They had a price for the meter which was I believe around 550usd. And the lady told me that I would still need a adapter for it which acts as reciever for the phone to plug it into the line. They did not have a price of the adapter at that time but she thought it would be like 20 dollars.

One love
c

You should call GH tech support and see what is up.

[karmaxul]

a few ph adjusters are humic acid, folvic acid, calcium (coral calcium is killing the coral of the ocean do to over harvesting), calcium sulfate which is gypsum and the elements plants derive most of the sulfur nutrietion from. Ask what they use. Most likely they use coral calcium which is awfull.

One love
c

[Sinsemilla Jones]

That water was so base, I thought it was crack! (bu-bump)


You gotta keep a real close eye on that ph, until you figure out pretty much how it works.


Much of your problem is probably your water.

Many municipalities treat their water with ph up additives. This is from a city water dept. site -

PH Control â?? pH control is the final step in the treatment process. Here, lime is added for the purpose of increasing the pH of the water. By doing this, the water becomes alkaline instead of acidic which makes it non-corrosive and allows a thin protective coating of calcium to form on the pipe that serves as a barrier between the pipe and the water.

You can treat and filter tap water with peat moss to reduce the ph (it reduces ppm, too), and in a non-recirculating system you can add peat straight to the reservoir to achieve ph stability.

Or you can buy RO water or an RO filter.

PH also will tend to rise as the ppm falls from the plants using the nutes, which might indicate a need to increase the initial nutrient concentration.

Ph will tend to rise during veg and early flower, and fall during mid to late flowering. So starting in the low 5s is probably best, until mid flower when you might want to start close to 6.

imp:

[karmaxul]

Crack said it all

One love
c

[Jdzzl03]

Thanks for all the posts. I always check the ph before i add the nutrients and it is usually 5.2 - 5.5. After I add the nutes the ph doesnt usually shift very much.Is there any way that my plants are sucking up so much nutes that it is making the water alkaline?

[GluteusMaximus]

Because you are using tap water, you have to live with a small problem of maintaining PH. This is especially true at the beginning when you're not using very many nutes. As your plants get bigger and you add more nutes to the water, you'll find that the PH problem is much more managable.

I find that keeping normal tap water PH below six in a 55 gal resevoire takes me 15 ML of PH down per day when the nutes are light.

The problem will go away as you increase the nute level. If you really want to get the problem under control, get a Reverse Osmosis pump/filter.

http://www.excelwater.com/eng/b2c/water_tech_4.php

GM

[Jdzzl03]

Ok thanks that sounds like what I am doing now. Thanks for all the help

[GluteusMaximus]

I went out yesterday and bought a water purifier(faucet kind) and changed the water using that. Still not sure if this will do anything but I dont know what else to do, other than check it like every 8 hours. Any suggestions guys?

That faucet water purifier is not doing you any good. If you use RO water you remove everything from the water so that your ppm will be zero when you start adding nutes.

I can't stress enough the value of Reverse Osmosis filtered water. By removing everything from the water, there isn't anything left to raise the ph. The added benefit is that you also don't have anything in your resevoire that doesn't belong there. You know the only thing in there is what YOU put in there.

GM