Quote Originally Posted by Weedhound
E if you are using tapwater you may well be fighting your ph level constantly (and uselessly) How are your plants growing in general? The problem with tap or well water is that you really don't know what's in it....yes you can say 250 ppms, but 250ppms of what? Coal dust? (j/k) Sounds as though RO water is in your future plan...you have obviously studied...IMO RO water is more important than it seems and I found out the hard way for sure. I have heard that having to use large amounts of ph up/down can cause its own problems with EC or something like that and too much H202 can be harmful as well. How much is too much? Well that's where the people who know things come in.....and it ain't me.
Yep I hear what you're saying about whats in the water. No clue, lol. I tell you this, whatever it is it's hard. It'll rust up a toilet bowl super fast, and theres so much limescale that I need to CLR my showerhead like 4 times a year. So yes, a countertop RO filter is in my future, but I'd like to get through this test-grow without it. The PH has stabilized for now after dosing it with H2O2 this morning, and some PH down. My total PPM is 450 right now, so it *should* not be too much acid I dont think.. Once the algea or whatever it is dies, it actually behaves really well. Getting to that point is the battle. I'm hoping I just missed a spot during cleaning.

I'll need to keep a much closer track of exactly how much I add in next res change for sure.

Well the plants started off slow, and put on more stem growth than I would have thought under so much blue spectrum light, but really I put them in the netpots too soon based on what I've read. They're doing better now, with nice healthy looking new green growth. This week should be the real test to see how they put out with some very small feeding. Because again, who knows whats in the water alone.