DWC PH issues: Ph dropping like a rock - Please help

[neckpod]

Why respond to a comment obviously NOT MENT FOR YOU? You must be VERY proud of your growing skills. Thirsty much?

You quoted my text and said see the chart. Wouldn't of responded otherwise. And I am proud of my growing skill VERY proud haha lighten up there a little.

 

[70's natureboy]

Well this has been an entertaining and informative thread. I am always fascinated when somebody goes out on their own and tests a new nutrient regiment and posts the results. I never did catch what kind of nutes makes the ph drop so aggressively but no big deal I picked up a couple tid bits.

Gypsy dog's chart is nice and simple. I haven't seen that before. I'll pass that on to some of my friends.

Taproot: You don't change your rez for the whole grow until 2 weeks prior to harvest??? That's interesting. I am always concerned that I may be low on some elements and throw the ratio off. So you're getting good quality and yields I assume?

John1961 might be worrying a little too much about keeping the ph at one steady reading when it is actually beneficial for the ph to swing through a range because the plant absorbs different elements at different ph levels. Personally I don't worry if it's anywhere between 5 to 7 and the girls are always happy. Good luck.

 

[John1961]

John1961 might be worrying a little too much about keeping the ph at one steady reading when it is actually beneficial for the ph to swing through a range because the plant absorbs different elements at different ph levels. Personally I don't worry if it's anywhere between 5 to 7 and the girls are always happy. Good luck.

I am NOT trying to keep my PH steady. Please understand, I already know that it's best for PH to range between 5.5 and 6.5. That is not the issue I am trying to find an answer for.

The issue is that my PH is CONTINUALLY DROPPING SIGNIFICANTLY over a SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. I'm wanting to understand why.

For example, in the past 24 hours, I've had to add 6 MLs of PH-Up to my reservoir to keep the PH within range. Twelve hours from now (tomorrow morning), I'll have to add another 2 or 3 ML of PH-Up to recover from the PH drop that will occur tonight. And then tomorrow evening at this time, I'll have to add another 2 or 3 ML of PH-Up to the reservoir in order to recover from the PH drop that will occur during the day tomorrow.

Make sense?

 

[firsttimeARE]

Its weird you are using so much.

For my buckets that hold 3 gal i use a few drops and it raises it from 5.5 to 6.0

What brand ph up and down are you using?

Today for my RDWC which holds 60gal i used 6ml pH down to bring from 6.0 to 5.7

 

[70's natureboy]

It sounds like your nutes are made for hard tap water. If you have access to good tap water I would recommend trying it for the experiment. I have always used tap water because I'm a natureboy type. I use hardwater nutes too and my bottle of PH up is about 10 years old, never use it. Since RO water has no ph buffers you have to depend on the nutes to be ph stable.

 

[John1961]

@firsttimeARE - I am using GH PH-Up and GH PH-Down.

@70's natureboy - For nutrients, I am using GH Flora trio (Micro, Gro, Bloom). They are supposedly PH-balanced.

I went to my local hydro store today in hopes they would be able to offer help. Unfortunately, no.
Their only suggestion was to sell me Advanced Nutrients concentrated PH-Up, saying I would only have to use a few drops daily versus what I use now.

 

[firsttimeARE]

@firsttimeARE - I am using GH PH-Up and GH PH-Down.

@70's natureboy - For nutrients, I am using GH Flora trio (Micro, Gro, Bloom). They are supposedly PH-balanced.

I went to my local hydro store today in hopes they would be able to offer help. Unfortunately, no.
Their only suggestion was to sell me Advanced Nutrients concentrated PH-Up, saying I would only have to use a few drops daily versus what I use now.

When its up,how much gh down does,it take,to,bring it down?

I use botanicare ph up so,I cant give you reliable data. But I use GH ph down and only,6ml brings 60-70gal from 6.0 to 5.7

 

[firsttimeARE]

Curious. Where in,the country do you live?

 

[John1961]

I use botanicare ph up so,I cant give you reliable data. But I use GH ph down and only,6ml brings 60-70gal from 6.0 to 5.7

When I was using RO water, I didn't have to use any PH-Down when mixing up my nutrients; the PH would already be generally within range. However, when I switched to using tap water, I had to use about 4 to 5 ML of PH-Down to get my nutrient solution in range. In fact that's what I did yesterday as Sunday is my normal reservoir change day.

Curious. Where in,the country do you live?

A bit northeast of Colorado Springs.

 

[firsttimeARE]

This is very strange...

Im not,entirely convinced you dont have a bacteria issue.

Have you tried making compost tea?

 

[firsttimeARE]

I suggest switching to a system that offers,more stability like coco dtw. This way the pH is whatever you set it at and its delivered. Bam,done

 

[John1961]

PH last night: 5.9
PH this morning: 4.9

Another 3ml of PH-Up added to the reservoir and that only took me up to 6.0.

Edit: Had to add another 1ml of PH-Up to reservoir to get PH up to 6.3. So that's a total of 4ml of PH-Up I had to add to the reservoir this morning. This is absolutely ridiculous.

WTF.

 

[rkymtnman]

PH last night: 5.9
PH this morning: 4.9

Another 3ml of PH-Up added to the reservoir.

WTF.

any interest in trying a sterile reservoir for a week and see what happens?

 

[John1961]

This morning, I pulled the air pump from the inside bottom of the cabinet and relocated it to the top outside of the cabinet. At the end of the day, I'll see if that made any difference.

If that doesn't seem to work, then I'll try running straight RO water for a couple of days and see what happens.

 

[rkymtnman]

If that doesn't seem to work, then I'll try running straight RO water for a couple of days and see what happens.

I would go no longer than 24 hours with plain RO. Keep an eye on your water levels if you do this and I would almost bet that it will drink much more water than they have been.

 

[John1961]

@rkymtnman - If I try going the plain RO route tomorrow, should I add anything at all to the water, such as CalMag or Hydroguard?

Also, I did find another source for my RO water. I have tested it to a PH of ~7.3 and a PPM / EC of 0 (zero). Right now, I still have tap water in the reservoir but with the next change I'm going back to RO water.

 

[rkymtnman]

If I try going the plain RO route tomorrow, should I add anything at all to the water, such as CalMag or Hydroguard?

i would flush with just RO water. i don't even bother pH'ing it.

i had the same problem with my RO. walmart's culligan dispenser sucked. guess they weren't changing filters. my well water had a lower EC than what i was buying. now i use Safeway.

 

[John1961]

@rkymtnman - Sorry for the dumb question, but I want to make sure I understand.

Assuming my PH tanks again today and I go forward with the RO flush, how long should I let that run for?

 

[rkymtnman]

I go forward with the RO flush, how long should I let that run for?

here's what i would do:

at lights on, dump your res and fill with normal amount of RO
right before lights off, dump your res and fill with normal amount of RO

basically, you are doing 2 12 hour flushes but for 24 hours total

 

[firsttimeARE]

Switch to dtw coco.

Or try a sterile res as i said before im not convinced this isnt caused by bacteria