Wow - THAT much ph & ppm drift overnight???

cjsbabygirl313

cjsbabygirl313

Well-Known Member
So yesterday I set up my DWC bucket and my Water Farm bucket ... hydroton rinsed really well ... filled both to correct levels with distilled water ... added nutes for 1/4 seedling strength (calmag & GH micro/grow/bloom) to around 220-300ppm for each ... adjusted ph to 5.56-5.66 in both and planted my babies.

I just went and checked the ph and ppm in both and holy hell!

The DWC bucket had some ph drift - from 5.50 up to about 6.1 or so. PPM almost exactly the same as start.

The Water Farm on the other hand ... wow, I just don’t know what happened. The ph skyrocketed to 7.23 and the PPM went up to 560+!!!

The water levels are still the same, and my plants certainly aren’t drinking/eating that much cuz they’re still super tiny.

So can ph and ppm drift that significantly in less than 24 hours?!?!
 
L

Larry3215

Well-Known Member
Ive read several reports on different boards about hydroton messing with ph. Some people are going to a lot of trouble to soak it in really low ph water to try to get it stable in a good range. Seems like maybe the current batches are not what they used to be.
 
SmokeyMcChokey

SmokeyMcChokey

Well-Known Member
cjsbabygirl313 said:
So yesterday I set up my DWC bucket and my Water Farm bucket ... hydroton rinsed really well ... filled both to correct levels with distilled water ... added nutes for 1/4 seedling strength (calmag & GH micro/grow/bloom) to around 220-300ppm for each ... adjusted ph to 5.56-5.66 in both and planted my babies.

I just went and checked the ph and ppm in both and holy hell!

The DWC bucket had some ph drift - from 5.50 up to about 6.1 or so. PPM almost exactly the same as start.

The Water Farm on the other hand ... wow, I just don’t know what happened. The ph skyrocketed to 7.23 and the PPM went up to 560+!!!

The water levels are still the same, and my plants certainly aren’t drinking/eating that much cuz they’re still super tiny.

So can ph and ppm drift that significantly in less than 24 hours?!?!
Click to expand...
How much hydroton is in the farm? I usually get a little dust settling in the bottom for the first couple weeks. Maybe the drip pump thing in a water farm is just circulating it? I've never run into ph issues but I have had the same hydroton brand clay pebbles for quite a few years. Not sure if maybe new batches are presoaked or something. But really it should be pretty inert it's just clay
 
Wisher2

Wisher2

Well-Known Member
cjsbabygirl313 said:
So yesterday I set up my DWC bucket and my Water Farm bucket ... hydroton rinsed really well ... filled both to correct levels with distilled water ... added nutes for 1/4 seedling strength (calmag & GH micro/grow/bloom) to around 220-300ppm for each ... adjusted ph to 5.56-5.66 in both and planted my babies.

I just went and checked the ph and ppm in both and holy hell!

The DWC bucket had some ph drift - from 5.50 up to about 6.1 or so. PPM almost exactly the same as start.

The Water Farm on the other hand ... wow, I just don’t know what happened. The ph skyrocketed to 7.23 and the PPM went up to 560+!!!

The water levels are still the same, and my plants certainly aren’t drinking/eating that much cuz they’re still super tiny.

So can ph and ppm drift that significantly in less than 24 hours?!?!
Click to expand...
the first bucket sounds fine to me
where did the ppm fall to in the first bucket?
usually when PH raises ppm fall

as for the second bucket
I suggest dumping and refilling and starting over with correct ppm and ph
kinda just erase the chalkboard and re-write
trying to figure it out would be to time consuming
 
Homie Da Clown

Homie Da Clown

Well-Known Member
cjsbabygirl313 said:
So yesterday I set up my DWC bucket and my Water Farm bucket ... hydroton rinsed really well ... filled both to correct levels with distilled water ... added nutes for 1/4 seedling strength (calmag & GH micro/grow/bloom) to around 220-300ppm for each ... adjusted ph to 5.56-5.66 in both and planted my babies.

I just went and checked the ph and ppm in both and holy hell!

The DWC bucket had some ph drift - from 5.50 up to about 6.1 or so. PPM almost exactly the same as start.

The Water Farm on the other hand ... wow, I just don’t know what happened. The ph skyrocketed to 7.23 and the PPM went up to 560+!!!

The water levels are still the same, and my plants certainly aren’t drinking/eating that much cuz they’re still super tiny.

So can ph and ppm drift that significantly in less than 24 hours?!?!
Click to expand...
I dont know what happened, but post me a pic of both units. I imagine that waterfarm looks like one of them in my profile pic eh?

After I check out your photos I will give some advice if you want it....

I have ran the exact same nutes..
How many grows you got under your belt? In dwc?
 
Homie Da Clown

Homie Da Clown

Well-Known Member
If the ppm went up 200 ppm then you either have salt buildup on the hydroton or you got confused and added Gh bloom instead of ph down..

Hey dont laugh I did it as a nube.. Added 60 ml of ph down! Had to go all the way back to krogers in the middle of the night to get 10 gal more ro water to redo it.. Shit happens... esp when you are new...
 
Homie Da Clown

Homie Da Clown

Well-Known Member
Wisher2 said:
the first bucket sounds fine to me
where did the ppm fall to in the first bucket?
usually when PH raises ppm fall

as for the second bucket
I suggest dumping and refilling and starting over with correct ppm and ph
kinda just erase the chalkboard and re-write
trying to figure it out would be to time consuming
Click to expand...
Bro how long unrtil I can like posts? You got any idea?
 
Nafydad420

Nafydad420

Well-Known Member
from the sounds of it, she added nutrients then adjusted PH immediately after mixing the nutes. that could cause that PH flucuation, no?
 
Nafydad420

Nafydad420

Well-Known Member
SmokeyMcChokey said:
Could account for it. A spike of 300 ppm in fresh solution with a seedling and fresh hydroton on the first run screams clay dust to me. Unless the hydro shop sells second run pebbles.
Click to expand...
true, i made the mistake of not cleaning them at all! she atleast cleaned them. Took like 5 res changes to sort out.
 
Homie Da Clown

Homie Da Clown

Well-Known Member
SmokeyMcChokey said:
Could account for it. A spike of 300 ppm in fresh solution with a seedling and fresh hydroton on the first run screams clay dust to me. Unless the hydro shop sells second run pebbles.
Click to expand...
if its new hydroton then she didnt wash it, and its dust. I would put the netpot in a bucket with holes at the bottom and run my water hose gently thru it to rinse the hydroton. Then refill with nutes.. Adjust to 5.5 and let it climb to 6.2 and ph down to 5.5 for a week. And then we need some protection in there,,, beenies...
 
cjsbabygirl313

cjsbabygirl313

Well-Known Member
Here are both the DWC and WaterFarm

CA4C05EC-6A1D-4E53-88D3-CDF411981707.jpeg

I take the distilled water then add the calmag first, followed by the flora micro, then the grow, then the bloom (stirred well between each addition) ... waited about 5 mins and then adjusted the ph

I know that I put the right amounts of each in because I have them set up in a line and also double-check before I draw the nutes into my syringe (and that gets rinsed between every addition too).
 
cjsbabygirl313

cjsbabygirl313

Well-Known Member
Homie Da Clown said:
if its new hydroton then she didnt wash it, and its dust. I would put the netpot in a bucket with holes at the bottom and run my water hose gently thru it to rinse the hydroton. Then refill with nutes...
Click to expand...
Nope - rinsed it for like an HOUR with the sprayer in the kitchen sink and a strainer (that was a pain in the ass).
 
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