pH up/down, excessive amounts?

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
So I use general hydroponics ph up and ph down. I've noticed that it takes what seems to be an excessive amount to manipulate the pH of my solutions. I'm worried that I'm taking my reading wrong and that I may be killing my plants?

I was using a copper/aluminum meter from lowes, and now I got a digital hannah instruments meter. I'm still not too sure how confident I am in the new meter, but the previous one was erratic.

When I mix my solution of senibloom A & B I get a reading of 4.5ish w/ my digital meter so I add pH up to get to 6.5. When I have half a gallon of solution it takes between half a cup and a cup of pH up to get to 6.5! During this my water gets very cloudy and looks like it has quagulation going on. Does this seem like an excessive amount, or is it pretty normal?

I think my pH meter might suck. I have to callibrate it w/ pH buffer EVERY time I use it, and often multiple times during use.
 

atombomb

Well-Known Member
That sounds pretty excessive, I water with 3 gallons, and it takes a cap full of europonics down to drop my ph 1 % so from 7.6 to 6.6 and it takes only a few drops of europonics up to raise it from 6.0 to 6.6 when I use nutes.
 

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
Well I have been using these amounts of pH up/down to adjust my nutes the entire grow. From seedling to now, and my plants have remained pretty healthy and growing. I'm in week 2 of flowering right now and they look fine. That said, things should be ok, right? Just as long as the pH is settled at a correct level it doesn't matter how much pH adjustment I've done, right?
 

atombomb

Well-Known Member
Very true as long as they seem healthy and your ph is good, maybe your solution has an extreme ph that requires alot of adjustment you would know pretty fast if it was out of whack. But a half cup to a half gallon of solution just seems very unpractical and very very expensive. My bottles of ph up/down were $12 a piece, they would only last 3 solution changes using your amounts. What does the bottle say for recommended amounts?
 

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
I have used three different methods of pH readings to test this. I have an aluminum and copper pronged meter, a digital electrode meter, and the pH test kit that came with my soil test kits. All three of these methods have pointed that my 'excessive' amounts of pH up/down aren't really that excessive. I'm thinking my pH up/down might just be really really diluted. Although I have noticed the clouding and percipitate, as I mentioned, when I use the pH up in addition to nutes. Could this be a problem? Sometimes the white percipitate stays on top of my soil post-watering.
 

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
Updates!

Ok, so today I transfered my small plants in to new pots and gave them their first nute and pH adjusted watering. I use a 5-1-1 organic fish fert for my baby plants in veg. With my new digital pH meter I was easily able to adjust the pH of the water several points with just a few drops of my pH up--the same stuff I have been complaining about this whole thread!

My hypothesis is that the solution of nutes I use for my flowering plants (900ppm of sensibloom A&B solution, + 250ppm of Sugar Daddy magnesium/calcium) acts as a conjugate (spelling?) acid/base and in turn makes my solution much more 'resistant' to pH adjusting. That said, given my new readings from my baby plants, and consistency across the board with all three of my meters I've been using during flowering, I am now confident that my digital meter is actually working right and that my flowering solution just takes a lot more pH up to adjust because it's got a much higher chemical density.
 

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
Are the nutes intended for hydro and you are trying to use them for soil?

There is no prob, other then what you are seeing. They are most likely buffered, to try to keep the solution lower. So you will need more pH up.

I've also noticed that it takes more 'up' to move it say .3 then it takes 'down' to move it down the same .3
 

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
Trying?
My grow has come along pretty well, I'd say I'm doing a pretty solid job of doing. I'm using sensibloom A&B cominbation for flower, which I think is designed for hydro, and I'm using soil (ff ocean forest + perlite). I also add sugar daddy to my solution because my plants were showing signs of insufficient magnesium a few weeks ago. The sugar daddy has worked wonders.

For my veg I use organic fish fertilizer, 5-5-1. I use this because I believe it's more damaging to get a little nute burn early when the plant is much smaller and fragile than later, and organic nutes have a much harder time burning.
 

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
Oops my flowered plants are actually in a quart sized ball of miracle grow soil surrounded by standard topsoil + perlite. This was my first grow and I didn't know better when I started (I suffered consequences, too.) My new plants in veg are in ff coean forrest, and when I move them over to flower they're go in 7 gallons of ff ocean forrest.
 

Florida Girl

Well-Known Member
When I have half a gallon of solution it takes between half a cup and a cup of pH up to get to 6.5! During this my water gets very cloudy and looks like it has quagulation going on. Does this seem like an excessive amount, or is it pretty normal?

WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY Excessive. For a half gallon of water/nutes you shouldn't be using more then 1/2 teaspoon PH up..... MAX.... to get the PH up. Make sure you mix the solution well and let the probe sit in the solution for 15 minutes before you consider the reading accurate as it can take a bit of time for the reading to stabilize.
 

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member

WAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY Excessive. For a half gallon of water/nutes you shouldn't be using more then 1/2 teaspoon PH up..... MAX.... to get the PH up. Make sure you mix the solution well and let the probe sit in the solution for 15 minutes before you consider the reading accurate as it can take a bit of time for the reading to stabilize.
Oh dang! I missed those ratios. I'll use about 1 tablespoon for a 1/2 gal with GH maxi-grow/bloom to get the 6.5 (I'll measure if I *ever* get home from this drawn out job.)
 

SelfSupplied

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking my claim of 1/2 cup to a cup may be over exaggerated. I use a ketchup bottle full of pH up and pH down respectively (you know, the yellow and red combo for picnics?). I squite them in shots in to my shakable bottle and take a reading, then add more depending. The squirts are actually pretty small amounts, it just seemed like I was doing a lot!
 

BigBudBalls

Well-Known Member
I'm thinking my claim of 1/2 cup to a cup may be over exaggerated. I use a ketchup bottle full of pH up and pH down respectively (you know, the yellow and red combo for picnics?). I squite them in shots in to my shakable bottle and take a reading, then add more depending. The squirts are actually pretty small amounts, it just seemed like I was doing a lot!
Ah! I'm using a cap full or two. (those bottles are probably ~2 cups)

For 'down' if I need to go far, just a full squirt from an eye dropper seems to work for me.
 
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