Can solution sit stationary? PH drifts/aeration

Dtw coco. So I figured out tap water drifts in ph, so I have 5 gallon portions that I monitor daily and note the behavior of ph and ph down accordingly.

Due to this, I shake it up few times a day.

Currently, It takes 1-12 hours for fresh batch for the ph to read stable then after that; check ph before each feed. Keeping ph meter in there for 5-7 mins. If it takes longer, wait 1 hr at a time. check again.

Keeping aerated rather in a rez or not, might work, last time was not strerile setup but it is now. Maxi, h2o2 and ph down only. Stays clean.

It says to keep aerated but I rather not if I do not have to for hand water.

If I did aerate, would make sense that extra oxygen promotes funk/bactiria as opposed to sitting still and mostly full or used quickly.

Would aerating also spike/drift ph easily due to off gassing due to constant movement and o2? It is chemestry so rather ask someone directly. My last hurtle, automation.

Wondering if the ph monitering would be harder with aeration. Rez or not.

Can this cause lockout? Will try a test run, might be able answer myself with sterile one part nutes this time, last time it did not last a day. Even with RO water. Let alone not check Ph.

Does RO water shine better with auto feed vs tap? Feel like I have to check rez before feed time anyway. I get 2-4 days of fresh solution, possibly longer. Not recommended anyway.

How do you keep ph in your rez in check, is it tedious? I prob am over thinking it but really just wondering if I can start out dumping feed in rez before feed time and keeping solution sitting around and monitored/in check.

I used to use airstones in my res until I kept having clouding problems. Changed them to wave makers/power head and just aim it up so the water is rolling at the surface. No more issues.

Think I am going to start by throwing a water pump in the jug with a gromet. Might not need gromet as it is a water jug with rubber cap. I just hated what happened last time I aerated prob from hydrogaurd.

Essentially wondering how people keep the ph in check, as it runs out I notice a spike from being handled/shaken a lot and ready to use up. Same thing, just in a rez?

Just refresh rez every 2 days? Will try it out. Maybe theres a trick, like RO water and sterilize pump and jug/rez and steril solution. Hoping to conclude with something, how many out there do what I do with success?

What is the aeration essentially for? I feel like I had no issues. Maybe it is important, maybe it isn’t. Maybe they meant do not let it sit for 5 days mostly stationary.

I feel like the pump itself contributes to cross contamination/contamination in general unless vigorously sterilized every time you refresh rez.

medidedicated said:

I feel like the pump itself contributes to cross contamination/contamination in general unless vigorously sterilized every time you refresh rez.

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May or may not be the case but if you feel there is a vector for contamination you’d be wise to eliminate it

medidedicated said:

I feel like the pump itself contributes to cross contamination/contamination in general unless vigorously sterilized every time you refresh rez.

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I always used a fresh stone
Those things are a biohazard

Herb & Suds said:

I always used a fresh stone
Those things are a biohazard

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Please elaborate, what is?

medidedicated said:

Please elaborate, what is?

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Airstones

i'm doing dtw coco too. with an auto feed system. i use a 30 gal trashcan as my feed res. why don't you just get a bigger container? i use a small waterfall in my res to keep it aerated and well mixed. after day 2 of adjusting pH, it stays in range

rkymtnman said:

i'm doing dtw coco too. with an auto feed system. i use a 30 gal trashcan as my feed res. why don't you just get a bigger container? i use a small waterfall in my res to keep it aerated and well mixed. after day 2 of adjusting pH, it stays in range

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I use high ec tap .5ec and figured after a horrible expirience with using pump I would keep two 5 gallon jugs at a time or perpetuate as I noticed this kept everything fresh and ongoing.

It will start to have a minor but noticable smell that is signaling decline in usability the more air is inside due to going through it.

Lasts me 2-4 days or 2 days in mid/late flower as it needs to be watered 3 times a day with 3 gallon IMO as it should not be dry, light and acoustic.

So this is my routine, 3 gal pot and 10 gallons minimally.

Half of it lasts longer for sitting in cooler temps, hard to cool an automated rez next to the hot grow area.

Seems like hand watering is better for 1 plant and my question is settling in, thinking they mean minimal aeration.

Water in pots of coco aren’t aerated but are oxygen rich. So that should explain why I have been good so far. 5 gal at a time in veg so it goes quick.

Explains why ph drifts didn’t alert me til flower too.

i will handwater occasionally too with a small watering can. add kelp, bennies, fulvic, etc and then add res water. all i have is nutes in my res. si, micro, bloom, epsom. well water 0.2EC

I will go in minimally and try it on one plant and hold 10-12 gallons or so after I confirm I can do the bucket thing with sterile solution this time and merge skills finally lol.

I might as well use pumps since I still have a couple.

Is it me, or should I shake up solution and wait 15mins before reading ph? Just realized this may be why I take 7mins to read a stable reading.

Edit: Yeah it indeed helps. I guess when they say to do that, it is true. This takes hella patience or I am using my meter wrong. I think what it reads is what it reads, specially if calibrated.

I even said already to wait an hr at a time which is holding true.

If exciting the molecules or inserting o2 affects the ph reading, by .15 or .25 ph units, I would wonder how all this would work (aerating nutes and feeding at correct ph.) Guessing you take a still sample.

medidedicated said:

Is it me, or should I shake up solution and wait 15mins before reading ph? Just realized this may be why I take 7mins to read a stable reading.

Edit: Yeah it indeed helps. I guess when they say to do that, it is true. This takes hella patience or I am using my meter wrong. I think what it reads is what it reads, specially if calibrated.

I even said already to wait an hr at a time which is holding true.

If exciting the molecules or inserting o2 affects the ph reading, by .15 or .25 ph units, I would wonder how all this would work (aerating nutes and feeding at correct ph.) Guessing you take a still sample.

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I just use a water pump in the res to agitate it.

Hollatchaboy said:

I just use a water pump in the res to agitate it.

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I was just still adapting to the drifting. Like for a sec I thought my meter was broken but just needed to add more ph down and wait 15-20 mins.

I was told to do that for good reason and it is working. If anything, what your meter says it is, is what it says.

If it sat in a cup and read 6.25 or 6.3ph, it possibly is and wouldn’t feed yet.

it ended up reading 5.90 for 3-5 mins so that is when I consider it good. If it is 6.1ph one minute, 6.25 the next, I would wait it out. I read .1 is 80 times the acidity or alkalinity.

The ph shouldn’t be bouncing so much without agitation. At least mine doesn’t and I use 50/50 tap and spring water but even using just tap it doesn’t drift that quickly. I mix my nutrients and PH it to 5.8 and water within minutes of mixing it and have never had issues even when I set it at 6.2-6.3 for flowering I mix and feed and have never had an issue. Now if it gets agitated then the PH will rise but siting still it doesn’t bother. Everyone has different results

Anyone use or know a good ph doser? Do they go with autofeed like a guitar to an amp and I just did not know?

I am starting to get ph down, takes like all freakin day to get 5 gallons to stablize and am seeing I could easily do the same thing but with an aerated rez.

Thing is, f#ck that lol. Any brands I can start looking into to make ph automatic? Lower costing ones… Effective ones..

It takes like all day to stabilize 5 gallons then after that 24 hours I can just fill a cup, test, feed or some drops of ph down and shake and an hour later reads what I want in a *stable* manner and either feed or ph down one more time.

It only takes drops though, so it is holding its values nicely. How is RO water any different, is tap better since it has more molecules to interact with and keep buffered?

I remembered it taking much much more ph up to get to target range and never got to see how well it stayed there.

I could automate and my first challenges would be keeping fresh and constantly taking cups of still samples to do what a ph doser would do for me.

I am going to want something that I can easily use, maintain amd rely on. The blue/white ones I recalled seeing before right away, like, that! So that is what that is for!

Oh shit, just saw prices. Yep, it is all hand dialed for me, screw that. Unless it fits the shoe, doubt it. I barely take care of my meter.

medidedicated said:

Anyone use or know a good ph doser? Do they go with autofeed like a guitar to an amp and I just did not know?

I am starting to get ph down, takes like all freakin day to get 5 gallons to stablize and am seeing I could easily do the same thing but with an aerated rez.

Thing is, f#ck that lol. Any brands I can start looking into to make ph automatic? Lower costing ones… Effective ones..

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Check chewy they have aquarium dosers that are pretty much same thing as the blue labs ones at a fraction of the price. They make them with 4 dosers in one unit so you can rig up all kinds of stuff or just the single doser. I think they are like 35 bucks

I think the brand is jebao and the 2 channel is 60 bucks. I know there is other brands and a single channel one out there