Did I Break my Ph Meter??

1212ham said:
What are you doing with the distilled water?
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The instructions for my ph meter state to mix the 6.86, 4.01, and 9.18 pouches with distilled water to go through the calibration process. I was asking if distilled water could go bad because I was having trouble getting results that match that of drops with a brand new ph meter than had been calibrated as the instructions instructed (and my distilled water was 8-months old)..
 
Kingrow1 said:
I could rip ten sites easily that all cover the info you need on ph meter care, heres one now go read the rest, they will detail not to store in water but kcl, how to rehydrate with kcl or buffer, how to bring back from dry periods, monthly maintenance.

Any more questions after that and we can help but get the basics down...

http://lab-training.com/2013/09/19/correct-handling-and-care-of-ph-meter/
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Yes, thank you again Kingrow1. Your article link was helpful but I have been reading a lot about this topic and was following all the Google directions but was still having problems in getting reliable results with my new meter after calibration. I did not store the meter in water, distilled or any other. I understand the roll of kcl in storage after damaging my last meter, and I didn't realize that a brand new meter had potentially gone through a dry period in the package and required revival (my last new ph meter didn't require this). That's why I make posts with lots of information and very specific questions. I think often some on these forums don't fully read the post before they supply their response.

It seems that maybe my brand new meter had dried out in package, and required some form of moisture to rehydrate before it gave accurate results. I have never experienced this in the past with my single other purchase of a ph meter. I wasn't going to complain to the Amazon seller until I got all the information needed to ensure I wasn't making the errors. I was asking two specific questions as to weather ph can drift on older distilled water, and if drops are always reliable. My brand new meter, after calibration, was not matching the drops numbers. On day two, after the meter had been moistened and stored correctly, the results between meter and drops started to match. I thank everyone for their help is resolving this. Cheers!
 
Lucky Luke said:
If your in soil just throw it away.
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Yes, thank you Lucky, but the filtered tap water my house provides starts with a ph 8.0. I feel that even though soil helps to equalize ph, this is higher than I'd like to feed/water with so I want to ph-down. Since I like to ph-down, I like to know the number that I'm ph-downing to.
 
CO2 levels in the atmosphere are pretty stable. and since what is in the water is at equilibrium with what is outside, the pH should not change at all.
 
troutfarm said:
Yes, thank you Lucky, but the filtered tap water my house provides starts with a ph 8.0. I feel that even though soil helps to equalize ph, this is higher than I'd like to feed/water with so I want to ph-down. Since I like to ph-down, I like to know the number that I'm ph-downing to.
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I feel like your problem is not having proper buffer solutions of ph 4/7&9.

Drops and stuff idk, my buffer solution is 4 and meter reads about that when dipped in it.

Food forr thought.

Soil is a buffer, pretty fucking strong one largely due to the trillions of bacteria and minerals, distilled water, ferts, ph stuff are all very weak buffers.

Ignore ph, you wont change the soil no matter what youll just deplete its buffer quicker and then your in shit.

I use shop bought potting soil and one bottle of ferts, dont overcomplicate somthing that works just fine.

You new growers are going to have to take our word on the soil ph thing, do what we say there basically :-)
 
troutfarm said:
Yes, thank you Lucky, but the filtered tap water my house provides starts with a ph 8.0. I feel that even though soil helps to equalize ph, this is higher than I'd like to feed/water with so I want to ph-down. Since I like to ph-down, I like to know the number that I'm ph-downing to.
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The answer to the question is ph4.2 - waters ionization constant.
 
GBAUTO said:
Just suggesting what every one of the instructions that have come with the meters I've used.
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My experience has been ph meters that come with poor, incomplete or nearly worthless instructions! The average person needs to research probe care!

Some links I saved...
http://www.ph-meter.info/pH-electrode-maintenance
http://www.milwaukeeinstruments.com/phelectrodecleaning/
http://www.milwaukeeinstruments.com/site/ph/

I love this thing! The meter I bought after wasting $100 on calibration solution and cheap meters.
http://www.milwaukeeinstruments.com...1-products-g-standard-portable-meters-g-mw102
 
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troutfarm said:
Yes, thank you Lucky, but the filtered tap water my house provides starts with a ph 8.0. I feel that even though soil helps to equalize ph, this is higher than I'd like to feed/water with so I want to ph-down. Since I like to ph-down, I like to know the number that I'm ph-downing to.
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Soil doesn't equalize it buffers and swings throughout the wet and dry cycle.
I just use rain water...its free. I don't know why you would want to strip all those lovley minerals etc from your water by filtering unless your in hydro. (maybe)

Throw the PH probe away.
 
Lucky Luke said:
Soil doesn't equalize it buffers and swings throughout the wet and dry cycle.
I just use rain water...its free. I don't know why you would want to strip all those lovley minerals etc from your water by filtering unless your in hydro. (maybe)

Throw the PH probe away.
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Sorry, I used poor wording when I said "equalize"... buffer would have been better. As for why I'm using filtered water, for this grow I'm using Great White Mycorrhizae and my understanding was that Chlorine in the water was bad for this product. My city water has Chlorine so the filter I installed greatly reduces that. I also let the water breath for 24 hours before use. If you have any input on this, I'd be happy to hear.

And as for the "throw the PH probe away", are you and Kingrow1 saying I should water my plants with the ph 8.0 water as it comes out of my tap because the soil will buffer it so there is no advantage to using the ph-down? I figured it was better to at least get it closer to the desired figure going in. Isn't 8.0 really high? Thanks!
 
troutfarm said:
Sorry, I used poor wording when I said "equalize"... buffer would have been better. As for why I'm using filtered water, for this grow I'm using Great White Mycorrhizae and my understanding was that Chlorine in the water was bad for this product. My city water has Chlorine so the filter I installed greatly reduces that. I also let the water breath for 24 hours before use. If you have any input on this, I'd be happy to hear.

And as for the "throw the PH probe away", are you and Kingrow1 saying I should water my plants with the ph 8.0 water as it comes out of my tap because the soil will buffer it so there is no advantage to using the ph-down? I figured it was better to at least get it closer to the desired figure going in. Isn't 8.0 really high? Thanks!
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Lots of people grow veggies, they have huge veggie gardens..ever see any of them measuring PH or PH adjusting their tap water? Me either.
 
troutfarm said:
Sorry, I used poor wording when I said "equalize"... buffer would have been better. As for why I'm using filtered water, for this grow I'm using Great White Mycorrhizae and my understanding was that Chlorine in the water was bad for this product. My city water has Chlorine so the filter I installed greatly reduces that. I also let the water breath for 24 hours before use. If you have any input on this, I'd be happy to hear.

And as for the "throw the PH probe away", are you and Kingrow1 saying I should water my plants with the ph 8.0 water as it comes out of my tap because the soil will buffer it so there is no advantage to using the ph-down? I figured it was better to at least get it closer to the desired figure going in. Isn't 8.0 really high? Thanks!
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Ignore chlorine, its harmless in tap water.

Ph isnt alkalinity, your reading ph based on alkalinity.

Go away and learn what alkalinity is.

You should be fine :-)
 
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