Does your aerated nutrients rise in PH after a few days?

I grow DTW in coco, water multiple times a day, and I usually mix enough nutrients to last for the week. I mix all my nutrients and add PH down to lower my PH to the 5.5-6.0 PH range. I usually just test it after an hour of mixing and I never test them while using it throughout the week. I drop an air stone down my gallon container to keep the mix aerated.

Today, I tested the PH of my weekly mix which was mixed about 4 days ago and the PH was all the way up to 6.5+, is this normal? I use tap water, GH Trio and GH powdered PH down. The plant is in its 4th week now and is growing just fine. https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/753012-2nd-grow-rqs-royal-dwarf-2.html

Do I need to change something with my mixing and watering routine or do I keep it as is? Do nutrients normally go up in PH when its aerated?

After about 3 days, I normally get a .1-.2 jump but it never goes any higher. I start at barely 5.8 and it stays at or below 6.0 and I have had 0 health issues so far.
You say you have a 1 gallon res? That is where the issue is more than likely stemming from. I mix in a 20 gallon res. I think the nutrient mix stays more stable in a larger quantity. I always see where folks are having issues with maintaining smaller amounts of nute mixture for any period of time.

I would say, if all you need to mix is a gallon of nutes for a week, you would be better off just mixing when needed. I think a small res like that is going to become unstable in a few days, and there is not much that can assist that.

Peace and Great Grows

Asmallvoice

Yes I use a 1 gallon res. Thanks for the advice!

tortie said:

I grow DTW in coco, water multiple times a day, and I usually mix enough nutrients to last for the week. I mix all my nutrients and add PH down to lower my PH to the 5.5-6.0 PH range. I usually just test it after an hour of mixing and I never test them while using it throughout the week. I drop an air stone down my gallon container to keep the mix aerated.

Today, I tested the PH of my weekly mix which was mixed about 4 days ago and the PH was all the way up to 6.5+, is this normal? I use tap water, GH Trio and GH powdered PH down. The plant is in its 4th week now and is growing just fine. https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/753012-2nd-grow-rqs-royal-dwarf-2.html

Do I need to change something with my mixing and watering routine or do I keep it as is? Do nutrients normally go up in PH when its aerated?

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I know this from way back: wait a lil while to measure pH; esp when mixing dry powders in water...
yes aeration changes gas ratios in water and CO2 does mildly affect pH, but what you are saying sounds a lil much...I'd bet if measured after 12hrs it would be accurate...

Why are you aerating the mix? if its for chlorine; personally I don't believe the hype, but if so and you really want to neutralize chlorine, get 1lb of sodium thiosulphate in bulk: its about $5....1lb will treat about 50,000 gallons!!!

Hey Johnny! I'm aerating my weekly mix as per the instructions in my nute bottle.

tortie said:

Hey Johnny! I'm aerating my weekly mix as per the instructions in my nute bottle.

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Carry on then bro...carry on

(psst, just on a small crusade against chlorine paranoia he he)

JohnnySocko said:

but if so and you really want to neutralize chlorine, get 1lb of sodium thiosulphate in bulk: its about $5....1lb will treat about 50,000 gallons!!!

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Thanks for the tip

old thread I know, but its a current problem. my dtw rez has ph dropping, and I dont get it. went from 5.9 to 3.9 in about 4 days! wtf? anyone have ideas?

visajoe1 said:

old thread I know, but its a current problem. my dtw rez has ph dropping, and I dont get it. went from 5.9 to 3.9 in about 4 days! wtf? anyone have ideas?

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That's an extreme drop. Have you checked your PH pen just to make sure it's properly calibrated?

What size res. Anything under 5 gallons i certainly wouldbt trust for more than 48hours

tortie said:

I grow DTW in coco, water multiple times a day, and I usually mix enough nutrients to last for the week. I mix all my nutrients and add PH down to lower my PH to the 5.5-6.0 PH range. I usually just test it after an hour of mixing and I never test them while using it throughout the week. I drop an air stone down my gallon container to keep the mix aerated.

Today, I tested the PH of my weekly mix which was mixed about 4 days ago and the PH was all the way up to 6.5+, is this normal? I use tap water, GH Trio and GH powdered PH down. The plant is in its 4th week now and is growing just fine. https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/753012-2nd-grow-rqs-royal-dwarf-2.html

Do I need to change something with my mixing and watering routine or do I keep it as is? Do nutrients normally go up in PH when its aerated?

Click to expand...

Increase the size of your rez, at min go 15 + gallons.
I make my batches in 5 gallon buckets and usually add every few days. I let the mixture sit for 24 to 48 hrs before I add to rez and pH the entire rez, both upper and lower then let it circulate to mix the tow rez's.
Is Trio a coco blend?
After adding the mixture to my rez in the mornings I wait until just prior to the water cycle to pH and I pH to 5.6+. This gives me enough nutes for two days then the process starts again.
My suggestion is to increase your rez size and make nute a few days in advance and let them stabilize for a day or two. Aeration will raise your pH over time, mine raise from the 5.6+ to around 6.0 in two days, I don't aerate and I only run my circulation pump 5 min. prior to each set irrig. time for mixing the nute solution and keep the upper rez full. So I only circulate/and fill the rez 4 times during the cycle for a total of 20 minutes. This has helped manage my pH drift.

GR

If hes using a gallon in one week, hes obviously not going to be mixing 15+

Is your gallon container clean?

mjinc said:

That's an extreme drop. Have you checked your PH pen just to make sure it's properly calibrated?

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extreme indeed. yep, checking and re-calibrating my ph pen was first thing (oakton). it was correct. only thing i can think of is the water and nutes are separating with the nutes going to the top (pump is at the bottom). so its pumping out the cleaner water, leaving the saltier stuff on top. that makes zero sense to me, but seems to be the only logical conclusion at this point. I checked it this morning, stirred the rez, ph right where it was last night. I'll keep monitoring it

TurboTokes said:

If hes using a gallon in one week, hes obviously not going to be mixing 15+

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Oops, missed that!

GR

You could try throwing an air stone and air pump system to keep things moving around or if you don't want to do that you could also throw in a small pump that is used just to move the solution in the tank around

visajoe1 said:

extreme indeed. yep, checking and re-calibrating my ph pen was first thing (oakton). it was correct. only thing i can think of is the water and nutes are separating with the nutes going to the top (pump is at the bottom). so its pumping out the cleaner water, leaving the saltier stuff on top. that makes zero sense to me, but seems to be the only logical conclusion at this point. I checked it this morning, stirred the rez, ph right where it was last night. I'll keep monitoring it

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you added any weird stuff? when i play around with new stuff to try (amino acids,, fulvics, humics, enzymes etc) my pH does weird shit that it doesn't do when i stick wiht my normal nute regimen.

rkymtnman said:

you added any weird stuff? when i play around with new stuff to try (amino acids,, fulvics, humics, enzymes etc) my pH does weird shit that it doesn't do when i stick wiht my normal nute regimen.

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thanks for the help! just adding orca. i think it has to do with me not having any circulation in my 5g bucket rez. last couple days i have made sure to stir it at least once per day and everything is holding steady ph/ec. i guess ill setup my air pump to run when the pump does to help prevent the rez from separating.

A $10 submersible pond pump in the res dedicated to "swirl" the nutes is very easy, no air stones or possibility of floods like with air stones/air pumps. Set the pump to run as often as youd like (I prefer 4x during lights on 15 min each time) Can also use this pump to make a waterfall while its mixing the nutes with a short length of hose just above your res water level.

I also use this pump for res changes

Got home last night from a road trip and I had shut the feed valve off before I left and forgot to open it. They missed one complete days irrigation and the coco was extremely dry, I expected some damage to the plant but they were doing fine and I hand watered them to saturation and runoff, about 30% then the regular cycle began about two hours later.
I checked the pH of the solution that had sit at least 24 hours and ran it's recirculation/refill cycle for the matched irrigation cycle. It started at 5.7 on Friday mid afternoon prior to leaving and when I check it last night at 8 pm it was 5.81. I am surprised at the stabilization of that mix.
This morning all was looking good.