DWC PH issues: Ph dropping like a rock - Please help

Here we go.

Mixed up my water / nutrients this morning as follows:

• RO Water volume: 5 gallons
• GH Micro: 15ml
• GH Bloom: 30ml
• Technafloura MagiCal: 5ml
• Hydroguard: 10ml

The soup above resulted in the following numbers:

• PPM: 410
• EC: .8

After correcting the PH to 6.2, I drained and refilled the reservoir. After bubbling for the past eight hours, here are tonight's numbers prior to lights out:

• PH: 5.7
• PPM: 380
• EC: .8
• Water level: Down, ~1 quart

It will be interesting to see how much more the PH drops overnight. At this point, I'm wondering if I just have a bad batch of nutrients because what I have right now are not working. Assuming the PH drops more overnight, I'm going to try switching nutrients to AN PH-Perfect Connosoir Bloom, parts A & B.

I lost track if you are using tap water or RO. . Math is a sore subject at rollitup and your ppm's and EC seem out of whack. Your meter is probably reading on the .5 scale and you are actually at 800 ppms (which isn't all that high). What's hydrogaurd for? a hot res? I've never tried it or needed it but that may be making the ph swing.

Good morning. PH tanked again overnight. Here are this morning's numbers:

• PH: Down to 4.8
• PPM: Down to 350
• EC: Down to .7
• Water level: Unchanged from last night

Unless I can figure WTF is going on, I'm hitting the Hydro store and switching brands. GH nutrients - PH-balanced my ass.

John1961 said:

Good morning. PH tanked again overnight. Here are this morning's numbers:

• PH: Down to 4.8
• PPM: Down to 350
• EC: Down to .7
• Water level: Unchanged from last night

Unless I can figure WTF is going on, I'm hitting the Hydro store and switching brands. GH nutrients - PH-balanced my ass.

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yeah, i'm with you. your daily drop has stumped me.

on a good note, your ppms are dropping almost perfectly per day. try to shoot for that ppm level with the new nutes.

i think you are supposed to use RO with the AN ph perfect stuff too just as an FYI.
keep us posted!

70's natureboy said:

I lost track if you are using tap water or RO. . Math is a sore subject at rollitup and your ppm's and EC seem out of whack. Your meter is probably reading on the .5 scale and you are actually at 800 ppms (which isn't all that high). What's hydrogaurd for? a hot res? I've never tried it or needed it but that may be making the ph swing.

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@70's natureboy - I've been dealing with this PH issue for weeks now. If you had read through the previous couple of pages, I just tried a 24-hour RO flush in which the PH remained relatively stable. We were trying a flush to see if that made any difference. After the flush, I started with low levels of nutrients again. Yes, my meter is usually on the 500 scale, but that's why I track EC as well. The Hydroguard is a biologic that produces high levels of beneficial enzymes to fight any bacterial / algae infections in the water. The manufacturer claims that Hydroguard does not cause PH swings.

while you are at the hydro shop,

see if they have any root zone additvies that contain chlorine. they should have something.

pick up a bottle and if the AN nutes don't work,, i'd think about trying a sterile res instead of hydroguard.

there aren't many more things to try to be honest

@John1961 when you went to the hydro store, did they give you any ideas that we haven't tried?

@rkymtnman - Going to the hydro store was a little disappointing actually. All they could tell me was what I already knew; Look for root rot, what kind of water are you using, what nutrients are you using, etc. They did offer to sell me a different brand of PH-Up, something a lot more concentrated so I didn't have to use so much, but that's all. They really had nothing to offer in the way of advice or suggestions.

I'm heading back down there in a little bit to pick up those AN nutrients I linked to earlier.

The plants are eating and your EC went down. I think your PH meter is whacked. Let us know if the AN nutes do the same thing or are really stable in you environment. Good luck.

ps I have read through this thread a couple times but after reading other threads it will be all blended together by tomorrow lol.

@70's natureboy - I'm pretty confident there is nothing wrong with my meters. Both my PH and PPM meters are made by BlueLab and are high-quality units. I just checked the calibration on my PH meter using GH 4.01 and 7.0 calibration fluids and my meter is spot on.

I just changed out my reservoir this morning using RO water along with the new nutrients at 1/3 strength (~350 ppm). I did not add any Cal/Mag as I'm told the AN nutrients already provides enough. I did add 10ml of HydroGuard, however. PH tested at 6.5. It will be interesting to see where my numbers end up this evening prior to lights-out.

Good morning, folks. I thought I would post a quick update and say all is GOOD!

After draining and refilling my reservoir yesterday morning, it was only a few hours until PH dropped to 5.6. Of course, my thoughts were, "Here we go again." But then when I checked my PH again last night prior to lights-out,I found that the PH remained stable at 5.6. Water level went down about 1.5 quarts yesterday and PPM / EC remained unchanged from yesterday morning (350 / .7).

This morning, I checked the reservoir again. PH continued to remain stable at 5.6; PPM & EC have also remained stable overnight. I'm hoping to see lots of drinking and eating today.

I'll check back in this evening to let you all know how the day went.

Well, I guess my problems continue.

After PH remained stable at 5.6 for about 36 hours or so, during the day yesterday my reservoir PH dropped to 4.8. She did, however, drink about a half-gallon of water. I let the reservoir go overnight without making any corrections. This morning my PH registered at 4.6.

To say I'm pissed at all of this is an understatement.

So I called Advanced Nutrients as they have a 24-hour help line. The guy I spoke with insists that since I've tried everything else, that I must have a bacterial infection in the water (regardless of whether I see any problems or not). So he instructed me to do a 12-hour flush with hydrogen-peroxide. He said if I just use the store-bought stuff (which is usually 3% strength) that I am to use 150ml per gallon, or a total of 750ml for my 5-gallon reservoir. After the 12-hour flush, the guy said that I am to change out the reservoir and refill with nutrients at 75% strength.

Not a huge surprise the hydro store tried to sell you something for your problems.

Your water temps are much cooler than mine. You should not get root rot at that temp and therefore should not need hydroguard. If you just used 15 ml of GH micro and 30 ml GH Bloom in your 5 gal bucket I can almost guarantee your PH will not go down, even with RO water. Many people have had success for many years just using micro and bloom. I just followed the crowd and joined in the KISS party. You are fortunate to have nice low res temps. All the people that have root rot have high res temp issues.

Once you see your stable ph with only GH micro and bloom you should be able to up the nutes to 30/60

bro my buddy was just battling this also, what we found was there was too much ammonium nitrogen in the nutrients he was using
read this itll help you understand what im talking about
http://www.cannagardening.com/how_ammonium_nitrate_ratio_affects_your_plants

could be how your mixing nutes also, if your putting in this order might be your problem

• RO Water volume: 5 gallons
• 1-GH Micro: 15ml
• 2-GH Bloom: 30ml
• 3-Technafloura MagiCal: 5ml
• 4-Hydroguard: 10ml

Ide suggest mixing in this order

• RO Water volume: 5 gallons
• 1-Technafloura MagiCal: 5ml
• 2-GH Bloom: 30ml
• 3-GH Micro: 15ml
• 4-Hydroguard: 10ml

Fuck AN and there 15 bottles of snake oil dude your wasting your money, go buy some jacks hydro 5-12-26 and Calcium nitrate 15.5-0-0, and some Epsom salt and be done with it man, feed in weights jacks hydro 3g, calcium nitrate 2g, epsom 1g all the way through, easy and done

Also using LEDs you want to keep your air temps in your room 80-85 degrees, LEDs dont have the InfraRed that HPS bulbs have for internal leaf temps and transpiration, you need to keep your room warmer to compensate for that

Bountykiller420 said:

Fuck AN and there 15 bottles of snake oil dude your wasting your money, go buy some jacks hydro 5-12-26 and Calcium nitrate 15.5-0-0, and some Epsom salt and be done with it man, feed in weights jacks hydro 3g, calcium nitrate 2g, epsom 1g all the way through, easy and done

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Yah all those bottles it’s why I use veg+bloom one powder mixes super clean I simply add mammoth p and elites root igniter

7 pages and a month later and EC is still way too low.

RIP!!!!!!!!