DWC pH keeps rising... need help

I just started my first grow. Its a 5gal dwc and im using flora nova nutes. I mixed my nute solution and got the pH to 5.5. I left it for about 2 hrs and tested the pH again just to check and i noticed that the pH had risen to 7.2. I droped the pH again to 5.5 and after another couple of hrs the pH rose again. The ppm wasnt changing by more then 10ppm in either direction so i just attributed that to my shitty meter. My only thoughts could be that instead of using hydroton im using gravel. Before i used the gravel though, i had soaked it in water i pH adjusted to 3.0 and monitored the pH for a day or so to check to see if it was pH stable. The pH of the water didnt change so i figured the gravel was pH stable. Ive been using baking soda and vinegar to adjust the pH. I know that i should get pH up and down and hydroton but that isnt in the budget as of yet. Any one have any thoughts as to why my pH might be rising dramatically?

Sounds like tap water. Use RO water.

Or

Try advanced ph perfect line of nutes perhaps.

I would go with RO.

im using water from a zero water filter. its supposed to be as good as RO but who knows. do you think it would be possible to use pH perfect and the flora nova together cause i have pretty much a full bottle of flora nova grow and bloom and i dont wana waste it. Thanks for the advice ill go and get ro water from rite aid next time i mix nutes

flora nova has organics and is known to trigger slime blooms in dwc and also stain roots brown.

vinegar will only hold your ph for a few hrs.

thats why when you check it 2 hrs or so later your ph has risen.

to save your self a whole lot of grief and headaches..get yourself some ph up/down.

it will make your grow a whole lot more enjoyable,and you might get some decent smoke from it.

dtischerd said:

vinegar will only hold your ph for a few hrs.

thats why when you check it 2 hrs or so later your ph has risen.

to save your self a whole lot of grief and headaches..get yourself some ph up/down.

it will make your grow a whole lot more enjoyable,and you might get some decent smoke from it.

Click to expand...

...pretty sure slime will cause a rise in pH...not sayin thats it but certainly worth a looksee at them roots anyhow...

...pH down? BTW a 2lb bag is like $16 ...just cop'd some of that overly priced stuff myself..

...I was using pool acid, baking soda (pH up) and vinegar...
now i'm wondering if the carbon in vinegar was promoting too much biology/bacteria and hence slime....
...some competent poster here suggested the chemistry in the baking soda and pool acid was not ideal for my res...what he said made sense and I've stopped using either (along with vinegar for reason stated)....

...there is a cheaper substitute for the overly priced pH down, if someone knows what it really is, plz post
...for pH up also (although I'd bet lime/kalkwasser is probably safe in small doses if it doesn't add too much Ca)

late edit: here is this thread, some info is a lil off, perhaps misleading but answers the pH down thing

b ,general rule of thumb is vinegar, organic based nutes, molasses, and other organics should not be used in dwc buckets... except for bennies. unless you are an advanced grower, there is like a 97% chance you will hate your life if you try using organics in dwc.

salt based nutes like the 3 part flora series or dyna gro along with bennies, bubbles, cold water, 100% dark are the basics of dwc. rapidly rising ph is usually a sign of slime... how are your roots?

Do not use vinegar, ever. AAnd also for hydro always use liquidnph adjusters, not powders. A gallon of pH down is $17.

thanks everyone for the answers. im pretty sure the vinegar or the organics in the floranova were the culprit. When i checked the bucket today it smelled funky so i dumped it and sure enough my airstones and the inside of the bucket were covered in a nice brownish green slime so im pretty sure either some sort of algae or bacteria got in there and fed off the vinegar or the organics in the FN. The problem with getting pH up and down isnt really the cost of the product, the problem is that the nearest hydro shop is a long way away and gas can be expensive and i cant get packages shipped to my house, i have to go and pick them up from the nearest fedex or ups. It seems that i dont really have much of an option though so ill pick some up as soon as i can.

I read Heisenberg's thread about bennies and i have a decent sized bag of EWC sitting around but i dont have the other supplies currently. Would i be able to make a decent tea from just the EWC or are the ZHO powder and aquashield really necessary?

you can just use pond-zyme from petco or petsmart for bennies.