H&G Cocos A B ph drop?

sharkgunner

Active Member
I start with water from my tap which is a steady 6.5 ph and ppm of 15. I then add some Botanicare calmag to bring ppm to 140ish. (PH remains at 6.5) Now I add the required amount of Cocos A, followed by Cocos B. After this, my ph reads in the high 3's low 4's. I am curious if this is normal, or I am missing something here? I've never had such an extreme drop in ph after adding nutrients. Any info would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks.
 

jondamon

Well-Known Member
Something in your nutrients could be reacting with the others.


Start with the a and b and test pH after.

Allowing nutrients to fall below ph4 can cause precipitation. Whereby the nutrients form back into solids that may not be visible to the eye and become suspended in the water rendering them useless.

I always allow up to 2 hours after mixing before testing and correcting pH.


J
 

Grandpapy

Well-Known Member
It sounds like you might be "shocking" the a&b by not letting them stabilize long enough.

I found this to be the quickest way to mix, (I use a 15 gal res.)

I start with 6.5-6.8 tap water

I add "B" to a 5 gal pail while filling with water and look at the clock. Once filled, I start filling res. with water and add "A". Once the res is full, (leaving room for 5 gal pail of part "B") I have about 7 min. to smoke a bowl or whatever just so it sits for 15 min, then slowly add the part "B".

after a few min. I check PH It will be 6.3, I knock it to 5.8-9 add the rest of the cal mag, h2o2, slick water, ect.
When I check it the next day it will be 6. +/_ .1
 

sharkgunner

Active Member
Much thanks to both of you for the responses. I was wondering about letting the mix sit, as the instructions say to "let settle" or something similar. You got it right as I didn't let them stabilize at all. I will try an practice some patience and see if I get better results.
 

sharkgunner

Active Member
Well shoot...........I let the mix sit for plenty of time and still had a super ph drop (this time it was actually all the way down to 3.5 from 6.8-7.0) I am using 4l of water and mixing in 10ml of A and 10ml of B. So do I have something else going on here? The change in ph is so extreme it seems ridiculous. Any more input would once again be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 

Grandpapy

Well-Known Member
Well shoot...........I let the mix sit for plenty of time and still had a super ph drop (this time it was actually all the way down to 3.5 from 6.8-7.0) I am using 4l of water and mixing in 10ml of A and 10ml of B. So do I have something else going on here? The change in ph is so extreme it seems ridiculous. Any more input would once again be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Are you using two containers, one for A and one for B, then letting them sit for 15 min. before pouring into the res.?
 

nastynate420

Active Member
I use RO water @ 4ppm add A and wait at least 15 min then add B and let it simmer. B is what drops the PH down... but mine only gets to around 5.0
Some PH up (5ml in a 10gal res) and mix in the rest of the nutes and ph sits stable at 5.8.
Before I got my RO system my PH would be around 6.0 after adding A+B but my tap water is at 260 ppm.
 

sharkgunner

Active Member
Are you using two containers, one for A and one for B, then letting them sit for 15 min. before pouring into the res.?
I was not aware I needed two containers. I tried to interpret the instructions the best I could, but separate containers did not come to mind. My process is to fill a bucket with approx 5L of water, add in 7ml of A (I dropped the amount I used at first which was 10ml), wait 10 or so minutes, then add 7ml of B to the same bucket. I did notice that it was B that dropped the ph. Its not a big deal as I do just use some ph up. Thanks to everyone who supplied me with some answers, and confidence that I was not messing up on anything.
 
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