Help me out with P.H.?

First time growing hydro and so far it's going phenomenal. I'm using general hydroponics waterfarm. I started as a trial to see if I could do it so I bought the single stand alone unit. Well it worked well for me so far so I bought the eight unit set up, while this one girl finishes out. So here is where I started running into my P.H. problem. I hooked up the 17 gallon reservoir cause the plant is drinking more than the two gallons of water that's in the bucket right around 20 hours it's empty. But now I have high P.H. I decided to use the Lucas formula seemed pretty simple. K.I.S.S. right? I'm using floranova Bloom and have been since day one. The reading I've done leads me to believe I have to get the plants nutrient in take perfect meaning, mix nutrients test conductivity, then come back later and retest. If the conductivity is higher it's taking in more water and less nutrients so when I mix, use less nutrients and more water right? Vice versa if the conductivity is lower, add more nutes. That should help me out? I just tested the water in the res. The conductivity is 650 the P.H. is 6.8. When I mix nutes I mix a teaspoon per gallon which puts me right around a thousand ppm and I adjust to 5.8 on the P.H. So I need to add a little more nutes? How much per gallon? I understand it's a trial and error thing but where do I start? Teaspoon and a half per gallon? Figured I'd Dump the res today and start fresh should I flush with water for a day or two? Thanks if you can help.The picture is a couple days ago just to show how happy we both are, the plant and myself. I put her in the bucket as a clone from one of my plants on august 11th and switched to bloom last month I think right around the 15th. Happy growing!

what is your ec? or what tds scale are you using? 1000 seems pretty high.

I run around .7-.9 ec in veg. and 1.0-1.2 in flower.

I'm using a T.D.S. meter with one teaspoon per gallon of floranova bloom that comes out to right under a thousand. Again that's what I've been using since day one. Correct me if I'm wrong but really you are feeding the same amount as I am just reading it differently. .7-.9 is the same as 700-900 and 1.0-1.2 is 1,000-1,200. Oooooor I could be wrong.

Edit: I think I am wrong. This is the most confusing part about hydro for me is figuring this out. I'll get it someday guess it depends on even what meter you are using.

again...what scale does your tds meter read at?

this is why ec meters are easier...nobody ever knows the answer to this question.

http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TDS-EZ-Measurement-Resolution/dp/B002C0A7ZY this is the meter I'm using so reads in ppm. Guess I'll invest in an ec meter next.

Indian Joker said:

http://www.amazon.com/HM-Digital-TDS-EZ-Measurement-Resolution/dp/B002C0A7ZY this is the meter I'm using so reads in ppm. Guess I'll invest in an ec meter next.

Click to expand...

that meter is fine, just ec meters are simpler as there is only one scale.

That meter reads at the 500 scale. It measures the NaCl or sodium chloride content of the water. That is my preferred scale to measure with.

Sent From My Note 8.0

So not to be a pain but regardless what numbers we are seeing I still have this P.H. issue. Any advice on the questions I had.

Sorry I cannot help you as I am a noob and will be doing my first grow soon, also with Floranova nutes. I must say your lady is beautiful! My plan is to use RO water and get my TDS meter out and start with 300-400 PPM for early grow and increase to 800 max during veg/flower. Then I will check the PH and adjust accordingly.

All this EC conversion gives me a headache so I am just sticking with PPM. Not sure why you are concerned with PH as your plant looks extremely healthy. Are you having any problems with the plant?

BTW I have the same exact meter.

She isn't showing any major signs of anything bad. You are right she looks really healthy. But Working with a reservoir now, her roots are sitting in high P.H. water longer than her roots have previously. So I can only imagine it will soon lead to a problem.

Gotcha, makes sense what you just said. Just read the description on the nute and says it is PH stabilized, would you mind explaining how you prepare your reservoir? I want to learn from your experience and also may find a solution. Are you using tap water?

How long does it take for the PH to climb out of range?

Correct, I do believe the floranova is stabilized but may require balancing. I always check and usually have to adjust down to 5.8. My understanding the plant absorbs nutrients and water best at 5.7-5.8 even though 5.6-6.3 is acceptable (for hydro).

Tap water yes. It's never failed me yet. From what I've read R.O. water is great if you are on a well or you have really high conductivity without adding nutes yet. However I don't have a well I buy my water from the city. And If I were to use a R.O. system I think I would be removing micro nutes that is in the tap water.

How I mix my water for the reservoir. Five gallons at a time, measure out five teaspoons of floranova bloom, add five gallons of water, then check my P.H. and conductivity. I'll adjust my P.H. to 5.7-5.8ish and pour in the reservoir. Never adjust the reservoir with P.H. up or down as that could burn the roots.

It usually takes it over night to get high. My understanding if I have problems with root rot that can make my P.H. high but there definitely isn't a problem there. The roots seem happy and healthy. Good luck growing man. Stick around and read read read. I had a great bountiful harvest my last crop. And it was due to some books I bought. It's good to read from different authors and different books to get different perspectives old books and new ones alike and go with what you are comfortable with and what works for your current grow. Cause every plant reacts differently to nutrient batches. Also what help I got from this community. It's hard to get the answer sometimes but others I've gotten it answered from reading other posts. But many thanks to the people who've helped me on my journey so far that's for sure.

No one can help me out? Guess I'll hit the books.

get a bigger bucket will help your ph problem. then see where go from there.

id say she drinking that amount of nutes with in a few hours it whack the ph out.

Morning All,

Here is a conversion chart for ec to tds ( ppm). I have this printed, laminated and hanging in the grow room, just for reference.


Peace and Great Grows

Asmallvoice

That's the .7 scale his metre doesn't read that scale. .5 scale is what he is using

I was so successful growing the one waterfarm I bought the eight bucket system. So I hooked up the res to just the one bucket and it does recirculate the nutes in the bucket and res. So I'm not sure if a biggerbucket would help for one for two the buckets are all predrilled and hooked up and everything. So I'm not sure if a bigger bucket is even an option. I think it's handling the higher P.H. anyhow. There isn't any sign of slowing this girl down yet.