Need ph help from pro's

okay i have a dwc ,4 small plants and i put 3 gallons water in the res. my tap water comes out at 7.0 ph ,i then pour the tap water into my res then i put my nutes in and add some ph down until it reaches 5.2.. a day or 2 later the ph is back upto 7-8.. i have know idea what my tap waters ppm is , although i did just test my tap waters carbonate hardeness and its at about 25ppm/mg'L.
can anyone help me out ? its driving my crazy i just wanna be able to adjust the ph like once a week "how it should be".

smallclosetgrowr said:

okay i have a dwc ,4 small plants and i put 3 gallons water in the res. my tap water comes out at 7.0 ph ,i then pour the tap water into my res then i put my nutes in and add some ph down until it reaches 5.2.. a day or 2 later the ph is back upto 7-8.. i have know idea what my tap waters ppm is , although i did just test my tap waters carbonate hardeness and its at about 25ppm/mg'L.
can anyone help me out ? its driving my crazy i just wanna be able to adjust the ph like once a week "how it should be".

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Hi, A question...Why are you dumping 'pH down' into the mix? Here's an idea. Check your pH after you add your nutrients and leave out the pH down. What are you using to measure pH with? If your water out of the tap is nearly pH neutral it should follow your added nutes shouldn't take you too far from that. Ideal in Hydro is between 5.8 and 6.8. Are the temps in the space and in turn the reservoir, getting hot? Are you using full strength nutrient mixes? Foliar sprays? Extra nitrogen in any form? Just wondering...Good Luck! GrowIT!

I have trouble balancing PH if I regrow using the same medium (eg; expanded clay) without washing it thoroughly. DWC on the other hand is a different story. When you say "PH down" do you mean Phosphoric acid? Dumping straight Phosphoric acid into your res is a bad idea. How long do you age the tap water before adding it to your system?

KingInDaCloset said:

Hi, A question...Why are you dumping 'pH down' into the mix? Here's an idea. Check your pH after you add your nutrients and leave out the pH down. What are you using to measure pH with? If your water out of the tap is nearly pH neutral it should follow your added nutes shouldn't take you too far from that. Ideal in Hydro is between 5.8 and 6.8. Are the temps in the space and in turn the reservoir, getting hot? Are you using full strength nutrient mixes? Foliar sprays? Extra nitrogen in any form? Just wondering...Good Luck! GrowIT!

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i measure my ph with a pen , as i said earlyer i add my nutes and its still abit to high so i add my phdown into my res to get it to the desired ph , what else would i use besides ph down to get my ph down !?? and no my res isnt hot and the ideal ph for hydro is 5.2-6.4

Stop worrying about PH so much, if those things were growing outside in nature, no one would be checking on them. A range is fine, if it's a point in either direction from 6.0, you're fine. With hydro, from my experience, if your PPM's are rising in your res, then you have too strong of a solution, your plants are drinking more water than eating, lower your PPM's, the PH will not swing as much. As well, if your PPM's are dropping, but the water levels aren't, you need to put some more nutes in the res. You shouldn't need to add PH +/- at all really. I would flush your plants for a day or two before you burn them, and then start at half strength, check your PPM's 2-3 times a day. If they go up, add water. Stop trying to make your plants look like the incredible hulk

If your plants are in heavy vegative growth (early growth when the growth rate is exponential) and therfore taking up a lot of nitrogen it is likely the nitrate that is being taken up. That always causes a rise in pH, simply using phosphoric acid to lower the pH is fine. Some brands of pH down also contain nitric acid so as to replace the nitrate that caused the pH to decline by causing the roots to release carbonate ions when it was taken up. Nearly all nutrient formulations contain enough nitrate that adding more with the phosphoric acid is really not needed or even beneficial.

my ph needs adjusting the other way i set it at about 6 and everryday when i go back 2 it its around 4.1 its baffling me and every1 1 that i tell ? could this be because the plants are drinking more than there eating ? my plants look ill !!!!!!

Well i don't want to disapoint you but even after i bought a 6 stage RO-DI filter i still have to ajust my ph twice a day. it bounce from 5.6 to 6-6.2

No that would likely be because your nutrients also contain quite a bit of its nitrogen ammoonium. When a plant takes up ammonium to nay large extent it releases H+ protons to maintain and ioinic balance within its roots. This in turn causes a lowering of your pH. Usuallt that ahppens when your nutrient formulation contains s large percentage of its nitrogen total as ammonium and when your plants are under low lighting, cool temperatures or are receiving low light exposure to the sides of the plants (such as reflected light from walls).

Organic fertilizers present even more pH issues as they are full of only partially decayed organic matter that is being turned into ammonium, nitrite and finally nitrate.

fuck it this is all to confusing an im stressing out my plants to much by changing the ph every day , im just going to put regular tap water in my res +nutes and leave it at 7.0 and see what happens

Mix your nutrient solution and than test your ph than apply mix to reseervoir or at least mix it in the reservoir before plants start taking any of the solution up. Than follow early morning highs advice and determine do you need to fertilize more or less?

smallclosetgrowr said:

fuck it this is all to confusing an im stressing out my plants to much by changing the ph every day , im just going to put regular tap water in my res +nutes and leave it at 7.0 and see what happens

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Adj. your PH as needed if they look good dont worry PH changes and needs to be adj.

smallclosetgrowr said:

fuck it this is all to confusing an im stressing out my plants to much by changing the ph every day , im just going to put regular tap water in my res +nutes and leave it at 7.0 and see what happens

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Disaster.

Most people never learn why the pH changes, They just do as needed for good growth. That is they maintain the pH around 5.6 to 5.8. You do have a few options; get used to it and adjust the pH as needed, get a pH analyzer/controller and two pumps and let it automatically adjust the pH, or find another hobby.

okay i have it under control now .. thank fuck ! its moving up but really slowly im so happy , i fixed the problem by using Ph Balanced nutrients and propper Ph Down , i used lemon juice b4 and it would leave a rust like substance on the bottom of my tank.

smallclosetgrowr said:

okay i have it under control now .. thank fuck ! its moving up but really slowly im so happy , i fixed the problem by using Ph Balanced nutrients and propper Ph Down , i used lemon juice b4 and it would leave a rust like substance on the bottom of my tank.

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i had a problem with my nutes (ionic) because they were new to me. they say right on the bottle target ph is 6.8 well i was trying to keep them at 6.0 and it was a never ending battle. i gave up and let them sit at 6.8 now and my plant loves it(master kush). hope this helps.oh ya , i'm no pro

sixstring2112 said:

i had a problem with my nutes (ionic) because they were new to me. they say right on the bottle target ph is 6.8 well i was trying to keep them at 6.0 and it was a never ending battle. i gave up and let them sit at 6.8 now and my plant loves it(master kush). hope this helps.oh ya , i'm no pro

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you using ionic grow or bloom? hardwater formula? i've been considering some of their 3-1-5 but hadn't heard much about it...