opinion on ideal PH?

waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
sidewing said:
i dont think you're supposed to go back and forth between down and up. im assuming your diluting the up/down in like a gallon of water before you're dumping into the res and not just dumping straight up or straight down in there?

i had that problem you're describing with my tap water. i had to use a TON of down to get to a certain point, but once i hit a certain point, its like it was ultra sensitive after that. say 200 drops to get from 7.8 to 6.7, but then only like 10 more drops to get from 6.7 to 5.6. i remember reading an article somewhere that said basically the buffers in your tap/well water keep working until you pass a certain point with your adjusters.

i think RO water would give you the stability you're looking for. it sure did for me. maybe someone else can chime in with their opinion. but to me it sounds like its not mixing in properly. giving you a false reading because it hasnt had a chance to properly mix and settle together with the res.. have you ruled out the meter/probe as being the issue? or as you using a dropper kit?

but yes before RO i had those exact issues of extreme PH instability. even other people in town swore their tap water was fine. but for me it wasnt. i couldnt get it to stabilize worth crap for more than 12 hours. I bought the tallboy thinking that would fix it, and it didnt. i had to remove EVERYTHING from my water and start from scratch with RO and ever since then no PH instability at all. if i had to do it over again i would just buy the Hydrologic RO200 and not the tallboy, but like i said since i have it i put it to use as a prefilter. RO200 is only like $200 dollars and its basically plug n play. preassembled, hook in a water source (garden hose), plug in the output line. thats it. i had a mild water drip where the pressure gauge was on my RO200 because of how it was positioned it didnt tighten fully so the meter could be displayed facing forward. simply unscrewing it and wrapping the thread with some plumbers tape fixed it. i like it because once your res is full (if you are using a float valve) it shuts off. doesnt keep draining water (like other RO units you may purchase where you need to buy an auto shutoff seperate).. and the drain/waste line is pressurized so you can string it to a sink or somewhere. i ran mine along ceiling of garage and brought it down on the back side of the sink in my garage, then just zip tied it to the faucet and had the exit side right above the drain.
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I've known since the beginning that my water is causing issues but an RO filter is really not an option at this point, i grow in a shed that has no water or drain. I have the plumbing all ready to go with a 3/8 tube at the wall, just need to enclosed everything in a conduit and heat it with cable. Great! More power usage lol. I have dealt with this by keeping records of everything and was able to get it to 5.8 within 12 hours. With the new system and nutes its like day one 3 years ago :( It makes total sense about reaching a point of balance but I just cant find it, more record keeping i guess. As for adding up and down, i dont see any issues but for sure it cant be a great thing. Thanks for the responses, ph has been a struggle. Yup maybe its RO time. Bright side is I have a booster pump already (bought it for a high pressure aero build).
 
tekdc911

tekdc911

Well-Known Member
i was looking at one of these last night ........ might help and its fairly cheap 50 gallons per day output or some shit
http://www.marineandreef.com/AquaticLife_RO_Buddie_50_GPD_Reverse_Osmosis_p/RAL01016.htm?gclid=COj-5MiFscECFehDMgodCTkAbA
waterdawg said:
I've known since the beginning that my water is causing issues but an RO filter is really not an option at this point, i grow in a shed that has no water or drain. I have the plumbing all ready to go with a 3/8 tube at the wall, just need to enclosed everything in a conduit and heat it with cable. Great! More power usage lol. I have dealt with this by keeping records of everything and was able to get it to 5.8 within 12 hours. With the new system and nutes its like day one 3 years ago :( It makes total sense about reaching a point of balance but I just cant find it, more record keeping i guess. As for adding up and down, i dont see any issues but for sure it cant be a great thing. Thanks for the responses, ph has been a struggle. Yup maybe its RO time. Bright side is I have a booster pump already (bought it for a high pressure aero build).
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DarthBlazeAnthony

Well-Known Member
I found out while growing my first plant which is currently in bloom..Proud to say...If you do decide to use tap water you cannot dial in the PH. However, if you use tap for veg, it is not so bad. My beasts are all on tap since birth but I will use RO water for bloom. I'm ready to be corrected but this has actually worked so it is hard to argue against results. The veg plants is from last night is completely off of tap water with no PH adjustments..Just normal hydroponic nutes...Cheers!
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sidewing

Well-Known Member
tekdc911 said:
i was looking at one of these last night ........ might help and its fairly cheap 50 gallons per day output or some shit
http://www.marineandreef.com/AquaticLife_RO_Buddie_50_GPD_Reverse_Osmosis_p/RAL01016.htm?gclid=COj-5MiFscECFehDMgodCTkAbA
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If you would like my opinion. It could work. 50gpd or gallons per day is pretty low. It says it needs 60 to 100psi to operate. I can't get mine to go above 55 and if it's evening it's more like 45. It will provide 50 gallons at 100psi per day best case scenario. Plus this one does not have auto shut off. Meaning if your res is full your drain line will keep draining 24 hours a day. It wastes 4 gallons for every 1 gallon of ro, so that can add up to a lot of waste. I do not think this system will drop you down to 0ppm with the filter it's using.

The hydrologic stealth comes w the auto shutoff, it has the eco waste reducer which wastes only 2 gallons for every 1 gallon of ro. Ro200 does 200 gallons a day. Ro100 is a little cheaper and does 100 a day. It can operate at lower psi (40 minimum). If you can't hit 60psi on the one you posted you will have to buy a booster which is expensive.

Plus the hydrologic is made specifically for hydro gardeners. They have all the possible expansions available on their website should you want to improve your filter. I think initially you may save a little going your route, but not overall in the long run. Plus 50gpd is just a trickle of water it'll be torture waiting for it to fill a res. Yours also does not come with tubes or adapters. Hydrologic comes ready to use. Just my opinion. I researched extensively prior.
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
Thanks guys!! I still haven't made a decision as to what I'm going to do. If i can dial in the system it would not be a problem. When i first started it took a couple if grows to dial in, I'll give it till the end of this run to decide. Happy to report its now at 5.8-9 four days after res change and daily adjustments. Once I get it there its pretty stable with s slight rise over a two week period. I have lowered the nutes to 1.5-.6 so we'll see if ph goes up or down.
 
tekdc911

tekdc911

Well-Known Member
sidewing said:
If you would like my opinion. It could work. 50gpd or gallons per day is pretty low. It says it needs 60 to 100psi to operate. I can't get mine to go above 55 and if it's evening it's more like 45. It will provide 50 gallons at 100psi per day best case scenario. Plus this one does not have auto shut off. Meaning if your res is full your drain line will keep draining 24 hours a day. It wastes 4 gallons for every 1 gallon of ro, so that can add up to a lot of waste. I do not think this system will drop you down to 0ppm with the filter it's using.

The hydrologic stealth comes w the auto shutoff, it has the eco waste reducer which wastes only 2 gallons for every 1 gallon of ro. Ro200 does 200 gallons a day. Ro100 is a little cheaper and does 100 a day. It can operate at lower psi (40 minimum). If you can't hit 60psi on the one you posted you will have to buy a booster which is expensive.

Plus the hydrologic is made specifically for hydro gardeners. They have all the possible expansions available on their website should you want to improve your filter. I think initially you may save a little going your route, but not overall in the long run. Plus 50gpd is just a trickle of water it'll be torture waiting for it to fill a res. Yours also does not come with tubes or adapters. Hydrologic comes ready to use. Just my opinion. I researched extensively prior.
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meh the 24/0 it takes to fill up a drum ..... the two weeks it takes to use it ........... my shallow well jet pump puts out 60 psi .... im sure it could do more but the cut out is set to 60 psi .......
kitchen, fish tank , or cannabis RO water is still RO water if it passes through a membrane
 
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sidewing

Well-Known Member
just slightly off topic but as soon as i can save up an extra 100 dollars or so i want to upgrade my RO200 to add the UV sterilizer. I've been having ongoing issues with brown slime. considering my conditions are regulated and in ideal range always ive been reading a lot on it and found out the brown slime loves oxygen and grows without light. and it comes from the water source and is even small enough to pass through the RO membrane. people are reporting success using a UV sterilizer in their RO to kill all spores/fungii/bacteria. i'm using beneficial tea right now to keep it at bay. i just ordered some physan 20 (hopefully it makes it here, its banned in california for whatever reason). supposed to be here on sunday. i guess the best course of action is to hit em with 1ml per 10 gallons of physan20 for 24 hours, flush res. and then add beneficial bacteria tea to take colonize and take over the res keeping the bad ones away. in a 48 hour period i had the roots on my blue dream which were looking absolutely fabulous brown up and pretty much slime/whither away. when i went to spray them off they were brittle they tore off with a slight touch. GRR DWC issues. i got lazy on the tea and tried to add just beneficial powder without brewing a tea first. big mistake. the slime started to take over and i paid the price. the plant is still alive and will bounce back but it will delay my flower time a week or so.
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
I just started to use tea but at $30 a litre I may go back to adding what I use without making tea. I add 10 ml every week so I should get a year out of it.
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
sidewing said:
What do you use
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Microbe lift pl. its for ponds but seems to work so far buts its the first run with it. It does smell like a septic tank in its cincentrated form but not in res. i really have not a clue if its good or bad lol. Roots and plants are doing great with higher than normal res temps.
 
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sidewing

Well-Known Member
I just ordered some physan 20. Had to get it off Amazon I guess the grow shops here can't carry it for whatever reason. Supposed to be really strong stuff but supposedly it's one of the few things that will kill the Brown slime I have. Sort of scared to use it. The bene tea seems to keep it at bay, but I want to have some just in case I need that emergency atomic strike to regain control. I'll probably use it to sterilize either between rounds or maybe even every res change. Only takes 1ml per 10 gallons with plants in there. Works pretty much instantly. Maybe for equipment I'll just use 1ml per gallon and scrub
 
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sidewing

Well-Known Member
i use canna aqua clay pellets, not sure if its the same thing as hydroton, but i rinse it really quickly with tap water to remove the dust/dirt or whatever is on it. like a 30second-1minute rinse and then thats it. never had any problems with ph because of it
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
If I dont clean, soak, and rinse hydrton, ph seems to go up, if I remember correctly. I been using the same batch for two years lol
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
Just wanted to report that I have been monitoring the new system since the last refill and ph is now staying pretty stable at 5.8/.9 for the last 8 days (refill tomorrow). I could top up but think refilling is a better way to keep nutes equal in system. I am running an EC of 1.7 and it is staying relatively the same as well with a slight drop I guess. It seems to go up and down every day by .05 ish. I have just started to use aqua flakes (expensive stuff :(), I had one tray that was started using it from day one and another tray using my usual 2 part mix. The difference is amazing really, I assumed my plants as a whole did pretty good all along. The aqua flakes plants are way bushier and more full. There is a noticable difference between the two trays and as everything is the same except nutes I have to assume its the aqua flakes. Again the shits expensive but its all ok if I get better results. Just curious if anyone else uses it and if they like the results?
 
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sidewing

Well-Known Member
i wouldnt worry about any minor fluctuation. its the extreme swings you want to avoid. i dont know, im sure expensive products work good, but for me i like to spend the least amount possible while still getting good product. which is why ive just recently switched to maxigrow for veg and maxibloom for flower. one part powder gives the plant all it needs, at 15 dollars for a 2.2 pound bag, it makes hydro affordable for me to be able to drain/refill the res with fresh nutrient mix once a week and keep plants in top health. using bottled nutrients would have negated all the extra growth and yield that dwc has over soil because any extra profit would be going into nutrients. if its not breaking your bank i'd say stick with whats easiest and what you like the best. i dont have any experience with it though
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
I hear ya, I was really thinking the stuff I was using before at $40 a gallon was the bomb lol. It was as good as general hydro products so I thought it was pretty good. Yes this stuff is expensive but the difference is (so far at five days of flower) pretty amazing. Not promoting this stuff at all but I will try a few more products for sure lol. I dont worry about fluctuations much and think it is actually promotes better growth. Just always had issues with stabilizing initial res ph, due to well water i assume.
 
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