PH problems

Can any one help with this i am using advanced nutrients. Sensi grow and i cant get my ph above 4.8 -4.9 what do i need ti add?

Is it their "PH perfect" formula? If so leave it alone. Otherwise, PH up.

Topdawg110 said:

Can any one help with this i am using advanced nutrients. Sensi grow and i cant get my ph above 4.8 -4.9 what do i need ti add?

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when you say you cant get you PH up

what do you mean.... are you saying you've added ph up and the ph doesn't rise?

personally I wouldn't run ph that low no matter what they "CLAIM" about it being perfect

are you growing in soil?

Assuming soil...


Chemical salt fertilizer drops the PH of the water to around 4.5 with normal ratios. In a gallon of water with a mid strength dose of nutes mixed in, super low PPM water. Expect to add about fifteen to twenty drops of ph up. Add ph up the water the day before giving it to the plants. Make sure the PH is stable before you pour it to the plants.

6.5 all around.

whats the ph of the source water prior to your adding the nutes?

Water ph is 6.5

No i didnt ad ph up i used advanced nutrients, PH perfect.

Yes i am growing in soil

WeedFreak78 said:

Is it their "PH perfect" formula? If so leave it alone. Otherwise, PH up.

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It is ph perfect.

those are hydro nutes get soil nutrients or switch to hydro. In soil its the ph of the soil that matters most. Also it doesn't make perfect ph, the ingredients are able to be used at any ph, the last i checked my DWC the ph was 8 and the plants were fine. However in soil there is a completely different dynamic happening, I'd highly recommend you switch your nutes, if you want to use AN get their soil line, iguana juice or something like that

im4satori said:

when you say you cant get you PH up

what do you mean.... are you saying you've added ph up and the ph doesn't rise?

personally I wouldn't run ph that low no matter what they "CLAIM" about it being perfect

are you growing in soil?

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Then you don't understand the formulation of thier nutes. Trying to adjust the PH will only cause major swings and lockouts. I'm speaking from experience. Reduce EC levels and the PH will go up, just like any other nute line.

if the starting PH is 6.5

and then after he adds fertilizer its 4.5

it seems clear to me that the fertilizer has ph down (phosphoric acid, or sulfuric acid) or something acidic like pek acid built into the formula

if most people (most do) have hard water having the ph down built into the fertilizer would bring it down to range
so if your starting ph is 8.0 or 7.5 and it might end up about right after you add the fertilizer

but if your starting in soft water its not for you

so you guys would believe the claim from the brand manufacturer that ph doesnt matter

what if his ph was 3.0 after he mixed it, would that be ok,... maybe if theres enough lime to buffer it out in soil...but then you want to say it would be ok if it was hydro???? so a ph 3.0 in hydro is ok as long as its "perfect ph nutes"

if your source water is soft, as your is, and the ph of the source water is already in range , id look for a fertilizer that doesn't affect my ph as the "perfect ph" nutes do ... your ph range is already good as is

they (the manufacturer) can claim whatever they want, until they tell us how what they've done to theyre fertilizer that makes it so special I don't buy it for a second

adding acid to the base fertilizer base doesn't negate the ph.. if ph adjustment isn't possible or stable in the fertilizer then id run from it

if the fertilizer was truly "ph perfect" it would change the ph to something in range ... if its pushing your ph down to 4.5 it aint so perfect is it

you guys don't even understand the science cuz they wont explain it and the hide it.... so your just following them blindly .. even after all the shady shit these guys have pulled in the past

WeedFreak78 said:

Then you don't understand the formulation of thier nutes. Trying to adjust the PH will only cause major swings and lockouts. I'm speaking from experience. Reduce EC levels and the PH will go up, just like any other nute line.

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do you understand the formulation of there nutrients?

if so please explain to us what makes there fertilizer elements available to the plant at any PH

my guess is extra chelation, smaller particles are easily taken up. All i know is i haven't checked ph,ppm, or lost a plant in four years since i switched from botanicare. This is my current one in veg, she came out of transplant shock on 7/2, feeding started at 2ml per litre on 7/6, 2.5ml on 7/13, and 3.5ml per litre on 7/20. Between times i top off with tap water, mix with tap also. I add a pinch of gnatrol and a pinch of myco grow soluble each week, this one is with sensi grow

dirtWeevil said:

my guess is extra chelation, smaller particles are easily taken up. All i know is i haven't checked ph,ppm, or lost a plant in four years since i switched from botanicare. This is my current one in veg, she came out of transplant shock on 7/2, feeding started at 2ml per litre on 7/6, 2.5ml on 7/13, and 3.5ml per litre on 7/20. Between times i top off with tap water, mix with tap also. I add a pinch of gnatrol and a pinch of myco grow soluble each week, this one is with sensi grow
View attachment 3983685

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it looks great

whats the ph of your source water before and after you add the nutes?

lol, I actually like the botanicare stuff... but to each there own

could be but,
the chelated micro nutes isn't new technology, as a matter of fact its been around for many decades

at first it wasnt compatible in a concentrate because it would have reactions to the other elements but somewhere along the line someone figured out how to do it because not long ago many fertilizer companies started advertising the product as better cuz of the chelated micros... and this might have been legit advertising because micro nutes are more available if theyre chelated so so I would guess likely at a larger range of ph

so maybe they've got acid (like possibly pek acid) built into the base nutes and chelated micros and they call it new technology

I have a bottle of chelated calcium 5%... cant seem to find it anymore since the supplier stopped carrying it
its organicly derived
its called "just calcium" and its literally just that ..only calcium

I tried to figure out how they made it, but if I add it to water it drops the ph like crazy and does some weird buffering over the following 24hrs before it stabilizes

im thinking its made from citric acid sources of some kind

the last time I checked my tap ph was pretty steadily 6, ppm of 150-200, that was four years ago. When i first started using them I checked a lot, temp, ph, ppm, etc. the plants always grew fast and big with no deficiencies or burn and i was getting ph of 5-8, ppm was usually around a thousand at full bore but i checked ppm the least. Once i saw how crazy the ph was and how healthy the plants were i quit checking. I've let the res go four weeks with only top offs, the plants do fine, slower but just fine, the fourth week is pushing it.

just brain storming/chatting out loud

it would be interesting to see a daily log of what your ph was had you been checking it

if your not changing the reservoir often and not over feeding the the ph would naturally rise over time and we can partly assume your starting with a ph of 4.5 or so after you mix it since the starting ph of the source water is ph 6

each time you top off with source water (which is already ideal) your adjusting the ph to some degree

if someone where growing in soil it would matter less what the ph is because the lime would buffer it out in the soil

the only thing with hydro

normally you guage if your over or under feeding by watching the ph and EC in the reservoir

if the ph rises and the EC falls feed more
if the ph falls and or the EC rises feed less

hypothetically if your feeding the exact right amount your EC wouldn't not rise or fall and the ph would climb very slow almost flat

i wonder what baring that has on the question

I've never really thought about it, i just work up the scale to 4ml per litre and they do their thing. I just don't have time to get that sciencey with it. If it helps I've also ran multiple strains in the same res and each did great, none were stunty, I'm starting a nine strain scrog tomorrow with a single res maybe ill start a log if I get around to it