phluctuation in ph

why does my dwc's ph keep fluctuating?? is there a bacteria growing or is this bitch just eatin alot and suckin out all the nutrients?? if anyone got some insight please help!!

In my hydro setup it will vary from day to day, hell even sometimes from one part of the day to the next. It may be bacteria, good sterilization should help. If not It may just be that the water is evaporating at a different rate than your nutes in the water are. I'm not very experienced with DWC though so don't take my answer as a final say. Good luck. Ph issues are a damn bitch man. I feel your pain. Might wanna go and list more about the nutes you use, what you are growing,The set up size and all. So many variables go into pH. So more info will do nothing but paint a clearer pic. Best of luck man

thanks for the help i guess i was pretty brief. well its a dwc in a 25gallon tub. nutes are sensi bloom a+b, Nirvana from Advanced nutrients, and some cal mg bloom also from advanced nutrients. the strain is northernlightsxskunk#1 from worldwideseeds and shes almost done with her 3rd week in flower. i know they're suppose to be eating alot now but this ph thing is definitely pissin me off. When the ph is off it means shes not able to eat right?? and if it is bacteria whats the best way to clean in??

Some one who is better than I with nutes should help ya. I've only just really started diving deep into them. When it comes to pH though fluctuation is bad. Anything outside of your target area is bad. You don't want ph lockout. Because that causes you to not get nurtrients to the plants. Also, when you pH is fucked so is your balance of nutrients. Not just what gets to your plant. But what gets to your plants in the right building block ratio. When it comes to cleaning the system for my ebb n flow I just rinse. Use some lemon juice and habanero pepper in water. Might use a dab of dish soap. I've heard of a dude use bleach. But that doesn't seem intuitive to me. I do not wanna taste even a hint of that shit. also. What kind of water you use? Hose. Tap. Purified. Ro? That matters too. If you get from tap it may just be really nasty water. We can drink horrible water and be fine. Not plants. For my plants they only get 0 ppm purified RO water. That way I'm starting at zero. I know what I have and what I don't have. With hose or tap the location of that water varies. The fluoride, calcium, magnesium etc all varies by where you live, rainfall, and the time of the year. For example. Im in the bay area. My water comes from four different locations. Yes I can call my water company and ask for a breakdown of what's in the water. But a few days later than may change. Water is a variable that you can easily hold constant with some good purified ro stuff. I dont have an ro system but I fill my tank with the purified water from those 5 gal jugs from supermarkets. It's like $15 to buy the bottle then only like 1.25 each 5 gal fill. Also do you adjust for evaporation? Are you using full nutrient recommendations? Or half strength?

definitely dont want to be tasting bleach either. ive been using tap but i let it sit for a couple days first. im thinkin ill use a little bit of hydrogen peroxide i heard that works..not really sure what you mean by adjust adjust for evaporation but im am using full strength nutes..thanks for the help bud

Most nutrients will not cause phluctuations in the res. I believe you have some sort of growth that is most likely the issue. You did not say what your fluctuations were, some are acceptable until it gets too far.
How are the plants looking?
How do the roots look (color and smell are most important here)?
Pictures would help alot.
Without pictures the recommendation will be to get 50% H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide), this is exceedingly hard to find in the states, typically 29% or so is the strongest you can find. Do not use the stuff you get at the grocery store, it could kill your plants.
Run 50% at 1ml/liter and 29% basically twice that. This will kill everything that is living in there and should not be.
You do change water weekly correct?

Honestly man. I've heard of people leaving their water out for a few days and all to have the chlorine dissipate but stagnant water is like a bacteria hub. In hydroponics there is really no beneficial micro bacteria that will help control for that. I am beginning to think that that may have been the venue that introduced the possible growth or bacteria into your dwc.

Shoot, also what'd you let your water sit in for those few days? Maybe it's not the water or the res but the bottles that the water sits in for a few days. Do you clean those too? I'm much more sterile with my hydro setup than I am with my soil girls. Just an additional thought. Best of luck man. Let me know how it goes

well my plants are looking pretty good and the roots look fine, they dont smell abnormal and yes i do change the rez weekly. I usually keep my extra water in a big tupperware. i would ph my water to 5.6 and then when i check a day or even a couple of hours later it would hop back to 6. where do i get some h202??

How are you remedying the problem? Ph down?
Have you ever just let it go for a couple of days to see what happens?
6.0 is not horrible, have you seen any issues with your plants?
I think you may just be fighting yourself here, maybee try and see what happens if you just let it go a day or two, keep an eye on it, and if it exceeds 6.5 adjust.
Hydro shops are the most common place to find high concentrations of h2o2

yes i do use ph down. my plants dont seem to be having any problems, but im just worried that they arent eating..

lightmeup55 said:

yes i do use ph down. my plants dont seem to be having any problems, but im just worried that they arent eating..

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In a hydro system if a plant isn't taking up nutrients, you'll notice it pretty quickly...so don't worry...they are still eating

Try mixing your nutes and water the day before res change without pH adjusting. This will allow some time for things to buffer. Then pH adjust as needed and change the res. Allowing the pH to drift from say 5.8 up too 6.4 or so before re adjusting.

^^^ good tip also switching ti dyna gro nutes with the silica I heard is great for reducing ph drift...

Member homebrewer has a thread on it in DWC
Also member hoinheim brews bennies in his dwc

massah said:

In a hydro system if a plant isn't taking up nutrients, you'll notice it pretty quickly...so don't worry...they are still eating

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im definitely going to try this. thanks!

TruenoAE86coupe said:

How are you remedying the problem? Ph down?
Have you ever just let it go for a couple of days to see what happens?
6.0 is not horrible, have you seen any issues with your plants?
I think you may just be fighting yourself here, maybee try and see what happens if you just let it go a day or two, keep an eye on it, and if it exceeds 6.5 adjust.
Hydro shops are the most common place to find high concentrations of h2o2

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going from 5.6 to 6.0 is a good thing in hydro I used to run DWC and you want your PH to drift up for instance I would set mine at 5.8 and let it drift up to about 6.2 different trace minerals and nutrients are taken in at different PH levels 5.8 is money in DWC.. You are worrying too much. I agree with the guy with the guy who posted that you shouldnt harsh your mellow unless it gets up to the 6.5 range.

Good info guys, I just started my ebb and flow box and having the same problems. How often and at what stage should you start adding nutes to the water? What is the best way you guys are keeping your res temps down? How often do you run just ph water in the box between feedings? Sorry for all the questions.

OldLuck said:

Good info guys, I just started my ebb and flow box and having the same problems. How often and at what stage should you start adding nutes to the water? What is the best way you guys are keeping your res temps down? How often do you run just ph water in the box between feedings? Sorry for all the questions.

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Start adding the nutes once they have a couple set of leaves on them, just start 1/4 strength nutes.
I keep my res temp down with frozen water bottles, with Ebb and Flow water temps arent as as crucial as they are in other forms of hydro growing like DWC ( in DWC you need to have low water/res temps like 70 and under)
I dont ever flush with just PH water until I am a week before harvesting I use house and garden nutes which are low in salts.

I am using Botanicare CNS17 grow, CNS17 bloom, and Liquid Karma which came with the ebb and flow. The grow and bloom both stop feeding after week 4 of veg and they don't start back up, so what do I feed my plants after week 4 of veg?

I ignore the PH after the initial setting. 1. the nutrients claim that there is no need to adjust after setting it initially, and 2. My plants never appear to complain so i have to ask why i'd bother checking and adjusting