Res water PH climbing everday

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/337275-thors-400w-dwc-closet-grow-9.html

thats the grow. The water in the res is 5.5 when i go to bed after i balance it then when i wake up its 6.5 and i have to lower it again. Why does the water keep rising so fast?

This happens to me as well. Drift is a good thing as your plant will pick up nutrients and minerals at certain pH levels. I pH adjust every 24 hours and my theory behind this is that when my nutes are all mixed in the proportions that I like, it rests at 5.8 without any adjustments at all. As the plants feed on the nutes and drink the water, that creates an imbalance in a previously balanced environment. The plants and the medium are also affecting the pH of the water so every day, I adjust it back down to around 5.8.

are you using ph down or upper? and soil or hydroponics? details would help

Thordinar said:

Why does the water keep rising so fast?

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Because you have a small recirculating reservoir. Over time salts get used up, water evaporates, and residue is left on surfaces it shouldn't be. All of this affects pH. Just like aquariums. The bigger the tank, the less tinkering you have to do.

that's true, also the natural buffers in water will eventually raise the ph until they are used up. So if your water has a high GH then if you ph down to 5.5 it will rise. when I was using just tap water the ph would rise from 5.5 to almost 8!!

BakkaLakka SMASH said:

are you using ph down or upper? and soil or hydroponics? details would help

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I left a link with a plethora of details.

It is a DWC. I used PH down to lower the PH but it rises again.

The water isn't that old either. like 2 days i think...

So does this mean I should just keep balancing the PH? or should I get some new water in there?

there was this great thread...I think it was by Uncle Ben (not 100% sure)..and I may be messing up a few things, but essentially what was said was to ph your water and nutes (mixed together) then check the ph daily or 2x a day at first even...keep phing down and each time it will bounce up more slowly / to a lower ph. Eventually it will become stable and perhaps even start to drop.

Remember PH != ppm so if your ppm is still good, and ph is off, it is an issue with the buffering capacity of the water, and you probably just need to add ph down.

Honestly this is my first grow and I am not really sure where exactly my PPM should be at any given point. I do have a digital ppm test meter though. Just haven't found much info on the subject. I will test the water constantly then and keep readjusting it then.

it depends on your water...bad thing about ppm is it's not super accurate imo...ppm of WHAT lol... You could have high ppm and no NPK...but if you know the ppm of the input water, and then the ppm after you add nutes, you know how much ppm your nutes add...
Now it is possible that the plant is taking up 100% of N but only 80% of P and K in your nutes...this is why it's important to change your water out completely fairly often (I do weekly, but some do every 2 weeks). But over the course of a week, if you keep the ppm and ph stable I think you'll be in good shape.

When I use input water ppm of about 100, after adding 75% of recommended nutes I am around 700-800 ppm (this is wk 3 of flower). Generally you will want to increase your ppm through your grow until about 2 weeks before you plan on harvesting. Fox Farm recommends 700ppm for seedlings, going up to 1100-1200 throughout most of veg and flower, and then up to 1500ppm (!!!) towards the end of flowering. I think this is WAY to much. I would say 300-400 for seedlings, 650-850 for veg and early flower, and then 800-1100 for mid to late flower.

Best thing is for you to figure it out for yourself. I would add about 65-75% of recommended nutes (whatever you are using) and then check the ppm. If the plants are good with that much nutes, then that is a good level (ppm) for you to be at. As your plant grows you can slowly increase the ppm (by adding more nutes when you change water), but you want to be real careful. Measure carefully and keep notes of how much you added and any signs of stress to the plant (spots and burning).

Thank you!

The best way I can word it for a new grower is:

pH: Raised or lowered by pH up or pH down liquid. Apply a few drops at a time, stir, wait 10 minutes. Keep it between 5.6 --> 6.4. Dont adjust it like a madman, only when it's outside these parameters.

ppM: It's a reading of how much nutrients are in your water. Think of it as adding sugar to water. The more sugar you add, the higher the ppm of sugar goes up. Your nutrient feeding chart should tell you how many mL per gallon of water to add of the nutrients, and at what times. Generally you change the water every week. To raise your ppM, add nutrients. To lower your ppM, add more water.

Keep reading, watch a few grow DVD's, they are confusing at first but generally things start to sink in bit by bit and suddenly harvest #1 is done and harvest #2 is looking sweet and your super stoked for #3 to be starting soon. GL.

What nutrients are you using? Silica? I had the same problems and changed my silica blast to protekt silica and now Ph has stabilized for me.

PPM is a good tool to watch.

Yes you should take a base PPM reading of your water with nothing in it. I use RO water so I start at about 20 PPM, almost nothing.
If I set mix my nutes at 1200 PPM and 3 days later it is up to1600 PPM with a bunch of water used up I am probably too high in my mix, the plant is using more of the water than chemicals in the solution, this making a lot of assumptions that other aspects of your setup are OK. But you don't want to just waste money on nutes your plant is not using and could harm the plant if left unchecked.

Also pay attention to what order you may be adding chemicals in. I am using Canna and it works great if you go in a certain order, adding the enzyme first. If I add it at the end the PH jumps real bad. I also always add Cal Mag first thing to the water as I heard it will help buffer huge swings from the chemicals, I don't know if that is true but it has worked for my PH problems

PPM for Hanna Chart PPM


Seedlings, Early Sprouts 100 to 250 First set of true leaves

Early Vegging 300 to 400

Full Vegetation 450 to 700

Early Blooming 750 to 950

Full Mature Blooms 1000 to 1600

Nitrogen uptake by the plant is the sole culprit of hard PH upticks, the more nitro is consumed the more it goes up, this is all. during flowering when there is less N in the solution and the plant is taking up less N you will see more of a stable PH, now if at this point you see hard PH swings of over 1.0points then you want to flush your system for salt residue. the nitrogen that i just mentioned is stone cold fact, everyone else here is just guessing. i got this info from a forum member here and one more member from another site for confirmation, PH changes do to the minerals being used and dissipated, its all water chemistry, once the N is used it becomes another type of molecule, but the N is responsible for those larger 24hour hard PH spikes

morrisgreenberg said:

Nitrogen uptake by the plant is the sole culprit of hard PH upticks, the more nitro is consumed the more it goes up, this is all. during flowering when there is less N in the solution and the plant is taking up less N you will see more of a stable PH, now if at this point you see hard PH swings of over 1.0points then you want to flush your system for salt residue. the nitrogen that i just mentioned is stone cold fact, everyone else here is just guessing. i got this info from a forum member here and one more member from another site for confirmation, PH changes do to the minerals being used and dissipated, its all water chemistry, once the N is used it becomes another type of molecule, but the N is responsible for those larger 24hour hard PH spikes

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This does not coincide with my observations. Nitrogen is used and needed the most in veg where you see less of a pH swing than in flower. It doesn't matter what stage of flower, the first few days of a res change have the largest swings in pH.

huh? mr this does not coincide with my observations?

morrisgreenberg said:

huh? mr this does not coincide with my observations?

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Read post #15 followed by post #16. That should clear up your confusion.

the use of nitrogen during different stages of a plants life is one thing, the point i am making is the composition of the nutrient solution changes daily due to the fact that nitrogen once used becomes a different mineral, after the N in the solution is spent your PH will Rise, since during flower we artificially deprive the plant of N is when we will see the PH become more stable. the uptake of nitrogen is based on the plants size and overal ability to take up water, therefore you will see small PH movement during the plants early life, more plant mass means more N, more N being used equals more PH movement. so i ask again, Homebrewer what about post #15 does not coincide with your observations? did you notice i am the author of post #15?

Reminds me Three Amigos. "Heffe, what is a plethora?"