Water Chemistry and PH raise.

By the way, dont worry about using sulfuric acid (battery acid) in your grows. If you eat store bought food, there is an almost 100% chance you are eating vegies grown using sulfuric acid. I forget the exact stat, but something like 95% of commercial growers use it as a PH down. The main reason is cost. Its far less $$ than anything else and works really well.
 
Larry3215 said:
Wow. You on a water softener system? Thats twice as much salt as in the ocean!

Your plants are not going to like that much salt.

Wait - I thought you started with RO water? RO should take all that salt out if its working properly.

Sodium Chloride wont effect PH, so I dont see why that would be an issue - other than killing the plant :)

EDIT: Potassium Hydroxide is fine. Its a LOT cheaper than commercial PH down. Thats what I have used for years.
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This sodium is in salts that i use to re-mineralize my RO water.
 
someone probably said it already
but dont use these aquarium supplement to buffer your ro
dont bother with calmag things etc .. i advise you to find a good formula for RO
if you're like me and dont like gh you can use IONIC, very good brand
 
Hey gang

Just looking for some thoughts...

I'm making a compost tea for my plants in a 50 gal plastic drum and wanted to raise ph of the mixture from 6.1 to 6.5...

I started adding hydrated lime and the pH is actually dropping 5.5...WTF?

Any thoughts? It suppose to make soil more alkaline isnt it?

Ph of our city water is normally around 7.2..seem to be closer to 6.5 this time of year..

Cheers
 
MrToad69 said:
Hey gang

Just looking for some thoughts...

I'm making a compost tea for my plants in a 50 gal plastic drum and wanted to raise ph of the mixture from 6.1 to 6.5...

I started adding hydrated lime and the pH is actually dropping 5.5...WTF?

Any thoughts? It suppose to make soil more alkaline isnt it?

Ph of our city water is normally around 7.2..seem to be closer to 6.5 this time of year..

Cheers
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just a guess (can't stand chemistry) but how about potassium silicate?
 
Im doing 50'gal and have the hydrated lime already...so I prefer not to look at other options..just kinda shocked as I like to think I know my chemistry, and other than buffering..the pH is totally going in the wrong direction.. :(
 
MrToad69 said:
Im doing 50'gal and have the hydrated lime already...so I prefer not to look at other options..just kinda shocked as I like to think I know my chemistry, and other than buffering..the pH is totally going in the wrong direction.. :(
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is it precipitating and falling out of solution?
 
kingromano said:
ionic soft water
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i tried Ionic Bloom this past run and had my first Ca deficiencies with it in a long time. normally i just need to bump up my Mg on other nutes that I've used. wasn't sure if it was a strain issue or nute issue? have you had that happen to you?
 
rkymtnman said:
i tried Ionic Bloom this past run and had my first Ca deficiencies with it in a long time. normally i just need to bump up my Mg on other nutes that I've used. wasn't sure if it was a strain issue or nute issue? have you had that happen to you?
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i never used any cal mag supplement with tap water
for RO or AC condensate water ionic 1 part works great
 
rkymtnman said:
i use well and this was the first Ca issue since i switched from RO.
thanks!
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usually calcium magnesium deficiencies appear after week 3/4 but using ionic bloom soft + hy-pro epic boost ( which contains cal/mag) i never had problem
never used IONIC boost, not sure it contains calcium magnesium thats why i avoided it
 
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