WTF PH on the rise

For the life of me I cannot get my PH to stabilize. My RW is PH'd' and I even went as far to PH my clay pellets.

I use DM One with a few additives like Superthrive, enzymes, carbo load, and Cal-Mag. Due=ring flowering I add a PK boosters but really I think that is it. I sometimes flush the salts with Clearex, and I think that might cause this issue.

Anyway I set the PH to 5.6 or so everyday, and the following day it is right back to 6.4 area. This is in a E&F design and I just cannot get it to fix.

Please guys help me out here. If I missed something them ask and I will inform the best I can.

I dunno is that really bad?

I always kind of thought a .8 flux was pretty aight daily for the most part...Make sure your sensor is clean...How do the plants look?

I have the same probs bro.
My water out of the tap is around 7.5 and standing it will climb to 8.
That part troubles me and have found no answer on that.
however, I did a bit of research and found that water will have the tendency to want to balance itself at around 7 depending on any other compounds that are in the water.
I don't think it's necessarily a problem. it's just part of the work that has to be done in tending your crop. Many of the nute formulas have buffers that will help maintain the PH, but I don't think it can totally stop fluxes in the PH. If it did i'm sure it would be advertised and guaranteed as such. It's not a 1 time dosage and you're done. It's daily maintance.

Super Thrive is a mix of a huge number of vitamins and hormones. Most provide no benefit at all. The few that are beneficial are really only beneficial during root development and with organic nutrient formulations and soil grows. Cal-mag is calcium and magnesium and depending on the brand some nitrogen and is a very good way to maintain high pH as it makes a good buffer ie it provides alkalinity. Any cal-mag preparation tha aslos has iron is usually nearly all carbonates so the are buffers to assure the pH does not decline. PK boosters raise the pH If you checked you would find most pH up preparsations are based around pottasium Hydroxide and/or Pottasium Carbonate. Potash is nearly always potassium hydroxide. Hydroxides raise pH. The pottasium hydroxide raises the pH and the potassium carbonate acts as a buffer to take up acid so as to maintain the higher pH creatted by the hydroxides. It sounds like you have a high level of carbonate buffers and are also adding hydroxides. If you did away with the PK and Cal-mag you would likely find your pH problem reversed. If you do mnot want to stop using the supplements then reduce the amount you are using. Are you also using tap water and it is hard water you will not need the cal-mag and the hydroxide effects can be decresed by the acidic pH down solutions as there will not be so many added buffers to neutralize the acidic pH down.?

fatman7574 said:

Super Thrive is a mix of a huge number of vitamins and hormones. Most provide no benefit at all. The few that are beneficial are really only beneficial during root development and with organic nutrient formulations and soil grows. Cal-mag is calcium and magnesium and depending on the brand some nitrogen and is a very good way to maintain high pH as it makes a good buffer ie it provides alkalinity. Any cal-mag preparation tha aslos has iron is usually nearly all carbonates so the are buffers to assure the pH does not decline. PK boosters raise the pH If you checked you would find most pH up preparsations are based around pottasium Hydroxide and/or Pottasium Carbonate. Potash is nearly always potassium hydroxide. Hydroxides raise pH. The pottasium hydroxide raises the pH and the potassium carbonate acts as a buffer to take up acid so as to maintain the higher pH creatted by the hydroxides. It sounds like you have a high level of carbonate buffers and are also adding hydroxides. If you did away with the PK and Cal-mag you would likely find your pH problem reversed. If you do mnot want to stop using the supplements then reduce the amount you are using. Are you also using tap water and it is hard water you will not need the cal-mag and the hydroxide effects can be decresed by the acidic pH down solutions as there will not be so many added buffers to neutralize the acidic pH down.?

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is it possible yoru plants are just drinking so much water forcing the ph down? what % of the res do you lose per day.

Wow, are there really people using reservoirs that small?

I think its just the daily maintain...Not every day is my ph in need of adjustment, infact, it seems to be more stable in flower then veg.But its at least 25 gallons (res) some days I replace any where from 4 gallons, and other days half a gallon..I just chalk it up as life is going on in there (my tote)...

How big is your res?

Also I have used Clearex and dont remember having any ph issues, again, um just say'n....

My reservoirs have auto water top off, pH controllers and conductivity controllers so the conductivity or pH never varies much. The conductivity drop before auto adjust is 20 pm. The pH flucuation before auto adjustment is + or - 0.01 I typically use 30 gallons of reservoir nutrients per each 1000 watts of HID lighting. I change nutrients every 7 days except remote grows. The remote grows have twice the reservoir capacity and are changed every 14 days.

I mix my own nutrients so the RODI water cost is actually higher than the fertilizer costs.

I have very, very bad tap water, even after the water treatment plant treats it. It is lime softened water so it is loaded with soda ash (sodium carbonate), plus they only soften to 250 ppm. It starts out at over 1100 ppm and is also loaded with iron, arsenic and manganese. Even after water treatment plant treatment all toilet bowls in town always have a black ring of scum at the water level in the bowl. Definitely not good for growing plants and if used to water a lawn it leaves all kinds of stuuf coating the grass blades. Lawn sprinklers turn concrete sidwalks the color of rust. Great stuff.

People using well water have a orange/red tint to there hair and finger nails, Blondes here seem to be mainly rasberry blondes. Lots or orange haired blondes. We automatically call blondes who look blonde high maintenance women. There sinks, bath tubs, showers etc are rust colored as tou can't keep up with the stains. They usually do not buy white clothing because it does not stay wl hit but slowly turns rust colored. All grocery stores up haere keep palk lets of salt bags on the florr for water softeners. Yep this is definitely colored under clothes country. Hard to find white under wear for sell up here. Just dark colored ones.

For there to be a difference from one day to the next of 800% percent then it is due to outside factors such as fan or draft caused evaporation, humidity flucuations, temperature flucuations. Other than purposely changing a parameter such as lighting or lighting cycle, humidity, temperature or ventilation etc there is no reason for a 800% diffference in water usage from one day to the next. Your problem is more than a nutrient pH, conductivity or water usage problem There is very likely at least one or more things that are not stable from day to day other than the reservoir problem. It is pretty hard to run a stable sytem without timers and temperature controllers (thermostats). Are you trying to manage ventilation/temperature control and such by manually turning fan(s) off and on or even light(s) without a timer, thermostat etc.