ph of my distilled water isn't 7? what's the deal?

[jonezin]

Is all distilled water supposed to be right at 7.0? Because I've noticed a difference between the three different brands that I buy. Wal Mart always reads 7.7. Another store brand is mid 7 and the brand tested for the first time yesterday was right at 7. I am using a brand new Hanna Champ meter (that I've read since I bought it is junk). I calibrate it every time I use it with 7.0 calibration solution then test the distilled water Then I adjust it if I need to before dumping it into my pots. Either something is screwy with this meter (it always reads 7.0 when I put it back in the calibration solution though between tests/adjustments) or the temperatures of the water are throwing it off or something.

 

[lepstadder]

Nope distilled water is lower than 7.

http://www.kangenwaterreport.com/ph-of-distilled-water/

distilled water will test out in a range of pH 5.5-5.8. The reason is that distilled water dissolves carbon dioxide from the air. It dissolves carbon dioxide until it is in dynamic equilibrium with the atmosphere. That means that the amount being dissolved balances the amount coming out of solution. The total amount in the water is determined by the concentration in the atmosphere. The dissolved carbon dioxide reacts with the water and finally forms carbonic acid.

 

[jonezin]

Mine doesn't test lower. But I'm testing it when it's freshly opened. It hasn't been able to absorb anything from the atmosphere unless it does it through the gallon jug.

 

[jonezin]

Does anyone know what's going on here? Do you think my meter is screwy? Is ph testing super temp sensitive?

 

[habeeb]

could be your meter. my blue lab measures with 7 and 4. are you cleaning the probe head when calibrating?

switch to organics and the PH problems will be over..

 

[Bulldog11]

You could always go to a fish store, home depot, hydroshop or many other places and buy the ph strips that you match up by color. They are a pain in the ass to use on a daily, but to check if your meter is correct, it is a cheap easy and accurate way of doing so.

The strips I am talking about are the paper strips that you dip into your water and wait for the color to change. Then you match the strip that has changed colors up to a color chart which tells you what your PH is.

Or, I have two ph pens because one broke and I bought a new one then repaired the old one. They always read exactly the same.

BTW - I only calibrate my pens once a week or as little as once a month. They always are close and don't really need the calibration that often. You can never be too careful however. Hope this helps.

 

[Weezard]

What is going on here.

What is going on here.

Does anyone know what's going on here? Do you think my meter is screwy? Is ph testing super temp sensitive?

Relax my friend.
Technically, distilled water has no PH.
Any thing your meter says about it is meaningless.
Your meter needs "dirtier" water to function properly.
Always add CalMag, or nutes before you attempt to measure PH.
Any reading you get from water with less than 250 ppm will be un-reliable.

Aloha
Weezard

 

[lysol]

what he said ^

distilled water is 0 ec, meaning it does not conduct any electricity so the probe probably is just not reading the water, same thing as trying to PH your air. My PH meter reads above 7 for distilled / RO water as well. I read in a grow guide somewhere PH of plain water is meaningless to the plant as well. No nutes = nothing to get locked up anyways

 

[Blue Dot]

Distilled water is constantly breaking it's H2O bonds and reforming.

A dynamic equilibrium is at work but the meter has a hell of a time trying to discern this.

Sometimes there are more H+ than OH- and vice versa.

Also distilled h2o has ZERO buffer so what they said about co2 dissolving into carbonic acid and lowering the pH.

That's why you usually never get a pH reading ABOVE 7 with distilled. It's usually always lower.

You need to double check with a TDS meter though to insure you're really measuring 0 ppm water. if it has any ppms then those ppms are gonna influence the pH.

 

[jonezin]

Ok thanks a lot for all of the help. At least now I'm not totally clueless.

After I got a reading of 7.7 I used Earth Juice natural down, I only used about an eighth of a teaspoon (not even) and it made a HUGE jump. I forgot the exact number but I thought to myself that the stuff was extremely potent shit after it did that. Then I had to use the natural up to get it back to 7. Is that why it made such a huge jump when I put that little bit in there? Because it actually had something to read after I added that?

 

[Blue Dot]

No, it made the huge jump because the water had NO buffers to neturalize it.

 

[GorillaGrower]

Here dude read this sticky. it took a few times reading it to "get it" but once i did it will make sense. You'll understand why your ph jumped so much... and it doesn't explain it in the sticky.. but often times you can mix both distilled and ro water with tap water to keep some buffer in the water.. this will help your ph swings.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=23357

 

[jonezin]

Thanks for the link GorillaGrower.

I'm thinking about just starting to use tap water because I am sick of lugging water around from the store. I looked up the water quality report for where I live (I have city water) and I'm gonna post it below. Do you guys see anything in that that would make it a bad idea to use it?

 

[cashmunny]

Thanks for the link GorillaGrower.

I'm thinking about just starting to use tap water because I am sick of lugging water around from the store. I looked up the water quality report for where I live (I have city water) and I'm gonna post it below. Do you guys see anything in that that would make it a bad idea to use it?

You have great tap water. Your Calcium is quite low but not zero. Use it and save some money. For comparison the Calcium in my local water ranges 500-900 ppm.

 

[jonezin]

Is 12 hours long enough for the chlorine to evaporate out of my tap water if it's in a 5 gallon bucket with no lid with 2 air stones pumping air into it? Or should I go longer? I need to water a couple of my plants today and I filled a 5 gallon bucket last night at like 10PM. My lights go out at midnight. Do you think it's safe to use this stuff yet or should I go get a couple more gallons of distilled? I've read 24 hours to a few days to get rid of the chlorine...

 

[Weezard]

How high's dat water, momma? She say it 6' high an' risin'

How high's dat water, momma? She say it 6' high an' risin'

Thanks for the link GorillaGrower.

I'm thinking about just starting to use tap water because I am sick of lugging water around from the store. I looked up the water quality report for where I live (I have city water) and I'm gonna post it below. Do you guys see anything in that that would make it a bad idea to use it?

That's very good tap water!
Looks like Ohio water.
Just about perfect for growing.
Don't need to let it sit.
You won't need the CalMag either.
And I wish ours had that much iron.

No gotta take my word for it.
I did a test a while back that's easy to duplicate.
Take some cuttings.
Put 2 in a glass of tap water and 2 in a glass of distilled or r/o water.
Change, or aerate the water every 12 hours and watch what happens.

Aloha,
Weeze

 

[Weezard]

Let's stomp a chestnut!

Let's stomp a chestnut!

"I've read 24 hours to a few days to get rid of the chlorine..."

Old, outdated information, brah.

I'll repeat this for those of us on meds.

There is NO Chlorine, (a greenish gas), in your water.
Your water company uses Chloramine, ( a compound), instead.

Letting it sit to dissipate is a waste of time and energy.

The Chloramine and it's breakdown products, (halomethanes and haloacetic acid), are more help than harm for plants, (kills plant pathogens),
So, just run your tap through an faucet kine aerater and use it right away.
You'll be happy with the results, and the lack of needless hassle.

Jus' my 2 cents based on fact and experiment.

Aloha,
Weeze

 

[jonezin]

Thank you Weezard That's cool. I was gonna tell you too, I have used this tap water to root tons of tomato plant cuttings and it works perfect every time. I also used it to germinate some seeds recently (Hash Plant and some I made myself) because I was out of distilled water and it worked fine.

Now I'm wondering if me using distilled water all this time is what has my plants kind of screwed up. I have a lot of leaves on several plants that have rust looking shit on them. Just a few days ago I had decided that it was probably a ph problem in my soil so I got a ph pen and checked several of the plants' runoff and all of them that I checked tested at 5.8. I'm using FFOF with 20% added perlite along with plenty of powdered dolomitic lime. Anyway, I'm not going to be watering or adding nutrients without adjusting the ph from now on. So hopefully my problem at least won't get any worse. I semi-flushed a few of the plants with distilled water that I mentioned in the first post where I was trying to check the ph of it and get it right. Hopefully me screwing around with ph up and down (the Earthjuice Natural stuff) didn't make the ph of what I sort of flushed with worse. I only used 2 gallons per 4 gallon pot. So it ended up flushing about 1 gallon of "ph adjusted" distilled water through them. My plants are still doing great, it's just that the older big fan leaves have that rust crap on them. I wish I knew what the hell was causing it because it happened with my last grow too.