CaptainTrips
Active member
If you have problems sourcing ph down, you might try sulfuric acid from an auto parts store.
best way to lower PH using PHdown??
- Thread starter TicalionStalion
- Start date
H
hulkbogan
Kind of a dumb question, trial and error for sure.
My starting PH is around 8.5-9... in veg I don't have to adjust PH at all, I veg at 600-900ppm and the PH after adding nutes it lowers the PH to between 6.1-6.5 which is pretty nice. I use PH up & down from the hydro store when I need it, my water is different in different locations and times of year so its essential to have.
My starting PH is around 8.5-9... in veg I don't have to adjust PH at all, I veg at 600-900ppm and the PH after adding nutes it lowers the PH to between 6.1-6.5 which is pretty nice. I use PH up & down from the hydro store when I need it, my water is different in different locations and times of year so its essential to have.
Guy's you shouldn't use any other acid than Phosphorus or Nitric, the 2 commonly used for growing, any other acid will not break down into usable elements, goodness knows what Sulphuric or Hydrochloric acid does to your nutrients and in turn, your plants?
S
soapman
I use pipettes (dropper thingys, I guess) after getting fed up with using teaspoon spoons and shit, I broke and bought some pipettes, cheap enough anyway. My Ph down says 1/2 teaspoon for one point per gallon...don't know where they figured that? I just fill the pipette and begin droppin it in a few drops at time. Stirring/mixing, check...repeat till PH is happy. I only do this when I'm correcting water though, My nutes have ph buffers 
terry the trich
Active member
Maybe this is a stupid idea, but how about using diluted coca cola for ph down? Its high in phosphoric acid and has a Ph of 2.5 (regular coke). I dont think theres anything harmfull in it, and maybe the sugar will help growth too.
CaptainTrips
Active member
Maybe the caffeine will speed their growth, lol... dunno might work even though a lot of the low ph is due to the carbonation.
I think if you would be better off using vinegar or lemon juice to bring
the pH down if you don't want to buy a pH down from a grow store. I
think the cola will have too much sugar that may make for problems
later on. Maybe, flies or other bugs will be attracted to the sugar.
pH down is very cheap to buy. A 100 ml bottle cost me about $3 and it will
last me along time. If you spent so much on seeds, clones, lights, nutrients,
etc. why take a chance on saving a few dollars that may cost you your entire
grow. It's your plants and who knows what will happen?
Please try it on only one plant before you mess up your entire crop
with an unknown substance. If it works great. Maybe the cola will make
for bigger colas in your weed. LOL. If it doesn't you only ruined one
plant in your experiment.
I wonder if root beer or cream soda would enhance the
smell and taste.
If only purple koolaid would bring out those purple buds.
Muriatic acid is a hydrochloric acid solution. Pure hydrochloric acid
is a gas and they mix it with water to make it a liquid solution.
Over a certain percentage and it bubbles away. It's composed
of hydrogen and chlorine. I bet the chlorine would be very bad
for your plants in the amount present in the muriatic acid.
I would stay away from it and sulfuric acid as well.
You should buy ph down from your local grow store.
Phosphoric for bloom or nitric for veg
.
Never poor water into acids it sort of explodes,poor acids into water.
I usually put the requiered amount of ph down in a bottle of water and then add it to my ferts.
Always put your ph down last cause ferts will change your original ph,most of them have ph buffers.
PEACE
Phosphoric for bloom or nitric for veg
.
Never poor water into acids it sort of explodes,poor acids into water.
I usually put the requiered amount of ph down in a bottle of water and then add it to my ferts.
Always put your ph down last cause ferts will change your original ph,most of them have ph buffers.
PEACE
chileno1978
Member
I know Muriatic Acid is easy to get and efective (very). If you use it, let the water rest for 24 hours (and the Chlorine will go away) or use ozone in the water for 20 minutes or so (and chlorine will go away also) depending on how many gallons.
I'm going to give some advice that most people will think is nuts because it's not what they are used to hearing. If you don't believe me just do a test for yourself, it holds true for the majority of nutrient lines.
Adjust your water's pH before you add the nutes.
It's not hard, most people can get it spot on within a few tries and after you know how much you need to adjust it once that's it.
The reason for doing this is that it's harder to adjust the pH after you add nutes with buffers. Adding it first uses less pH down.
Also set your pH at the low point and let it rise up, a pH drift is better than pH at one value.
Adjust your water's pH before you add the nutes.
It's not hard, most people can get it spot on within a few tries and after you know how much you need to adjust it once that's it.
The reason for doing this is that it's harder to adjust the pH after you add nutes with buffers. Adding it first uses less pH down.
Also set your pH at the low point and let it rise up, a pH drift is better than pH at one value.
thefalsediviner
Member
Depends on how much you overshoot. Adding base to acid creates salts which fall out of solution.
You should always pH your solution AFTER you add nutes. The amount of pH down or up required to move the pH of your solution will increase as the EC of the solution increases. At ~ 1.4EC ([email protected]) i find that it takes about 1ml per gallon of pH down to move my solution nearly a full point (from 7.0 to 6.0). since pH is exponential, it will take progressive more and more pH up or down to move a full point as you get further away from 7.0.
Once you have your pH set in the appropriate ranges, bringing your res back to target EC will generally return your pH to the initial set point.
Good luck man.
Different minerals are more or less available to the plant at different pH values. If you were to set you pH to say 5.6 and let it rise up to about 6.2 the plants would eat better than if the pH was always at say 5.6
Why?
thefalsediviner
Member
Because nutes are acidic. If you pH the water to 5.8, then add nutes to bring EC to say 1.5, your pH will be closer to 5.2 instead.
As for pH drift....this is a good thing, but it is not magic. To get the pH to rise in your system, you need to feed at a rate slightly lower than the rate of consumption. This is best accomplished with a EC/TDS/PPM meter. I like to move in 100ppm (@.7) increments.
Ex:
Fill bucket with 800ppm solution
come back next day, 1 gal of solution has been drank by plant
check ppm now and it's 500....this means that the initial 800ppm was too low. raise ppm to 900, repeat.
if ppm is higher now like 900, this means that the original value was too strong, lower strength from 800 to 700, repeat.
When solution stays relatively stable, you are pretty close to the plant's actual consumption rate. reduce ppm by 50-100 ppm from that number to induce the proper upward pH swing (some do opposite and raise ppm 50-100 and induce downward swing, same dif)
Right, so you compensate for how much the nutes will lower the pH. So if my target is 5.5 I adjust the water to say 6.2 knowing that the nutes will drop it the rest of the way.
You might not get it the first time but 2 or three times you'll be able to compensate and you'll find that you have to use less pH product in the long run because it's harder to move the pH once buffers are in there.
In my case I used to mix 300 liters every 2 weeks so it ended up being a few less bottles a year, no big deal, but less for me means less trips to buy stuff and more security.
The difference in amount used is nil. If i take 7.0 water and add 1.5EC of nutes to it, the pH will already be 6.0 or 6.1. Then all i need to do is move it from 6.1 to 5.8. The only difference is I don't have to worry about avershooting my pH when i add the nutes.
