Help with adjusting PH

[Rabbi Reefer]

Having a PH emergency, everything is turning yellow!!!!!!!!

So just how much Baking Soda or Vinegar does it take to adjust the PH by 1 point in 5 gallons of water, or 1 gallon of water?
All I've been able to find is how much to add to giant swimming pools!

 

[Sleepy]

do you have a pH meter?

it is impossible to say which way to adjust without knowing where you are first.

i would suggest a decent pH meter and some pH adjusters from the hydro store.

guessing will only make things worse for you.

 

[ogkushkilla]

May not Be your PH if There Going Yellow. Add more Nutes...

 

[Zen Master]

May not Be your PH if There Going Yellow. Add more Nutes...

sorry but this is NOT the way to be giving advice


we dont know if his pH is 9.0 or 3.5. much less what he's feeding at..


adding more nutes to the problem probably wont fix it.


go on down to a hydro store (or a fish store or a pool store) and get yourself a dropper pH test kit, they are <$10 and accurate enough you can easily run a grow with quality pH levels.


adding pH up or down to an amount of 5 gallons or less means you will probably be using DROPS of adjuster solution, not even mL's (that is if you're using R/O water).


adjusting your pH when you dont know what the pH is to begin with, will just lock out all nutrients most likely and ruin your grow.... take the time to test your solution and you'll be VERY glad you did.

 

[dachieftan]

May not Be your PH if There Going Yellow. Add more Nutes...

I would listen to an Icmag mentor/moderator over someone w/ less than 50 post. A PH pen is one of the best investments u can possibly make for these kind of things. It
could easily be ph related if there going yellow cuz Nitrogen locks out at ph less than 5.5. Depends if u see the brown ph spotting. Otherwise it could possibly be like OGKK said and it wants more nutes. I would def. suggest checking ur PH first and foremost.

 

[Rabbi Reefer]

Maybe I should clarify.
A PH meter is being used, although it's antiquated and needs to be calibrated based on temp (and the damn dial is in Centigrade, not Fahrenheit!)
Using Vinegar to lower PH and Baking Soda to raise PH, but I would like to know if we are talking about using teaspoons or eye droppers to make a simple adjustment.

Let's say I have 1 gallon of water and I want it to be 6.5......and it's currently 7.5.
I don't want to waste my time adding individual drops of this or that if I need more like a teaspoon our an ounce.

 

[portpunk]

I have high PH water so I use 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar per gallon of water every once in a while. Never had to raise PH

 

[DraGonReBorn]

If you want to hear from a lazy noob:

My city water is ~8.3 according to the info from my cities' water dept web site. I use distilled white vinegar. I add my nutes, if desired, to water that has sat for min 24 hours due to clorine. Then test with a dropper test (I bought a Milwaukee PH52, and it would never go to calibration mode, grrrr).

I don't measure, just pour a little vinegar into the cap and dump it in. Test again. Add more if needed. It does not take long to get the hang of "eyeballing it". After about the 4th or 5th time, I no longer need to add anything after the first addition. That is what I think you are asking for.

But as a guess, I use less than a 1/2 t. for a gallon of water. YRMV Why not try using a 1/2 t. measure and poor it half full and test again. You would probably get close to what you need faster than I did.

Would I get better results measuring and having a better system? Of course. But it works well enough for now. When the worst of my problems is dialing in PH, I will have improved my technique vastly!
: \

Peace

 

[Zen Master]

antiquated + pH meter in the same sentence=disaster

calibrate it, get the drops to double check, trust me it SUCKS having a grow turn to shit because your meter SAID it was the proper pH, yet it was .5 off on the calibration and the plant was locked out its whole life



"but but but.... the meter said it was okay...."


ph SHOULD only take a few drops to correct (at least in such small quantities of water to be adjusted)

if you are using an ounce of pH adjuster per gallon, something is massively wrong. (not sayin you are, just all the more reason to double/triple check it)


I dont use electronic pH meters anymore, too much of a risk unless you clean/store it properly EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU USE IT, plus calibrate it every week. Fuck that I'll use drops.

seriously they cost less than a gram.... I bet if you go get em, there will be a discrepancy between your e-meter and the drops. Just sayin' from my own experience.

 

[FourGreenThumbs]

Hey Rabbi Reefer
Man theirs no need to complicate things with expensive digital ph meters, because they are very twitchy by nature. always breaking, always having to recalibrate them. Theirs no need for them unles u are going Hydro with your entire set-up. I recommend the cheapest and simplest method: Ph test stips. they cost 2$ and you can find them in any Pet store in the aquarium sections. Add vinigar like DragonReBorn was saying (good ratio estimate by the way bro, speaks from someone with experince)
Good luck with your garden. My new grow also required some PH adjustment do to shit city water.


OverGrow IS STILL HERE

 

[superpedro]

Maybe I should clarify.
A PH meter is being used, although it's antiquated and needs to be calibrated based on temp (and the damn dial is in Centigrade, not Fahrenheit!)
Using Vinegar to lower PH and Baking Soda to raise PH, but I would like to know if we are talking about using teaspoons or eye droppers to make a simple adjustment.

Let's say I have 1 gallon of water and I want it to be 6.5......and it's currently 7.5.
I don't want to waste my time adding individual drops of this or that if I need more like a teaspoon our an ounce.

1: How much Ph down (or whatever acid) you need to use depends on the Carbonate hardness of your water. The Ph of your tab water tells you nothing about the buffer.

2: The Ph scale isn't linear.

Clean the old probe, condition it with HCl afterward and calibrate.. Or buy a new one if you can afford it. - I would.

 

[AladdinSane]

Ph test stips.

What he said. Or you can get liquid aquarium kits with 200 tests for under $5. They make liquid "pond" kits for the same price, but with a broader pH range too.

In my case, it took exactly 1 tsp of vinegar per gallon of city water, determined by trial-and-error the first couple gallons.

Since then I've given up on city water, due to the fact that in my area it just kills everything but human beings, apparently.

I purchase "purified" water, pH is around 6.0 - 6.5, zero dissolved solids. Aqua pura. Just commercial R/O water, actually. And I don't add anything.

I did some research on purchasing my own RO system, and discovered that they send about 6.5 gallons to waste for every 1.0 gallon of purified water. Annual cartridge replacement another $50. Calculating that with the purchase price and my typical consumption rates and it would never make sense to manufacture my own.

Probably more economical for well users, rather than city users.

 

[Rjstoner]

i suggest getting a ph drop tester kit its like 15 bucks and come with everything u need to get your water into the 5-6 range

 

[mtbazz]

get yourself one of these...

http://www.amazon.com/Oakton-Waterp...KYRY/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1293547345&sr=8-3

its expensive, but I consider it one of the best investments Ive ever made. Since Ive started adjusting the pH of my nute solutions (adust to 6.8-7.2) alot of my problems have gone away. I also pH my cloning solution (adjust to 6.3) and have gone from a 40% success rate to 80%.

I use mad farmer pH up/down.

Also, get your water tested for TDS and calcium, if either is high buy distilled water or use RO water. I use 2 parts distilled to 1 part tap water (i have well water). For TDS mine is 150 ppm, and calcium was 15 grains/gallon. I think TDS was ok, but the calcium was really screwing up alot of my plants until I switched to distilled.