DWC PH rising too fast. Canna line nutrients

[Crush]

To the OP.

Are you using tap or RO/distilled?

Like Freezer Boy said, aeration will raise the pH by removing dissolved CO2 (carbonic acid) in the water.

Here's a hypotherical scenario:
Your tap water has a pH of 7.2. You add nutes and your pH drops to 6.2 (chem nutes will lower pH). Bubbling the water may cause your pH to rise, depending on your TA.

And you grow in dirt using CFL's as seen here:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/album.php?albumid=31935&pictureid=735763

I on the other hand, am an ex-hydroponic grower who left hydro because of the ridiculous amount of maintenance. Most of my issues coming from PH. When the plants have issues, they grow way slower. It's also very expensive considering all the reservoir changes.

Go bring your hydro PH setup to 6.2 and see what happens to the plants.

I did best in the LOW 5's for PH. I know this, the guy at my the hydroponic store knows this (as well as warning me not to listen to people on the internet.. you know.. the type the grow in dirt with CFL's). And then other sources also know this.

But people instead are denying that PH Drift exists and claim that it's not a problem with hydro and that I'm giving bad advice.

Fine. Don't use PH down every day or second day and see what happens. Add 40 tsp of Maxi Bloom and see what happens. Go ahead. Maybe you have RO or well water or who knows what. I'm on typical city water at a PH of around 7 and can say that using PH down is the norm. It's required. Almost daily. You'll memorise the drips.

My advice is to go the drug store, look in the eye section for a glass dripper and get used to using it with PH down until you hit 5.3 and let it drift up to 5.5 before you bring it down again. Memorize the drips you need and keep the PH there.

For best results, change the reservoir weekly.

But then again, I'm on city tap water that is neutral PH and 180ppm of medium hardness (like *MANY* city tap water.. i'd wager most) so I can't speak for everyone's situation. All I can speak for is mine.

If you get sick of hydro and want something easier to the point you are watering once a week, then get 3 gallon containers and grow your plants in dirt. You can use organic too, but I've never had good results with that and it's expensive.

Maybe it's because of the false water 'de-chloination' grow lore around the net so now I'm willing to try again this grow as I now understand how to properly dechlorinate city tap water.

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

You're on a roll.

I guess you missed one this harvested on 7/8/11.

pH drifted between 5.4 and 6.2, but I was just following grow lore, so maybe I got lucky. pH drift is not a bad thing, as long as you use it to your advantage. There's no set pH where uptake of nutes is guaranteed. Drift is OK. Your advice. Not so much

Should I link people to your awesome "all bud" or "hard mode" grows? What did you get off those? 5-7 grams a plant under a 600.
My hero.

Did you even read the link you posted. The OP was tore apart in the first 4 responses about his recommended pH and temp range.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Don't use PH down every day or second day and see what happens....

pH rises from 5.5 to 6.0 over the course of 2 weeks.

For best results, change the reservoir weekly.

Or once or twice per 20 week grow



Hydro is as simple or complicated as you care to make it.

 

[Mr Eckted]

No.

Hydro PH just raises unless you have access to other water sources..

It's called 'PH Drift' and it's the 'big cover up' that everyone likes to hide about hydro. The only way to fix it is to use PH down every day or two in your reservoir. For my reservoir I needed exactly 8 drips every 48 hours or plants would be in trouble.

When someone comes along as says that they don't know what you're talking about and they don't have problems, just ignore them. If you are using city tap water and run hydro, you will need to PH down your water once every 24 hours or at MOST 48 hours. Once a day is preferred.

Also the plants will use up one nute like N more than the rest eventually leaving the reservoir with off nute ratios. Combine this with toxic salts and you got a bad reservoir. The only way to fix this is to change the reservoir completely. How often do people recommend this? Once a week! That makes this the most expensive way to grow and most maintenance for me which is why I stopped using hydro.

Again I got lead down the wrong path via grow lore. I wish people were more honest about the drawbacks of hydro. If you have well water with an RO system, then don't go running around telling everyone how great hydro is and doesn't require maintainance. Most people can't use rain water, ro water, etc.

Fine. Don't use PH down every day or second day and see what happens. Add 40 tsp of Maxi Bloom and see what happens. Go ahead. Maybe you have RO or well water or who knows what. I'm on typical city water at a PH of around 7 and can say that using PH down is the norm. It's required. Almost daily. You'll memorise the drips.

Mine are doing great and I haven't used PH down ONCE.
Plants can tolerate a very wide range in PH, they just can't tolerate a drastic change all of a sudden. So long as the shift is slow, they will be happy.

Don't let this guy mislead you. do a search for his threads if you want, he just spreads misinformation. I'm starting to think that he is actually out to troll, and not just stubborn.

It does sound like something funky is going on to me. The tap water here can vary pretty significantly in PH, but what seems to work for us is this:

PH adjust the water to around 5.5 to 6 before adding nutrients. The water here is low PPM out of the tap though. From there, any water we add to the system is PH adjusted and has nutes added before going in.

We're using AN Sensi line, A/B for veg and A/B for bloom, along with Bud Blood, Big Bud and Bud Candy. We start at half strength and work up to full over a week or so.

Using this method I haven't even had to check PH, and the girls are loving it.

I'm thinking that maybe there's some part or something somewhere in your system in contact with the water that is causing the PH swing by leeching into the water?

Or maybe it's the oxidization of the water liberating acid as someone previously suggested.

 

[Mr Eckted]

I'll add that I live in a city of more than One Million, so i'm not using rural or "small town water"

 

[Crush]

I'll add that I live in a city of more than One Million, so i'm not using rural or "small town water"

Same here.

The thing is they put chloramine in the water, not chlorine. Chloramine cannot be evaporated or boiled, or distilled out of the water. It can't even be filtered out unless you use a very good filter. Even RO cannot get Chloramine out.

What chloramine does is kill micro organisms in water. The water we drink is completely sterile and there is nothing living in it.

The question is, what happens when you put chloramine in an organic soil mix? Well, it kills the microbes right away. Letting the water sit out for 24 hours is modern grow lore pretty much.

Anyhow that's neither here nor there. My tap water tested last night at 180ppm. I have a lot in it. Maybe it's a cal mag issue? Who knows.

People here are so sure that PH down is not required for hydroponics that I feel like taking them up on it. Maybe it's something that I was doing wrong. I have all my flood drain hydro stuff here. Timers.. everything. It's collecting dust in the basement.

Maybe I should let people help me, follow what they say exactly, and see if I get any issues.

But I'll make it interesting. I'll wager and bet that there will be problems. If I lose, then I owe someone some seeds or something. If I win, then just saying 'i told you so' will be good enough

 

[homebrew420]

Believe it or not, this could be illegal. There was a gal in CO that got in trouble for this as those with 'water rights" had a reasonable expectation that that rain would eventually reach them. Makes little sense to the human mind but, apparently makes sense to the law.

this law is no longer in effect. It was change late in 2010 I believe. No trouble for usin rain water anymore.

 

[homebrew420]

carbon filtration pulls chloramine out of the water. And it can definitely be distilled out. RO also removes close to 100% of everything.

we are having some issues with this as well.
Prureblend pro
Sweet
hygrozyme
and in some we are getting a rise while others we get a fall. Hoping that after the other issues are laken care of things will correct themselves.

I am paying close attention to any suggestions though

Thanks
peace

 

[Crush]

carbon filtration pulls chloramine out of the water. And it can definitely be distilled out. RO also removes close to 100% of everything.

debatable.

 

[benjuanman]

Go bring your hydro PH setup to 6.2 and see what happens to the plants.

I did best in the LOW 5's for PH. I know this, the guy at my the hydroponic store knows this (as well as warning me not to listen to people on the internet.. you know.. the type the grow in dirt with CFL's). And then other sources also know this.

Sorry Crush but i'd rather take my chances with my fellow ICmaggers then the local Hydro store guy. Alot of these ppl r business men (obviously) n will tell u anything to sell u anything.... I also clicked ur link for ur "other sources" n the poster "OLD GRower says to run hydroton from 5.8-6.2. Therefore contradicting wat u said to Sgt.Stedenko. U need to stop worrying about everyone else n focus on ur own grow op. They need to make a sticky of u warning neebs about ur spreading of misinformation as u continually do it.

 

[Crush]

Sorry Crush but i'd rather take my chances with my fellow ICmaggers then the local Hydro store guy. Alot of these ppl r business men (obviously) n will tell u anything to sell u anything.... I also clicked ur link for ur "other sources" n the poster "OLD GRower says to run hydroton from 5.8-6.2. Therefore contradicting wat u said to Sgt.Stedenko. U need to stop worrying about everyone else n focus on ur own grow op. They need to make a sticky of u warning neebs about ur spreading of misinformation as u continually do it.

Yes this is the problem with the weed growing community.

So my answer, don't get PH Down. Don't do PH in the low 5's, and run it like all the books say in at around 6 and see what happens.

I'm no longer listening to advice anymore from weed growers for most things. I'm paying attention to vegetable growers now. Weed growers grow too much according to grow lore..

Grow lore like 'leave the water out for 24 hours' which is total, outdated, nonsense.

Grow lore like 'hang the plants upside down and then manacure dry' which does nothing but ensure that the resin heads are knocked off your bud like in this picture:

Grow lore like 'any plant can yield a lot if the grower is good!'

Grow lore like 'genetics play a small part in things'

Grow lore like 'seeds are just as good as clones'

And if you wanna go run your hydro at 6.2, then sure go ahead. Maybe over here we have a tap water issue that effects this PH who knows.

Try it and see what happens. Add 40tsp of Kool Bloom like the other guy. Follow the advice and do exactly as what works for them.

 

[rambo6372]

This may be true for you but, it's not true in general. pH moves up or down or remains flat in hydro depending on what the grower makes it do.

In my case EC climbs and pH drops, never climbs, because that's what I make it do. Both are adjusted once every two weeks because that's the schedule I chose, the plants and res don't get to vote. Because EC and pH move in opposite directions, I adjust both with water, not pH down. Rather than add pH down 3-4 times a week, I use it 3-4 times per grow.

Yes my ph is flat in flower and drifts up in veg. I just wanted to post an update as I got huge ph drift problem squared away. I was adding boost in flower and the plants coming over from veg were getting nutrients with rhizotonic added to the res. It was one of those additives (most likely rhizotonic) that was shooting my ph up way beyong the point of drifing but for some reason didnt do much in the veg state. I added copious amounts of h2o2 to kill of the rhizo and that stopped my ph drift.

 

[zone 8]

Wow, this post must have picked up some views a week or two after i stopped checking it!

I appreciate all the input!!

Back to "my" PH drift.... I started using RO water (Not true ro, just some system I got offline that gives me 8-15ppm, down from 300ish) and WOW! my PH shifts at a much slower rate!

I just add in some calmag first, then the Aqua Vega A+B, a dash of great white and presto!

I do add PH down to my DWC buckets though, but I only do it one time before I change my nutes. (I may have been using coco before, but wanted to try something new).

IMHO if your going to use ANY hydro set up, and you do not have a DETAILED analysis that you can UNDERSTAND.... Save yourself the work later by using some good clean PURE water! (Dont forget the calmag!)

Thanks for all the input, yet again... Even if some of it was misleading

 

[FreezerBoy]

Save yourself the work later by using some good clean PURE water!

Hydro is hundreds of years old and one of the very first lessons they learned was that purified water gave the worst results. It's not poison but, other than providing moisture, it's rather useless.

If you have sulfurous well water, RO makes sense. If your water supply EC is at 0.6 or below, I'd stick with that and, if needed, switch to a hardwater formula nute line.

 

[GFORCE]

i have read this thread from start to finish and every single person has overlooked what could really be the problem! he does not say what medium the plants are in? the most common reason for wild ph drifts in newly setup DWC's is the use of hydroton pebbles which may have been rinsed but have not been soaked in ph'd water until they are stable .