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My PH keeps climbing?

boredinmemind

New member
hey there guys, posted before but this is my 1st DWC, and 1st time hydro at all.

im running a 2 gallon bucket.
distilled water.
GH nutes (flora 3 part, also have diamond nector, floralicious + , and koolbloom)
been using GH's feeding schedule for DWC.

last week has been
micro 7.5ml
gro 7.5ml
bloom 7.5ml
diamond nector 5ml
and + was added starting the 26th, at 1ml (after my problems started i tried doing .5ml but no help)

my problem is that my PH keeps climbing.

example: the nute res i have been using is just another 2 gallon bucket and each day ill make up 1 gallon of distilled into my nute water, and i ph it down to 5.8. less then 24 hours later its shot up too 6.3.
like today before i left for work at 730am i ph'd it's bucket down too 5.7, when i came home from work at 530pm ish, it was at 6.3.

heres a clincher, this only seemed to start after i started using floralicious +. i fliped to 12/12 on july 22nd. and 1st watering with + was on the 26th with 1ml/gal. it seemed to start that day, as when i looked in the morning the top most fan leaf was burned to i checked the res to find 6.3, this is when i realized there was a problem.


so i guess here are some questions.

is floralicious + known to make ph climb?
is it ph buffered like the rest of gh line?

if not the floralicious, what might make the ph climb like this given my situation?



what ive done today to try to fix it was take the small eco66 water pump out as roots were growing in it, and i know i ripped some of the rootball getting it out (will that cause any huge issues? i imagine it will stunt it a bit)
i also had my gf hold the plant up while i rinsed the bucket out. lots of salt buildup on the bottom so hopefully this will help a bit.
and since the rootball encompassed my 1 airstone i threw a 2nd in to help airirate better



Update: i forgot to hit post, so this was sitting, but anyways, it's now 8pm and i ph'd a gallon of distilled down to 5.6 and had put it in the res to just rinse some more, within 20 min it was at 6.3 again....

i ph'd down to 5.7 in the bucket, then just coming upstairs (after about 2 hours and checking i see the ph is hovering at 6.3 again.....

now i check the bucket i left the other half of that gallon i made before going down, and just in the bucket it'sself with no nutes, the ph was climbing also?

im out of ideas, my lady needs some help or i fear the worst might happen.

any questions just ask, i know im all over the place, sorry about that.
 

EJCaliReeferz

New member
ive had other growers tell me that if ph is going up I'm feeding them too much and have also read that if ph keeps rising u might have a bacterial infection but I'm also new to this so its just a thought
 

B4O2N0G

Active member
The ph of a solution can be harder to control in a smaller 2 gallon bucket because of less water and the plant leaches salts into the water which can raise or lower the ph and ec/ppm of your solution.You may want to upgrade to a 5 gallon bucket in the future if possible and you may have a more stable ph and ec/ppm.

I personally don't use floralicious plus until 2 weeks of flowering because this is when the buds start to form and I use it as a flower enhancer.However i know you can use it throughout the veg and flower cycle.
 

Nifty_PoT

Active member
yea use as large a res as possible, it will certainly help. check out this link , it explains why your pH is going up.
http://staugorchidsociety.org/PDF/IPAWaterQuality.pdf

When plants uptake nitrate nitrogen they release hydroxide ions (OH-) into your medium , which will make pH higher. You get the same effect from airstones because they release basic hydroxide ions (OH-).
When the plants uptake Ammonium nitrogen they release acidic hydrogen ions (H+) , which wil lower the pH..
 
Last edited:

Dr.Tone

Member
do you have a ppm meter? you should fill your res with brand new nutrients and water and ph and let it sit for 24hrs. ph it the next morning too and mark where your water level is. then write your parameters down.

Example:

PPM: 560
PH: 5.5

ok now come back 2 days later and see how much the water level dropped,
lets say it dropped 2 inches. now dont top off yet just leave it and write down your parameters

PPM: 450
PH: 6.2

notice the PPMs dropped and PH rise. this is a good sign but they are drinking way more nutrients then water because you nutirents are too low. If the ppms drop more then 50ppm a day i increase the original dose until the ppm almost stays constant with a 10 ppm drop a day as the water level drops inside the bucket.

Now say your ppm rises as the water level drops that and your ph is droppign that means there consuming more water then nutrients and there becoming more and more concentrated. and the PPM needs the be lowered.

Make sure you also look for signs of stress when ever increasing dosages. look for burnt tips on lower fan leaves. i little tip burn is perfectly normal but if its slowly working its way up the leafs you might wanna back down 50ppm or so

I hope that helps a little, if ya dont have a meter it pretty much dont mean jack tho haha, good luck
 
Id say your enviorment is way off, if ph rises, its cause theyre drinking more water than eating nutes, which to me means your humidity is off and temps are probably higher than desired

I could be sorta wrong but this is my experience and once I dialed things in, that situation stopped and was easily controlable
 

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