Hey, i'm running ebb flow flood trays, and the pH in my res keeps dropping. I'm feeding with lucas gh , with floranectar and dynogro protek silica to keep my pH up. I checked my root zone and nothing is rotting but for some reason my pH drops a good .8 or so and was wondering what is causing this. the res was recently filled with clean RO so I don't understand how it could be contaminated so soon. anyone know anything about this problem?
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pH dropping in my res everday
- Thread starter smokefx
- Start date
memphis man
Member
nutes are being ate up causing your ph to drop
S
SCROG McDuck
smoke..... what are your readings? PPM/EC & Ph...
How big is the rez? How far along is your grow?? veg? bloom?
What is it dropping to/from.. how much? .2 or 1.5?< oops, sorry, just saw .8..
Some details would be good..
S
SCROG McDuck
I use ph up by GH.. I do use silica (Barricade) but only to set up the rez in the beginning... then Phup... My thinking is that
sooner or later the silica wil contrubute to some kinda lockout..
If you're running a 'hot' mix (1200>1400ppms) the extra nutage
will cause the ph to drop. I do not get swings of .8/day and
run about 950ppms (1.9 ec)..
Another thing that will help is to bubble your water before use (12-24 hours)..
do not know what it does but since I've started it, ph has been very stable..
sooner or later the silica wil contrubute to some kinda lockout..
If you're running a 'hot' mix (1200>1400ppms) the extra nutage
will cause the ph to drop. I do not get swings of .8/day and
run about 950ppms (1.9 ec)..
Another thing that will help is to bubble your water before use (12-24 hours)..
do not know what it does but since I've started it, ph has been very stable..
ph dropping does not mean the plant is taking on food
it might help if the guy gave exact description as in his ph reading and his ec readings
his ph might be dropping but his ec maybe increasing, if his ec is dropping i would expect to see an increase in ph,
if his ec is rising and his ph is dropping this is a sign the plants are taking on water and not nutes in other words your over feeding
rapid drops in ph is also a sign of root rot, not syaing this is the problem but how you guys can diagnose just off 1 senetence is beyond me
also adding ph up and ph down into the same res is not advisable , if the ph is dropping i use tap water to increase it but only after checking my ec is stable 1st.
more info is needed fo a proper diagnosis in my opinion
ph dropping but what is your ec doing???
EC Up, pH Down = reduce nutes
EC Down, pH Up = increase nutes
EC same, pH Up = Good
it might help if the guy gave exact description as in his ph reading and his ec readings
his ph might be dropping but his ec maybe increasing, if his ec is dropping i would expect to see an increase in ph,
if his ec is rising and his ph is dropping this is a sign the plants are taking on water and not nutes in other words your over feeding
rapid drops in ph is also a sign of root rot, not syaing this is the problem but how you guys can diagnose just off 1 senetence is beyond me
also adding ph up and ph down into the same res is not advisable , if the ph is dropping i use tap water to increase it but only after checking my ec is stable 1st.
more info is needed fo a proper diagnosis in my opinion
ph dropping but what is your ec doing???
EC Up, pH Down = reduce nutes
EC Down, pH Up = increase nutes
EC same, pH Up = Good
thanks for the replies, i checked and i'm thinking it was the plants taking up water instead of nutes, because the ph stablized and actually shot up. when i checked the ph when it was really low i had topped the res off with ro water and the ppm read about the same as it was from when i first filled the res.
if the plants were taking up more water then nutrients you would of seen an increase in the ppm however you said that the ppm stayed the same, im inclined to think that you didnt pre mix your fresh res and stabalize it for 24 hours, my guess is you mixed up a res and put your plant straight into the fresh mix within hours of making it up 
this is why you seen the ph swing because the new res wasnt stablelized
just my opinion on the information you have given
if this is the case then i would pre mix a fresh res and make sure its ph balanced and let it stand with an airstone in for 24 hours before adding your plant in future,
also if the plant was taking on water instead of nutes this is a sign that your feed is to strong but without pictures i cant really say, trust me mate ive got dwc on fuking lockdown
peace
this is why you seen the ph swing because the new res wasnt stablelized
just my opinion on the information you have given
if this is the case then i would pre mix a fresh res and make sure its ph balanced and let it stand with an airstone in for 24 hours before adding your plant in future,
also if the plant was taking on water instead of nutes this is a sign that your feed is to strong but without pictures i cant really say, trust me mate ive got dwc on fuking lockdown
peace
R/O water and rain water need buffering
R/O water and rain water need buffering
Ive used pure R/O and i found i had to buffer it .
For example without the buffers it would swing up or down depending on many factors ,An give odd readings
So to buffer 100% R/O
In 100 uk gallons R/O i put 25 ml 50% potasium hydroxide ph up and left pump to mix for 30 mins using a ph meter i brought it back down to PH 5.0 with 62% nitric acid .
The ph 5.0 target was because i was using hydroton in ebb/flow my feed was formulated for R/O water so neutral ph i set 1st tank at ec 1.0 for new cuttings in pots of hydroton .
Pot run off imediatley after ebb was 5.5 and at 1 hr after ebb ph 6.0 measuring last few drips from pot tilted at 45 deg.
This worked fine for 7 yrs without any probs
R/O water and rain water need buffering
Ive used pure R/O and i found i had to buffer it .
For example without the buffers it would swing up or down depending on many factors ,An give odd readings
So to buffer 100% R/O
In 100 uk gallons R/O i put 25 ml 50% potasium hydroxide ph up and left pump to mix for 30 mins using a ph meter i brought it back down to PH 5.0 with 62% nitric acid .
The ph 5.0 target was because i was using hydroton in ebb/flow my feed was formulated for R/O water so neutral ph i set 1st tank at ec 1.0 for new cuttings in pots of hydroton .
Pot run off imediatley after ebb was 5.5 and at 1 hr after ebb ph 6.0 measuring last few drips from pot tilted at 45 deg.
This worked fine for 7 yrs without any probs
if your using r/o water your nutes wanna be for soft water and not hard water because the buffers in your nutes should keep your ph stable,
if your using nutrients that are designed for hard water then your gonna have to use stupid amounts of ph up to get your nutes to the correct ph, i know this sounds really stupid but sometimes its overlooked and my local ponics shop only stocks hardwater nutes cause the area i live in is hardwater
also ive never really understood why people use r/o water cause after you have taken all the chemicals out you have to add them back includng extra cal/mag, the only time i can see tap water being a problem is if it has some crazy starting ppm and if its that bad i wouldnt advise drinking it or giving it to your plants
hope this helps
peace
if your using nutrients that are designed for hard water then your gonna have to use stupid amounts of ph up to get your nutes to the correct ph, i know this sounds really stupid but sometimes its overlooked and my local ponics shop only stocks hardwater nutes cause the area i live in is hardwater
also ive never really understood why people use r/o water cause after you have taken all the chemicals out you have to add them back includng extra cal/mag, the only time i can see tap water being a problem is if it has some crazy starting ppm and if its that bad i wouldnt advise drinking it or giving it to your plants
hope this helps
peace
Plants eating also cause pH to rise or stay flat depending on variables. pH movement alone says nothing.
D
DHF
Thanks FreezerBoy....the voice of reason........As plants eat/use their nutes PH rises......gradually.......
If your ppm`s are too high , your plants won`t eat and PH will drop while ppm`s concentrate and rise , causing all kinds of potential lockouts and fuckups.........
Less is more with a happy medium as Skotty posted .......Glad ta hear things are stabilizing for yas and yeah......R/O will swing easily cuz it`s null and void of ppm`s and easily influenced.........
Rule # 1......With happy plants , EC/PPM`s drop and PH rises till add backs or flush and swapouts......Then the cycle begins all over again........
Good luck....DHF........
..........
If your ppm`s are too high , your plants won`t eat and PH will drop while ppm`s concentrate and rise , causing all kinds of potential lockouts and fuckups.........
Less is more with a happy medium as Skotty posted .......Glad ta hear things are stabilizing for yas and yeah......R/O will swing easily cuz it`s null and void of ppm`s and easily influenced.........
Rule # 1......With happy plants , EC/PPM`s drop and PH rises till add backs or flush and swapouts......Then the cycle begins all over again........
Good luck....DHF........
..........
yeah sorry for the lack of info i'd post pics but my hps are on 24/7 right now and i can't get a good picture with all the lighting, all the plants look super healthy only sign i saw was a little bit of the edges curling up due to the light being too close. the pH came back up after the last feed so i'm thinking nothing was wrong and i was just panicing from the 2 days the pH swinging so low
id be worried of high jumps in ph after 3 days after rez change. for my buckets and nft big jumps are a good indicator of rot comin subject to many variables.
i notice ph going down is the bom. top off with water as they may be eating to much and ppm jumpnig relative to the oh drop, peace, d
i notice ph going down is the bom. top off with water as they may be eating to much and ppm jumpnig relative to the oh drop, peace, d
Umm... yes. R/O takes all the chemicals out and then you get to add... just what you want for your plants into it. Really neat concept.
Cal/Mag? Been using R/O for drinking, cooking, watering pets and growing hydro... for 10 years. Never used Cal/Mag for any of it. ROTFL! Sorry, but the whole "add Cal/Mag so you can take a pH reading" is bunk trafficked by the Cal/Mag companies... cannabis only needs a pinch of epsom if you have a mag hungry strain. Your NUTES should already have buffers in it and if it doesn't you should probably think about changing them.
I've lived in quite a few places... NONE of them have had water that was good for drinking or growing and some of them had hydro herpes like crazy. Lots of places have bacterial and fungal/algae issues with their water... R/O removes it.
Remember... if your tapwater is 150ppm... that's 150ppm of food you can't give to your plants. That's a LOT of food folks...
I'll stay a fan of R/O until something better comes along that gives me almost 0ppm like R/O.
You're going to love this feature about hydro in the future... Dunno about you but I'm high functioning autistic... working with soil is a nightmare for me because I never remember to write things down... and by the time the plant reacts to what I did days earlier... I've usually forgotten part of what I did back then. LOLSmokefx said:
Hydro is Awesome!
Stay Safe!
