Advanced Nutrients pH perfect

Hi all, I'm just wondering if anyone else is running into the same issue as me with the AN pH perfect line. I'm doing a dry run, testing a new Wilma and basically the pH just is not adjusting to the levels I'd like; from a base of 7.3 (~200ppm) the pH has stayed pretty stable at 6.3. My base water is perfectly acceptable according to AN. I'd be happy running that with soil but not in the Wilma.

I've made two batches, one at 2ml/l(~750 ppm) and another at 4ml/l(~1600 ppm) both stay at 6.3. I'm not one for AN bashing, they've always worked well for me in the past. I've popped an email to their tech support but thought I'd bounce it off RIU.

The only thing I'm thinking now is the water temperature, currently at 16C but I've stuck an aquarium heater under there to see if that makes a difference. Anyone else have similar issues?

On a side note, I spoke to the guy in the hydro shop earlier who told me I would still have to adjust the water to whatever medium I'm using. That isn't my understanding of the pH perfect line but I'd be happy for someone to correct me or him!

Hello,

6.3 is a good number you want to reach for the PH.

Hydro is around 5.8 to 6.0 while soil will be from 6.0 to 6.5.

If your water starts at 200 ppm, you probably have calcium bicarbonate as your major dissolved solid. This acts to raise pH, especially as carbonic acid is liberated and outgassed.
If you used RO water or stabilized your tap water at a suitable pH (this takes some time even with an airstone ... in a 100l res it took mine 36 hours to flatten) you would probably get a pH more to your liking.
Even so, 6.3 ain't bad. cn

Thanks Lady, I am aware of those ranges but I would only be happy with that 6.3 pH in the tank after a week of solid feeding, not from the get go...

Do we still have to order down in the states? Haven't been to the shop for a few months. They didn't carry the perfect line yet, as AN wants retailers to use old stock first. Is it in local shops yet?

I've been thinking along the same lines cannabineer, just spent the last 10 minutes looking at RO pumps. I swore I wouldn't buy any more growing gadgetry but it's gotta be done!

I'm in the UK peyote, my local hydro store really do try and push the old stuff off the shelves but they churn out tonnes of it and are always getting more in. I made sure to go down on delivery day and see the bottles arriving!

Actually your base water is not guaranteed by AN to work. If you're at 200ppm it's not RO and they only guarantee the pH Perfect to work with RO water. They'll tell you that it should work properly with anything under 200ppm but they can't guarantee it since they don't know what is in the water that's pushing the ppm up that much.

So some guys with 300+ppm will have it work perfectly for them. Some with under 200ppm won't. RO water is the only way to be certain it will work for your water without trying it out first.

You shouldn't have to adjust the water based on the medium. Of course some sources of hydroponic mediums are better than others so you may need to treat your medium (rinse it thoroughly to get out the stuff that will play merry havoc with your pH) but once that's done you should be golden.

just a thought dunno if ur using coco or not but if u are it wont work well with pH Perfect nutes

hooked.on.ponics said:

Actually your base water is not guaranteed by AN to work. If you're at 200ppm it's not RO and they only guarantee the pH Perfect to work with RO water. They'll tell you that it should work properly with anything under 200ppm but they can't guarantee it since they don't know what is in the water that's pushing the ppm up that much.

So some guys with 300+ppm will have it work perfectly for them. Some with under 200ppm won't. RO water is the only way to be certain it will work for your water without trying it out first.

You shouldn't have to adjust the water based on the medium. Of course some sources of hydroponic mediums are better than others so you may need to treat your medium (rinse it thoroughly to get out the stuff that will play merry havoc with your pH) but once that's done you should be golden.

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What hooked.on.ponics said.

I haven't heard anything negative about pH Perfect from growers I know. I know it's still new for a lot of growers, but I have faith in AN. That said, haven't used them yet, but I certainly want to. One more way to make MMJ growing easier? Hells yeah.

hooked.on.ponics said:

Actually your base water is not guaranteed by AN to work. If you're at 200ppm it's not RO and they only guarantee the pH Perfect to work with RO water. They'll tell you that it should work properly with anything under 200ppm but they can't guarantee it since they don't know what is in the water that's pushing the ppm up that much.

So some guys with 300+ppm will have it work perfectly for them. Some with under 200ppm won't. RO water is the only way to be certain it will work for your water without trying it out first.

You shouldn't have to adjust the water based on the medium. Of course some sources of hydroponic mediums are better than others so you may need to treat your medium (rinse it thoroughly to get out the stuff that will play merry havoc with your pH) but once that's done you should be golden.

Click to expand...

which is ridiculous, because 'hard water' or high ppm is what causes water to have bad ph anyways. So, saying their product only works with RO water means the water doesn't have any carbonates or magnesium or other things in it isn't saying much because your water most likely won't need significant changing if you have good water to begin with.

squarepush3r said:

which is ridiculous, because 'hard water' or high ppm is what causes water to have bad ph anyways. So, saying their product only works with RO water means the water doesn't have any carbonates or magnesium or other things in it isn't saying much because your water most likely won't need significant changing if you have good water to begin with.

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Um, that's not the way I read that.

What AN is saying is that their nutes only work if you use the right things to support the nutrients. It's no different from not drinking grapefruit juice when you take certain pills (personal experience there). It's not the drug manufacturer's fault that the pill doesn't work when you drink certain things. You just aren't supposed to because the company knows it will impact how the pill will work.

I mean, at least AN tells you what you should avoid so things work. I mean, I'd be ticked if they didn't say something. That would be sucky.

And it ain't just your water that impacts pH, as every good grower knows.

decrimCA said:

Um, that's not the way I read that.

What AN is saying is that their nutes only work if you use the right things to support the nutrients. It's no different from not drinking grapefruit juice when you take certain pills (personal experience there). It's not the drug manufacturer's fault that the pill doesn't work when you drink certain things. You just aren't supposed to because the company knows it will impact how the pill will work.

I mean, at least AN tells you what you should avoid so things work. I mean, I'd be ticked if they didn't say something. That would be sucky.

And it ain't just your water that impacts pH, as every good grower knows.

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heres a bit of info about RO and water pH
http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-education2/ro-ph.htm

There are some test AN does with 3 types of water.. high and low PH levels.. from 4.0 to 8.5 and they mix their product while having a ph meter and all 3 are from 5.7 to 5.8

Wow. Great conversation here. Thanks everyone for sharing their AN expertise. I'm always learning somethign new.

mine is stuck at 6.5, can't get it to go down. Has anyone figured out this PH perfect stuff?

Not sure if this will work for all. But in my setup once I had my drippers on constant 24/7 as apposed to 10 mins every hour my ph stayed stable and perfect with AN. Before it could stay alittle higher. Something to do with it constantly mixing ? Maybe the stagnant water fails the ph perfect operation.

I ran the ph perfect for 4 yrs...I ran it rockwool and coco. I found the worst thing I could do was measure my mix and see the ph reading. Just mix that shit to desired nute level and water it in. It'll do the rest. It's not meant to b adjusted itll throw off how it balances the ph worse. With my ro when I would add a full strength feeding it would come out at 5.1 and never once did I have a problem with uptake or ph. I was on the phone with AN the first time I watered my plants and the tech assured me don't worry about the reading it'll work and he was right. Also cal mag u don't need with ph perfect it's in the base and can throw off the ph perfect abilities. Said its best to stick to their main line up.

Tga plushberry in coco fed with sensi bases and grand master lineup ph perfect 5 gallon pot.

I know AN has a lot of Hate.

But if you put all that bullshit aside you realize it does actually work.
I will pay that little extra for the PH perfect stuff too. So easy.
strong ass shit too. So I save a little by not running full strength