opinion on ideal PH?

In DWC I set it to 5.5 and let it rise to 6.1 between nutrient change outs.

SnapsProvolone said:

In DWC I set it to 5.5 and let it rise to 6.1 between nutrient change outs.

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thks, i just had to ask.lol

sidewing said:

Time will tell with maxi products. But first dose I like it. Plus a fifteen dollar bag will last me a couple cycles. One part nutrient, nothing wrong with that. I just wish they would've buffered it better

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if i go with the maxi, i`ll just do the bloom at 8mil per. that was another lucas formula that some growers liked and it is cheap.

"nute uptake and evaporation make the ph go up. it does drop as nutes are added because the nutes have buffers in them to help keep the ph incheck, but it doesn`t drop far. now additives can change the whole dynamic because most don`t have the buffers and some will run the ph up."
So I never add back and never had PH swing up always down. What am I doing differently? I am currently running at 1.7 ec which is the highest that I have ran, just switched to sprayers.

That's why I went maxi. I was going to go lucas but came across that thread. Maxi is powder so it's different than lucas. Basically I've calculated the ec for it. The bag says to put 1tsp per gallon. For maxibloom it comes with a scoop inside the bag. I've calculated 10 scoops in 10gallons comes out to 1.7ec. (Or 0.17ec per scoop) Which is a good strong flowering level. They say you can use maxibloom thru veg also but you have to run at the same high ec in full veg otherwise you'll see deficiencies. I decided to buy the maxigrow because it was also 15 dollars and made specifically for veg. But I found it has a higher ec. A scoop of maxigrow runs .28ec in 10 gallons. Meaning the recommended dose would be too strong (2.8ec in veg). So In veg I've calculated a general starting point at (in 5gal for veg) 1tsp grow for week 1. Then 2tsp for every following week (I veg 5 weeks). This runs my ec in veg at 1.1, perfect for under t5 veg. In flower under a 1k Ill run 1.4 ec week 1 and 2. half grow half boom. Week 3 thru 8 I'll run full strength bloom at 1.7. Then week 9 and 10 water only.

That is my plan with the maxi nutrients. Of course if things need to be altered along the way I will adjust accordingly. I don't foresee any issues though. It's a simple one part feeds all nutrient that has everything a plant needs. Just need to keep the ec and ph in proper range

I think ph swinging down indicates too high ec. Meaning plants are drinking more water than nutrients they are eating. Leaving a more concentrated dose in your res. Because nutrients are acidic they drop ph. Either that or root pathogens can drop ph as well

Ahhh root pathogens :0! Well perhaps its a bunch of things lol. The plants were doing really crappy until I upped the nutes. I'll keep an eye on what happens, doing a res change tonight.

Try "Heisenberg tea". It works for me. I get slime with everything else (as far as sterile). I'm trying to just add "mycogrow soluble powder" a teaspoon per res when I change nutes. Seeing how it goes. It's powder beneficial bacteria, fungii, and trace amounts of kelp and humic acid. I wanted to use liquid karma and rhizotonic but I suspect the mycogrow powder might provide the same benefit. Beneficial bacteria in the res is the only thing that works for me and my conditions are perfect. Not even bleach works for more than a couple days

I find in my aero cloner that it breeds pathogens. Doesn't provide enough oxygen in the water itself I guess. I have to clean with bleach after every time, and use dm zone at aggressive strength. Keeps it good for 2 weeks. Going into the 3rd week it starts to smell a little

I run tea and also run sprayers so doubt its root issues that are making my ph change. Could it be the sprayer set up, not as efficient perhaps? More water evaporation than nute uptake perhaps? Draining the res as we speak.

Probably too strong of a nutrient mix then. Are you using ro or tap? The best way to know is check your ec/ppm.. when you fill it, then when you check ph and its lower.. If the nutrient mix is too strong your ec/ppm will rise as the ph drops.

Also I've read elsewhere that there could be something leeching (either from a medium or a sealant, somewhere in or on your res) that is acidic and lowers ph. Just another thought

Seems the rise was just initial after the mix. Still the same ph at day 2 for the maxigrow and maxibloom. Looks best to raise ph to 5.3 and let it drift up to 5.6 to 5.8. Plants look amazing though they love the nutrients. So far.

sidewing said:

Probably too strong of a nutrient mix then. Are you using ro or tap? The best way to know is check your ec/ppm.. when you fill it, then when you check ph and its lower.. If the nutrient mix is too strong your ec/ppm will rise as the ph drops.

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Since I've started hydro I've always had the same results so may be the well water I use. I raised ec to 1.5 when I refilled and will try that. The girls are also doing better than ever with no sign of burn or deficiency. I'll check later tonight to see where its at. I typically have to add 50ml per 100 litres of down to get it to 5.8-.9. I assume thats more than most lol.

I had problems with my ph using tap there's a lot of buffers in my city water. I used to have to use 250 drops or so of down with dutchmaster in 5 gallons. This is advanced nutrients down which is very strong. Once I switched to ro I didn't have to adjust ph at all. Maybe your down is taking longer to mix and settle so it keeps dropping after initial mix. Not sure which brand of down you're using but I found gh down very weak and unstable with tap. Earth juice crystal down worked better than gh but I still had problems. Using ro resolved all my ph issues

i use hydrologic stealth ro200 (i run it through a tallboy first as a pre-filter just because i had it, not necessary though, although it will keep your membranes cleaner for much much longer)

basically i just strung a garden hose into the grow room, used to hose adapter to go garden hose to 3/8" into tallboy, then 3/8" out of tallboy to 3/8" in on the RO200. then it comes out at 1/4". the ro200 1/4" tube comes with an inline shutoff valve, but i just use a float valve in my RO res.i fill a 30ish gallon heavy duty tote with a valve on the bottom that i put on out of the pvc section at home depot. then i just fill gallon jugs 1 at a time from my RO res and do my garden. takes me maybe 5mins max to drain a 10gal res (i use the valve i dont want to carry 10gallons, bad back). and 5-10 mins to fill it back up cuz i gotta mix in nutes and stuff. only takes less than 10-15 seconds to fill a gallon jug with RO water using the valve i use.

I have put a 3/8 valve in my water line to feed the shed where I grow but have not ran the line. Logistically its gonna be tough with freezing temps. Actually I had it pretty much under control and dialed in but switched systems from modified recirc to sprayers, and tea. Its like starting from scratch with nutes and ph. My down is 35% phosphoric I believe. I also use 35% sulphuric now and then.

hmm, what is your res temps with your freezing conditions outside?

sidewing said:

hmm, what is your res temps with your freezing conditions outside?

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Its only freezing in the winter lol. Right now its actually quite warm and a struggle to keep temps below 70. I really doubt its a root problem unless I'm missing something. Roots are white and crisp like bean sprouts. Its really fucked up now though, i will put 10ml in at a time and it will drop .2-3 and i get it down to 6.3-4 and add 10ml and it plummets to like 5 so I add .5 up and it goes back to 6.5.... Christ!!! It must be the new nutes?? Could sure use some insight here. Takes 3-4 days to dial it in, if ever.

I deffinitely try to keep mine at 5.6-6.1 aiming for 5.8 idealy so I can actually make the most of both parts of the CALiMAGic that I suplement due to my grow light's being an LED array. I usually set it to 5.6 and as it gradualy approaches 6.1 I remove some of the res and replace with 5.6 plain water to keep my PPM in check. If my PPM is fine though I will just add PH down to put it back in the middle of the "ideal" range.

waterdawg said:

Its only freezing in the winter lol. Right now its actually quite warm and a struggle to keep temps below 70. I really doubt its a root problem unless I'm missing something. Roots are white and crisp like bean sprouts. Its really fucked up now though, i will put 10ml in at a time and it will drop .2-3 and i get it down to 6.3-4 and add 10ml and it plummets to like 5 so I add .5 up and it goes back to 6.5.... Christ!!! It must be the new nutes?? Could sure use some insight here. Takes 3-4 days to dial it in, if ever.

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i dont think you're supposed to go back and forth between down and up. im assuming your diluting the up/down in like a gallon of water before you're dumping into the res and not just dumping straight up or straight down in there?

i had that problem you're describing with my tap water. i had to use a TON of down to get to a certain point, but once i hit a certain point, its like it was ultra sensitive after that. say 200 drops to get from 7.8 to 6.7, but then only like 10 more drops to get from 6.7 to 5.6. i remember reading an article somewhere that said basically the buffers in your tap/well water keep working until you pass a certain point with your adjusters.

i think RO water would give you the stability you're looking for. it sure did for me. maybe someone else can chime in with their opinion. but to me it sounds like its not mixing in properly. giving you a false reading because it hasnt had a chance to properly mix and settle together with the res.. have you ruled out the meter/probe as being the issue? or as you using a dropper kit?

but yes before RO i had those exact issues of extreme PH instability. even other people in town swore their tap water was fine. but for me it wasnt. i couldnt get it to stabilize worth crap for more than 12 hours. I bought the tallboy thinking that would fix it, and it didnt. i had to remove EVERYTHING from my water and start from scratch with RO and ever since then no PH instability at all. if i had to do it over again i would just buy the Hydrologic RO200 and not the tallboy, but like i said since i have it i put it to use as a prefilter. RO200 is only like $200 dollars and its basically plug n play. preassembled, hook in a water source (garden hose), plug in the output line. thats it. i had a mild water drip where the pressure gauge was on my RO200 because of how it was positioned it didnt tighten fully so the meter could be displayed facing forward. simply unscrewing it and wrapping the thread with some plumbers tape fixed it. i like it because once your res is full (if you are using a float valve) it shuts off. doesnt keep draining water (like other RO units you may purchase where you need to buy an auto shutoff seperate).. and the drain/waste line is pressurized so you can string it to a sink or somewhere. i ran mine along ceiling of garage and brought it down on the back side of the sink in my garage, then just zip tied it to the faucet and had the exit side right above the drain.