PH problems (if you want to call it that)

Ok im using 2 1000 watt vented cooled hoods. 18 site flow-n-grow oceanus 1 titan controls brain in a 10x10x8 room temp about 83-84 humidity about 50 at highest. got 2 exhale co2 bags and outside co2 vented and cooled incoming. Negative pressure is at minimal now and everything is kinda at a dialed in motion for the room... (i went commercial instead of self made flood and tray tables, which im regretting now) i put my rapid rooter plugs in the buckets and been feeding them 1/8th strength nutes from the 3 part GH nutes set. Here is my issue..... My base water ph when i check it from tap (which is well water waaaay out in the country) is about 5.7. which is pretty good. but as soon as i fill up my res and let er run a few days it spiked to 6.5. not deathly high from what i understand but still a no no. going to get some PH down today (i bought everything from a friend and he gave me 4 bottles of ph up and no ph down smh). Any other tips on keeping it low? I know everyone say NO light hits the water. i have a bucket that doesnt have a plant in it yet but im cycling it because im just waiting on my master kush to come up and hopefully she will be my mother to move into the mother room which is being constructed because i like the mast and presidential strains. but is this true in most cases to" never let the light hit the water"? and could that be the issue because 2 pots (only 2 out of the 18 are halfway full of sun leaf reusable grow rocks) and when in flood the water is exposed by a couple inches. i was just trying to help my humidity bump up a little bit (pure theory) but this is my first ebb and flow grow and going head first but with a good amount of knowledge. the only thing i don't have here is the experience and little quirks about ebb and flow.

so....

No light getting to the water?.....best info ive seen so far
what else do you pros out there suggest to keep ph from spiking?
any old little trick or common sense method you use i would appreciate it bunches.
thanks in advance everyone. Im really starting to enjoy ebb and flow!! Dont be afaraid to be a constructive critic on me. Lay the DONT FKN DO THAT on me thick lol.



love yall

DoGooD

Forget the ph controller that is something a newbie doesnt even need to worry about. You will find that you will use 3-4x as much ph down as you do up so it is a must to have. Light in the res is a bad thing and can grow algea. ph going sharply down is a bigger problem because it usually means a root problem, ph going up can be many things. Could be lack of buffers or unusual metal content in your well water or the plants are using the nutes which will raise the ph. Just keep an eye on it and for plants in that stage try to keep ph between 5.6-5.8.

bubbiewubbie said:

and let er run a few days it spiked to 6.5

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Going from 5.7 to 6.5 over a few days is barely a 'spike'. During vegging the plant uses more N, which causes the PH to rise (during flowering it's normal that it drops).

In your case it might simply be a case of having to feed it more. Generally underfeeding leads to raised pH, overfeeding leads to dropping pH. I keep my pH stable by keeping the nutes level stable.

Solid relevant info you should read:
http://www.weedfarmer.com/cannabis/phfacts_guide.php

overfeeding you would see leaf burn before ph movement. I'd say going from 5.7-6.5 within a few days means there is something bad going on.. unless you just started and you dont know how to mix your res, but overall a lot can make your ph go up the only things that you should notice that makes it go down is probably what you add into your tank.

On the light and res tank subject.. light getting to your res causes a few problems..

Encourages growth of living organisms
Heats your res

These 2 things could kill your plants

superstoner1 said:

Forget the ph controller that is something a newbie doesnt even need to worry about.

Click to expand...

The fuck are you talking about?
He's doing hydro............

And so am i, for years with hundreds of gallons at all times, and i would consider it an extreme luxury. Anybody running less than a thousand gallons shouldnt even need to consider all of the controls available. Checking and setting ph in all of my res's takes only a few mins and only needs to be done every 3-4 days, no justification for an extreme waste of money. Thats what the fuck im talking about.lol.

Ph controller is different than a ph meter

There was a post that has been deleted tellling him to get a ph controller set up. Just thought it was terrible advice.

bubbiewubbie said:

Ok im using 2 1000 watt vented cooled hoods. 18 site flow-n-grow oceanus 1 titan controls brain in a 10x10x8 room temp about 83-84 humidity about 50 at highest. got 2 exhale co2 bags and outside co2 vented and cooled incoming. Negative pressure is at minimal now and everything is kinda at a dialed in motion for the room... (i went commercial instead of self made flood and tray tables, which im regretting now) i put my rapid rooter plugs in the buckets and been feeding them 1/8th strength nutes from the 3 part GH nutes set. Here is my issue..... My base water ph when i check it from tap (which is well water waaaay out in the country) is about 5.7. which is pretty good. but as soon as i fill up my res and let er run a few days it spiked to 6.5. not deathly high from what i understand but still a no no. going to get some PH down today (i bought everything from a friend and he gave me 4 bottles of ph up and no ph down smh). Any other tips on keeping it low? I know everyone say NO light hits the water. i have a bucket that doesnt have a plant in it yet but im cycling it because im just waiting on my master kush to come up and hopefully she will be my mother to move into the mother room which is being constructed because i like the mast and presidential strains. but is this true in most cases to" never let the light hit the water"? and could that be the issue because 2 pots (only 2 out of the 18 are halfway full of sun leaf reusable grow rocks) and when in flood the water is exposed by a couple inches. i was just trying to help my humidity bump up a little bit (pure theory) but this is my first ebb and flow grow and going head first but with a good amount of knowledge. the only thing i don't have here is the experience and little quirks about ebb and flow.

so....

No light getting to the water?.....best info ive seen so far
what else do you pros out there suggest to keep ph from spiking?
any old little trick or common sense method you use i would appreciate it bunches.
thanks in advance everyone. Im really starting to enjoy ebb and flow!! Dont be afaraid to be a constructive critic on me. Lay the DONT FKN DO THAT on me thick lol.



love yall

DoGooD

Click to expand...

I went to a not so local grow store and got some ph down and mixed the nutes up to strength as GH suggested all the way past the 3 part series into the diamond nectar add ons and all mixed well. Also went ahead and got the nutridip tri meter (expensive little shit) and got that set up as well. after a few floods and 2 tablespoons of ph down shes running about 5.8 now and temp is 68 ppm is questionable because im still learning to differentiate because i dont have an RO yet. (i froze upside down milk jugs full of distilled water and mixed the nutes also, so the air is at the bottom of the jug making it float upside down, then removed the lid and tied it to the top of the lid of the reservoir. every time it drains it melts a little and keeps the water temps pretty darn cool on a flood. we just add one every day or so so the temp stays a few degrees cooler) just something i read somewhere and its keeping temps down. but they seem to be liking the label strength GH full series nutes already. I think it was the light getting to alot of the water from the 2 buckets and lack of nutes seemingly. After 3 hours of driving and just waiting and testing and dialing it in, they might just make it. we named all of them too for easier communication and discussion. Lindsay lohan already died (weak from start white widow) donna (critical) and kim K (crit cheese). but i think that was due to germinating in rapid plugs inexperience. lost 3 of 16 and are adding 00 kush and crit+ tomorrow since theyre ready.

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Glad to finally be starting this exciting hobby!

DoGood

hey bud, I didnt see it mentioned, are you running probiotics or a sterile res? can you also talk a bit about your air pump and airstones?

UPDATE

I went and got the nutridip tri meter model 202 ph ppm and temp. followed instructions exactly and this is what is said after it was installed per instructions in my res and let it sit for a little while.
ph = 4.5
ppm = 6600 -6800
and 84 temp right after a drain back to res.
the ppm numbers are jumping all over the place. ive checked for air in the lines etc etc but aparently my ppm is 6000ish?
I used the expert recirculating General hydroponics 3 part series with the extras diamond nect and such and followed the directions on bottle for 50 gal res.
I have a pump with a 2 foot line with small holes to help with oxygen in the reservoir creating bubbles (hydro store guy suggested)

This is on all well water and the ph before nutes was 5.8 and right before i added nutes i gave them a few feeds with some root enhancer and the ph went up. well now i added the nutes and got the tri meter and thats the info im getting. plants are actually growing got their 2nd and 3rd set of leaves yet but no nodes. only about 2 inches tall. 4-6 true leaves per plant. feeding them 5 times a day. where is my problem. Maybe i didnt do something with the tri meter correctly on install? theres things i should know about maybe mounting the reading tips on the trimeter to the side of the drum at the same place? or let them float about 1 ft in like it says in the book. plus is is supposedly pre calibrated. i dont think following bottle strength nutes would give me that much ppm with decent well water? suggestions on where the hell to start? got frozen gallon jugs in the resivoir to help with the temp but it doesnt feel 84deg water more like mid 70s. Again thanks again for anyone helping me start this journey.

DoGood

this is the current readings. this is a pre calibrated unit. nutridip tri meter name brand 233$ at htg supply. what the hell do i do? and where to start?

Test your well water to get a starting point. Take one gallon and mix a full one gal recipe and measure.

6000ppm? sounds a tad high. higher than most meters ive seen will even go to. i suspect something is broken on your device. Are you sure the connections are tight. even using the rocket fuel formulas from GH it wont go over 2000 unless you have the hardest water on earth.

Yeah I thought so too Cheetos. It was bouncing around from 9k to 6k. But the temp and ph are close to being desirable but still could be wrong. I just bought one of the better tri meters on the market and figured it would do justice. Hope it's not faulty. Hr and half drive to replace it. But the plants aren't getting the dark green just yet. But have grown substantially. I just wanna know exactly what their getting. The seeds weren't cheap by any means from a guy in CO. @ super that's what I intend on doing today is do a 1gal test. If she's reading that high she's a defective unit. Ill update. Thanks everyone

I've also read to some theory that the tri meter being close to a ballasts can throw readings off and make your meter show quirky readings. Any truth to this anyone?


DoGood

84 deg res temp... what are you using to control pathogens? H2O2, zone? or something like Aquashield? Any kind of slime in your res?

puppetstring said:

84 deg res temp... what are you using to control pathogens? H2O2, zone? or something like Aquashield? Any kind of slime in your res?

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hey puppetstring elaborate slightly on "control pathogens h2o2, zone? aquashield? yeah the air lines feel kinds slimey. I have a few books i read on hydro but ive got to be missing something. thanks for the reply but help me out on what you were reffering to. the res temp im going to get down to 74 today. gonna move it into a total seperate room to drop the temp. the temp guage seems to be working good and we used ph up and got it to 5.3 now. just the nutes going nuts.


DoGood

ive heard of small ammounts of hydrogen peroxide to help with alge bloom ect ect. didnt think it was a nessicity. maybe i should read my books better? i read books youtube and 4 diff forums. i think i just need a chart of cause and effect. lol

you got the right idea light proofing your res, which prevents bacteria, and you also are aerating your solution with an air pump and trying to keep res temps cooler. these are all things you are doing right. unfortunately in hydro these things are not enough to keep bacteria at bay on their own. an infected system will have pH issues.

there are two schools of thought when it comes to maintain a hydro res: whether to keep the res sterile (easier said than done) with products like H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) DM Zone (which is chloramines i think?) and other sterilizing agents, OR the other option is using beneficial bacteria, your own little army of good guys to keep bad bacteria at bay. There are ready made products like Botanicare's Aquashield and ZHO to innoculate your roots with the good guys. but is it more economical to brew these products in a compost tea to make them go further.

As a beginner, i would recommend adding 3-4ml/gallon of 29% H2O2 every 3 days. If this works for you its a simple solution. I would also drop the additives for now and just run GH 3 part until your pH is under control. I think it gets harder to try and keep things sterile the more grows you have on your equipment. Also buying 29% peroxide gets old, and it burns your skin if you arent careful.

I personally use compost tea added every 3 days. Here is some good reading https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-dwc-root-slime-cure-aka.html
Its in the DWC section but its really applicable to any grow. It promotes root health naturally by creating a biologically diverse rhizosphere instead of trying to eliminate ALL bacteria. If you think about it trying to keep things 100% sterile is pretty unnatural, even the human colon contains beneficial bacteria to aid in digestion.

you cant use sterilizing agents with pro-biotics. you'll kill all your little soldiers!

also bacteria is AEROBIC (thrives in oxygen rich environments) or ANAEROBIC (thrives in oxygen poor envirionments). generally speaking, harmful pathogens are anaerobic, while beneficial bacteria are aerobic. you are aerating your solution with an air pump, but have a look at the rating. ideally you'd have 1 watt of air pump power per gallon of reservoir water. If you have an 18 site ebb and grow type system then you probably have a 55 gallon res. with this much water, aquarium pumps dont really cut it. general hydroponics makes a dual diaphragm pump that many growers swear by.