pH rising uncontrollably please help w/pics

'm growing 12 plants in individual DWC 5 gallon buckets. I've recently started using a shower filter instead of RO water. I wanted to get rid of most the chlorine but I found that the RO water was too susceptible to pythium with the organic nutrients I was using. And picking up water every couple of days was a huge hassle. Anyways I recently got a digital pH meter so that I could keep track of the pH (I kept getting high readings) and I realize that my pH rises from 6 to 8 within a day. Here are the nutrients I'm using:

Liquid Karma
Pro Bloom
AquaShield
Dutch Master Zone
pH Down

I have 1 400W HPS and 2 600W HPS

My room temps go from 60 at night to 80 during the day and the reservoirs go from 65 at night to 75 during the day. I have attempted to put frozen water bottles in the reservoirs everyday to keep temps down but it has been an uphill battle. Any ideas for that would be appreciated too. Thanks.

I also have pics if that helps.

when you mix up your nutrients do you mix them 5 gallons at time? or do you mix a big batch and then seperate them?

5 gallons at a time

try doing it all together, when you only mix small amounts of water together it tends to make the ph bounce, just get like 30 gallons and mix it all in one shot youll notice a diffrence

Thanks, I'll try that when it comes time for the next water change but I don't understand how mixing my buckets individually could be the problem when i bring the pH down to a good level a week after i changed the water and the next day it jumps 2 points. Does anyone have any other ideas?

I have my plants in 8 gallan tubs,i mix them all separate.I start my water at 5.1-5.2 and never go above 6.8 when i change my water every two weeks.
I have stopped using two different nutes due to uncontrollable ph rise.I now use GH nutes and do not spend a hour a day phing my water.I do not even check my ph any more between water changes.OPH

which nutes did you stop using? I'm using mostly botannicare ones now

jaag1234 said:

Thanks, I'll try that when it comes time for the next water change but I don't understand how mixing my buckets individually could be the problem when i bring the pH down to a good level a week after i changed the water and the next day it jumps 2 points. Does anyone have any other ideas?

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if im correct you said you used ro water then switched to carbon filtered tap water in my experience most tap water has alot of buffering capacity so even if you ph it down with acids it will rebound back up again and even with proper ph its full of mineral salts. i would simply reccomend using the ro water again you could maybe run a little hydrogen peroxide occasianally to keep the pythium at bay i use to use tap water and had many similar problems i now use distilled or ro with great results peace.

those roots look a little discolored are you certain your using enough aeration?

not enough aeration is definitely a possibility, I'm using one heavy duty hydro air pump for 6 buckets. The guys at the hydro store seemed to think this was fine and the fact that it comes with a splitter that has 6 outlets it seems like the right fit. That being said I think that more air could be helpful. Do you think that the lack of air can cause the pH to rise directly or is it just an indirect result of possible root rot.

i dont think the aeration has too much to do with the ph issue if anything with low aeration ph would fall not climb as o2 has a positive effect on ph. but the root rot only happens in low oxygen stagnating enviroments i would reccomend another large air pump. the pythium will have trouble surviving in a high o2 enviroment i would also use a little hydrogen peroxide(h202) to kill whats already taken hold and to oxidize any dying organic matter. another product that would help would be hygrozyme it contains digestive enzymes which break down any dead or dying roots.

OK guys here is a science lesson. I am Construction manager for water and wastewater and I have do do allot of lab work. Water other RO can all kind stuff left over. Most well water can have a combination of sulfides and calcium. By the time you get the water it has stabilized and everything is still in solution. When you go to start adjusting it and adding air suddenly depending what you have done one or both will come out of solution. Know this can also happen in city water depending how far away you are from the treatment plant. We have allot of this problem in our area but we have mag hydroxide with is Milk of Magnesia another item that will drive the ph hard and each time you try to adjust it back down you run the risk of all the sulfides comming out of solution releasing acid driving the ph down very fast and burning you stuff. If you don't know about your water ro is the safest. Man really need to lay off the meds at night these messages hurt my head.

I'm confused...do you think that the pH keeps rising because of the combinations of sulfides and calcium acting as a buffer and that if I keep fighting the pH these are going to drop out of solution making the pH drop uncontrollably? Do I need to immediately change all the reservoirs out for RO water or should I just start adding RO water with a little pH down until the next scheduled water change? I live in the city but I've heard that our tap water is not very good. My meter has the tap water at 300ppm and a pH of 7.5.

Root rot seems to be what would cause the pH to rise like this but I have plants that are definitely free of rot (perfectly white roots) and they are experiencing the same difficulty.

brother just switch fully to ro and keep aeration at a high level and i think most of your problems will correct themselves it is worth the trouble to use ro or distilled water. again an enzyme product would be very beneficial also to combat the root rot issues the ro water in itself did not cause the problem. i worked in the aquarium industry for many years with organisms much weaker than cannabis tap water depending on locale sucks in more ways than 1. particularly in hydro applications tap water is just trouble.

YEs calcium and mag hydroxide are a natural buffer that absorbs acids thus will try to buffer to the high side while the sulfides (acid in solution) if released will drive the ph down very quick. The theory of breakthrough provides that when trying to adjust, the point of of perfection is very narrow and can be a real pain. It is just easier to start with a ro water so that you are only fighting your nutes and palnts for the control of your ph. Just a note I don't know about other nutes but Dutch masters and the Gh three part required monitoring but I switched to the GH floranova and ph is no longer a problem. Peace!

yea my buddy just brought over his floranova bloom... that shit is thickkk.... anyways.. im using botanicare as well ( pure blend pro) .. the full line, plus dutch master gold floralacious for some zinc missing from botanicare's nutes..
idk much about hydro. but i also had some slight ph issues.. either the pure blend pro flower or bloom i was feeding my ladies with too much. and i cut the strength of it in half and my Ph started balancing out for longer....hehe and if it was soil. ide say throw some dolomite in there!.. but good luck Pe@ce...

I use the nova, floralicious plus. koolbloom and cal-mag. I ran it at 50% of the label until I got into full bloom, know I am 100% and they are kicking butt! I can see the ph shifting up a little about a week after last water change and I change it out at 10 days, By adding fresh ro water each day keeps it pretty stable. Just keep my ppm's steady and the nova takes care of the rest.

freeindeed2008 said:

I use the nova, floralicious plus. koolbloom and cal-mag. I ran it at 50% of the label until I got into full bloom, know I am 100% and they are kicking butt! I can see the ph shifting up a little about a week after last water change and I change it out at 10 days, By adding fresh ro water each day keeps it pretty stable. Just keep my ppm's steady and the nova takes care of the rest.

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my buddy just gave me a bag of that kool bloom... real strong stuff like 10-40-40.. gona try it out last few weeks of flower...Pe@ce..

Mixing large ammount of feed in one go the ph will rise try adding a fish tank pump this sometimes helps.i just check the ph before each feed and lower the salt of your skin adds to the ph going up.everygrower who makes a big batch of feed has the same problem with the ph going up just lower each feed.