pH System

Is 5.1 to 6.4 in 24h ours considered slight raise? First hydro setup, so it is a learning experience.

Is adjusting on a daily basis normal?

Roy Jones said:

Is 5.1 to 6.4 in 24h ours considered slight raise? First hydro setup, so it is a learning experience.

Is adjusting on a daily basis normal?

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how are you growing? dwc, ebb/flow? and you are in veg now right? what is your light schedule?

i would adjust usually once a day, sometimes twice. just kinda depended.

It's a dwc with a top feed. Yes veg right now with a 18/6 schedule.

Roy Jones said:

It's a dwc with a top feed. Yes veg right now with a 18/6 schedule.

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standalone 5 gal bucket? or buckets connected to a control res?

describe your setup a bit more.

standalone 5 gal buckets will fluctuate pH badly just because you really only have maybe 2 to 3 gallons of water in them. which gets less and less as the roots get bigger.

it's a 5 gal res and im running 3 plants. 1 large airstone, 1 water pump, water cooler. Water temps between 66-71F. also have a backup res connected to my main res with a float valve which has not been needed as of yet.

there ya go. more water=less pH fluctuations. probably too late to do much unless you can switch to a much bigger res.

So I'm pretty much stuck with these fluctuations regardless if I switch to RO?

I suppose I'll try the RO to see how it does, and if anything I'll stick to adjusting 1-2x a day.

another thing i just realized: you were having pH issues without nutes. your tap water would be more stable than RO but now you are using nutes so that doesn't matter. with just plain water, pH is very unstable.

walmart/home depot/lowes etc.


something like this would help get a bigger res. 27 gal.

cut 3 holes in the top for your net pots. and switch if you can.

I actually have a 27 gal res in the closet. Not sure if it will fit in my small tent though. It's only 2x2.5.

If it were to fit, sure it will fix the pH problems? How many gallons would I actually need to use?

And would my tap water be okay?

Roy Jones said:

I actually have a 27 gal res in the closet. Not sure if it will fit in my small tent though. It's only 2x2.5.

If it were to fit, sure it will fix the pH problems? How many gallons would I actually need to use?

And would my tap water be okay?

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if it fits, use it.
it won't "fix" pH issues but it will make it more stable. anytime you have roots in nute solution all the time, the pH is gonna change. it should slowly go up over time.

i used 3 of those same totes for my rdwc and it will hold about 15 gallons to get the level to just below the netpot. i used 5 inch netpots so you might want to double check if you use smaller or larger net pots to see how deep in the tote they go.

my personal preference is always to use RO. that way,, the only thing in your water is what you put in it. eliminates water as a possible problem.

If there's no room in the tent for the res and pumps, keep it outside. May help the temperature also.

Mine are 6 inch pots. Will set it up and give it a try after I do a flush and try with RO just to see.

Thanks for the help! Will update soon

and seriously give a thought/do some research on 24/0 for veg. best light schedule for veg IMO

Keep the rez out of the tent if you can or it will suck up the heat in there.

Don't try to keep the pH at one exact point. Before I got the pH Perfect nutes I'd top up the tub with RO then check the PPM. I would then add small amounts of nutes to get my ppm back to the target to replace what they had eaten since the last top up. Wait an hour for things to stabilize and then check pH as the nutes would usually drop it .3 or .4. If it was within 5.5 and 6 I'd just leave it or squirt in a bit of pH down if it was over 6.

It's natural for the pH to go up a bit and if it's under 6.5 and stays there then that might be what your nutes work best at and are buffered for. A sudden drop or rise of a full point all at once is stressful for plants.

Well I got home from work yesterday and noticed the pH had stabilized. Was confused at first, so checked with my other pH meter and sure enough it stabilized at 6.4 over 7 hours after the previous rise. This is with the same water as I have not drained it yet.

I added some pH down and got it to 5.5 to see if it would rise any. 12 hours later it's now at 5.9.

I only have had the nutes in the res for 2 days now. Is it possible the nutes buffered the water enough to have stabilized the water to not cause such fluctuations as I've been seeing?

yep.

Agree with rkymtnman, that thing is going berserk! You should be going through a MAX of 1 quart per 6 months even in terrible water conditions, PH up is seriously concentrated.

If you get a cheap microcontroller (Arduino or equivalent), a PH probe and some dosing pumps it's very easy to setup a good range 5.6 - 6.0 (or whatever you want) and automate this. All of this would cost you about $90 and you could put it to bed for good as well as add temp humidity probes later on if you like to tweak like I do

Peace,
Z

Yes, I completely pulled the auto system and my plants are very thankful for it. They are getting huge for a 2x2.5 tent. Will look into the auto system again after this grow.

Been 2 weeks since the pH finally stabilized. I allowed the roots to sit in the res for 2 weeks to help in their resistance development.

I decided I needed to clean it out and add new water, so I flushed the tank, added water back, added nutrients, and then pH'd it. It is now fluctuating at a fast pace again, going on the 6th hour. I am wondering if I should have done something different to prevent this from happening? Maybe pH the water and let it sit for 24 hours and then add nutrients before putting it into the res? Hoping the nutes will buffer enough to stabilize it soon.