98% Pure h2so4?

I was reading a thread from 2012 on the forums about sulphuric acid (h2so4) and on Amazon it was cheap. 1 gallon DI/Distilled water and 1 tbsp of it would make the same concentration of pH down as GH's gallon for far less. The problem is I am no chemist, so I go on Amazon to find 98% pure to find far less in 2022, or is behind those chemist table numbers where you have to dig VERY deep (using SDS/MSDS) to find the percentages.

Anyone have a source for 98% pure Sulphuric/h2so4 Acid in 2022? Seems what was so easy to find a decade ago is not as easy to find now.
 

1212ham

Well-Known Member
I was reading a thread from 2012 on the forums about sulphuric acid (h2so4) and on Amazon it was cheap. 1 gallon DI/Distilled water and 1 tbsp of it would make the same concentration of pH down as GH's gallon for far less. The problem is I am no chemist, so I go on Amazon to find 98% pure to find far less in 2022, or is behind those chemist table numbers where you have to dig VERY deep (using SDS/MSDS) to find the percentages.

Anyone have a source for 98% pure Sulphuric/h2so4 Acid in 2022? Seems what was so easy to find a decade ago is not as easy to find now.
If you need that much ph down you're running a big op and wouldn't need to ask this.
98% Sulfuric is dangerous.
Buy food grade phosphoric.
 
Well, that was not what I asked now was it? Easy to get back then not now? WHY? I don't wish to be told what to get, or what not to get, I was asking a simple question about something that people easily got from Amazon, for instance, that now I can't find and was hoping this forum was as good as it was a decade ago with such stuff as helping.
 

7CardBud

Well-Known Member
I was looking into using Sulphuric during the veg stage to try and keep plants compact by limiting the phosphorus.

The two options I say readily available were car battery acid and drain clog dissolver.
The battery acid was around 40% and the drain openers seem to be very concentrated, but there was no information about other chemicals.

They may not be 98% pure, but still probably much more economical than the run of the mill pH down.
 
I was looking into using Sulphuric during the veg stage to try and keep plants compact by limiting the phosphorus.

The two options I say readily available were car battery acid and drain clog dissolver.
The battery acid was around 40% and the drain openers seem to be very concentrated, but there was no information about other chemicals.

They may not be 98% pure, but still probably much more economical than the run of the mill pH down.
The bottom of the thread I linked to above says it all. Besides, if you read up on the various acid types food grade sulphuric is the best as it has nothing the plants want, so the pH is damn stable unlike with something like Phosphoric or Citric.

An excellent guide for this is at https://scienceinhydroponics.com/2020/05/a-guide-to-different-ph-down-options-in-hydroponics.html

Sulfuric acid (from 20 to 98% pure): This acid is commonly used in car batteries and offers the largest pH dropping ability per unit of volume among all the strong acids. It is however important to use food grade sulfuric acid in hydroponics as normal battery acid can include some metallic impurities – from the fabrication process of sulfuric acid – that might negatively affect a hydroponic crop. Food grade sulfuric acid is safe to use in hydroponics. A big advantage is that plants are quite insensitive to sulfate ions – the nutrient provided by sulfuric acid – so adding sulfuric acid does not really affect the nutrient profile being fed to the plants. Note however that most battery acid products in developed countries are also ok, as the quality of these acids demands the metallic impurities (more commonly iron) to be quite low. If in doubt, you can do a lab test of the sulfuric acid to see if any impurities are present.
 
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