Cant maintain my PH down

No, what do you recommend?

Since you are using organic based nutrients I would use an enzyme product. There are 100's out there I use Hygrozyme. Also make sure you are properly aerating your reservoir and the rez temp is not too high.

Hygrozyme, awesome thanks. I'll get it manana. Thanks man....anything else?

It would take about the whole bottle of ph down to condition 75 lbs of rockwool and have it stable before starting, without this done and dealing with that much rockwool. The ph needed to adjust it down would probably kill the plants. The alege is fighting with the roots for the little amount of nutes there are making matters worse.

If all else fails I would start adjusting the PH lower to 5.0 to start trying to bring it down..I don't think the 5.0 is going to hurt much because it isn't going to stay there long. I wasn't trying to bash, just trying to be realistic..Good luck.

First of all i like to say, THANK YOU Roseman for taking the time of posting such a long response and everyone else who has chimed in.

I'd like to say that my problem is not so much that im trying to chase the perfect ph level. My issue is with not being able to get the ph level from my runoff below 6.0 EVER. If I isolated one bucket and feed it 5.7 nutes it proabably take me 30 gallons before the runoff would come back at 5.7. Thats why i mentioned several times why I suspect the rockwool and/or algae may be playing a part?

BTW i ph balance my ro water to about 6.0(prior to mixing in my nutes) and than i let it sit a day or two and then i mix my nutes and adjust slightly the ph prior to feeding. I have a Nutradip trimeter that I adjust every two weeks or so.

Things that might be an issue are the ro water can be an issue I dont use it because it does seem to cause ph problems unless you add ph buffers to your water. If your using the bits of rockwool shreds thats a trouble causer also. Its best to use rockwool cubes in hydroton pebbles. And yes as mention rockwool needs to be pre soaked in ph low water. New rockwool should soak at least over night in ph 5 water. Mostly I would blame the rockwool bits as they will hold whatever ph the plantsleave behind. With this matrial its eaiest for the plants to drink the water but the nutes build up nutrient salts in that much rockwool which then screws with the ph of the buckets

Listen to FilthyFletch, he knows his grows,
(even tho he bad mouths CFLS) LOL

I am learning and reading that RO water and Distilled water has nothing in it to stabilize (a buffer) the pH......to hold it constant and level.
I use well water that comes out of the tap at 6.9 and 7.0, depending on the temperature, and I never have
a pH problem. I knock mine down to 5.9 or 6.0 and let it ride up over a week's time to 6.8 or 6.9. Daily adding water, a gallon at a time, of water at 5.9 to 6.2 makes it all right again.

But what I wanted to tell you is it might be that RO water. Even City Water might be better.

yup I personally thin RO water is more trouble then its worth really. i use my tap water which is 6.8 out the tap then get it back to a nice 5.5-5.8 ph and it usually stays except when its heavy drinking times. Id bet the combination of no buffers in the RO and the amount of rockwool wool bits your using are the combine culprit. Stop ro water first and see if tap water at the correct ph fixes it then if not get rid of they rockwool shreds for hydroton...Oh and I dont hate cfls they are great for lowering my electric bill around the house but even that has come and gone as I swaped most of my 23 watt cfls for 3 watt leds to drop it even more. Gotta love electric bills under 4100 bucks lol

FilthyFletch said:

Things that might be an issue are the ro water can be an issue I dont use it because it does seem to cause ph problems unless you add ph buffers to your water. If your using the bits of rockwool shreds thats a trouble causer also. Its best to use rockwool cubes in hydroton pebbles. And yes as mention rockwool needs to be pre soaked in ph low water. New rockwool should soak at least over night in ph 5 water. Mostly I would blame the rockwool bits as they will hold whatever ph the plantsleave behind. With this matrial its eaiest for the plants to drink the water but the nutes build up nutrient salts in that much rockwool which then screws with the ph of the buckets

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What would be recomened to use as a buffer to stabilize the ph considering the ph only creeps up?

AN's lineup and sensibloom a and b. Ph and ppm perfect. I adjust to 5.8 add nutes and forget about it. Little trickier with fox farms. I find myself playing with the ph more often

I use fox farm but dont have to adjust the ph much ever just if Im in a heavy drinking time of the plants life. Pretty much you set the ph after nutes are mixed and it will stay there unless using a small res flux is minimal with Fox Farm and almost impossible to burn with unlike AN which you have to be much more careful with

theblack said:

What would be recomened to use as a buffer to stabilize the ph considering the ph only creeps up?

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I believe there are ph buffers stand alones you can buy and add to your water me I just use tap water as it has buffers to control ph issue and most nutes are starting to add buffers in the mix now to help with these issues. I never have much need to adjust ph as I have gotten very familiar with my plants and what they do and dont do and how high I can up my ppm levels and at what points so my flux is usually just a few hundreths.Id reccomend tap water over ro and hydroton over Rockwool shreds. then just 4x4 rockwool cubes