can't maintain PH in waterfarm

growing SS AK47 in 4 waterfarms

hydroton medium - cleaned well with tap water 6.5 ph
Ionic Nutes
dutchmaster Silica
RO water tuned to 5.8
GH PH up and down

ph will level itself out to 6.20.
I have flushed 5 times. I even tuned my water to 5.5 and let it run in the system over night, only to see it this morning raised to 6.15 on avg

any suggestions ?

btw i store my hannah ph meter in electrode storage fluid and calibrate/verify the meter every reservoir change

how long have your plants been in this system? Do you show any signs of pathogens? slime or whatnots

plants have been in the system for two weeks
I have no signs of pathogens
i don't know how cool the res is, but by touch the water is cold

CapnBud said:

plants have been in the system for two weeks
I have no signs of pathogens
i don't know how cool the res is, but by touch the water is cold

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when you start a fresh batch of nutes do you add your nutes and then adjust your PH? Some nutes have self ph adjusters in them. I find that when i start a new soup i wait for an hour or so before adjusting and even then i find that SOMETIMES it just moves up no matter what i do and sometimes its fine.

when i start a fresh batch i add nutes, mix, add silica, mix, take my ph readings and adjust.
maybe i should be more patient before i add the new "soup" to the res.

btw new "soup" was made with tap water

CapnBud said:

when i start a fresh batch i add nutes, mix, add silica, mix, take my ph readings and adjust.
maybe i should be more patient before i add the new "soup" to the res.

btw new "soup" was made with tap water

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If you have an RO unit thats fine but tap works just as well. Fill your rez with water and add your nutes into that. Never mix all your nutes together before adding to water.

How often are you changing out?

i change out every 5 days. (it's so much work....basement with no drains)
i know about adding nutes or anything else one at a time

thank u for your suggestions. starting to doubt this waterfarm. strong research has shown several people with the same issue. your farm either operates at a proper ph or it doesn't. was very dissatisfied with resolutions and troubleshooting steps found out here.

CapnBud said:

i change out every 5 days. (it's so much work....basement with no drains)
i know about adding nutes or anything else one at a time

thank u for your suggestions. starting to doubt this waterfarm. strong research has shown several people with the same issue. your farm either operates at a proper ph or it doesn't. was very dissatisfied with resolutions and troubleshooting steps found out here.

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Ahh don't get discouraged. My advise is to go 2 weeks between changes adjust every 2 days and you should be just fine. If a plant is using 6.2 water its not going to kill it. I just pulled a mother that i had not changed or added anything to her for 8 weeks and she was just starting to show signs of nute diffenincy. If you adjust every 2 or 3 days you will be golden.

dont give up just yet.

thanx man. i'll follow ur suggestions

I have the exact same problem with a ebb-flow system in coco. I think its not the waterfarm but some other problem we have in common. Do you use any beneficial fungi and/or bacteria? I do. Maybe not using that stuff and using h2o2 instead would help. I got one of those UV water sterilizers from sun leaves about 1 month ago, hoping that it was pathogens in my tank, so far no change at all. PH goes up each day.

sorry marchold i only use my ionic and silica.
i'm thinking of switching the hydroton to a coco mat at the botton of the inner bucket and filling with bcuzz coco.....just thinking at this stage....i still have a modified waterfarm from hg420's heath robinson's designs. i just need to conquer the ph issue

If your res pH rebounds to 6.2, that's not a problem. When it goes above 6.3, then adjust it back to high 5's. Don't worry about small swings, and adjust only when completely out of range.

Optimal Hydro pH range is 5.4 - 6.4.

HTH

I was experiencing the same problem with my waterfarms.

I was being impatient. I would mix the nutes check ph adjust then throw it in my res. Now i mix the nutes let it sit for about 10 min mix the water around check ph adjust then lets sit for 10-15 then check ph again to make sure its in the right spot then i'll add it into my res.

I guess before my ph down wasn't completly mixed with the water so allowing it to sit then agitating the water allows it to completly mix with the water.

hopefully that helps
-Juke

potroast said:

If your res pH rebounds to 6.2, that's not a problem. When it goes above 6.3, then adjust it back to high 5's. Don't worry about small swings, and adjust only when completely out of range.

Optimal Hydro pH range is 5.4 - 6.4.

HTH

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Mine goes from 5.8 to 6.4 each day. I have been thinking of trying to do some experiment to fix the problem. I was thinking of the following ideas:
1) Mix some nutes in a bucket with no plants and measure the PH change over time
2) Ph some tap water and let it sit measuring the PH
3) Start using h2o2 in my res regularly
4) Up my use of beneficial fungi or use a new brand
- Mabe some lower and others raise the PH??
5) Mix up nutes, water, PH it and add the benificial fungi and measure the PH with no water.
5) Switch from coco to rockwool
6) put ice in my res

it seems 1 and 2 would determine hard water and nutes problems that were not related to live things.
The rest assume its a pathogen thing.

I guess all of us who are having PH issues could try a set of similar experiments? What do you guys think of getting a few of us to try a set of experiments and all report what we get. Anyone game?

i run my setup at 6.2 all the time whats the problem? if youre not seeing any ill effects why are you trippin

rezo said:

i run my setup at 6.2 all the time whats the problem? if youre not seeing any ill effects why are you trippin

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I don't see any ill effects but from reading these message boards I find that adding too much ph down is bad. I am worried that like nutrient burn when I see ill effects it will be to late.

hey there.

go google "lucas formula". try it - love it.

that new stuff AN is making is supposed to automatically fix pH swings like that

u mite try it

aeroman said:

that new stuff AN is making is supposed to automatically fix pH swings like that

u mite try it

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I have the same problem in my dwc setup and have done a lot of research on this issue. I have found that a little ph swing is completely normal and is ok as long as you maintain it within optimal levels for your growing style.the reason for this is that a fluctuating ph indicates that your plants are actively feeding.A plant in a veggative state uses alot of nitrogen and as your plants use the nitrogen your ph will rise,this is why you use nitric acid to lower your ph, and to add back some of the N that has been used.Same goes for a plant in flower eccept that it is using more phosphorous and this is why you use phosphoric acid to lower your ph in flowering.From what i understand from my research is that when your ph stops fluctuating that it is time to changee your res due to nutrient lockout caused by the addition of to much ph down