pH levels keep climbing

This is my first attempt at dwc. I have a 2' x 4' x 5' tall tent, and 2 300w each led lights in it. I have two autoflower plants going in soil that are doing quite well, and one white widow autoflower in the dwc that is looking pretty sad. My pH levels continuously climb. It climbs quickly. I fill the 3.5 gallon bucket about 2/3 full with tap water, then i let it sit for 24 hours to let the chlorine escape and to let the temps get to room temp. I then use the go box nutrients and mix per instructions. I check the levels about every other day. The levels climb quickly to 7.0. How do I keep this from happening so fast? what is a good ppm level for this? My water temp is 68*F. Lights are on 18 hours and off 6.
I searched plant problems but came up empty as the pics in the posts I found didn't load.

Bigger container equals more buffer.

Though the plant looks small to be drinking a ton of water so that probably isnt it.

pH is gonna drift. In my 5 gal they currently go from 5.7 to 6.1 over 24-36hours. When they are fully grown and drinking a gallon a day they go from 5.5-6.4 over 12 hours.

High HERBMAN83

You can't use the Go-Box nutes successfully for DWC. Those are for organic growing in soilless or dirt based growing not for hydro. I bought one of those Go-Box kits a few years ago and tried it in soilless and it sucked. Not to mention that GH or GO is now owned by Scotts Miracle-Gro/Monsanto and should be avoided like the plague it is. Along with Botanicare and Gavita and likely many more companies being taken over by the evil empires that want to control the pot industry and destroy it like they have with world-wide food production.

Use that GO stuff on your dirt plants and get yourself some decent hydro nutes for DWC or you will end up blaming the DWC which is about the easiest and fastest way to grow plants I've ever seen and have used for 15 years 40+ grows.

You can't properly measure ppm levels with organic nutes and they need a root zone with lots of good bacteria and fungi, (micro-herd), to work properly which is whu your other plants are doing OK with them.

Thank you for the replies. OldMedUser, is there any specific brand of nutes you would recommend for dwc?

HERBMAN83 said:

Thank you for the replies. OldMedUser, is there any specific brand of nutes you would recommend for dwc?

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I'm a huge Advanced Nutrients fan tho there's lots here that aren't but after 15 years of growing really decent plants in DWC and soilless with them I'm not switching to anything else any time soon.

I switched from their 3-part nutes a couple years ago to the 2-part Sensi Grow for veg and the Connoisseur for flower but recently got gallon jugs of the 3-part to have better control over the nitrogen they get in later flower to prevent the salts buildup and burn from too much N.

Their base nutes aren't much if any more money that the Scotts Miracle-Gro owned GH nutes and you don't need all the expensive supplements to grow huge colas. I only add Big Bud, Rhino Skin and trying Bud Ignitor for the first time. Any CalMag will do and drug store epsom salts if you figure they need more Mg and S tho hardly likely.

With their pH Perfect technology you don't have to monitor pH so that's a huge plus in my books and all you'll need is a PPM pen and they are real cheap compared to a decent pH pen.

I don't have any grow journals here doing DWC but can give you links to ones I've done elsewhere if you want. I use Rubbermaid tubs for my DWC as pails are way too small for decent sized plants..

Fuck AN (advanced nutrients)

I can treat over 5000 gallons of water for less cash than a liter of their base line.

Youd think more money better product but not in the world of bottled nutrients. That money is spent on,cooler looking bottles and advertisement to get more suckers on their overpriced nutrients.

I'd recommend the AN 3 part base and big bud to anyone who wants to start dabbling with DWC. I've used them for three years with zero problems. All I do is mix between 1-4 ml per litre depending on size, for ones that size I'd probably use 2 ml per litre, each week. Flawless Finish works really well, much better than my old molasses water flush for the final week. A one litre set of g m b costs around 40 bucks and will last a good while with a couple bucket grow. These have been on it from the start,

update:
I found out my pH meter wasn't any good. Cheap ebay crap.
pH holds much better. Plant is starting to look better, but its growth potential is probably stunted