Ph pen advice

I bought the ph up and down kit which came with a liquid ph indicator, I went to indicate my ph and I can't help but think it's incredibly inaccurate, it was the same reading three times in a row which was nearly impossible so I know the readings are shit, any of you guys that use ph pens wanna recommend something for me? This liquid stuff isn't gonna cut it

How do you know its inaccurate? i have the liquid stuff and it works like the h pen the ph pen is just more exact your should try adjusting ph you ibviously dont know your ph thats why you purchased it so why would you say thats wrong?

I added more then enough "ph up" for it to at least change the color and it stayed the same color each time, how much ph up am I supposed to be putting in at a time? I was under the impression it was a little bit at a time

It's really going to depend on what you're water quality is, what you're nutrient make-up is.

id rather just use a pen anyways, could you recommend any reliable brands?

Lot's out there. I use a cheap one. If you have lots of particles in you water it will take a lot of up or down depending on the type of particles. I switched from tap water with an EC of 500 give or take to ro water. It used to take a bunch to move the ph, now in the ro water very little is needed. I compared the test kit with a couple pens and it's not bad. I also have calibration solution to check.

so if I were to buy a ph pen what all would I need to calibrate it and what not?

Get a cheap pen off of amazon. Get calibration liquid there too, the premixed stuff not the powder. should be less than 30 bucks delivered.

What he said. I bought fleabay. Your choice. A ph Cal solution is needed to check the Cal occasionally.

@Weedman1108 you should just get ph perfect nutes never have to ph ever again muaaahhhhahhaahha no but seriously it is pretty nice instead spending more on ph up and ph down and a ph pen imo happy growing!

The only ph perfect stuff I know of is an advanced nutrience brand so I'm deffinatly not buying that

@Weedman1108 maybe you should just spend 5-10$ on a bag of soil

Just remember, you will kill your PH meter if you repeatedly test RO or distilled water. Water with no ions will pull them out of your pen.

My ph meter has gotten flakey. Tap water was 7.25 & my pen read it correctly for a while. Now it consistently says 8.75!!! WTF???
Our tap water is excellent & it's highly unlikely that ph really swung this much.

try rinsing it real good and recalibrating it

my experience are that ph pens should be replaced every year.
ph7 and ph4 solutions for calibrating is a must if your pen supports calibrating on 2 sets if not ph7 is fine.
storage of a pen while not using should have the probe in ph4 or storage solution.
brands that I have used and trust are Hanna, Bluelab and in haste oakton

This is the one I picked up. Has 3 calibration points 4,7&10 which matches the 10 dollar kit that also comes potassium chloride which is used for storage.

Most that have preset calibration points 3.4 and 5.8 which makes it tough unless you buy the packets

Dear ol" Thankful Grower! said:

@Weedman1108 you should just get ph perfect nutes never have to ph ever again muaaahhhhahhaahha no but seriously it is pretty nice instead spending more on ph up and ph down and a ph pen imo happy growing!

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I considered this! Till I went to the local shop and saw that you need to buy 5 additional bottles that aren't in the slightest inexpensive.

Big smo said:

I considered this! Till I went to the local shop and saw that you need to buy 5 additional bottles that aren't in the slightest inexpensive.

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you can just use the 3 part and it works just fine i got away with it in coco coir

I bought a auto calibration ph pen from amazon, Poit ph pen