Problems with shooting Ph levels

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sam853

New Member
Hi! I transplanted an okra seedling from cocopeat to my 5 gallon dwc bucket with 4 gallon water in it. Problem is when I adjust ph to 5.8-6.0, it shoots to 7.2 within hours. What do you guys think the problem is??

To be more precise, i use packaged drinking water for my dwc reservoir which has ph of 7.0 and 80 ppm to start with. I also rinsed hydrotons that i use as grow medium and kept in tub full of tap water along with air stones with hydrogen peroxide added for 24 hours. I also washed the roots with tap water before putting it in to my dwc system. My tap water has ph around 6.8 and ppm around 650.

I use commercial ph down formula to lower ph

Do you think that rinsing and keeping hydrotons submerged in tap water is the cause of rising ph again and again? Or could it be something else?
 
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sam853

New Member
apollo4201982 said:
It sounds like its your water, 650ppm from the tap is crazy
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Thanks! But how long the effect should last? It has been 3 days now.......do you really think just by submerging hydrotons and air stones in tap water for 24 hours, ph fluctuations can be caused for more than 3 days?
 
apollo4201982

apollo4201982

Well-Known Member
sam853 said:
Thanks! But how long the effect should last? It has been 3 days now.......do you really think just by submerging hydrotons and air stones in tap water for 24 hours, ph fluctuations can be caused for more than 3 days?
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No i think the water alone is the cause, unless you are not useing the tap water to water with daily
 
apollo4201982

apollo4201982

Well-Known Member
Ok just reread your post, try mixing the water you buy and your tap water together. Say 2 parts water you buy to 1 part water from tap.

Ro water or distilled water doesn't have any buffers in it to help maintain the ph.

I would mix a test bucket and see what happens
 
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Larry3215

Well-Known Member
I had the same issue, but not quite as bad. In my case, my water started out around 7 with a PPM of around 100. I had lava rock and perlite in separate totes running on the same rez. I would PH down to 5.7 and it would be 6.5 to 6.8 the next day - with zero plants in the system.

So I put just ph'ed water in a test container, then a second container with water and lava rock and a third with perlite and water. Turns out my water, and lava rock and perlite were ALL buffering the PH up. The lava rock and perlite had been rinsed in the same water.

What finally fixed it for me was first dropping the PH in the rez to 3 and letting that circulate through the totes with the perlite and lava rock for about 36 hours. I also switched over to using battery acid instead of PH Down. After changing the rez water out and adding back in nutes and phing back down, all is well.
 
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sam853

New Member
Larry3215 said:
I had the same issue, but not quite as bad. In my case, my water started out around 7 with a PPM of around 100. I had lava rock and perlite in separate totes running on the same rez. I would PH down to 5.7 and it would be 6.5 to 6.8 the next day - with zero plants in the system.

So I put just ph'ed water in a test container, then a second container with water and lava rock and a third with perlite and water. Turns out my water, and lava rock and perlite were ALL buffering the PH up. The lava rock and perlite had been rinsed in the same water.

What finally fixed it for me was first dropping the PH in the rez to 3 and letting that circulate through the totes with the perlite and lava rock for about 36 hours. I also switched over to using battery acid instead of PH Down. After changing the rez water out and adding back in nutes and phing back down, all is well.
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Hmmm....that is interesting. You basically lowered the ph quite a bit to counteract the rise that was happening and circulated that water for 36 hours so that all the grow medium gets ph synced as much as possible within the desired range......I should try that

Also, i did an experiment today, I put my packaged drinking water in a jar with nutes mixed to it and just let it sit overnight....guess what....ph rose from 6.1 to 7.1 overnight. There was no growing medium in it, no air stones, just plastic jug with packaged drinking water and nutes

I think either water or nutes are the culprit here. Gotta work it out to a more solid conclusion
 
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