Why does the PH change so dramatic ?

When you are running hydro, one of the first things you need to do is get your water tested. If it is bad, then yes, you will need RO or distilled water.

City water supplies have buffers added to them. These buffers raise the pH and maintains this pH in order so that the water lines do not create an electrical charge, ruining the water lines.

Most nutes also have buffers in them in order to maintain the proper pH for the plants.

Mix the 2 together and both buffers are reacting to each other. Either add more nutes taking the chance you may burn up your plants or add a pH adjuster.

R/O water has no buffers. In theory then the nutes should place the pH level at the proper numbers for plants, when mixed. When I use GH3 and my R/O water, the mixture drops to 5.6 and very slowly drifts up as the nutes are consumed by the plants.
Most city water supplies around me use calcium as their buffer.

What is " bad water" over 400 PPM from tap.
.?.???

To high for me.
My city water averages around 108 and I still went with R/O just for the ease of pH'ing.
I did have many successful grows using straight city water.

This all depends on the individual grower and what is acceptable to them

Trying to get water tested got a NO at my shop I spend $1000 when I got started . New shop time that will help.

My PPM is 190 from my Tap

000StankDank000 said:

My PPM is 190 from my Tap

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I'm not a hydro guy, but thought the rule of thumb was 200ppm go with a RO system.

000StankDank000 said:

So is it just high calcium that does this? Will It ever level out?
I need to figure this out as I wanna start " playing" with DWC . I'm scared the DWC bucket is gonna need to be adjusted daily .

That's all I get on my iPad

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Stank, I'm running a five gallon DWC using 3 gallons of solution. I will see my pH drift from 5.7~6.2. As the plants are taking up nutes it takes them as it needs them, that changes the ion concentration of the water "that is a healthy drift" My plant gets all the nutes she needs as she moves up and down the pH scale. I would get concerned if your going from 5.8 to 6.8 over a 24 hour period, then there are buffers in your water that are acting wacky ....Calcium and some other trace nutes. If you find this to be the case switch to store bought r/o or distilled, then you know exactly whats going on and why. Hope that helps some.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/

I'm having a similar pH drift issue, my tap is only about 110ppm. My municipal water utility has a tap analysis report on their website that lists the annual high, low, and average numbers for various elements. Have you checked if yours does the same? A one time test only really helps if it's a subterranean water source, if it's surface water then it'll fluctuate a lot throughout the year. For example the tap analysis report says my calcium ppm ranges from low teens to mid-50s throughout the year, averaging somewhere in the mid 20s.

Getting a water analyses is a good thing to do so that you have a base-line of chemicals and pH, but you can work with many different levels of chemistry and be successful if you know what is in it. But don't forget that even distilled water will change pH value as it is aerated due to the dissolution of different elements like nitrogen (which is abundant in our atmosphere), oxygen, CO2, etc. over time. Also, you will(should) have pH drifting in a hydro system for the simple reason stated above, that the pH will change as the plants draw elements out of the solution.

But as I understood the original statement of curiosity. In plain water(unchlorinated, <200ppm) which I thought Stank was using ffor pH test, that has little or nor dissolved elements other than atmospheric gases at normal pressure, When aeration is applied, more atmospheric gasses are forced into the water where more of these elements is dissolved. This constant raising of elements in the what is changing the pH. However, these ph changes, in plain water, are rather small and easily overtaken by normal nutrient dosing.

I have noticed that "plain" water, whether it is RO or Tap its PH is very easily affected because there isn't much in it to begin with. You see this more so with RO water because there is nothing in it..

Think of it like muddy water... RO water is like PURE water, so it doesn't take very much dirt and it gets muddy..

Tap water has a little bit of mud.. so it takes more to effect it, but not much.

When you add nutes to the water, you make it really MUDDY (or ph'd) so then the effects of the atmosphere, ect don't have as much of an effect on it.

the muddier the water, the more mud it takes to change the color. With pure RO water you can't get a ph reading, it flies all over the place, but you add 1 spec of ph down and it drops like a rock.. the more you add to the water, the more you have to add to have an effect. Take plain water, add 1 drop ph down, it will drop it significantly, then take some water that has nutes mixed in, and that 1 drop of ph down wont do much, because there are already 40 drops of ph'd nutes in there.

Wow im baked!


Make sense? lol

000StankDank000 said:

So is it just high calcium that does this? Will It ever level out?
I need to figure this out as I wanna start " playing" with DWC . I'm scared the DWC bucket is gonna need to be adjusted daily .

That's all I get on my iPad

Click to expand...

Personally bro you need to read wsy more before doing hydroponics everyone thinks its easy. .your plants are sbout to die or are having problems. .that being said stick to soil for s couple times..you will learn allot..

next said:

i have noticed that "plain" water, whether it is ro or tap its ph is very easily affected because there isn't much in it to begin with. You see this more so with ro water because there is nothing in it..

Think of it like muddy water... Ro water is like pure water, so it doesn't take very much dirt and it gets muddy..

Tap water has a little bit of mud.. So it takes more to effect it, but not much.

When you add nutes to the water, you make it really muddy (or ph'd) so then the effects of the atmosphere, ect don't have as much of an effect on it.

The muddier the water, the more mud it takes to change the color. With pure ro water you can't get a ph reading, it flies all over the place, but you add 1 spec of ph down and it drops like a rock.. The more you add to the water, the more you have to add to have an effect. Take plain water, add 1 drop ph down, it will drop it significantly, then take some water that has nutes mixed in, and that 1 drop of ph down wont do much, because there are already 40 drops of ph'd nutes in there.

Wow im baked!


Make sense? Lol

Click to expand...

x2

techrons78 said:

Personally bro you need to read wsy more before doing hydroponics everyone thinks its easy. .your plants are sbout to die or are having problems. .that being said stick to soil for s couple times..you will learn allot..

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Or I could try 1 DWC bucket while I do my 2 soil grows to get the hang of it.

Grow some lettuce in your DWC

Hydro growing is not as difficult as many people fear. It is more involved in ways than soil growing, and it requires a dedicated attention to detail, but the rules of hydro are quite straight forward and easier to learn than organics (IMO). The great thing with hydro is that you know precisely what is in the system, you know what the plants are getting because you are feeding the plants directly. It is really a matter of getting familiar with the process and getting used to following a specific set off rules and parameters.

Hushpuppy said:

Hydro growing is not as difficult as many people fear. It is more involved in ways than soil growing, and it requires a dedicated attention to detail, but the rules of hydro are quite straight forward and easier to learn than organics (IMO). The great thing with hydro is that you know precisely what is in the system, you know what the plants are getting because you are feeding the plants directly. It is really a matter of getting familiar with the process and getting used to following a specific set off rules and parameters.

Click to expand...

That has been my experience so far. I learned the rules and all I do is follow them and my grow has been phenomenal and this is my very first attempt at hydro after decades of soil grows.

http://www.marijuanapassion.com//www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/