PH drift

[PUFF MONKEY]

i am wondering what the time period should be when my PH drifts from 5.6 to 6.0..i like to catch it before it gets there but recently the shift lengths are totally unpredictable. is this eratic fluctuation normal midway through flowering ? if not, what would i do to steady things out?also.. it seems that i have to use a great deal of earth juice down to move my PH 0.1..all my meters are in working order and were cal checked just the other day. i'm in a 70 gal res if that helps.

 

[DonJones]

Puff Monkey,

It might help if you posted what variety you are growing, what nutes and additives you are using and what kind of hydro you are running. You probably have posted this befoe but please refresh our minds.

I have never grown hydro yet so I'm trying to remember what I read about PH in the Forums. If I remember correctly, some nutes seem to cause wide swings. I have read that some brands of nute have "buffers included" to keep the PH stable. If so, what MIGHT be happening is that your nute have buffers in them and when you PH the solution you over power the buffer(s) But after a period of time the slow release buffered over power your PH down, so the PH goes up. If this is what is happening in your case, then you are kind of screwed with a choice between playing chase the PH with the nutes or find other nutes that doesn't do that.

Incidentally there are some excellent threads on both the PH problem and making your own PH down on the forum.

I hope I'm all wet with my assessment of what is happening with your PH.

How long does it take your PH to go up, how far does it go if you leave it alone, and will it stabilize or even come back down if you don't mess with it?

Today is probably not a good day to get answers on the Forum being a holiday so hopefully you will get some bettr advice tomorrow.

Good smoking.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

man i would loooove to but i gotta run out for a sack....yeah, i know... how ironic huh ? i'll post all that as soon as i return.. the plants are 1 mazar and 4 bluemystic.

 

[Old_SSSC_Guy]

the faster the plants grow the more potential for pH shift as the ladies eat more/different trace elements from your mix. depending on your setup you also can get shift as evaporation also changes the mix, effected by how many cycles a day you run, and the collection method for recirculating the used nute back into play. like if you are in long trays and you drip them into catch basins and pump them back to reservoir or something like that. 70 gals is a lot of mix to maintain. in theory you need to change it weekly and thats a lot of nute to mix.

you also can get pH shift from using hot water to mix the nutes, in the midwest especially there can be a lot of lime (or hot water scale) in the water. one way it shows up and constantly "roving" pH which you have to chase your tail to balance. it climbs, you add pH down, it climbs again, you add more - pretty soon your nute mix is all trashed from sheer overload of pH adjustments.

one thing to check and trace daily is your PPM along with the pH. if you see the pH shift when you get higher PPMs, it might be that the mix is evaporating and getting more concentrated. always check the two things as a unit, and check your source water too.

DonJones said it right - you gotta explain what you have setup...

 

[NorCalHal]

IMO, a PH drift from 5.6-6.0 is norml for hydro and is actually beneficial. Yu WANT a upward drift. So, start at the low end, which u are, and let 'er drift to 6.0
As long as you do a water change consistently, you should have no issues man.

 

[pcduck]

:yeahthat::goodposting: BIU :bolt::bong2:

 

[Tater]

Bang on NorCal, I let mine drift from 5.6 up to 6.3 and by then they are ready for a rez change.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

so are you sayin' i need to change the water after the PH rise ? cause i just use PH down to bring it back to 5.6 .. i usually change out the res every 2 weeks though.

 

[erkelsgoo420]

Not really a rule to it as each plant is different. If it were hungry it would eat more nutes than water therefore raising ph.. Which is why its important to ph water before adding nutes. If u still have problems u can buy a "base" which will set ur water at a certain ph and then u can adjust from there insuring no drastic spikes causing lockout. Are u in a bubbleponic system? If so do u still have the pump and feeding line in if so take it out that could be causing the spikes. Also water temp will cause slight changes. In a 70 gallon res it should stay pretty stable but I would imagine it takes a lot of everything to get it where u want it haha. If ur having problems I can vouch for technaflora ph down its pretty potent half a lid takes 12 gallons from 9.6 to 5.4-.8.
All that said it typically takes a week for my ph to drift from 5.4 to 6.

 

[pcduck]

I never ph my water before adding nutes, I do it afterwards, if it needs it.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

yeah, the GH 3 usually brings my RO to where it needs to be ..out of the 4 strains i have growing now, the BM's are the only ones showing any leaf discoloration and it's only on the fan leaves..the others look perfect. they are about 4-5 weeks into flower now and the PH wants to hang between 5.8-6.0 @ 1300 +-75.....could it just be a matter of "conditioning" 70 gal of RO water ?

 

[pcduck]

Hey Puff I just started using R/O water myself and GH 3 does seem to put the ph right where the plants need it. I still aerate my nutes solution for 24 hours before testing and using the mix.

edit: I also put a bit of cal/mag in for the leaf discoloration in the 3-4 week period.

 

[Callawave]

Hi Puff.
My pH has been drifting from 5.4 to 5.7 or 8 daily.
Also if you're using RO water, are you replacing the electrolytes lost through the process? I use Kent Marine 'RO Right' to simulate soft river water. If you don't, most meters will give you a false reading.

 

[erkelsgoo420]

My bad. I forgot a lot of people use ro I'm on tap atm. No$.

 

[PUFF MONKEY]

Hi Puff.
My pH has been drifting from 5.4 to 5.7 or 8 daily.
Also if you're using RO water, are you replacing the electrolytes lost through the process? I use Kent Marine 'RO Right' to simulate soft river water. If you don't, most meters will give you a false reading.

this is news to me...i have not heard of replacing electrolytes in ro water...how much of a false reading we talkin' ? cause my plants ain't showin' it...also 5.4 is a little low ain't it ?... i think i could go for a little cal/mag stuff but my "problem" was really more like shifting .3 one week and then shifting .5 the week after(having readjusted to 5.6 from the previous week).i was just wondering if the inconsistancy was the sign of a more serious problem..but hey, i think the plants are lovin' it.

 

[pcduck]

My bad. I forgot a lot of people use ro I'm on tap atm. No$.

erkelsgoo420 Even with using tap water why would a grower lower the ph prior to adding nute? Adding nutes lower your ph. If a grower ph'es his water to 5.6-5.8 before adding nutes he will have to raise his ph after adding nutes. Seems to me to be a lot of ph up and ph down being used if doing it this way.

 

[pcduck]

Hi Puff.
My pH has been drifting from 5.4 to 5.7 or 8 daily.
Also if you're using RO water, are you replacing the electrolytes lost through the process? I use Kent Marine 'RO Right' to simulate soft river water. If you don't, most meters will give you a false reading.

My meter does not do this:confused2: Why?

 

[Tater]

If you are worried about the electrical balance of your water just add a couple cups of tap water to your ro water to balance it out.

 

[erkelsgoo420]

erkelsgoo420 Even with using tap water why would a grower lower the ph prior to adding nute? Adding nutes lower your ph. If a grower ph'es his water to 5.6-5.8 before adding nutes he will have to raise his ph after adding nutes. Seems to me to be a lot of ph up and ph down being used if doing it this way.

I adjust before hand as my tap is above 9 so I adjust to 5.9-6.0 then add nutes putting me right where I need to be. Then when/if they get hungry and eat all the nutes in the res my ph won't spike back to 9 only to the previously adjusted 6... And I NEVER touch ph up. Its a pain but its the only way I can do it personally. Once I get an ro filter it'll be a different story as all the nutes I use are ph perfect but til then I gotta give myself a safe baseline or I could lose everything over a few days :/

 

[Callawave]

If you are worried about the electrical balance of your water just add a couple cups of tap water to your ro water to balance it out.

Whatever rocks your boat. I prefer not adding algae spores and chlorine.