PH Problems in Bubbleponics Need Help

[compqt]

My plants are 10 days old. Everything was good until a couple of days ago. My PH dropped from 5.9 to like 1.6. I used PH up and brought it up to 6. The next day is was back in the ones. My PPM has remained steady at 400, heat is 82 F, and I am using distilled water.

What is causing this and what can I do to prevent this??

 

[ShecallshimThor]

im only a nooby but your temp might be to hight from everything ive read temps should be 55-80 without problems.......but.......ive seen someone on this site do an experiment and he had his res at 83 but with co2 so i would suggest dropping temp or adding co2

 

[compqt]

my air temps are 82 F my res temps are 63.8. F

 

[Growdude]

My plants are 10 days old. Everything was good until a couple of days ago. My PH dropped from 5.9 to like 1.6. I used PH up and brought it up to 6. The next day is was back in the ones. My PPM has remained steady at 400, heat is 82 F, and I am using distilled water.

What is causing this and what can I do to prevent this??

What are you using to adj your ph?
What type of nutes are you using?

How much air do you have pumping?

Ive never heard of a ph swing that bad.

 

[compqt]

What are you using to adj your ph?
What type of nutes are you using?

How much air do you have pumping?

Ive never heard of a ph swing that bad.

Using PH Up

Fox Farm 1/4 strength following feeding chart

I don't remember the make and model of the air pump but it is used for aquariums and has a 2 air outputs. Its pretty big

Also my plants are showing signs of nute burn, maybe too much PH Up. I am emptying half the res tomorrow and re filling it. Debating whether I should use tap or distilled. Been using distilled. I want to to a full res change over the weekend thats why I am debating using tap just for the few days

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I think that the nute burn is from nutes. I don't think that at 10 days, you should be giving your plants nutes, especially 400 ppms worth. Plants generally do not need to be given any nutes until they are at least 2-3 weeks old. I would flush them and then just give them ph'd distilled water with no nutes.

I have never heard of a ph swing that bad either.

 

[Elven]

Good luck I have PH up problems, I just check mine 4 times or more a day and fine tune the water if I need to.

 

[BuddyLuv]

Using to much pH up will burn your plants. 400 ppm is fine for plants that young. I give mine 300 at 1 week and keep doubling every week after. What kind of meter are you using? Also as the water level goes down it will be harder to stabilize the drift. I recommend filling up the res and then adjusting the pH.

 

[Elven]

Using to much pH up will burn your plants. 400 ppm is fine for plants that young. I give mine 300 at 1 week and keep doubling every week after. What kind of meter are you using? Also as the water level goes down it will be harder to stabilize the drift. I recommend filling up the res and then adjusting the pH.

So just a quick question, I was told that only the initial PPM (fertilizer) mattered. So lets say that my new plants (see grow journal, damn a shameless plug) are about to start week 4 of the feeding schedule that I am using says that once all my nutes are in the water I should be at 800 ppm. Now as I said in my last post I have to add PH down multiple times a day for the first few days (looks like its a reaction of the organic parts of my feeding schedule) and that makes my PPM go up. This additional PPM does not seem to negatively effect my plants. So my question is, am I right in my thinking? Or does total PPM effect the plants as well?

 

[BuddyLuv]

The reason your PPM goes up is because your water level goes down. If you fill your res up to it's original level, let's say 10 gallons. Your PPM should go down as the plants feed. My res for instance hold 15 gallons. When I first change my res my ppm is at 1400 with 15 gallons of water. About 3 days later the water level is down to about 5 gallons and if I read my ppm it says it is 1600. Now if I add 10 gallons back to my res and bring it back to 15 gallons and read my ppm it says it is 800. Does this make sense to you? Also your pH will drift in different directions based upon what your plants are doing. Root growth makes it rise as well as heavy feeding. When the drink more water your pH generally goes down.

 

[Elven]

The reason your PPM goes up is because your water level goes down. If you fill your res up to it's original level, let's say 10 gallons. Your PPM should go down as the plants feed. My res for instance hold 15 gallons. When I first change my res my ppm is at 1400 with 15 gallons of water. About 3 days later the water level is down to about 5 gallons and if I read my ppm it says it is 1600. Now if I add 10 gallons back to my res and bring it back to 15 gallons and read my ppm it says it is 800. Does this make sense to you? Also your pH will drift in different directions based upon what your plants are doing. Root growth makes it rise as well as heavy feeding. When the drink more water your pH generally goes down.

That must be it at some level cuz I have TONS of root growth, but they dont drink alot I would say the 4 of them finishing up week 3 of veg prob use about a gallon or so a week. I just got the right bulbs for my lights (check my grow journal, another shameless plug) so I am just starting to get some great growth.

 

[BuddyLuv]

Oh and I forgot to add, organics do crazy things in hydro. Trust me I thought I had my dialed in and then I added organics to my feeding program. Instant drift in all directions from day to day, sometimes within hours.

 

[Elven]

Thanks alot, I figure that as long as I keep this up (checking 4 times a day) it will end up OK.

 

[NewbieG]

I've heard organic nutrients are difficult to use in hydro... I don't want to say its the nutes, but may want to back off a bit and see what happens? Please keep us posted with how you fix it. I'm interested to know if it is the FF or not

 

[HydroManiac]

I wouldnt give your plants distilled water give them natural spring water....

 

[compqt]

I changed the res, last Wednesday. I used tap water. The plants are taking a turn for the worse.

Here are pics from Sunday the 31st. As you can see although blurry I have nice root growth

 

[compqt]

Even though they are getting even worse. They are growing, although I don't know how much longer. Also the smaller ones did not have yellowing leaves over the weekend. I have to say I am getting discouraged with the whole hydro thing. I have 1 plant in dirt right now and I have no problems at all

 

[Elven]

If your tap water has chlorine (and most does) that will trash your plants. If you have a water store in your area I get 5 gallons for a buck, and its 2 to 5 ppm to start. Also there is no chlorine, which is nice.

 

[compqt]

They were burnt before I used tap water. I have no water store

 

[Elven]

They were burnt before I used tap water. I have no water store

Then I would say pick up some good bottled water, if you buy it by the gallon its not that bad. At least cheaper than buying weed