Another pH question

[Scientific]

"Soft water" is more like 50 PPM or less. I don't know anything about mixing.

I do know about GH mixing order though. If you look at their website, they say to add CALiMAGic first, then Micro. They say that if you do otherwise, you will get nutrient lockout. I thing both might be alkaline, and the rest acidic, which would make it a pH thing, but do be sure to add Ca/Mg and Micro first.

 

[gr0w]

"Soft water" is more like 50 PPM or less. I don't know anything about mixing.

I do know about GH mixing order though. If you look at their website, they say to add CALiMAGic first, then Micro. They say that if you do otherwise, you will get nutrient lockout. I thing both might be alkaline, and the rest acidic, which would make it a pH thing, but do be sure to add Ca/Mg and Micro first.

yeah, ill just keep using the R/o water, and I recently just read that I should use half dosage of what GH grow chart recommends, so i will try this and hope for success.
also, if i am using mostly GH line of nutes and such, is it bad to use another brand PH down?
I have this stuff on hand.

 

[Lazarus13]

yeah, ill just keep using the R/o water, and I recently just read that I should use half dosage of what GH grow chart recommends, so i will try this and hope for success.
also, if i am using mostly GH line of nutes and such, is it bad to use another brand PH down?
I have this stuff on hand.

You can use more nutes but half strength of most lines seems to be enough. I use AN and and have never had to go past 50% but this run im pushing it to 75% strength to see if theres any difference in yield.
Also as far as ph down... Its all mostly phosphoric acid and interchangeable. I use GH up and down with whatever im running for nutes. Havent used it tho since i switched to AN.

 

[Scientific]

yeah, ill just keep using the R/o water, and I recently just read that I should use half dosage of what GH grow chart recommends, so i will try this and hope for success.
also, if i am using mostly GH line of nutes and such, is it bad to use another brand PH down?
I have this stuff on hand.

I used 1/2 strength GH nutes or even less, but it was on a dwarf auto. It worked great. If the plant wants more it will you. The one time I got closer to 1:1 I started getting yellow tips.

Acide phosphorique is acid phosphoriqe, regardless of which brand. You can use any. H3PO4! Three acid protons per molecule! Kewl! Looks like you've got a lifetime supply there.

 

[gr0w]

Thanks a lot guys! Really appreciate it.
I will get everything ready for tomorrow and throw an update up. Hope it all goes good this time.

 

[gr0w]

I plan on adding a float valve into my controller bucket and adding a reservoir to fill the water level as it goes down.

do you pH the R/O water in the reservoir? and do you add any nutrients? or just let the R/O water go into the controller without

 

[Scientific]

I set up my reservoir with a line that automatically topped it off.

When the plant was in its stretch, it was using so many nutes that I had nutrient solution in the top-off reservoir. But my pH level was volatile and I ended up fine tuning both my pH and my nutrients so much that I abandoned automatic topping off and just did it by hand. That was a lot of fussing and measuring and mixing, etc., but the plant really appreciated the constant attention and produced a bumper crop.

For my next hydro grow I want a really big reservoir that may be more stable, and I'm going to try to learn a lot more too so it's lower maintenance.

I don't use RO water because the water here is only 28 PPM out of the tap. SOFT!

My experimental apple juice bottle nute top-off reservoir It worked, but the plant could empty it in one day.

 

[gr0w]

I set up my reservoir with a line that automatically topped it off.

When the plant was in its stretch, it was using so many nutes that I had nutrient solution in the top-off reservoir. But my pH level was volatile and I ended up fine tuning both my pH and my nutrients so much that I abandoned automatic topping off and just did it by hand. That was a lot of fussing and measuring and mixing, etc., but the plant really appreciated the constant attention and produced a bumper crop.

For my next hydro grow I want a really big reservoir that may be more stable, and I'm going to try to learn a lot more too so it's lower maintenance.

I don't use RO water because the water here is only 28 PPM out of the tap. SOFT!

My experimental apple juice bottle nute top-off reservoir It worked, but the plant could empty it in one day.

so would you recommend just using pH water when using the top off reservoir?
i know plants like to drink more water than they take in nutrients so I think it might make sense to just do a water top off.
but i don't know lol

 

[Scientific]

so would you recommend just using pH water when using the top off reservoir?
i know plants like to drink more water than they take in nutrients so I think it might make sense to just do a water top off.
but i don't know lol

I think the thing to do is to take careful measurements of pH and PPM every day and let that be your guide.

I started off my last grow doing weekly media changes according to the prescribed formula, but then I read another guy's grow log in which he was adjusting his nutes daily by topping off with dilute nutrient solution. So one school of thought seems to be that you just bump the level weekly with concentrated nutrients, and another is seems to be that you try to maintain a certain nutrient level.

Eventually, when the plant was going through its stretch, it was drinking half a gallon of water a day AND eating up the nutes, so I felt like I really had no choice but to keep topping off with water + nutes to stay at that week's target level. And I was adjusting the pH as often as twice a day. It was a lot of work, but the plant really produced.

Oh, and to your point about plants liking to drink more water than they take in nutrients--when my plant was drinking half a gallon a day, if it was taking up that much in 1000 PPM nutrient solution, it would have OD'd, so a more dilute mix was needed.

It seems to me that you can read about nutrient schedules and they are great guides, but you have to carefully watch what the plant is doing and adapt.

 

[Scrogdawg]

I use the GH line up in my rdwc system. I use only RO water in a 24 gallon system(4x5 gal buckets and a reservoir). I fill the system with water and add Ca/Mg, Z7, Micro, Grow and then bloom. My PH will fluctuate radically for 3 days and I chase it constantly to stay within 5.5 to 5.9. On the fourth day it stabilizes and I adjust to 5.8 and leave it there. I run my ppm at 600-650 which gives me an EC of 1.1-1.2. I add RO water as required to the system also mixed to 600-650ppm. I have had good success doing res changes every 14 days using this method. After the initial 3 days of fluctuation in PH my system will sit at PH 5.8, 620ppm and 1.1 EC without budging until the next res change.

When I switch to flower I add GH KoolBloom as the last additive as well.
I also run a day of GH FloraKleen between veg and bloom.

 

[gr0w]

I use the GH line up in my rdwc system. I use only RO water in a 24 gallon system(4x5 gal buckets and a reservoir). I fill the system with water and add Ca/Mg, Z7, Micro, Grow and then bloom. My PH will fluctuate radically for 3 days and I chase it constantly to stay within 5.5 to 5.9. On the fourth day it stabilizes and I adjust to 5.8 and leave it there. I run my ppm at 600-650 which gives me an EC of 1.1-1.2. I add RO water as required to the system also mixed to 600-650ppm. I have had good success doing res changes every 14 days using this method. After the initial 3 days of fluctuation in PH my system will sit at PH 5.8, 620ppm and 1.1 EC without budging until the next res change.

When I switch to flower I add GH KoolBloom as the last additive as well.
I also run a day of GH FloraKleen between veg and bloom.

do you start chasing the pH level right away? just did my res change and it is at 5.8
if it goes up tomorrow when I wake up should I start chasing it back down or wait a day and see if it gets back to a acceptable range?
Also,

Should you keep the reservoir(epicentre) lid on? Or let it breath? I have two air stones in it

 

[Scientific]

do you start chasing the pH level right away?

General Hydroponics has a lot of good info at their website.
I found this one really useful: Advanced Nutrient Management — General Hydroponics

 

[gr0w]

General Hydroponics has a lot of good info at their website.
I found this one really useful: Advanced Nutrient Management – General Hydroponics

Thanks for that Link! Read through the whole thing and learned a lot. Thanks.

As far as the reservoir lid question?
Leave it on tight,drill some air holes? Leave it off?
Just curious as I don't want mold or anything growing on the lid

 

[Scientific]

Thanks for that Link! Read through the whole thing and learned a lot. Thanks.

As far as the reservoir lid question?
Leave it on tight,drill some air holes? Leave it off?
Just curious as I don't want mold or anything growing on the lid

Yeah, I really liked that article and learned from it. It's worth poking around at the GH site for more info there, especially if you're using GH nutes.

I think keeping light out of your res is important so you don't start getting algae.
Air stones will keep air going in. You do need some way for that air to get back out, but just the seams should leak enough on most boxes.

 

[gr0w]

Yeah, I really liked that article and learned from it. It's worth poking around at the GH site for more info there, especially if you're using GH nutes.

I think keeping light out of your res is important so you don't start getting algae.
Air stones will keep air going in. You do need some way for that air to get back out, but just the seams should leak enough on most boxes.

Yeah, I poked around and found some more useful info on the the flora series nuts to help me out.

My reservoir is a garbage can so it should have some air leak from the lid I would Imagine.

 

[Scrogdawg]

do you start chasing the pH level right away? just did my res change and it is at 5.8
if it goes up tomorrow when I wake up should I start chasing it back down or wait a day and see if it gets back to a acceptable range?
Also,

Should you keep the reservoir(epicentre) lid on? Or let it breath? I have two air stones in it

I don't like mine to be over 6.0 or under 5.5 so I'll adjust as soon as it hits either limit.

Keep the reservoir lid on all the time and cover the tops of your net pots or whatever you have in the tent. Light in the system is a bad thing. No light, no algae. Your circulating pump, air stones and hydroguard will take care of the rest.

 

[gr0w]

I don't like mine to be over 6.0 or under 5.5 so I'll adjust as soon as it hits either limit.

Keep the reservoir lid on all the time and cover the tops of your net pots or whatever you have in the tent. Light in the system is a bad thing. No light, no algae. Your circulating pump, air stones and hydroguard will take care of the rest.

Thanks for the advise. Really appreciate it.

 

[Scrogdawg]

Your welcome. That looks good, nice job.