So. Before starting my grow I figured I should get all of my ducks in a row and have proper ph in my water and dechlorination. Instead of buying ph up and down I waited until my blue labs ph pen came in and started doing tests on my water. After calibrating my pen I found my water to have a ph of 7.6. I purchased 500mg vit C tabs, 500 count for just under 15 dollars. I then crushed up one 500mg tablet and put this in 500ml of my water to create a solution that is 1mg vit C to 1ml of my water. I then slowly added this solution with a syringe to 100ml of my water until I got a ph of 6.5. I found I needed 8ml of my vitamin C solution or 8mg of vit C for 100ml of my water. I then multiplied my vit C solution and water x 5. To check the amount of solution I needed for 500ml of my water. 8ml of vit C solution x 5 gave me 40ml. I added that to my 500ml of water and voila ph 6.5. Checked 24 hrs later and still stable ph of 6.5. Therefore 1L of my water requires 80ml or 80mg vitamin c solution for a ph of 6.5. Does this sound good? Any issues with adding this much vitamin C to my plants? The only other non medicinal ingredients is microcrystaline cellulose and vegetable grafe magnesium stearate. Any questions or comments would love input and is this enough for dechlorination. Cheers everyone.
I love science: Vitamin C for pH down and dechlorination question with pics
- Thread starter metcalfr
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Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Hi @metcalfr and welcome to the forum! 
I love science too, so lets discuss some of it. I don't think the ascorbic acid will hurt anything and although Vitamin c might work to bring your plain water down to 6.5, I would like to warn you that 6.3 pH is actually the number you should shoot for. When it comes time to bring the pH back up to 6.3 after you have added acidic nutes to the mix you are going to need something else... have you figured out what you are going to use for pH up?
I also would like to explain to you that we only need to adjust pH if we are using synthetic nutes, that need to be in a certain pH range in order to break free of the salt bonds it is put in so as to be able to be bottled and shipped to you. If you are not using synthetic nutes, there is no need to adjust pH. People who are using organic methods to grow this weed, have no need to pH adjust and certain nutrient lines also do not need any adjustment in this manner.
I also want to mention chlorine and chloramine, since you are using ascorbic acid. The most common use of Vitamin C is not to adjust pH, it is to drop chlorine products out of the solution. There are two groups of people who don't want chlorine in their water... the hydro crowd who wants to work with clean water so they can know exactly how much nutrient is in the solution by measuring ppm, and the organic crowd who relies on microbes in the soil to feed their plants... and chlorine over time will kill those microbes. Everyone else, has no need to worry about or adjust for chlorine. Chlorine by itself is not bad and is actually one of the 19 elements that our pot plants actually need in small amounts. Most people running synthetic nutes can safely use tap water to water/feed their plants. The general rule is that if it doesn't kill you, your pets or your lawn, your tap water is fine to use for your plants.
I love science too, so lets discuss some of it. I don't think the ascorbic acid will hurt anything and although Vitamin c might work to bring your plain water down to 6.5, I would like to warn you that 6.3 pH is actually the number you should shoot for. When it comes time to bring the pH back up to 6.3 after you have added acidic nutes to the mix you are going to need something else... have you figured out what you are going to use for pH up?
I also would like to explain to you that we only need to adjust pH if we are using synthetic nutes, that need to be in a certain pH range in order to break free of the salt bonds it is put in so as to be able to be bottled and shipped to you. If you are not using synthetic nutes, there is no need to adjust pH. People who are using organic methods to grow this weed, have no need to pH adjust and certain nutrient lines also do not need any adjustment in this manner.
I also want to mention chlorine and chloramine, since you are using ascorbic acid. The most common use of Vitamin C is not to adjust pH, it is to drop chlorine products out of the solution. There are two groups of people who don't want chlorine in their water... the hydro crowd who wants to work with clean water so they can know exactly how much nutrient is in the solution by measuring ppm, and the organic crowd who relies on microbes in the soil to feed their plants... and chlorine over time will kill those microbes. Everyone else, has no need to worry about or adjust for chlorine. Chlorine by itself is not bad and is actually one of the 19 elements that our pot plants actually need in small amounts. Most people running synthetic nutes can safely use tap water to water/feed their plants. The general rule is that if it doesn't kill you, your pets or your lawn, your tap water is fine to use for your plants.
Curbcalamity
Well-Known Member
ascorbic acid is a bad choice as PH down if you don't use RO water(and even if you do isn't the best acid to use) though as it has a high affinity with calcium carbonate and iron. I found I was getting a lot of precipitate forming in my res and the PH was still climbing.
Curbcalamity
Well-Known Member
oh forgot to say, calcium carbonate is the PH stabilizer added to tap water all over the world.
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I am collecting chems that are less expensive than name brands, this one will be added with the mention of calcium carbonate. I am lucky, I have well water.
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