Hydro ph Issue

[LadyJane420]

High.

When I mix my nutes for plants in the veg stage the ph is always high so I add ph Down. However, when I mix the flowering nutes the ph is below range 5.3, so I gave a dash of ph UP. Because the ph naturally rises in the reservoir and I can't give ph down in the same mix as ph Up it gets to 6.2 pretty fast.

What I've done is mix up an extra batch of nutes which is at ph 5.3, bailing some of the water from the reservoir and adding the 5.3 nutes to bring the mixture in range.

Any other fixes out there?

 

[Green Knight]

Once the nutes have settled, if the pH rises over a few days I wouldn't worry too much about adding some pH down, even if you added pH up a few days before... the pH up will be so dispersed in the nutes it shouldn't cause major issues reacting with the down and forming a salt. What you're currently doing is fine, just a little more high maintenance.

The other factor may be that you're plants are using the nutes up quickly, raising the pH (nutes are acidic). Is the EC dropping as the pH rises? This would suggest the plant's using nutes faster than the water. You may be able to increase the concentration of the nutes until the EC stays steady as the res level drops, and theoretically the pH will also stay pretty steady. If you increase the nutes and the EC starts rising as the pH falls then the solution's a little hot and you can back off the nutes a bit.

 

[nibec]

5.3 isnt overly bad either.

i dont have any hydro going right now, but typically i would PH my water to 5.0 ish and let it rise to 6.1ish over the course of 3-4 days. then knock it back down to 5.0ish and repeat

i also dont change my res, apart from the swap from veg to flower. BUT i dont reccomend this at all unless you are very familiar to your nutrients, and specific plants needs. its very easy to accidently overdose on certain nutes and get lockouts. not to mention you have to keep a squeaky clean res, or youll kill them with root rot. everything needs to be dialed in almost perfectly in order to not do res dumps.

due to buildups however, i wouldnt recommend going past 8 weeks without a res change. and always run something like aquashield to avoid plythium if you ever decide to do long hauls like that.

 

[LadyJane420]

Thank you so much for the information. It is really helpful! sub'd