PH levels need adjusting daily

[RandumbDude]

Hello,

Please excuse my ignorance I am a first-time grower and new to this forum as well.I did a search on this topic but couldn't find the answers I was looking for so I figured I would ask the professionals.

I am one week into my first grow and I have been attempting to keep my PH at 6. Every morning when I check my pH I realize that it rises to about 7 and I have to adjust it. Is this normal?

I am using 10 gall DWC with 6gallons distilled water and foxfarm nutes. Plants look healthy and are taking root nicely. any input on this is greatly appreciated, thank you and advance.

 

[Stealthboat]

Well my 1st question is what do you use to lower the ph? And are there any other additives we should know about besides the FF nutes?

 

[RandumbDude]

Well my 1st question is what do you use to lower the ph? And are there any other additives we should know about besides the FF nutes?

Stealthboat,

I am using an aquarium grade ph down and there are no additional additives. Should I perhaps try a diff ph down?

 

[Stealthboat]

Not sure, no idea on how well the aquarium stuff works. I also have no experience with DWC lol. well if the ph keep fluctuating then only a few things could be happening; the plant is either uptaking a lot of nutes and offsetting the ph or the aquarium ph down doesn't last long (for whatever reason) and the ph just slowly rises.

 

[Dan Ultra]

Have you been checking the pH levels of the distilled water you are using? Distilled water can have a pH range of 7.2-8.1.

 

[RandumbDude]

Have you been checking the pH levels of the distilled water you are using? Distilled water can have a pH range of 7.2-8.1.

UltraDan,

Yes, the ph of the distilled water is about 8 before applying treatment. I ph'd 6 gallons of distilled water to an approx ph level of 6 upon setting up my DWC.

 

[Fuzzy Duck]

What is the concentration % of the aquarium PH down ?


I've used phosphoric acid PH down with a concentration value of 59%.


It all so maybe the water causing the problem ?


Take a look at this link same sort of problem but still debating on PH drift - My PH changed?

 

[RandumbDude]

I am using some stones to hold my air stone in place, I washed them well before using them but perhaps they can be the reason for the ph fluctuation?

 

[Alienpus]

Certain types of stone can affect PH like limestone

What is your ppm? Is your ppm lowering? What type of acid is in your 'aquarium ph down' ? Often with DWC ph has a tendency to drift upwards and needs regular adjustment. Like Stealthboat said if your plants are sucking in a lot of nutrients and your ppm is low ph will rise. If you suspect your water, mix up a bucket full to ph5.8 and check it over the next few days. Many people with DWC initially adjust ph to around 5.5 and let it drift up to 6.0 over a few days, before adjusting again.

 

[RandumbDude]

Certain types of stone can affect PH like limestone

What is your ppm? Is your ppm lowering? What type of acid is in your 'aquarium ph down' ? Often with DWC ph has a tendency to drift upwards and needs regular adjustment. Like Stealthboat said if your plants are sucking in a lot of nutrients and your ppm is low ph will rise. If you suspect your water, mix up a bucket full to ph5.8 and check it over the next few days. Many people with DWC initially adjust ph to around 5.5 and let it drift up to 6.0 over a few days, before adjusting again.

Alienpus,
My ppm is currently 250 and here is a pic of the ph down I am using. It does not say what kind it has but I just ordered some new ph up/dwn.

 

[Alienpus]

There are too many variables and not enough information to know what's going on in your system. Ph rising a whole point in a day is a lot IMO, simple fix. If you stay too long between ph 6-7 you will probably have nutrient lockout. You need to understand the relationship between your water, ph, ppm and plants by observing and doing a lot of tests. 250ppm seems very low to me especially if you have a .700 conversion factor, and it's probably not all nutes. your plants are one week into what? flower,veg,seed? Plants can absorb some of the phosphorus and nitric acid in ph downs, more in a low PPM environment, driving PH up. Monitoring your PPM is a great way to know what's going on. At proper levels nutes are usually pretty good at stabilizing PH, for a while anyway. Anyway, lets understand what's going on.

What is the conversion factor of your TDS meter?

What is the PH and PPM of the distilled water?
What is the PH and PPM of your tap water?
What is the PPM of 6 gal plain water with just PH adjusted?
What is the PH and PPM once you have added nutes only?
What is the PH and PPM with nutes and PH is adjusted ? if applicable?

Notice how the PPM reflects everything you do. Now we need a fresh batch of nutes (whole system), say ph at 5.8 and PPM at 500. So we measure the ppm of plain water and add 500 ppm of nutes to that ppm and then adjust ph, and measure PPM again, so now the ppm reading will be over 500, record this. Set some solution aside and put the rest in your system. The next morning measure,

What is the PPM and PH in your system?
What is the PH and PPM of the control solution? that you set aside
What is the difference between the PPM you recorded and the PPM in your system.

Now with all these numbers we will can know what's going on and where, and can act accordingly.

 

[RandumbDude]

Alienpus,

Thanks for the info, I will get on that. They just popped 8 days ago. I didn't want to over feed them the 1st week so that's why my ppm is low. I am going to gradually increase the nutes to full recommended dosage. I am checking the levels twice a day and adjustist for the meanwhile but the babies are looking healthy and roots are growing fast. Here's a link to my grow journal

 

[RandumbDude]

This morning ph seems to start leveling off, it was 6.4. I'll check it again later today and see how it's doing.

 

[RandumbDude]

Ph has been stable since plants had a growth spurt

 

[Stealthboat]

Sounds good, so you got it under control now?

 

[RandumbDude]

Sounds good, so you got it under control now?

Yes The PH has stabilized since and exponential growth spurt, also the plants are sucking up a lot of water and the reservoir has lowered which I am now adding freshwater to as needed. You can take a look at my grow journal in my signature link.

 

[Stealthboat]

Cool, since the plant is doing its thing that means you got everything honed in. I just read your journal too, looks like you have it handled for now, don't see any problems with those girls now

 

[Papageno]

Hey one last thing I would add...PH is not meant to be "stable". Different nutes absorb better at different PH levels. It will work fine if you try to hold it at a decent level. What many growers do is lower it down to say 5.4 and wait and let it drift up to about 6.2 and then slowly bring it back down again. it is a few day cycle on a stable system. There are many variables so you can't say exactly what the times are.


ALSO something that just jumped at me is your ratio of water to "plants"

In your post you do not list how many plants are in your 6 gallons but a good rule of thumb is 5 gallons per plant. You can make it work and many do on less than 5 per plant but it will take a lot more monitoring and labor on your part. At 5 gallons or more a plant the PPM and PH change much slower to change. That is also very beneficial to the plant as quick changes are shocking and the larger res just makes things slow down as far as that goes.