I noticed when im PHing with jacks it take a very long time to get a reading, the reading drops slowly for about 2 mins. Today i went 80% jacks and it dropped for even longer and stopped at 4.9 So i had to PH up for the 1st time. im using rain water. Im wondering if my meter is going bad, i have the Apera ( supposed to be quality) but ive just been hearing they never last very long so im not sure if mine is OK, but it is calibrated often.
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I have a PC60 that has held it calibration very well. I’ve only had to calibrate the meter once in 2 years of use.
If that doesn’t do the trick, you can buy a new tip for the meter.
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Does it sound normal that @ 80 percent jacks the ph dropped that low for rain water? (4.9 PH)
1 gallon of water.
I doubt Jack’s has anything to do with it.
Yes, you can have a pH that low before adjusting.
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Whats the ph before nutrients
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about 7.2
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I run about 7.1 from the tap just jacks 321 brings me down to 6.3 Maybe mix a gal from your tap might just be the rain water.
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Check the ppm’s of your rainwater. If they are very low, this could be it, but it does sound more like a meter issue.
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I too went through “many,many piñatas.”* I mean ph meters. And then i thought this is insane! Im mixing the same nutrients with the same water, with exception of some bloom booster during mid and late flower. So why am i even having to figure this each day. Get a water source that has a consistent ph and a new calibrated ph meter. Get what you need to prepare a gallon of nutrients. Add your nutrients and check the ph along the way, do this for a few days and you wont need a ph meter an more. Oh yea you can store the probe end submerged in 6.86ph calibration solution, and it will prolong the life and increase accuracy. I dont use a ph meter any more. And as far as the meter you have you can try cleaning off all the probes and it might buy a little time.
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I have a Apera PH60 The head will go bad even tho it seem to calibrate ok.
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Those yellow pH meters SUCK. They don’t work. They just don’t. If you complain to Amazon about it, they’ll just refund you no questions.
Apera, Bluelab, Milwaukee, etc., are all fine. Anything that looks like this should be discarded as untrusted and untrustworthy (IMO).
I had pretty good luck with the cheapies. Upgraded to a ph20 because I didn’t trust it. The ph20 stopped calibrating a year later. Got a ph60 and it’s going on 3 years without issues.
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@Jungle they are all garbage.
I mix my tap and rain water 50/50 to get closer to my desired PH of 5.8 ( for coco ) after mixing nutes. If I use just rain water the PH crashes down to around 4.6. My tap water is around 7.5
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I used a PH20 for two years +, finally replaced it the first of this year with another PH20. Sometimes the response time takes longer if the battery power is low. Try replacing the batteries.
If your rain water’s ppm is very low like my rain water is, you can not take an accurate ph reading of the rain water only. Water needs some minerals in it for the meters to read their electrical charge (ions)
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VERY INTERESTING, does this have to DO WITH LOW PPM IN RAIN? I guess rain fluxautes alot more. and i only need tiny amounts for phing rain water? Do you add ph up/down directly? to jacks? or do you dilute it 1st?
also i wanna add Cal mag when im Days im giving it molasses and seaweed extract in COCO, keep it at 6.0 pH? ty?
Ahh Ty, so i can take a reading after adding, cal mag or jacks? and then know where i stand?
I can’t offer any advice on Jacks, we don’t get Jacks here but I am using synthetic salts. If you are growing in coco then keep your PH level at 5.8. The rain water has an EC of 0 and my tap water has an EC of 0.1 I forgot what the PH of the rain water is lol. I mix my cal mag pellets with the full volume of water first, up to an EC of 0.9 then add the flowering powder part until I reach 1.8 ( my EC pen reads on the 1EC : 700ppm scale ) then I’ll check the PH and adjust.
What storage solution do you use for the Apera?