This morning I began to prepare my solution for hydroponics. I lowered the ph in 4 gal from 8.4 to 5.8. 4 hours later it was still on the counter I checked the ph again and the level is 5.4. Is this normal? TDS had no change, neither did EC. Temp decreased from 73 to 70. I’m just curious if this happens every time maybe I should shoot for middle of range for ph.
Yes, this will always happen. It’s because as your water and nutrients mix, things break down and this affects the pH. For me, when I’m doing a water change I’ll make sure my pH is right at 5.8 when I physically put the bucket in the tent and put my girls roots inside. Then, an hour later I go back and check the pH. It is ALWAYS different than the 5.8 it started at. This is normal and should be remembered because you need to make sure the pH stays between 5.5 and 6.1
Treez
Dealing with Carbonates suck…
I’m just going to assume you are using tap water as well.
As @ktreez420 said, this yoyo effect will always be there. Some nutrients are worse than others, and more so if tap water is used.
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Ok that makes sense. Instead of buying a RO filter system, would using distilled water be better? The plants haven’t grown roots long enough to go into the sites, this just happened to be a day I thought I should test the water again. I’m glad I did and glad folks on this site can steer me right. Thanks
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RO and Distilled and basically the same end results, just different ways of getting there. Both will work.
That is the hardest part for me in hydro cause I don’t have the time to really monitor the sudden PH swings , and to high or to low to fast can be very unforgiving in hydro , now if your using Advance nutrients I believe it will help keep Ph in the right range for up to a week I believe . But not only that , you also have to add water as the plant start drinking more as it gets bigger ?
When the plants start to drink and you add do you add just ph correct water or does it have nutrients in it.
You just add plain pH water, no nutrients. All the nutrients your girl will need for an entire week are inside of the bucket already. You just add water daily, keeping the water level at the same level. Every week you do a complete change out of water and nutrients though. Hope is helps!
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