My well water tests at 8. I dropped the ph down to 6. Within hours with the air on, the ph was rising. I added 1/2 strength AN nutrients after getting it “in the zone”. It will rise all the way to 8.5-8.7 within a day. I got some Gold Blue ph down and used it to drop the ph (I have a gallon of regular ph down on order). It climbs back quickly with the air on, but if I turn the air off, it climbs much more slowly. It has stunted (if not killed) 2 of the plants and seems to have stunted the others as well. I bought an RO Buddie and am ROing a 55 gallon drum of water. When I test the RO water, the ph is still 8.0 after the RO but the PPM drops from 450ish down to 20ish. Any thoughts/recommendations other than “go to dirt”. TIA
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Water alone will not maintain the pH. By pumping air through it you are essentially carbonating the water along with o2 and N2. You need to get 1/4 nute strength to maintain the pH.
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@WickedAle I put AN Micro/Grow/Bloom in at 1/2 strength and it didn’t seem to help. I have 4 27G Brute totes with 2 plants each and a 5th as a res. I figured for 100 gallons and divided by half per most of the threads that I’ve read. The Gold Blue pH down recommends not using air and just using a circulating pump.
I don’t have experience with AN, but it is suppose to be formulated to maintain PH so you shouldn’t be having rising pH problems. I would question your pH readings. Have you calibrated or checked agains a standard pH?
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I’ve checked and calibrated my pH meter every other day since this started because that’s what I wanted to believe was causing it also. It always checks within .1 on the 4 and 7 solution.
I just realized that I didn’t put anything about the medium. I’m using Hydrocrunch (hydroton).
I’m puzzled. It shouldn’t. You sure you used the proper mix of Grow and Micro? Nothing else. Do you use Epsom salts that are slowly dissolving?
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No, no epsom salts or anything else. I figured that it was something in my water. That’s why I bought the RO Buddie. Now it’s just a waiting game to get enough water to fill back up after flushing and rinsing. Then I’ll add cal-mag and nutrients back in. That’s why I was asking if anyone had seen something like this before. I had grown in dirt years ago and decided that since it’s legal where I am now, I would try hydro.
Try it without the cal/mg.Is it AN cal/mg? Anything that is powdered? I don’t use cal/mg in my GH mix and do fine. I think AN uses a similar formulation.
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I’m curious about this statement. You should be adding all your “ingredients” and then adjusting the pH afterward. It sounds like you are adding pH adjust before mixing in the rest.
Also, this is important: When using pH Perfect products, you want to start with one item (e.g. pH Perfect Grow Part A) and let it sit for five minutes. Then, add the other half (part B in our example) and wait another five minutes.
After that, you can pour in anything else you want to add all at once. Personally, I still like to add each of the other components 5 minutes apart.
After all that, then you check your pH and adjust if necessary.
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Oh, here’s another tip:
If you are looking to add just plain water (no nutrients) to your system, generally RO water is “too clean” for a digital pH meter to measure accurately because there’s little to no (mine comes out at 4-10 PPM!) substance to measure. I like to do about 1 quart of plain tap water per gallon of RO water so I don’t have to use nearly as much pH adjuster to get things where I want them.
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Sometimes well water can have heavy metals in it that are alkaline in nature and be difficult for pH down to completely stabilize
Read this and it will give you a little better understanding of the “power of hydrogen”
I would do a run with some RO or distilled water and compare what it does to your well water.
Remember, It’s possible that your pH should stabilize over time, so you might just keep adjusting for a well or so and see what happens. Also adding silica can help stabilize pH levels sometimes. Mine was crashing and adding silica stabilize it significantly
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I had issues with my blend of nutes so I let them sit for 1 hour before feeding. I found my PH rose within that hour
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RO systems will not change the pH of your water so try and do a test run with some store bought RO water and see if it does the same
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If you want to play it real safe you can run your nutes through a coffee filter before feeding 
then let it sit for 1 hour to test PH fluctuations
A lot of AN users complain about it not being “PH Perfect”.
Your (hard) well water will resist movement to a lower PH but repeated application will eventually stabilize it at whatever value you are targeting. Using R/O is the best way and as pointed out; no solids in the water to read against so taking a PH reading of purified water is generally a waste of time. Once solids are added you can check and adjust PH. Whenever I have a fresh solution (33 gallons) it takes a few days to get it down where I want.
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Exactly what I was going to say, I mix up a batch then just run a stone in it for a day and then ready to use.
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One thing I found that works for me is to not overthink it or chase the PH too much. Mix up a batch before and I let mine sit a day and rest from there. Have no issues keeping it this way.
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