Ph up and down increases my ec/ppm significantly

Troubleshooting
1

Hi, I have a question I’m trying to figure out.

I am using r/o water for my plants now and I’ve read that since it’s pH unstable to add pH up, then ph down to buffer it. Okay great.

Here’s the issue I’m finding… The ph up and down increase my ec/ppm significantly…

Any idea on a good solution for this… Because before I added ph up and down my ec/ppm level was perfect… Then when I add the pH buffers, the ec/ppm increases to way too high…

Any suggestions?

Thank you!

2

You don’t always need to add pH up and down. Just use whichever one you need to adjust the pH of your nutrient solution. I always check EC after mixing my nutrients. Then pH it. I know pH up/down can have a big impact on EC depending on how much you have to use, but I disregard that. I already know how much nutes are in there.

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Thank for the reply. I have just recently installed my r/o system and have read multiple places that r/o water is pH unstable and to add a bunch of pH up, then down to stabilize it… We’ll the huge problem with that is, it drastically increases the ec/ppm.

I fill a bunch if gallon water bottles ahead of time with my r/o water and let them sit with lids off for about a day… So I think I may measure the pH right after I fill the gallon of r/o, then again like every hour until the oh has stabilized. That way maybe I don’t need to be adding tons of pH up and down if I know the r/o water had stabilized and isn’t going to change farther.

But you’re also saying that if, after adding all my nutes and stuff if my ec/ppm levels are good… Then I add some ph up or down as needed… Disregard whatever the ec/ppm increase is from the pH up and down since you know the nutrients were in the correct range?

4

After you get around 200ppm of nutrients into the RO water it’ll hold a pH. And yes, mix in nutes, check EC, then pH the solution.

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Okay, thank you. That’s good to know. The other posts I read made it sound like you need to add the pH up before doing anything… To balance it.

I appreciate you!

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No problem. Glad to help. https://www.cocoforcannabis.com/mixnutes/ would probably be a good read for you. Explains pretty much everything about getting your nutrient solution together correctly. There’s also a video. There’s a ton of other useful information on the website too whether you’re growing in coco or not.

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Yeah, you got some bad info. You can add some cal mag or tap water to your ro to get a stable ph reading. Also I don’t worry about ph’ing anything less than 100ppm

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Calmag or epsom salt to the tune of 300-350ppm will allow your water to hold its own ph. Without it, it will take on the ph of the medium you pour it into.
At that point you can add ph up or down to get it to whatever your needs are.

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Why is this?

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Read up 2 posts to docnracs response. Sorry I can’t get into more detail right meow, I have a house full of degenerates

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