Sorry this is over 200 words…idk how to not be wordy explaining this issue…
Switched to GH and have spent a lot of time trying to understand this and i need a little personally directed attn. Im new to EC, been learning TDS/PPM for hydro and ill never go back to not checking these…all my plant life is thriving… and knowing the values of each nute and correlations? Coolest ever. Now im learning EC and logging what raises what how much and so on and so forth…
I mixed my nutes and added them. My EC was 1.7ish and my ppm was 1000ish. I had about 3" left in my res, which my plants are in, and that ppm was HIGH! concentrated i assume, they drank about 5gal. 2400ppm and ec was over 4.0. So i added back 5 gallons of solution and 2 gallons of RO, pHd h20. EC was still at 2400 and ppm 1900. So i decided to remove a gallon and add just the RO pHd h20. When i went to bed it was at 1350 and 2.3EC. pH 6.0. I will see when the light goes on what happened.
So heres the q…
Why did it rise so much? I know its more concentrated as the water drops, but how do i figure out how much they are utilizing when im seeing high numbers like that? (I know they are drinking). Should i not add nutes when i top up? I top up when i get to 2-3 inches, which was every other day. Now i get 3 days maybe) and res change every 3 or 4 times. I figured adding h20 correctly fed based per gallon (recipe not changing, based on amts per gallon) should happen to maintain. Only it isnt balancing, it made it way too high the next day…it was really upsetting last night to keep checking and seeing it continue to rise. (.esp now that im using EC to adjust). My RO system is leaving me with over 200ppm…after testing values on my RO, tap and distilled…my RO and tap were basically the same effect every time i added a substance. The distilled was exactly the amount minus the starting ppm. I see how that 200 made a diff though. And adding h20 to dilute was still adding the 200 base (0.35 EC). I wnded up finding a distilled gallon and thats when i noticed the biggest drop. I have a bunch of diff pens…i changed batteries tested them out on the 3 h20s…all are off my +/- 100-150. i decided to just order the blue labs truncheon meter, that way i know its working with GH 500ppm scale and its unboxed, ready to go for my babies. The way i learn is to understand and experiment. I cant accept the answer “because it is” when there is a scientific explanation. Thats whats si awesome about the natural world and its order, it does have checks and balances. It has reliable, repeatable, understandable influence all around…so there is something out of balance…is it bc of my h20? The wastewater of my RO IS charged, found that out the dumb way, so its doing something, right? But kitchen tap just has a reg old filter and its the same. (Tap without filter is over 400ppm…so it is dropping it a bit) Its a 75g system, do i just need a better one? I also think i did have an imbalance, OR MAYBE TOO MUCH LIGHT, bc had weird discoloration that is resolving itself, (its not on new growth and only on tallest buds of canopy)
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