i am about 4-5 weeks from being done. what would desired PH be here?
5.8. You can run this whole grow in dwc/rdwc.
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There are some pH test strips that measure in ~0.2 increments from 5.5 to 8.0 out there. We had the low and high range sets when preserving water samples in the field.
probably not cheap
and all, wondering what a good calibration is on ph meter. Got my Atlas configured with my Home Assistant now and it is out of box within .14 of expected number. How accurate is good enough?
With pH, spot on would be the only reliable reading for me. .1 can be the difference between absorbing a nutrient and having an inability to do so, or making your plant work harder to do the same job your pH controller is supposed to do.
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dang. ok i suspect i can get it closer. how do you control yours? that is a pretty tight variance. surely it changes. just curious.
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I adjust pH as needed manually. Sometimes that’s daily, but more often than not it’s once every couple days. The more water/larger the reservoir, the more stable the pH is.
For what it’s worth, what I mean is your controller needs to read accurately. It needs to be 100% accurate - because it is going to be triggered when it goes outside your parameters.
In hydro, my parameters are 5.7 to 6.2. Ideally 5.8 more often than not, but I do allow it to drift pretty heavily because nutrient uptake is optimal at different ranges for different nutrients.
fair enough. i will work on calibration. and i do understand larger volume of water creates more stability. as for 100% is any that accurate? not trying to argue but i assumed there is variance. once this is setup i do need to decide how often i check adjust. any thoughts? i was thinking every 30 minutes if i am able to dial it in. i will set a range to prevent short cycling
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I think if your controller is within 0.01 of the pH meter you use, you’re close enough. But the point is closer is better - you want to know with certainty that she’s getting what she needs, not “probably.”
I would start where your gut suggests and see how that affects the device generally.
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