ph control

[wayno1]

im using a recirc system with expanded clay balls and nulife nutes and the ph is raising on me every day i run my ph at 6.3 but it increases to at least 7.0-7.2 whthin a 24hr period. I flush my system weekly with straight water for a couple of hrs then add fresh nutes i run my ec around 2.0-2.2. is nulife a reputable brand or should i bin it............. i'm 3 weeks into flower and have only had this problem since turning to 12/12 cheers wayno..............

[keepleft]

start your ph at 5.2 to 5.3. thats what i do and i let it drift up to about 6.4 to 6.5 (which takes about 2 - 3 days) before i adjust again.

 

its normal for ph to rise over time as the plants use up nutes, water etc.

[Luke Skywalker]

Are you also flushing with pH adjusted water?

 

I like to keep things between 5.2 - 5.8 or so, but you can let it drift up to 6.4-6.5 without too much trouble.

 

If you have a top up reservoir setup for the main tank through a float valve you can set the water in this to a lower pH so that when it tops up the tank it reduces the pH down through the week...

[wayno1]

o.k i've adjusted my ph down to 5.3 i'll keep a close eye on it over the next few days, I always went of the assumption of 5.8 in growth and 6.3 in flower

 

 

i don't use ph adjusted water when flushing. i've thought about it and will start doing it on my next nute change

 

 

I dont run a TOP up reservoir but its a TOP idea Thanx

 

Cheers Wayno1.....

[keepleft]

its normal for the ph to rise like that dont worry. i adjust mine to 5.0 and in 2 days its up to 6.7 some times! especially when im not running the nutes high so the plants suck up the nutes quickly

 

also it depends on the brand of nutes and ph bufferring. with the canna aqua the ph doesnt rise as much as other nutes ive tried. and personally i used nulife for a while and wasnt happy with them at all. i was expriencing micro deficienices and had to add canna trace mix to correct

[wayno1]

since adjusting my ph down to 5.3 it's bumped up to about 5.8 in approx a 24hr period. i will let it go into the sixers before adjusting. and i guess it would be more beneficial for the plant having the ph fluctuate as it absorbs different vitamins and minerals at different ph levels????? umm is that right ...

 

 

 

i've read a bit about these nulife nutes on other threads and no one has given positive feedback about them. i will see the bottles out and change nutes..... what ec are you running in flower just out of curiosity.

 

 

cheers for the help,

Wayno

[keepleft]

hi again mate

 

yeah let it run up to about 6.3 or 6.4 before knocking it back down to 5.3. thats the way i do it. you use less ph down (which is a good thing) and also you are correct in saying that the plant absorbs different nutes at different ph ranges so its good to let the ph drift up as opposed to constantly adjusting it daily.

 

regarding EC, it depends on a couple of things.

 

first and MOST important, is what is your water EC. u can either check this with a meter or look it up online. i think it varies state tot state. where i am we have great water at less than 0.1 EC. but if u have hard water i.e. higher EC you may need to run a higher EC.

 

add your water EC to your target EC. i.e. as i have a water EC of 0.1, if i have a target EC of 1.5 i adjust my EC to 1.6 to compensate for the minerals in the water.

 

second what kind of system and medium are you using. im assuming your recirculating, but is it a bubbler or drip feed etc.

 

i only have experience with rockwool, in rockwool i try to keep the rez at 2.0 EC. although i am currently using canna aqua in a G room at 1.6 EC and they look amazing.

 

if ur using rockwool you should also take samples from the slab, as you will find it is generally higher in the slab (@ 0.4 ec). so if ur 2.0 ec in the rez ur slab could be up to 2.4 ec. same goes for ph. if ur 5.8 in the slab u can be 5 points higher in the slab (i.e 6.3 ec) thats why rockwool generally run lower ph.

 

im rambling now! later

[wayno1]

hey lefty,

 

i checked the local water with my truncheon and it had an ec of 0.8, pretty shity hey

 

im running a 4 pot satelitte system with the expanded clay balls, i try to keep my ec around 2.2-2.4 in the reservoir.

 

my ph has been great since taking on your advice, checked the ph this arvo and it was sitting around 5.9 and ec 2.6 added some shity .8 water (should get me a rain water tank) to lower the ec and ph came up to 6.0 but thats great i think i havn't adjusted it down for 3 days now god job mate

[keepleft]

hi wayno

 

wow you do have shitty water at 0.8 EC! thats known as hard water.

 

so when your run your EC at 2.6, its essentially 1.8 of real nutes the rest is whats in the water. sounds about the right level to me. i run mine at 1.6 to 1.8 and my water is less than 0.1 EC

 

you could get a RO (reverse osmosis machine) or you could try a hard water specific nute. i think canna has a hard water nute of their substra range.

 

glad to hear the ph problems are going ok.

[eternity]

Always let tap water sit for 24 hrs min before usze the disisipation of chlorine in the water causes your ph to jump up 2/3 points.