Ph issues.

[noodles.au]

I have read that placing a small satchel of peat in the reservoir could lower the ph and stabilize it.

 

I will be adding a second and third air line today to try and increase the DO as much as I can.

[Naycha]

Just use pH down, don't try to reinvent the wheel.

 

Naycha

[noodles.au]

not trying to really just looking at aquarium products

no grow shops in my area so I have to use something.

[noodles.au]

ok so maybe I was trying to reinvent the wheel

 

There is so much information on these forums that is contradictory its hard to figure out what information to use and what to discard.

 

Anyway me being me, I generally have to learn for myself.

 

I set up a few experiments as I now have a decent ph meter and an accurate ppm meter and DO meter

 

experiment one.

 

2 identical tanks

 

25 litres tap water ph 8.6 ppm 650 24degrees c, both have an air stone, air pump 500LH and a 220LH pond pump exactly as grow my set up

 

first tank I used ph down to drop the ph to 6  still a ppm of 650 and oxygen saturation of 8mg/L just below ideal for that temp.

 

second tank I used an acid regulator product and the results where surprising considering what the aquarium shop told me it would do.

 

ph dropped in increments after each dose and after each dose the ph went down sure enough but slowly and the ppm sky rocked by the time I got it down to

 

Ph 7 the ppm was 1500, DO 6mg/L, I decided to stop and leave both for 24 hours.

 

first tank after 24 hours.

 

ph 7.4, 24degrees c, ppm 630, Dissolved oxygen 7.9mg/L

I used ph down again to 6. ( I was warned that our town water was already well buffered and may need a second does to drop it and to stabalize it.)

 

second tank

ph 7 24degrees C, 1420ppm, dissolved oxygen 6.5mg/L

 

So it seems that I was wrong with the acid regulator but the results where interesting and I enjoyed the experiments.

 

I retried this experiment with filtered water PH 8 300ppm but the results where the same.

 

Now that I stabilized the temperature of my DWC by pumping water out to a separate reservoir that contains frozen 2 liter bottles and drains back into the DWC res and used filtered water and ph down I have now the ph stable in saying that I mean swings gradually over days from 5.8 to 6.4 everything seems fine lots of loverly white roots and am now seeing a lot more new growth compared to before.

 

on a side note the PH tests you get from the pet stores are not that accurate I new my ph was high but the test kit only went to 7.6 my tap water 8.6 here I was wondering why it took so much ph down to get it down electric ones are cheap and very effective the same can be said for a ppm meter well worth the investment.

 

Cheers

Noodles