Runoff Ph 5.1 and EC 3.1 what does this mean?

Bangarang, were you able to open the nutrient calculator I uploaded?

Attached to this post are pics of the Alkcalc results for your water, with a comparison of the different acid types and the amounts required calculated and the corresponding nutrient ppm added by the three acid types(phos, sulfuric, nitric).

The JR Peters hydroponic special has more than enough nitrogen in it, so that is why they generally recommend sulfuric acid. As Coir has said it is cheap, easy to obtain, and effective. Battery acid is around 35% sulfuric acid, and is relatively safe to handle, the nitric has to be diluted to about 15% before it is as relatively safe to handle.

The electrolyte grade(virgin battery acid) is more than pure enough. It is the most used pH reducer in horticulture including food crops. What you want to avoid is the stuff the sell commonly as drain opener. It is industrial grade, and generally not virgin.

My water has about 180 ppm CaCO3 equivelant and a pH of 7.9. I use sulfuric acid primarily.

Coir said:

One thing to remember is that you will need a lot more of it than Nitric and you will be adding similar amounts of sulfur to your feed just like you were adding phosphorus before which may or may not cause you more issues.

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this is incorrect. please see the attached Alkcalc results.

Ok so i have several questions. When i try and break everything down i just end up more confused. So i decided to order Hydroponic Food Production by H.Resh. Until then...

What numbers make an ideal nutrient profile? I have looked at some of the threads where people are making there own but i still dont get it. Then i have to add the sum of both my water sample and nutrient profile to see what my profile is. From there i can make adjustments.

JR Peters suggested buying sulfuric from an auto parts store. Any other suggestions or brands to purchase?

Quantrill it is interesting looking at the above post. I had calculated .66ml/g of AN Ph down so i was right on the money. But the problem was that it would not stabilize the ph over time. Changing to nitric or sulfuric will change my nutrient profile? How i do not understand this yet? Also will these two stabilize the ph and if so why?

I keep thinking about the hydrobuddy numbers and the water sample and can not figure it out. I want to make the right changes. If i were to man up and switch to JR hydro and cal/nit what kind of numbers for flower would be recommended with my water? 3-1.8-1 or 3/8tsp/g of hydro and cal and the .7-1 Epsom.

What numbers make an ideal nutrient profile?

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There is a relatively large range of numbers that will work. In my experience your environment and growing style will determine what is ideal with in that range.

JR Peters suggested buying sulfuric from an auto parts store. Any other suggestions or brands to purchase?

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For sulfuric, the auto parts store is the best place to get it. They do also have it at my local Lowes, in the plumbing section by the deep well pumps.

Quantrill it is interesting looking at the above post. I had calculated .66ml/g of AN Ph down so i was right on the money. But the problem was that it would not stabilize the ph over time. Changing to nitric or sulfuric will change my nutrient profile? How i do not understand this yet? Also will these two stabilize the ph and if so why?

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Yes, switching acids will change your nutrient profile. You will need to include the nutrient ppm that the acid you use adds to your nutrient profile. Nitric adds some nitrogen, sulfuric adds some sulfur while phosphoric adds alot of phosphorus. So changing acids changes the final nutrient profile.

Phos acid is a 'weak acid' while sulfuric and nitric are 'strong acids'. So there should be less shifting back up once you have hit your target pH with them.

hth

So i was reviewing my nute profile and based on notes it doesnt seem to bad. Maybe a little high in Mg and Calcium when comparing it to other formulas. Could use more potassium which i gain through silica and PK boosters. Where do i get more sulfur into my mix?

There are a couple of ways, but if you can switch out the Mg for Epsom salt (MgSO4) then there's your S right there. Or maybe via gypsum?

Sulfuric acid, potassium sulfate, magnesium sulphate, or ammonium sulfate are options for adding S.

Still working on stabilizing the pH with the nitric acid. 10 gallon res with 5 ml Nitric will bring ph to 6.4. But by the morning i am at 6.8. How i can i get this to stabilize? Do i have to go back to RO water? I struggle with RO water because there is so much waste.
So the more i think about this and read my base nute profile is all off. To think that this is just my base. What i am doing to my girls?
130 N is good. 102 P is high. 109 K is low. 205 Ca is high. 77 Mg is alright. 43 S is a little low.
Why in the open office doc is the adjustment column and under P it is adding 41.3? Was this for the AN ph down?
If i were to do jacks with cal/nit what how do i calculate my numbers? I read on another forum that it is not supposed to be used with high Alkalinity water.

I just got off the phone with JR Peters. I called to inquire about the best way to stabilize my water and the possibility of customizing 5-12-26 and cal nit to work with my numbers. Here are some notes about what she said.
Based on my water sample my calcium-mag numbers are out of whack.
Nitric acid doesn't drop the ph as much as sulfuric will. Either way Nitric drops my alkalinity to 55 and sulfiric to 54 with a target ph of 6.0. To here anything under 100 alkalinity is instable and she does not suggest it. She also stated that when you drop the alkalinity too low that this could be the cause for the swings in pH in my medium.
5-12-26 and Cal nit will drop ph in water but will raise the ph in root zone.

10 gallon res for what size grow? the solution to your stability problem may be to increase the res size, so the plants themselves have less of an effect on the solution.

Regarding the open office spreadsheet, Yes I put the 41.3 ppm P in the adjustment column back when you were using the phos acid. You can delete it now. Which should fix your high Phos ppm.

Regarding your notes from the conversation with jr peters.

Nitric acid doesn't drop the ph as much as sulfuric will. Either way Nitric drops my alkalinity to 55 and sulfiric to 54 with a target ph of 6.0.

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this makes very little sense to me, I am afraid you may have misunderstood her. Your ending alkalinity will be the same no matter which acid you choose, if you adjust to the same target pH.

if you drop your water, data taken from your posted water test, from the starting pH of 7.5 and a starting alkalinity of 168 ppm CaCO3 equivalent to your target of 6.0 pH no matter which acid you use your final alkalinity will be around 55 ppm CaCO3 equivalent.

to have a final alkalinity of 100 ppm CaCO3 equivalent, you would only lower the pH to 6.4

I have just spent the last two hours trying to get the hang of hydrobuddy and canna stats and feel worse off than when i started. Straight and to the point. I was trying to find what the best ratio of Micro-Bloom-Cal would be while using 1ml/g Moab with my water. When i try to create a doc with canna stats i have no clue how to add other products. In the end i opened the doc from Quantrill and played with the numbers a bit. I can not figure out how to create a good profile with GH.
Rough goal 120-60-280-60
Correct me if i am wrong but my
P levels are easily x2 higher than others (121). Is this a common problem with GH.
K levels are half of target goal at (179)
Nitrogen is high with Cal/Mag and when i remove cal/mag it is fine. But when i remove cal/mg they yellow up.
Dude this whole formula that i can smash it with is completely fucked on paper.
Any suggestions?

Ok so time has passed without me publicly asking much. I need some help trying to solve a problem.
I have run several different brands of nutrients and Ez-grow/Ez-bloom salts. I continue to struggle with an increase in PPM's in my run-off. Every two weeks i have to flush my girls back down to 1600-2000. I know that there is a large percentage of you that will say that is too high but it works for me. In the end of running my GH combo i had my ppm's down to 1200 but my yield was down also. I switched to Mills ran it around 1600-1850 as recommended for medium strength and crushed it but same problem with my run-off getting up to 3000.
I currently run Coirs Ez-grow/bloom and love it. But continue to struggle with this problem. What could be the cause of this problem? I have posted water samples in the past and my water is pretty shitty. I currently run sample c 140gal.