Can someone explain how to decipher water readings?

[DazedNconfussed]

I have done many searches and still cant find a easy way to understand what my water reading are telling me.

For instance:

What does it mean when your PH goes up or down? (somone a while ago told me when ph drops the plants want more nutes, if PH raises less nutes, have no idea if he is correct)

What does it mean if your PPM in your rez goes up or down. To me it would seem if PPM raise your plants may be not absorbing the nutes, water level lowers and PPM raise)

And can someone explain what kind of info you can gather by an EC reading?

I dont know if there is a simple explanation, I think high ph is neutral water, low PH is acid water.....and I believe EC has something to do with salt build up or something....so anyways...if someone could explain it for those of us that are new to farming that would be great.

Or if this has allready been covered in a post a link would be great.

 

[DazedNconfussed]

I have 6 Chemdog #4's in flower, end of week 6 and back in week 4 I did a 5 day flush because when my water level droped in my stand alone 5 gallon DWC the PPM kept raising from 1200ppm to around 1600 ppm over the next few days some even higher. Also back then the PH would steadily raise. So I took that as meaning my plants wernt absorbing nutes and must have lockout. I did a 5 day flush with only tap water ph'd to 5.6-5.8.

Now after the flush my PPM still increase when water level lowers, but my PH drops from 5.8 to around 5.2-5.3.

Any idea's?

 

[DazedNconfussed]

anyone?

 

[Shady]

Dude... You've got to be more patient. :cool Don't expect a response within a few min or hrs... I'm just sayin', be humble. EC is a measure of electrical conductivity of the solution. PPM's are simply a conversion of EC. So using a 0.5 conversion factor and a meter reading an EC of 1.0 or 1000, means the PPM's are 500. If you are using a 0.5 conversion factor on your meter, then IMHO, your PPM's may be too high. What's your nute mix consist of?

Here's one of my fav links that IMHO should help explain how you compare the rise and fall of PPM's and pH:

http://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-forum/showthread.php?22-pH-EC-TDS-PPM​

Understanding the pH ranges for proper nutrient uptake in hydro is very important. Knowing how a rise in PPM generally means that the plants are drinking more than they are eating, while a drop means they need more food... And when you've dialed-in your nutrient profile, your PPM's should stay relatively constant between res changes with a slight pH drift to ensure all nutrients ae readily accessible to the plants.

 

[Inuit]

Here you go. Don't have time to explain it all right now, but the info you need is in the first link, and some other cool info including the fist paper is located at the second link.






Be safe

I

 

[Cat Jockey]

I have 6 Chemdog #4's in flower, end of week 6 and back in week 4 I did a 5 day flush because when my water level droped in my stand alone 5 gallon DWC the PPM kept raising from 1200ppm to around 1600 ppm over the next few days some even higher.

I don't fully understand the last part. Did the ppm rise as the water level dropped? Meaning when there was the least amount of water the ppm reading was the highest and when the water level was the highest the ppm was the lowest?

If so, no fret. Less water in res = stronger concentration. Suppose you have a 50 gallon res. and you need to put 500mL of Fatfuckindaddy Big Fat Bud Exfuckinploder. Suppose you only put 40 gallons of water in and then added your 500mL of FBFBE.

Then take a ppm reading.
Then add the last ten gallons of water.
Then take a ppm reading.

The second ppm reading will be lower after you dilute the solution. The first reading was higher becuase the solution was more concentrated Less parts of water for all those parts per million to run around in.

Now after the flush my PPM still increase when water level lowers, but my PH drops from 5.8 to around 5.2-5.3.

Any idea's?

I gots all kinds 'o fuckin' ideas brutha. Most of them have jack shit to do with growing weed, so I'll spare you the vast majority of ideas I have.

How do you dilute an acid?
Add water.

How do you make an acid more concentrated?
Remove water.

Less water in your res, the more acidic the solution will be and the lower the pH.

What's goin' on is what's s'posed to be goin' on. If I understood your questions.

I like 5.2 - 5.3 as a starting point and then letting the pH rise from there, never going over about 6.1. There is a pH chart, a blue one, that has been floating around the web for a few years and is in a sticky here.

I don't like it. It is not trustworthy, accurate, etc. But fuckin' St0ney's chart is everywhere and, if I remember correctly, he made that chart around the time he was battling a Mg def.

His solution was to throw some Epsom Salts in his res, I think, and then he made that chart, I think. Wrong fuckin' solution, wrong chart.

Use the B&W one and watch things like Mg deficiencies disappear. Check out this site as well. No one person nor site is the be all end all, but I think this one has some valuable information:



Some good info on that site. Read it and look at the B&W pH chart that came from a well known Hydro book.

And can someone explain what kind of info you can gather by an EC reading?

EC stands for Electrical Conductivity. Your meter is measuring the Resistance of your nutrient solution and then doing a programmed calculation to estimate how many parts of what the fuck ever per million there are in your solution.

On top of that, there are meters that use the .5 conversion and ones that use the .7. So, put two meters in the same solution and one may read 1200 ppm and the other 1600ppm, or whatever the conversion is.

Read the flairform site.

Hold on, I gotta load a triple bubbler real quick like ...

... okay, one more bowl of digity dank ground, loaded and smoked to white ash. Where was I?

I think high ph is neutral water, low PH is acid water.....

Anything with a pH of 7.0 is neutral.
Anything with a pH lower than 7.0 is acidic.
Anything with a pH higher than 7.0 is basic.

Speaking of higher ... I certainly am. So I think I got most of that mostly right.

 

[Cat Jockey]

Start with those.