EWC Tea & PH Swings

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redwhiteblue

redwhiteblue

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Day 21 flower...

My question is:

Whats happening to the microbes as they decompose? (we add them every 3 days)

We've been seeing really low ph in the buckets on the ends of our feed lines, which has caused yellowing and it is slowly creeping its way back down the lines towards the main. 4 out of 5 plants in each line are doing great.

The ph was too low in the buckets that had yellowing (under 5.0)...we imagine it was a ph lockout (cal+mag) so we drained the system and added fresh nutes and tea. We always swing our rez ph over the week from 5.5 to 6.5, confused as to how the ph is dropping off so low in the end buckets.

This led us to wonder if the decomposing microbes are contributing to a dropping ph as they die off yet remain in the system?

20 x 5gal dwc buckets organized in 4 lines of 5 buckets on 30in centers. Fed by 100gal res. gh expert formula nutes, adding ewc tea every 3 days at one cup per 10 gal. 6k HPS overhead.
 
outwest

outwest

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I'll preface this by saying this is NOT my area of expertise, but after reading the description, is it possible that the plants at the end of the line have a drop off in pressure and therefore recirculation? Could this even effect pH?

outwest
 
redwhiteblue

redwhiteblue

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No rot roots are fine - just trying to figure out why my PH is dropping in my buckets...
 
redwhiteblue

redwhiteblue

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I should say-roots are fine but I have bad yellowing of the fan leaves from the bottoms moving up the plants of at least 15% of my plants.
 
lava

lava

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if your using a lot of air, then you may be breeding too many microbes in your system. Do you have any biofilms?
 
another_sellout

another_sellout

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Dead microbes are the chelated humus your plants eat. That's all. Beyond that, if you're nutrient solution is aerated properly, I've found that a diversity of healthy beneficials can actually balance your pH levels. Try adding an inoculant like Maximum Myco to your tea and see if you can regulate your beneficial's growth that way. The thing that strikes me is that it's just the end buckets. Are you running an ebb and flow? Adding air stones to the buckets to help keep things alive and moving may help, or adding an extra pump to make it a recirculating system instead would go a long way. If you're in soil on drip lines, I've got no clue. Funk in the tubes, maybe?
 
redwhiteblue

redwhiteblue

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another_sellout said:
Dead microbes are the chelated humus your plants eat. That's all. Beyond that, if you're nutrient solution is aerated properly, I've found that a diversity of healthy beneficials can actually balance your pH levels. Try adding an inoculant like Maximum Myco to your tea and see if you can regulate your beneficial's growth that way. The thing that strikes me is that it's just the end buckets. Are you running an ebb and flow? Adding air stones to the buckets to help keep things alive and moving may help, or adding an extra pump to make it a recirculating system instead would go a long way. If you're in soil on drip lines, I've got no clue. Funk in the tubes, maybe?
Click to expand...

It's RDWC 5 gal buckets connected w/ 3/4 pvc hoses, 4 rows of 5 buckets on 33" centers.
 
Seamaiden

Seamaiden

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redwhiteblue said:
Day 21 flower...

My question is:

Whats happening to the microbes as they decompose? (we add them every 3 days)
Click to expand...
They're providing the minerals/nutrients that were 'mineralized' (withheld) in their bodies to the plants.
redwhiteblue said:
We've been seeing really low ph in the buckets on the ends of our feed lines, which has caused yellowing and it is slowly creeping its way back down the lines towards the main. 4 out of 5 plants in each line are doing great.

The ph was too low in the buckets that had yellowing (under 5.0)...we imagine it was a ph lockout (cal+mag) so we drained the system and added fresh nutes and tea. We always swing our rez ph over the week from 5.5 to 6.5, confused as to how the ph is dropping off so low in the end buckets.
Click to expand...
How are you attributing 'cal+mag' to low pH? Are you combining chemical salts with the microbes? If so, I'd be looking to that before the microbes. However, a note on using microbes and then observing yellowing, irrespective of pH shifts--this is common when there is a huge upswing in populations, as they fix available nitrogen into their bodies, and is then not given up until they either shit it out or die. See above.
redwhiteblue said:
This led us to wonder if the decomposing microbes are contributing to a dropping ph as they die off yet remain in the system?

20 x 5gal dwc buckets organized in 4 lines of 5 buckets on 30in centers. Fed by 100gal res. gh expert formula nutes, adding ewc tea every 3 days at one cup per 10 gal. 6k HPS overhead.
Click to expand...
Aahhhh... So you are combining chem salt-based nutes with using microbes. Are you also using molasses in that mix? If so, I'm going to suggest giving it time and getting a better feel for how to use microbial life, there's a learning curve. I know that chem salt nutrients affect pH greatly, especially as they're being utilized by plants, but cannot speak to it at all. Dizzlekush would be a fantastic person to contact about that type of information, but I think he only visits this site on an occasional basis.


By the way, you might be interested to know that as a water column drops O2 saturation it can affect water column pH. Conversely, high CO2 levels drive water column pH down.
 
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