help with hydroton and ph drift

[sinsimilla69]

just started a new bunch of babies ..4 mazar ,4 big thunder x with nook pollen? ,2 big funk x blue-13 and 2 aurora indicas in 1" rw cubes in 6" round orchid net pots with hydroton and drippers. This is the 1st time im using hydroton, usually i use rockwool, and i cant get the Ph to stabilize no matter what i do. I started a new line of nutes..im using Techniflora BC Series at half strength a week after second set of leaves had formed. Ppm's were around 500 and I started to see signs of lockout, and after i rechecked Ph, it was in the high 7's almost 8. I readjusted to 6, several hours later-it climbed back up to 7's again. Flushed and used FloraKleen, went back to GH Maxi Gro for veg...and im still having the same problem. My Ph will NOT stabilize. So far i've added 80ml of Ph Down and that stabilized for a few hours, but still seems to keep climbing. I thought since i didn't have this problem before with the GH, i'd go back to that, but it's obviously not working.
Oh yeah, I have my drippers 1/2 hr on, 3 hrs off now. I had the drippers on more frequently before and seedlings showed signs of over-watering/stress. Leaf tips are yellowing with some interveinal yellowing but no crispy tips or red petioles just seem to be lacking vigor and a paler lime green rather than a dark, lush green. Any feedback/advice would be greatly appreciated...still trying to work these bugs out, lol. Thanks!!

 

[Jalisco Kid]

I wash it really well then soak it for about 3 days at 5 pH. You can do that and transplant if they are still babies. They will eventually come around but your plants will suffer. I would transplant and add a root tonic. JK

 

[bdawgburner]

Yep. Sounds like the hydroton needs to be stabilized. I would do as JK said, wash them and soak them in ph 5 for a couple days.

 

[been]

I've never had any pH swings with Hydroton. The stuff is inert... that's why I go for it. Maybe your drip emitter isn't covering enough area or your feeding schedule is off. Otherwise I just gotta say it's normal for pH to swing. Maybe it's the water?

 

[ehole]

inert just means it doesn't chemically react, it doesn't mean it is ph balanced or anything. the main problem is all the shipping and moving causes a lot of that clay dust to roam free. as JK said rinse wash soak and you should be fine

 

[been]

inert just means it doesn't chemically react, it doesn't mean it is ph balanced or anything. the main problem is all the shipping and moving causes a lot of that clay dust to roam free. as JK said rinse wash soak and you should be fine

I've never seen anyone claim Hydroton can pH balance the res.

 

[greenthumbdanny]

Hydrotron is a bitch no doubt:) Your PH swings are a huge problem.
This is what I do. My water sucks so I use RO...
Fill your ressy with r.o. water. Adjust the PH of the plain water. Wait 12 hours letting the solution bubble/mix. Then add your nutrients. (You can start feeding this to the plants at this point, if you cant wait). 12 hours after adding the nutrients check PH and adjust one more time if needed. Adjust in small steps. My 40 gallon ressy's only take about 25ml of ph adjuster each to stabilize it. The key is to allow the ph buffers to do their job before you add in more:passingjoint:

Another thing to keep in mind...
Your ph can flux strongly depending on your system so its important to get that dialed in along with what your strain likes and can handle..
Its not good to just keep dumping in chemicals to maintain your ph at 5.8 let it drift as low as 5.2 - 6.0 that way your plants can get everything available to it. When I see my shit fluxuate low then high I know my ladies are absorbing nutrients properly. Make sure your nutrient temp is around 68-72 deg this is important as well.. Especially if you are doing DWC At 78 deg you will get pythium.

GTD

 

[sinsimilla69]

thanks everyone- i think the buffers in the Maxi-Gro finally kicked in. This morning, the Ph went up to about 7, i readjusted and since it's maintained a steady 6. So i'm assuming the flush w/the Ph adjusted water and the FloraKleen did it's job. never had this prob before with having to add so much down before but also never used this new techniflora stuff i got... (got a shitload of the b.c. stuff on the cheap cuz hydro shop needed to make room for the a.n. stuff he just got in cuz they changed the labeling ..he'll carry it now ..lol) always used gh ph up and down with their maxi and kool bloom stuff ...never needed much ph adjustment at all with that stuff...hope it stays in check now but somehow i know it'll find someway to complicate my life before its done lol

 

[doco]

Any new ecosystem needs some time to stabilize, colonies of beneficial bacteria to form, etc. The first week or two of a new run I check and adjust ph twice a day.

It may be unnecessary but when I do a res change, I transfer a few gallons of the old solution to the new to keep the bacteria colonies going.

 

[jadins_journey]

I run Technaflora and hydroton, been using the same mixes for over 30 grows. Never have a ph swing like yours unless the nutes are out of balance for the plants.

Your running my system, and not much has been mentioned about a very important aspect of hydro. What's your ppm change daily (I don't check one without the other). That's what I watch running these nutes. Keep the change in PPM stable and the change in Ph generally follows along nicely if you wash your rocks.

jj

p.s. Forgot to mention, running this system with pure RO water does not work. I ended up having to add back tap to get the ppm of base to a minimum of 50-75ppm to start with. Yep, i did have this issue, just smoked a lb since and forgot. When your my age you gotta have note books to look back at. Have kept notes on every nute mix since day one.

 

[sinsimilla69]

thanks everyone ...got it sorted out for now water and nute combo was slightly off made corrections and everything seems to be stable