Master blend in reservoir with sediment

[Clearbluesky]

Have you noticed after about three days there is a sediment at the bottom of 5 gallon bucket that's rusty looking, what is it if you know, when you first mix it up it's a nice Sprite looking collar, but after a few days there is some sediment at the bottom from something that don't seem to get mixed up and stays dissolved like it does when first mixed.

 

[Moe.Red]

I do not use Master Blend, but I think what you are describing is ythe micros like FE falling out of suspension. This is a normal chemical process and the reason you shake the bottle before you use it.

It can be made worse with PH out to lunch, or big PH swings. Like if you have a bucket at 7.0 and dump in straight PH down trying to get it to 6.0, where the PH down first hits before mixing it will form a little cloud and some of the nutes will precipitate out from the cloud. Depending on source water, you should probably PH the water before adding nutes for this reason.

 

[Clearbluesky]

Yes I do, it takes three days before this happens in a 5 gallon bucket of master blend.

 

[Moe.Red]

Hopefully a master blend grower will stop by.

I think most guys who pre mix like that have a small bubbler running. That might help keep the heavier elements in suspension.

 

[Clearbluesky]

I've did some research, what is happening is something is precipitation after 3 to 4 days and also PH does raise a little bit to, I was just wondering which one was falling to bottom on bucket, I can mix master blend in a gallon jug by it's self and it stays nice looking, same with calcium nitrate by itself in Epsom salts by itself and they all look nice and don't have nothing in the bottom of the jugs even a week later. I never let my mixtures set long enough for this to happen but if someone had a big reservoir for hydroponics they would know what I'm talking about. So I will just stick to mixing up nutrients when needed each day freshly. But I do like master blend but was just wondering what I was seeing at the bottom of a bucket that I wasn't going to use that's how I became aware of it.

 

[Clearbluesky]

I figured it out, what I do now is use three 1 gallon jugs, A-jug I put 240 gram's of master blend in, and jug B I use for Epsom salts and put in ,240 grams in it also and jug C I put my calcium nitrate in 240 grams, letting those jugs set set around everything is dissolved completely, so I will take a 5 gallon bucket of RO water and start with A jug until I get a ppm of 170 then use jug B and dump in until I get 340 ppm which is another 170 from that jug, then I go to jug C which is my calcium nitrate and add 170 ppm of that which gives me a total of 510 ppm and I don't get any settlement in the bottom of my buckets even after a few days it's still Crystal clear looking.

 

[Clearbluesky]

Mixing it this way is the way to go, very pleased with the way It looks, and stays nice and clear no sediment at all. Plants are 30 days old today I think and they are loving it, feeding EC 1.2 now.