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I want to set up an irrigation system however when my reservoir is left alone for even a day the pH will raise from 5.5 to 7.5-8. I do not run recirculating, I simply fill my 50 gallon drum when I need to water, add nutes, pH and feed. I am going to experiment this week by filling a res, and ph'ing it twice over 3 days, to see if the water will inevitably stabilize.
Will an R/O filter eliminate this issue?
Is the high silica content in my well water most likely causing this?
Thanks,
GL
If you are saying it comes out of the well at 5.5 pH then I would say you have something live in your barrel. It should be stabilized underground. JK
Keep your reservoir water totally in the dark, covered with a lid. To kill what's in it add h2o2, then test it one you've done this. If pH rises, it may be outgassing something. If you have an analysis of your well water, study it carefully to see if you can add everything but what your water is already rich in, and thus compensate. RO is an oft used solution, but it isn't always necessary. Hydro stores will sell anything to make a buck- care to guess how many RO systems I've seen in my city- where the tapwater flows at EC .05?! Seriously!
Yes, an RO will absolutely eliminate this issue. You don't say what the pH is coming out of the tap, but I'm going to guess that it's somewhat alkaline, and depending on your location it's probably due to carbonate hardness (think calcium or magnesium carbonates, or as dolomite lime, calcium magnesium carbonate), or bicarbonate hardness. Alkalinity is defined as resistance to pH shift, and so when you force it down, it's going to bounce back up unless you use sufficient acid to neutralize the carbonate molecules present in the water.
What form is the silica? To the best of my understanding, it doesn't have a huge effect on pH or alkalinity. That could simply mean my understanding is limited, but with regard to alkaline water, my experience has always been that it's due to carbonate/bicarbonate hardness. (Some decades in the aquatic ornamental industry.)
You could also filter through peat moss, but that could be a huge pain in the ass, though nowhere nearly as wasteful as reverse osmosis. I keep intending to make myself a giant peat moss filter to see what happens, but I get distracted with other things. Filtration through peat was how I used to set up filtration for the very delicate South American fishes from the Amazon and Rio Negro regions, it was the best way to soften and acidify the water column for them, gentlest as well. It does stain the water, but who cares about that when it's going into roots? Aquarists have a different opinion on water color and clarity, of course.
forgot to mention if you use citric acid to bring the ph below 4.5 it completely neutralizes alkalinity . having no alkalinity is not a good idea so if you ph an amount of alkaline water down to 4.5 to neutralizes and then add back plain tap to can find a sweet spot of alkalinity around 20-60 mg/l .... having a bit of alkalinity will buffer your media from ph swings ..
cheers
Before going to all the expense, just buy a res tub you can keep your well water in for a few days before use. Drop an airstone in there to help it outgas whatever is in it, and then it should remain stable for you. Chasing pH is a great way to screw up your nutrient balance, as well as causing fragile chelates- like iron- to precipitate out of solution.
i would bypass the water softner
Gotta love it when a guess comes together!
Don't think I mentioned that my ppm readings on a full res of fresh water was 0
Don't think I mentioned that my ppm readings on a full res of fresh water was 0
JUST from the filtration you mentioned? If so, sweet, I envy you because I hate the waste generated using RO. By the same token, that also means that said water of yours has zero alkalinity, which means it has zero resistance to pH shift.
Btw, O2 drives pH up, and CO2 drives it down, in a water column. Freshwater planted tank enthusiasts use CO2 dosing to keep the water pH in their aquaria driven downward.
I'd be concerned it's a little warm, but then I don't do undercurrent or anything like that. I am a fish woman.
It's odd, but I would think that if you're pumping air that's higher in CO2 that you'd concurrently be seeing lower pH levels in the reservoir. I mean, people running reef systems in winter have seen the whole thing crash because their homes have just that much more CO2 in the air that it causes Ca to not be taken up, the kalkwasser can't keep it stabilized, just all kinda fucked up. Many have to move their sumps, etc, into the basement or even outside the home because the water column ends up too high in CO2 for the corals and other hermatypics to take up and utilize calcium.
it seems as if once bicarbonates have been neutralized they are done causing hardness in the water .
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