question for the Dro guys

[DieselDuds]

Hey guys. I recently picked up a 70 lpm air pump and have it feeding 2 medium round air stones into 2 5gallon buckets. Every time I check my pH every day the pH gets higher. Is this normal for hydro ? I'm doing this because I wanna keep my water alive for my feedibgs for my soil plants.

 

[Capulator]

could be bad bacteria or underfeeding.

 

[DieselDuds]

I'm talking about the water in the buckets that's being airated by the stones its a new batch of nutes. Is it normal for pH to fluctuate like that?

 

[vek11]

I'm talking about the water in the buckets that's being airated by the stones its a new batch of nutes. Is it normal for pH to fluctuate like that?

Ime pH fluctuates for various reasons when left in a res. You have temps and bacteria which is the main factors. The DO will also break down the nutrient solution. Plain pH'd water will fluctuate when left in a res with airstones.

 

[biker22]

Is it plain water or nutrient mix? If you have plain water in 5 gallon buckets with air stones for feeding your dirt ladys. Im guessing you are using plain tap water? Not r.o.? You probably are seeing the chlorine that's in the tap water coming out. That is the main purpose of air rating your feeding water. If I do recall right. Its been a min since I played in dirt. If it a nutrient mix like a tea or what not it could be normal to a degree. What exactly are we talking about Dieselduds?

 

[DieselDuds]

Ok so I already had 2 5gallon buckets de gassing for 2 days. I received my air pump yesterday. Installed it and hooked everything up. I had my water pH correct at 6.6 before I put the pump on. So I put the pump on and next day check my water and it was way high. Like 7.8 so I'm like ok that's cool NP I can fix thatttt! Lol so I figured that was normal and all the chlorine evaporated. So I correct it back to 6.6 and later that night check it agaimnnnnn and oh it changed again. Wtf lol. They seemed to keep steady better since the last 2 pH corrections. But is this many pH adjusts normal?

 

[rick ratlin]

First off, calibrate your pH meter. That is a great starting point. Then note the water temperature for each pH reading. Also note how much pH down you are using each time.

The pH of nutes always goes up for me the following day. I usually lower the pH of my fresh nute batch to about 5.5, and the next day it's usually stable at 5.8 or hovering at/below 6.0. The only reason I think the pH is going up for you is that the air pump is raising water temperature, if you have no root/bacteria issues. pH is influenced by water temperature.

Root problems tend to drop the pH in my experience.

Also, different nutrient brands and ratios of those brands contain different levels of pH stabilizers. I've tried GH, Canna, and several popular brands, and they all fluctuate differently. I've found Dynagro to be the most stable nutrient brand, especially using Protekt.

I started a thread recently, not to call out, but to find out if a certain brand of hydroton was causing other people low pH plummeting.

To really pin point the problem, let us know what nutes you're using, EC strength, water temperature, plant health/age, root health, and planting media etc. The more details the better we can help. Also, pics help.:)

 

[woodsmaneh]

what are you using for Ph adjustments? what do you put in the bucket with the water?

 

[DieselDuds]

It is staying steady now. I put in general hydroponics pH up and down liquid form fox ram full nutes