Champ said:

I was looking at hydrogarud the other day... I think I will go that route. Which means a live system. I'm doing a water change tomorrow, it will be the first one so all of this info is great I really appreciate it. That ppm is roughly where its sitting now but I dont think I was using enough ph down out of fear of shocking them. How easy is it to shock them with to quickly ph fluctuation. So to clarify 135ml grow nutrients+ test result amount from gal pitcher x 45 gal for total ml of ph up + how much cal/mag? Then at the end after putting into the system then ph everything down to 5.6?

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They can do very well in a wide range of ph... what they don't like is large fluctuations. Plants like stability... looking back at some pics... you need to make sure no light leaks into the water. Seeing some net pots that look like they may have some of the slots exposed to light... I would tip those up to make sure that's not happening.

Now after you get the new res with stable ph and add the hydro guard you gonna wanna take a cup of water each week and pour it over the top... can be more. The reason is to ensure that the hydrogaurd is coming into contact with all of the roots and to rinse and salt buildup out of the hydroton.

Understood, the order of operations makes more sense now. Thanks again, I will probably say that a thousand more times! Lol... Yes we had circle buckets with circle net cup lids but then switched to square buckets for the bulkheads over uniseal reason so we do have tiny holes where we zip tied the circle lids to the square lids... I will tape them tomorrow with reflectix tape I have.. And that makes sense with the scoop of hydroguard because of the slight air gap between net cups and the water, we want that beneficial bacteria top down on the roots system. Great information man, I cant thank you enough! I will keep you updated and if I have any more questions or concerns you're my guy.

Where would you recommend getting phosphoric acid? Also, the ph fluctuations is really high. I get the ph to 5.6 and within the hour it's already at 6.0. So I realize I need to raise the alkinlinity levels to stabilize the ph. Can I add more ph up, to add more alkinlinity, then drop it back down with ph down to try and stabilize it better? Thanks @Aqua Man

Champ said:

Where would you recommend getting phosphoric acid? Also, the ph fluctuations is really high. I get the ph to 5.6 and within the hour it's already at 6.0. So I realize I need to raise the alkinlinity levels to stabilize the ph. Can I add more ph up, to add more alkinlinity, then drop it back down with ph down to try and stabilize it better? Thanks @Aqua Man

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Yes you can... usually at a local hydro store. You can also find potassium silicate which may be a better buffer for you.... or order potassium bicarbonate online in powder form it very cheap and effective also.