water ph

KingHarvest · Apr 13, 2010

Should I ph my water before or after adding the nutrient solution?

joefalse · Apr 13, 2010

I am far from an expert but IMHO you adjust your ph after you add your nutes because the nutes will alter the ph of your water

stlth8814 · Apr 16, 2010

That is the Correct Answer, Nutes first then PH. Good idea to let the nutes sit for some hours after you have mixed before you ph. Found it works well for me.

ToastyRoadie · Apr 16, 2010

I am running dwc and always ph the water to 5.8, alot easier if it's just water you're adusting and not the solution as it's far easier to correct without the roots in there.:flower

To each his own I guess, try both and see which way works out best for you.
:boogie:

Cat Jockey · Apr 18, 2010

I think the after to be sound advice. However there is a caveat:

If you know how much pH up or down you use with your particular recipe, add it first. This is for the reasons of it being less likely to fuck up your res and also the way the pH up/down buffers and disassociates in a solution.

That is the Correct Answer, Nutes first then PH. Good idea to let the nutes sit for some hours after you have mixed before you ph. Found it works well for me.

Agreed that this works well for some, especially organics, but if one is using refined mineral salts, not usually necessary.

Depends on your nute line. People can point at me and laugh because I don't use the latest, greatest, most expensive nute line out there, but this is not neccessary with GH Flora 3 part which I use for my base nutrients.

Rockfuckinsolid stable. And pH balanced so that you do things like follow their recipe and boom - starting pH of 5.3, right where I want it. Just like magic. No pH adjustment necessary for days.

Turn the key and drive. Mix the shit and go. That sorta thing

SkyHi · Apr 18, 2010

Some nutrients include buffers, these will not be needing Ph'ing unless you dont reach the desired ph at your current ppm level.
I like to ph my water before i add nute with non buffered nutes:
because im stupid and sometimes i put too much ph down and need to add up. but i dont like fluctuating my ph like that so i can just dump and star over instead.
Also if i already have nutes in the solution and accidently add to much down the ph can go low enough to cause stuff to precipitate out off solution.
also i like to add my benies after i ph.
.02

dooobster · Apr 18, 2010

I've always added my nutes to the water, mix well, allow it to sit for a while (generally overnight), then check the pH and adjust to get to the ideal range. Use very little up or down at a time (the stuff is very strong) until the desired level is reached.

Cat Jockey · Apr 18, 2010

I like to ph my water before i add nute with non buffered nutes:
because im stupid and sometimes i put too much ph down and need to add up.

Not trying to say you don't know what you are doing or aren't putting out quality digity dank from your garden, but adding pH down and ph up, especially when you are adding one immediately after adding too much of the other is a bad idea.

I don't have a PhD in Chemistry. Nor a Bachelor's degree. Fuck, the only thing I ever did in College was drop out multiple times. So I am not pretending I do, but from what I have been able too learn over the years, this is bad juju for a res. It has to do with how each one of those preciptates nutrients out of your solution when it buffers. It fucks up things like you NPK and micro nute ratios.

It is along the line of why you always add your micros, Cal/Mags, additives first.

I feel so strongly about it that if I overshot a tub, and put too much pH up/down and I had the water on hand, I would dump the res.

I would cuss, say mother fucker a few times. And dump the whole thing down the drain and start over.

If I did not have enough water on hand, I would run the tub if it was 4.6 or higher. Meaning, I add too much pH down, jump the pH down to 4.6 and I will go with that instead of adding pH up. Maybe not in flower, but absolutely with veg plants and then the pH will naturally climb into the 5's over the next couple of days.

Cat Jockey · Apr 18, 2010

No offense to anyone on this either, but since there might be a noob or two reading this and that is what the growing parts of forums are about - hookin' up da noobs with the necessary info to grow the digity dank:

Ya'll know to dilute the shit out of your pH up or down before you pour it in your res, right?

Never add pH up or down straight to your res without diluting it in water first.

Cat Jockey · Apr 18, 2010

One more turbo post for clarification. I stated if I added too much pH down and ended up around 4.6 on a veg tub, I would leave it there and let it rise naturally.

The same is not true with pH up. If I fucked up and ended up at 6.5 or higher, no way. That is a fuct tub. If you don't have enough water, get pH down in there as fast as possible as nutes will begin to preciptate out as the solution becomes unstable at those ranges.

If you don't believe me, mix up a few gallons of your bloom recipe, adjust it to about 7.5 to accelerate the process, and, most likely, if you came back in a couple few hours, you would see cloudy sediment in the solution and on the bottom of the tub. That is your NPK, Mg, Ca, etc. that can no longer stay suspended in the solution and has precipitated out.

Whereas a solution is still pretty stable at 4.5 - 5.0. Just a bit low is all.

Kpezzy · Apr 18, 2010

I add my nutes first, then after it sits for an hour I adjust the PH to 5.8ish, the next morning I'll recheck the PH and adjust accordingly back to 5.8 and that's where it will stay for that week, I have never diluted my PH in water first I add it right to my res

SkyHi · Apr 18, 2010

SkyHi said:
Some nutrients include buffers, these will not be needing Ph'ing unless you dont reach the desired ph at your current ppm level.
I like to ph my water before i add nute with non buffered nutes:
because im stupid and sometimes i put too much ph down and need to add up. but i dont like fluctuating my ph like that so i can just dump and star over instead.
Also if i already have nutes in the solution and accidently add to much down the ph can go low enough to cause stuff to precipitate out off solution.
also i like to add my benies after i ph.
.02

Cat Jockey said:
Not trying to say you don't know what you are doing or aren't putting out quality digity dank from your garden, but adding pH down and ph up, especially when you are adding one immediately after adding too much of the other is a bad idea.

I don't have a PhD in Chemistry. Nor a Bachelor's degree. Fuck, the only thing I ever did in College was drop out multiple times. So I am not pretending I do, but from what I have been able too learn over the years, this is bad juju for a res. It has to do with how each one of those preciptates nutrients out of your solution when it buffers. It fucks up things like you NPK and micro nute ratios.

It is along the line of why you always add your micros, Cal/Mags, additives first.

I feel so strongly about it that if I overshot a tub, and put too much pH up/down and I had the water on hand, I would dump the res.

IDK man your actually agreeing with me,lol. Im no expert by far either this is just from experience.

Click to expand...

bluetooth · Apr 18, 2010

as doobster said.i mix my nutes leave over nite then ph adjust it to what i want

Seamaiden · Apr 18, 2010

Heh, I do just the opposite. I make sure I know exactly where my source water is at before I mix in my nutes so I know it's where I want it first.

water ph

water ph

KingHarvest

joefalse

stlth8814

ToastyRoadie

Cat Jockey

SkyHi

dooobster

Cat Jockey

Cat Jockey

Cat Jockey

Kpezzy

SkyHi

bluetooth

Seamaiden

Living dead girl

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