Ph adjusting

[Steveo h]

I'm new to indoor growing so bare with me please. I have a 5 gal bucket bubbler and want to know how to adjust my Ph. Do I completely take my basket out or can I add Ph down into the top without taking the top all the way off ?

[NebulaHaze]

It's not ideal to pour undiluted PH Up or Down over your hydrotron and over your roots. Even as a human if you put pH Down directly on your skin it can burn a little. Ideally you'd like to top off your reservoir with pHed water if possible. So if it's 6.6 in the tank and you want to bring the pH down, you could top off with water at 5.5 pH. But if your reservoir is already full and you can't top off, it's better to take off the net pot altogether and add the PH Up or Down. Or at the VERY LEAST least dilute it with a lot of water first!

[Steveo h]

Thank you.

[ezwider]

For what I have read, the ideal would be to prepare your new water (add nutrients and level Ph) in a separate container, flush your bucket and add the new mix.
My reservoir is only 2.5 gal and I understand you should completely recycle the water every week / 10 days.
Please correct me if I am wrong guys, I am a first time grower too.

[Mañ'O'Green]

As to your question Like Nebula says do not add PH Up or Down straight to the reservoir even if you can avoid the roots. Make changes to your system hardware or procedures to avoid it.

Ok so this is probably like closing the corral gate after the horse is out. So many DIY top feed DWC instructions don't plan for the daily/weekly maintenance. I have done hydro a bunch of different ways over the years and all of them seem to need some tweaking with both the equipment and the procedures for maintaining your reservoir. Right now I am running a 5 gallon bucket with an 8" net pot designed to fit right over the top. I do not like to drill holes below the water line because the smallest leak could spell a disaster. The entire net pot slides over enough to get your hand down into the water level with PH and PPM/EC meters. So that part is ok. So in order to drain the reservoir weekly I have a flexible food grade tube attached to my pump (5/8"?) it comes up and out and down the outside of the bucket. It has a ball valve attached to the end. It exits through a slot cut in the top of the bucket where the airlines and power for the pump also enter. The top feed water line is poked right into the tubing using a drip irrigation barb and secured to the net pot to hold it in place. This is really important during germination and early growth. So in order to drain, flush and replenish the reservoir, I just put an empty bucket (with a slot cut in it for the tubing also) open the valve and pump the water out. A problem with the pump I bought is that it does not pump out the last 1/2" so I flush the bottom out by adding a gallon of PH'd water and then a gallon of 1/4 strength nutes usually left over from what I have been topping of with all week. I only mix enough nutes ahead for two days of topping off. Right now she is drinking about a gallon a day. I check the PH of the reservoir and then adjust my add nutes to bring the PH up or down only if they are getting out of range. Some variation in the PH of the reservoir is a good thing.Changing the reservoir starts the night before: I use carbon filtered tap water (our tap water is usually good at 50 - 150 PPM and 6.9 - 7.3 PH) I mix in the Dyna-gro nutes according to their instructions at 50% to 75% strength depending on how Mobina (Moby Dick CBD) looks, add the Hydroguard, PH it and then aerate it with a small airstone and pump overnight. This is to eliminate any volitales added by the water company and it mixes the nutes thoroughly. Check the PH again in the morning an hour or so before the change. Then I just syphon the fresh nutes into the empty reservoir.

I hope this gives you some ideas to make it easier to adjust your PH!

I will be building a completely different system for the next grow to deal with the issues I am having with this one. It will have a lower profile with a larger reservoir and easier access to measure the PH, PPM/EC.

[crash32097]

I always kept a spare 5gal bucket that I would keep clean clean and put a little fresh water in during res changes, set the plant in the spare bucket, clean res currently in use and adjust ph as needed!

[420n808]

I can say that pH jumps have caused me to have chemical burn holes in many shirts... lol

[Wrench&Weld]

I have never had a problem adding PH up directly to my res. Pro-tekt, on the other hand is very high in Potassium Silicate, which will cause other ingredients in your solution to precipitate and thus should never be added to res. When mixing new Nutrients, always add the Pro-tekt first. PH up also contains potassium silicate, but at a much lower level with added ingredients such as potassium carbonate to act as buffers to try to prevent reactions.

[Steveo h]

My Ph jumped from 6.2 to 4.5 . What would cause such a drastic change ??

[Mañ'O'Green]

I am assuming you are in hydro? Is your PH meter calibrated? Root rot can cause that but so can other more normal processes. When plants are flowering the roots emit substances that can lower or raise PH depending on the genetics of the plant. I have started using an Organic product designed to strengthen a plant's odor and flavor profile and My PH wants to head down now (or it was going to do this any how? I don't have a control grow). Check the appearance of your roots do they look healthy - nice and fluffy white. If not use Hydroguard to nurse them back to health. Gently raise the PH back to the recommended PH (5.5 - 6.0 for Dyna-gro) over a few hours by adding diluted PH up to your reservoir. Check the PH guidelines for your nutrient system brand. I find I need to monitor my PH twice a day now to keep it in range. I have my add water at 7.0 now to keep it happy.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[NebulaHaze]

My Ph jumped from 6.2 to 4.5 . What would cause such a drastic change ??

A little bit of PH Down goes a long way! It's a good idea to check your water an hour after you've adjusted the pH just to make sure it's still in the right range. Sometimes it takes a few minutes for everything to level off properly and you don't want to add more PH Down in that time. After a while you start to get a feel for how much to use with your plants and it's much easier.

Also, what type of water are you using? The lower the PPM it starts with, the more the pH tends to move, so if you're using RO water it might help to switch to tap. If you aren't already, using a Cal-Mag supplement like (Cal-Mag Plus or CaliMagic) can also help keep the pH stable, because it adds more "stuff" in the water as a buffer.

PH also tends to swing more when there's less water in the reservoir, so it's a good idea to make sure your water is always filled to 2 inches under the net pots instead of letting it get low before topping off.

At this point you could do a reservoir change or a partial reservoir change to help bring the pH back up. If the water level is low you can just fill it up with 6.5 pH water and that'll help bring it up. It's not usually recommended to fix it with PH Up when you've already used PH Down and your plants are in there, but I'll tell you a little secret that I have done it before and haven't seen any bad effects as far as I could tell. PH Up is way less effective than PH Down though, and you have to use significantly more of it. I hope that helps!