pH down is making my water smell bad/rancid...any ideas?

[Bubba]

Has anyone tried vinegar instead of Ph down?
Tap here comes from a deep aquifer, smells like a damp cave, and has a Ph of 8.5. I've been using vinegar to adjust water for years and it seems to work well.

[bobsakamoto]

hey Bubba, thanks for chiming in...i was wondering about vinegar too.... hey i remember reading somewhere you said that Bubba really was your name....are you Bubba Watson?

[bobsakamoto]

DW2 thank you!! that was incredibly helpful!!

when i was going over the bottle with the magnifying glass i saw that, and wondered if that could be the problem...although i wasn't storing it in a really well-lit place (bathroom cabinet)...

last night when this all arose i put it in a dark, cool cabinet in a storage bin. maybe i will cover the whole bottle with foil....what do you think?

also, re.the florashield...i grow in soil so will that really help me in this case?

finally, and this is not directed just at DW, alternatives to phDown the product would be greatly appreciated.

thanks again.

[DW2]

I just wrapped the container with the duct tape that I had on hand. I'm too cheap to through it out! lol!

[DW2]

I would only use the Florashield to clean jug, jars, and tools, not to add to Your water and nutrients, it will kill all of the microbes (as stated on the label). When I texted one of their representatives, they said that it could be added to a hydroponic system (2-3 ml/gal.) to help control algae, root rot, and mold. I did not either look, or remember that you are a soil grower and from what I read, You need all of the beneficial little 'critters' in the soil that you can get! lol.
And no offense taken on my part!

[dontknownuttin]

I plan to sanitize my whole system between grows. I will add Peroxide and water diluted mix into end of grow empty res. I then pump the solution throughout my system for 5 min. After rinse plain water and dry!.

[bobsakamoto]

thanks don'tknow! will keep that in mind if you know i actually ever get a seedling...LOL

[bobsakamoto]

it occured to me it might help to add a little more information, some of which is contained above, some of which is not stated but implied.

i have been busily trying to germinate seeds and turn them into seedlings with no success, even though i have been following directions EXACTLY per GWE's germination tutorial. the first say 3 i'm pretty sure it was inexperience and dumbassery on my part, but after that i CLAMPED down and have been doing every single thing to the letter, no deviations whatsoever, using the paper towel method. the last 5 seeds i have going "popped", taproot emerged, i let it get about to 1/8 inch or more (bc the first ones that i did that i am 99% sure were my fault i didn't let the root get very "big" before i transplanted to a little solo cup for the seedling stage.

so what i am really worried about with this water issue is not merely that it smells, who cares, but that the smell itself is an indicator of something gone wrong, bc that is almost always true, whatever i am growing--tomatos or hibiscus or weeeeeed...

meaning i am now wondering if my extreme lack of success getting to seedling stage is phDown related/caused.

just wanted to make it CRYSTAL clear what the issue is, or might be.

thanks.

[dontknownuttin]

I bet if you use this stuff in your res. at change, no more smell!. read my screen name for discloser!.

[bobsakamoto]

don'tknownuttin, thank you for always putting things in their proper perspective...

[Weasel]

For sprouting seeds your issue is easily solved because you can just pick up a little distilled bottled water or scoop some rainwater. For ph down you can use almost any sort of acid. The easiest ones to find will be vinegar or lemon juice or citric acid crystals. Vinegar isn't the greatest for holding the ph but it does work sort of.

But later for growing you'll have to sort this out. There's something wrong either with your water or your ph down. If it takes 30 ml of ph down to shift a gallon of plain water-that's way way too much. If this is public water then your city can provide you the info of everything that's in there. Ifs public info. Just say your goldfish is struggling or your houseplant died or your tummy hurts- doesn't matter. If the water is crap then look into buying an RO unit or bottled water.

[bobsakamoto]

hey everybody...first, thank you so much for your help, especially Weasel and DW2 . i think i MAY have figured things out... we won't know for sure for sure of course, bc no control group (sad trombone sound) but i might have some kind of explanation.

after DW commented about the keep in dark space instructions on the bottle, i decided to do some testing of possible causes... so i put the ph down bottle itself in a dark , cool, dry cabinet. before it had been in a bathroom cabinet (so dark, but not necessarily cool and def not dry)

then i threw away all pipettes, plastic containers, anything that had come in physical contact w/the rancid water got trashed or boiled. so that way, the next time i "worked with" ph downed H20 i would have controlled for prior contamination.

having done that,then, the next time i was making up my baby batch o' germination water, i put the mixed water itself into a lightproof container with an open top. so the only exposure to light that the "new" ph-downed water had was the circumference of the top of the cup itself... since doing that, i have not had the smell once. so i THINK that MAYBE that light warning on the label maybe extends to the mixed water itself, even though General Hydroponics does not say so on the bottle...

otherwise i truly have no explanation....but if ^^^ is the explanation at least now i know and maybe this thread will help some future person who has a similar problem.

thank you again, weasel and dw2...

[DW2]

This is so sudden! (blush, blush) lol! Why not.

[bobsakamoto]

sorry, i do that sometimes...it's just that...well...that's like THE. MOST. fundamental part of my being...i was that way from birth....if i could tell you my "job" you'd see i'm not joking... anyways, when i find a kindred spirit, well, i let 'em know....lol

[bobsakamoto]

oh, and before i get too far afield, re. your (astute) comment

"not changing too many things at the same time (although it may seem anal) are the best tools to figuring things out."

at the beginning of the paragraph above i said:

"we won't know for sure for sure of course, bc no control group (sad trombone sound)"

and it may be labeled as "anal" by some, or even most, but that it is is logically independent of whether it is good, or useful, or ought to be done.... just sayin'

[Weasel]

No problem. I don't feel like I helped! I'm still stumped. I've never had any experience with it going bad- but I rarely use it compared to the amount of ph+ I use. My water and nutes are all acidic pretty much so I rarely need ph down.
I've just never detected a bad smell from it, or found anything online about this happening. All I can think is that it's some sort of reaction related more to your water itself than to the acid.
Your water still sounds sketchy to me if it takes that much ph down to shift- I would get the water report from city hall, if possible.

[bobsakamoto]

well I think you helped and so you did...

yeah, i meant to comment on these before when you mentioned them...the water compostions, getting it from the water "source", that my water is highly alkaline, if the rest of the GWE population is a representative random sample...

i use tap water that i then filter of chlorine and chloramine only (they pour that stuff in to the water supply where i am like it's going out of style, LOL, smells like a dang swimmin' pool) using a hydrologic smallboy. the ph of my unfiltered water is consistently well over 8, gotten as high a reading as 9. ppm also very high. am in process of getting proper water information from water co-op. the only info available on their website is 3 yrs old. they are a small, rural operation so i am not about calling my attention to myself with respect to them...too small and too nosy. i suspect you might understand that particular sitch....

[Weasel]

Sure- well water info is something that concerns everyone and it's unlikely that marijuana growing immediately comes to mind when someone asks them -it's what they do- and it affects everything from your goldfish to your house plants to your personal health so it's definitely public information which you shouldn't be paranoid asking for

[bobsakamoto]

well if their mandatorily publicly available info on their website were not 3 years old i would be less "paranoid" about asking...but that fact alone tells me all i need to know, if you will.....i bought a water test kit at lowe's $20 well spent on not being memorable in this VERY SMALL place, if you get my drift...s'why i thought you of all people would understand....

[Weasel]

Ah yes. Well I do understand that. I order most stuff by mail because there aren't any stores here to speak of. Postal workers are snoopy as hell and I'm sure they long for x-ray vision but too bad for them.
What does the three year old report have to say? Anything interesting? It should be roughly the same as what you have currently.

[bobsakamoto]

funny you should ask...main project this evening is translating that thing into the information i need....it's not exactly...clear... it's not complicated, just have to sit down with it and apples to apples, oranges to oranges it.... thanks again. i know you don't think you were helpful but you really were. plus the sentiment alone...i'd even bet some anti-x-ray devices if i had some that you're a nice guy in real life too....

[bobsakamoto]

also for informational purposes and the sake of completeness and lurkers...here's the analysis kit i got at lowe's...