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HELP! Ph Fluctuations

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deepfreez8

New member
Hi, I am a new member and need advice keeping Ph .. I am currently about 6 weeks into my first grow in my 1.2 m x 1.2 m x 2 m grow tent. growing with 80%coco peat and 20% perlite W/ watering on a timer 3 min 5 x a day using Nefarious Nutrients grow A & Grow B. I am having troubles with the Ph in my water reservoir. i mix my nutrient and then add ph down to suit and get to around 6.0 which is fine. but when i go to retest hours later or the morning its back up testing around 7.0 again even if i add more ph down it will test at 5.5 or 6.0 and same thing within hours...?? I'm using just regular Victorian (Australia) tap water which is 7.1.. should I be using distilled or boiled water so there is no bicarbonate in to correct its self or is it something to do with the soil or? I'm lost please help :S
 
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To address the distilled/RO water question, you will have a harder time keeping ph stable in pure RO or distilled water as there is nothing to keep the water stable. I use a mix of RO and tap water to keep water stable for hydro. I dont know anything about your water supply, but i found that a year or two ago that i had a hard time adjusting my regular tap water which is why i tried RO but found that straight RO water would not stay stable, hence the mix.

Second, i would use more perlite. At least 30% if in fabric pots but 40% or more in plastic pots to help get oxygen to roots.

Lastly, why dont you water normally? Water to 10%-20% runoff, then wait for pot to get light then water again. This could be anywhere from a day to a week depending on the stage of growth (early on being closer to a week and closer to every day or two in late flower). I feel watering 3 times a day is excessive and is probably going to stunt plant growth and will probably kill any seedlings that have not had a chance to grow roots.
 
Ok cool I didn't really take that into consideration with the amount of other things i would need to keep in check than just the Ph with the RO water, .. cheers. im only 6 weeks new to this so just finding my feet, to add... I watered for a few days by hand and also feel that is more safe as well as i don't trust my Ph at all lol just wasn't sure how much water and how often, can it really be up to a week in between feeds? i might just do that and mix Nutes and Ph down on every feed rather than trust my swinging reservoir water... what sort of ratio would u suggest to use? like a half/half of tap/RO? or? also what is the optimum Ph and PPM for Coco if u know? as mine is at 1100 on the truncheon I'm in Veg Week 4 roughly, Thank you
 
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