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 KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
 
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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 Stabilizing pH 
#762472 - 12/20/14 10:11 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thought I would start a new thread on this.
This is the one from a year ago: http://www.growery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/690030/fpart/1/vc/1
The problem I was having, unstable pH . I was having to adjust the pH every 4 to6 hours. It keep going up.
Filled a bucket with 5 gal's of water and started testing once a day to see if pH would stabilize.
12-11-14(tested twice this day) 4pm pH 7, ppm 300, temp 70f
8pm pH 8, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-12-14 pH 8, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-13-14 pH 8, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-14-14 pH 8, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-15-14 pH 8, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-16-14 pH 8.5, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-17-14 pH 8.5, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-18-14 pH 8.5, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-19-14 pH 8.5, ppm 300, temp 70f
12-20-14 pH 8.5, ppm 300, temp 58f I let the room go unheated over night.
Looks like tap water is stable by itself.
Tommow I will pH down to 5.8 or 6 pH
Can't wait to see if the adjusted water holds the change.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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 Magash
The Feminizer
Registered: 04/21/08
Posts: 6,634
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 Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#762486 - 12/20/14 12:19 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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--------------------
All creatures tremble when faced with violence. All creatures fear death, all love life. If we can only see ourselves in others, then how could we possibly hurt another creature?
 Join us at the Growery!
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webster10
Registered: 12/15/13
Posts: 466
Last seen: 10 years, 6 months
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#762487 - 12/20/14 12:22 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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It jumped a full point in 4 hours on the first day?
Any idea what the 300ppm in your tap is made up of? I wonder if it's possible that the high number of solids in your tap is contributing to the more alkaline pH.
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GoonerHeClips
Stranger
Registered: 08/24/14
Posts: 380
Last seen: 8 years, 8 months
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#762490 - 12/20/14 12:38 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Your water has a hard on for a pH of 8 it's alkaline as hell. Either that, or you have Clorox bleach fumes from your air or something else like that is absorbing into your water along with your lungs.
Edited by GoonerHeClips (12/20/14 12:41 PM)
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Ganjaganj
Stranger
Registered: 05/20/12
Posts: 33
Last seen: 8 years, 5 months
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What are you using as your ph down? Ive seen people have this issue when they try using the citrus flakes for ph down. Could also be caused by whatever is in your tap water, it could have a good amount of bicarbonates in it.
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Ganjaganj
Stranger
Registered: 05/20/12
Posts: 33
Last seen: 8 years, 5 months
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: Ganjaganj]
#762611 - 12/21/14 03:18 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Also, what are you using to check your ph?
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dmtcorey
~The time police~
Registered: 08/06/09
Posts: 1,041
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: Ganjaganj]
#762650 - 12/21/14 02:24 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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i have had these ph anomaly's happen before supposedly for a soil mix its common knoledge to run with a ph of 6.5 ,well for me i could never dial straight soil or soilless in, some how 5.4 found me using 454510 promix ,soil, perlite ,been doing that for years now,just now it looks like im having success using a promix.
currently my dwc goes from around 5.8 to 6.6 over a 24 hour period and i just down as needed , seems like much compared to other reports !
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Edited by dmtcorey (12/23/14 06:07 AM)
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#762778 - 12/22/14 01:07 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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12-21-14 pH 8.5 ppm 300 temp 60f
12-22-14
At 7:30 am I put 2 drops of GH pH down into the 5 gal's of water.
That took the pH down to 4
At 2pm the pH is 6
I also use GH pH drops.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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webster10
Registered: 12/15/13
Posts: 466
Last seen: 10 years, 6 months
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#762781 - 12/22/14 01:25 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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2 drops brought it down 4.5 pH?
It takes my water like 2mL to go from 7 to 5.9
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#762851 - 12/22/14 09:12 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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12-22-14
10pm pH 7, ppm 300, temp 65f
pH is climbing fast, maybe not as stable as I thought.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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dmtcorey
~The time police~
Registered: 08/06/09
Posts: 1,041
Last seen: 8 years, 4 months
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#762876 - 12/23/14 06:13 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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another problem i have had is my ph meter would start jumping around then once i plugged it in im another location in the house it would go back normal .im not sure what kind of a meter you have but try the test in another location in your place.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: dmtcorey]
#763026 - 12/23/14 08:06 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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12-23-14
7:30 am pH 8 , ppm 300, temp 65f
Need some input, over a day (24 hours) and the pH just keeps climbing back to up.
dmtcorey, I don't use meters. I use GH pH drops. No charging needed.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
Edited by KaptKid (12/23/14 08:24 PM)
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly) 
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#763071 - 12/24/14 01:07 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Sounds like you need a new water source. Municipal water supplies tend to be highly alkaline to prevent the pipes from rusting out, and will keep your pH buffered high, around 8. Try using an RO filtered water (you can buy RO water at walmart by the gallon, just bring a jug in or buy an empty right next to the machine) and see how that responds.
Are you testing your tap water at 300 PPM? I have extremely hard water that leaves a white crust on everything that test at 150ppm. That will be a lot of energy absorption power, and it will take a long while for the buffer to run out.
So to recap, you are fighting the buffer in the water.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: phychotron]
#763243 - 12/24/14 11:06 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Thanks.
Will test out some RO water.
1st I'm going to add some cal/mag just to see what it does.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#764036 - 01/01/15 10:03 AM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Sorry for taking so long to get back. Caught a virus.
Did the cal/mag and it dropped the pH to 6 for less than 12 hours.
Next to get some RO water.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#764644 - 01/07/15 07:27 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Got 5 gal's of RO water
pH is a high 5
ec/ppm does not even show up on the Bluelab
water temp is 62f
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#764711 - 01/08/15 03:08 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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So about 12 hours later
pH is 6.5
ec/ppm does not show on the Bluelab
water temp is 58f
9 hours later
pH is 6.5
ec/ppm still not showing
water temp is 58f
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#764716 - 01/08/15 04:55 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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EC is not showing because the water is probably not able to conduct electricity. Distilled water will not conduct water, in theory if you had pure water you could submerge a motherboard in and still work. It takes the dissolved ions like salts to be able to conduct electricity.
Try adding a bit of Ca/Mg (150ppm?) to the RO water and see how it changes how much pH- you need. It should act as a buffer and require more pH adjust. But if you keep adding pH-, then all of a sudden the buffer will run out and the pH should change drastically.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only.
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GreenHorns
boulevardier
Registered: 01/10/13
Posts: 1,195
Loc: funkytown
Last seen: 6 years, 9 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: phychotron]
#764742 - 01/08/15 11:14 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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I have the same issue. Especially bad when switching to organics. I upgraded my growonix scrubber with a kdf filter and it helped but really it seems like ro really may be the way to go. Small batch nutes is the only way I combat the issue now. I'm curious to see your results.
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wiggy wham wham wazzle
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#764776 - 01/09/15 01:51 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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About 15 hours later
pH is 6.5 or just a little less. Some yellow tint showing up.
Still no ec/ppm
temp is 60f
After my work day is over I'll add some cal/mag.
Its feeling like I might have found heaven.
 
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: GreenHorns]
#764782 - 01/09/15 02:38 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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GreenHorns said:
I have the same issue. Especially bad when switching to organics. I upgraded my growonix scrubber with a kdf filter and it helped but really it seems like ro really may be the way to go. Small batch nutes is the only way I combat the issue now. I'm curious to see your results.
I hope this helps you too.
Gona do my 2 x 2 table first. Don't mind hauling water for that but the 4 x 4 table I will have to get an RO system for that.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#764786 - 01/09/15 04:11 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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I was planning on buying an RO filter soon. But I'm gonna need to get a new pH and EC meter to dial in the nutrients again. I was looking at some on eBay that drop the ppm's down to 0. like this six stage for $105... Just search ebay for "RO filter 0ppm"
they have a lot of different setups depending on the exact parts you might want, like you might want the small tank and faucet so you can have drinking water right at the sink.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: phychotron]
#764796 - 01/09/15 07:03 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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How long do those filters last?
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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GreenHorns
boulevardier
Registered: 01/10/13
Posts: 1,195
Loc: funkytown
Last seen: 6 years, 9 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#764812 - 01/09/15 10:03 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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The drinking water at the spout T is a great idea. I've seen my growonix 40gph last about 6months to 8-9 tops with a consumption of about 80 gallons per week.
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wiggy wham wham wazzle
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: GreenHorns]
#764821 - 01/09/15 11:58 PM (11 years, 4 months ago) |
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Each filter lasts for different lengths of time or quantity of water. The RO membrane says 2-3 years. If you view the details its got them all listed. Check different RO packages though, they don't all have the same filter configuration.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: phychotron]
#765565 - 01/14/15 07:02 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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Work got in the way for a few days.
The instructions on the cal/mag says one tsp per gal. In most cases
Still nothing on the Bluelab.
So I'm adding 3 more.
Get I got a ec/ppm of 200
Can't wait for my Man Eaters to grow up.
Edit: pH drop from 6.5 to 6
Will ck later to see how long the pH stays steady.
--------------------
Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
Edited by KaptKid (01/14/15 10:31 PM)
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#765766 - 01/15/15 03:17 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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15 t0 16 hours later
pH is 6 or just a litter higher not 6.5
ec/ppm is not showing up on the bluelab
over all I'm happy enough to try this water in a grow.
Thanks every body for the help. If this works I'll look more into getting an r/o filter.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#765803 - 01/15/15 06:58 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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So you added Ca/Mg and the ec meter is not reading still? What ec do you get from tap water? and how do you know you put in 200ppm Ca/Mg?
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Any help given is for educational purposes only.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: phychotron]
#765828 - 01/15/15 08:24 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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1st I added 5 tsp of cal/mag and it did not show up on the ppm meter.
Added 3 more tsp and got the 200 ppm reading.
Tested again after 16 hours and got nothing.
Added another 8 tsp, waited 5 min after shaking, now have a ppm of 400.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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Magash
The Feminizer
Registered: 04/21/08
Posts: 6,634
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#765830 - 01/15/15 08:28 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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Be sure you're checking the temp of the solution as you test it. Some meters change their numbers with the temp.
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All creatures tremble when faced with violence. All creatures fear death, all love life. If we can only see ourselves in others, then how could we possibly hurt another creature?
Join us at the Growery!
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: Magash]
#765831 - 01/15/15 08:41 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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Forgot to do that this time around.
It was warmer the last I tested it than the time before.
Its going to be warmer ( mid 60's) for the next 2 or 3 days.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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phychotron
Medicated
Registered: 02/17/11
Posts: 1,995
Loc: Earth (mostly)
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: KaptKid]
#765838 - 01/15/15 09:04 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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Now that you've stabilized the pH try adding some nutrients and see how it sits for a few days. On my meter I used to have to swish it around sometimes for it to read when it got older.
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Any help given is for educational purposes only.
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KaptKid
Spaced Pirate
Registered: 04/20/08
Posts: 5,616
Loc: Bright Side of the Sun
Last seen: 10 months, 15 days
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Re: Stabilizing pH [Re: phychotron]
#766497 - 01/19/15 06:45 PM (11 years, 3 months ago) |
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Will do before long.
Been watching the ppm, they do change with temp. The ppm went up with the temp going up.
The Man Eater is about two weeks old. Grow babies grow.
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Child of the 60's, Tripping ever sence.
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