Citric acid residue and ph

I’m blessed with spring water that has very little mineral content. The only problem is high ph around 8.2 which I treat with about 1/8 tsp of citric acid powder in a gallon before watering.

The plants look much better since I started addressing ph. The only problem is a fine white powder started clogging up my pre filter and settling on everything.

It’s hard to believe that minuscule bit of citric acid could cause this but the correlation is undeniable. When the pre filter gets clogged with this the temp soars.

Anyone else have this problem and if so, what type of liquid ph lowering agent did you switch to? Or, is there some trick I can use to keep it from precipitating out?

I only use citric acid. It's not the problem. It doesn't form a precipitate. What pre filter are you talking about?

PeatPhreak said:

I only use citric acid. It's not the problem. It doesn't form a precipitate. What pre filter are you talking about?

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The sleeve that goes over the carbon filter. I have two of them and constantly switch them out because of this.
I can’t understand what else it could be because it only started when I began using the citric acid, and in other areas of the house we’ve never had this residue for on humidifiers and vaporizers, including now. The water is as soft as it gets.

Tedmarx38 said:

The sleeve that goes over the carbon filter. I have two of them and constantly switch them out because of this.
I can’t understand what else it could be because it only started when I began using the citric acid, and in other areas of the house we’ve never had this residue for on humidifiers and vaporizers, including now. The water is as soft as it gets.

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Maybe calcium cause I get no buildup from citric acid
Calcium is present in soft or hard water

Acidify the water after you filter it. The acid is buggering the filter.

PeatPhreak said:

Acidify the water after you filter it. The acid is buggering the filter.

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I think he is speaking of the prefilter of his air filter

Herb & Suds said:

I think he is speaking of the prefilter of his air filter

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I'm high and lost now. Someone will sort this out, OP.

Herb & Suds said:

Maybe calcium cause I get no buildup from citric acid
Calcium is present in soft or hard water

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Thanks. Must be some sort of reaction from the citric acid that makes whatever calcium is in the water precipitate out.

PeatPhreak said:

I'm high and lost now. Someone will sort this out, OP.

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Hopefully we all are

All l want to know how citric acid is getting on the exhaust fan filter? Then maybe I can help here, but I keep getting higher as time goes by. Will need to eat soon.