House and Garden Aqua Flakes... can't keep PH down!

For the life of myself I cannot keep the PH down in my ebb and flow system.

I am just using Aqua Flakes A and B with half tap water/half distilled (Told regular tap water was at 300PPM in my area- and the House and Garden guy said to use this product with tap water at around 150 PPM).


I tested for a few days without an airstone and my PH stayed at around 5.7/5.8.

With an airstone I've put in like half of my bottle of PH down (Ok not really, but a LOT more than what seems should be used). Yesterday the PH was at 6.8 and I put a good amount of Ph down.. checked and it was at 6.5.. then a lot more it was at 6.2)

I thought ok, I have way to much PH down in here I better wait for a while for it to settle. Checked this morning the PH is 6.8. WTF? Usually a few drops of the PH down will turn a few gallons of 9.5 Hard water into 4.5 like its nothing. But I can't seem to pull the PH down on this 5 gallon resevoir.

And the PH still hasn't went down.. it actually went up over night?

I use their coco line and never had a PH problem. Whats your medium ??/ Hydroton?
After I do a res change I have a PH of close to 6.5 but I add PH down and get it to 5.8 and it takes about a week for it to get to 6.1

are you just getting started with it or have the nutes been in the res for a while,also try taking a water sample from the res and test it,I have a ph meter that is sensitive to the bubbles,is your meter calibrated,when my ph starts to drift its time to change the res. out with fresh nutes and also mix the ph buffer with a little water when you add it to the res dont just put the drops in the res

snocat said:

are you just getting started with it or have the nutes been in the res for a while,also try taking a water sample from the res and test it,I have a ph meter that is sensitive to the bubbles,is your meter calibrated,when my ph starts to drift its time to change the res. out with fresh nutes and also mix the ph buffer with a little water when you add it to the res dont just put the drops in the res

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Yeah when you take a water sample use a clean cup to take your reading the bubbles will make yoru PH bounce up and down when trying to read it with the the meter. The problem could also be your medium if you didnt rinse your hyrdroton correctly.