How to Prevent Reservoir pH Drift

So I recently made a rez out of a brute trash can and pH tap water to 5.8-6.0 for a soilless medium. Vinegar seems to work fine but ina short period of 24 hours pH shoots up from ~6 to around seven. Does anyone know of a something to use for pH down that is more stable?

Ya its called phosphoric acid, they sell it at any grow shop as ph down.

You'll get ph drift using that too. Same stuff as GH ph down.

You'll need a dosing pump or rig a drip system. Check out aquarium forums for more info

Thank you for the replies, don't see any reason to buy phosphoric acid if it doesn't stabilize the water as it is several times more expensive than vinegar. If one keeps adding vinegar to stabilize will that harm plants? Don't really want to do any more work on the res just keeping it simple.

Bump...

I've never had vinegar cause harm to my plants...my dogs nose yes, but not my girls If you read the warning labels on PH Down you would use White Distilled Vinegar...you can use Lemon Juice as well, but for long term PH control (remote locations) i've always had a drip system (even as ghetto as a pin hole in a bottle)

PH should drift. Ideally you would set it to 5.5 and then wait for it to get to 6.5 before adjusting it back down. Sometimes that takes 24 hrs, sometimes longer, depending on the buffers in the water and the activity of the plants.

PH down is not really expensive if you buy it by the gallon (or, if you have the capacity, make your own). Vinegar works okay in a pinch, but most people find it too unreliable for long term use.

Just buy some pH down mate, you'll hardely use any of the stuff so it won;t be expensive in the long run.

Anyway, most of the time during the first day of changing the reservoir water you will experience pH drifts, (I've noticed that even if I were to adjust my pH, it would have no effect on the spiking) so what I do is I leave it for a day and normally the pH will swing tp 6.5 an then I lower to 5.7 and it's all stable from there on in.

During for example flowering, I've noticed that I don't even have to add any pH up/down. After mxing nutrients the pH would be 5.4 and then it will spike to 5.9 and stabilize. Then I just let it drift to 6.5.

GrumpyToker said:

You'll get ph drift using that too. Same stuff as GH ph down.

You'll need a dosing pump or rig a drip system. Check out aquarium forums for more info

Click to expand...

I already answered your question no need to bump.
Here's a dosing pump or rig your own drip system
http://www.milwaukeeinst.com/site/component/content/article/253