PH and peroxide

noxiously

noxiously

Well-Known Member
If you add peroxide to your res will it make your PH levels go up. They were right around 5.7 5.8 on a daily basis. I added a little peroxide to help try and get rid of some slime, and after adding the peroxide the PH levels went up to 7.5 7.6. I added more PH down to the res, went back down to 5.7 5.8. Next day PH was back up in the 7's. Again, I added more PH down, it went back to 5.8. A few hours later, PH was back up in the 7's. Not sure why, could it be that the peroxide counter acts the PH down solution. A guy at the hydro store also told me that when the slime starts dying off it will screw with your PH, but he didn't say if it would go down or up. Any thoughts?
 
I would suggest either a hydroponics innoculant or DuthMaster Zone to fix the slime. Peroxide "h2o2" raises you alkalinity "reduces your buffering capacity". Thats why your ph is going up so fast. Change your rez and add an innoculant.
 
ive added peroxide to my res and havn't had any prolems after ph'd it back down because like you said it do make the ph go up after adding. So i cant see why it would be any different in your res'
 
Yea, I would think that after adding the peroxide and letting it run for two days then add in some nutes and adjust the PH back to normal it would stay. How long will the peroxide last in the res? I heard that after 3 days in the res that it will just turn to basically pure water, don't know how true that is though. Well, I guess I'll do what Moonraver said and change the res, adjust the PH and see what happens. If it stays in range I'll buy some Dutchmaster Zone and add it to the res, and finish out the remaining 3 or 4 weeks. If I can't get it back under control after the week I guess I'll just chop em down real early and sanitize everything and I guess start over :(
 
cyanobacteria cannot be removed by h2o2. you need microbe to control your cyanobacteria. only h2o2 at a unsafe concentration for your plants can effectively kill cyanobacteria. i use great white and it works great removing slime. i heard dutchmaster works well, so is subculture M...
 
H2O2 shouldnt spike your PH that high. its your root slime thats increasing your PH... h2o2 turns into water and oxygen. water is ph7.0 and your ph shouldnt be affected that much unless its like stablized h2o2. either way, you should stop using it unless u got an oxygen problem and use some microbes for your problem.
 
Ok, thanks for the info urgod. I only used the peroxide twice, but the PH levels were stabilized before I added it, and now they aren't, that's what made me wonder. I also wondered that it could be the slime making the ph levels unstable as well. I didn't know that Great White would get rid of slime, I thought it only helped to protect your roots from slime and other bad bacteria and such. I don't know if I have an oxygen problem or not, I have one air pump going, even though it's not ideal, but I also create oxygen by the water when it pours out of the hole in the end of the long tubes and back down into the res.
 
well root slime is likes oxygen rich environement. thats why they always grow on your airstones first. thats why a bigger airpump is needed so theres too much air for them xP. Slime is the major cause of the PH flucuations.. when i had the slime, my PH went from 5.5 to 7.2 in 24 hours... but yeah beneficial microbes will eat the shit in your reservoir. all the putryfying roots,little pesky organisms and they do everytthing to keep your root healthy :P
 
Cool, I'll pick some up probably tomorrow. I didn't want to have to go chopping 4 weeks early, would have been a very disappointing day.
 
what you can do in the meantime is to manually tug on the affected roots to get rid of the slime.. (kinda gross, like your working with snot) all the roots that come off in a gentle tug are dead roots.. you dont want those anyways. once u get the microbes tomorrow, make a really strong tea and soak your root system in it. also add some to your reservoir
 
Ok, sounds good. I've already pulled some of the slime stuff off the roots already the other day, but no where near enough. I won't be able to soak the roots because they are so thick inside the tube that I can't get the root mass out without tearing roots off. Hopefully if I can add some to the res it will be good enough to get them through a few more weeks.
 
It's a home made NFT system. Spent around $75 all together for all the pvc, pvc glue, 560 gph pump which alone was 40, and already had a air pump for oxygen in the res, and a 18 gal tote being used as a res. Other than that, it works pretty decent to be so cheap, compared to a store bought NFT system here would cost around $400+ brand new.
 
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