Ph and PPM Question

akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Ok I have a 1 plant recirculating hydro grow and everything is going pretty good. Im in my 4th week of veg and my ph is dropping like crazy and ppms is rising but plant is very healthy no signs of deficiencies or lockout. I know everyone is gonna say Im over feeding but after flush and fresh nutes the ppms go down after 24 hours so this means under fed but 48 hours after ppms went down it goes back up. Strange right? Just checked roots for rot and roots are white. This has me puzzled and I've been researching this all day to only find that when this is happening it usually root rot. Somebody anybody chime in my journal is in my signature. I wanna get this solved fast as I don't wanna have to flush every 3-4 daysand don't wanna use ph up the whole grow either. Plants are healthy please HELP!!!
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
akhiymjames said:
Ok I have a 1 plant recirculating hydro grow and everything is going pretty good. Im in my 4th week of veg and my ph is dropping like crazy and ppms is rising but plant is very healthy no signs of deficiencies or lockout. I know everyone is gonna say Im over feeding but after flush and fresh nutes the ppms go down after 24 hours so this means under fed but 48 hours after ppms went down it goes back up. Strange right? Just checked roots for rot and roots are white. This has me puzzled and I've been researching this all day to only find that when this is happening it usually root rot. Somebody anybody chime in my journal is in my signature. I wanna get this solved fast as I don't wanna have to flush every 3-4 daysand don't wanna use ph up the whole grow either. Plants are healthy please HELP!!!
Click to expand...
How big is the reservoir?
And could the climb be due to evaporation? Covered reservoir?
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Aeroknow said:
How big is the reservoir?
And could the climb be due to evaporation? Covered reservoir?
Click to expand...
The res is a 20gal res but I only use 10gal of it just in case I need to dilute the res. I have the res covered with a top so its not evaporating. Check out my journal and check the last page. I went into mass detail as to what has been happening. Root rot is ruled out and now Im tryna figure out if Im over feeding or under feeding cus that's the only thing I can think of that could cause this
 
Sativied

Sativied

Well-Known Member
And which nutrients do you use? 24 hours of normal uptake before it gets imbalanced too far, possibly...

Also a lowering ppm does not always mean "under fed". It says something about the nutrient and water uptake balance, not necessarily about the plant's needs.
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Sativied said:
And which nutrients do you use? 24 hours of normal uptake before it gets imbalanced too far, possibly...

Also a lowering ppm does not always mean "under fed". It says something about the nutrient and water uptake balance, not necessarily about the plants needs.
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Im using Cyco's Grow base B1 Boost and Silica that's it. After flush and 24 hours of being fed fresh nutes ppms go down 100-200 but 48 hours later they start rising and ph starts dropping fast. If I hadn't added fresh water to res and some ph up the ph would be under 5 and Im not gonna let that happen as some nutes will start getting locked out
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
akhiymjames said:
Im using Cyco's Grow base B1 Boost and Silica that's it. After flush and 24 hours of being fed fresh nutes ppms go down 100-200 but 48 hours later they start rising and ph starts dropping fast. If I hadn't added fresh water to res and some ph up the ph would be under 5 and Im not gonna let that happen as some nutes will start getting locked out
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What EC you giving them?
I read the whole last page and didn't get that.
 
superstoner1

superstoner1

Well-Known Member
When ppm goes down plants are more nutes than water. Then plant has stored nutes and starts drinking water that raises ppm. Ppm swings will cause pH swings, you need to find the balance. Don't worry about ppm swings as much as pH.
 
superstoner1

superstoner1

Well-Known Member
And use the damn res. Why use half? You are going to work yourself ragged. I was gone for 10 days last week and all of my 50gal RES's were within range of each stage.
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
superstoner1 said:
And use the damn res. Why use half? You are going to work yourself ragged. I was gone for 10 days last week and all of my 50gal RES's were within range of each stage.
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Word!
And I've never met a strain in any setup, that needed more than 1.6~1-8 EC.
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Aeroknow said:
What EC you giving them?
I read the whole last page and didn't get that.
Click to expand...
I dont have a EC meter just a tds meter and ppms were fed at 800

superstoner1 said:
When ppm goes down plants are more nutes than water. Then plant has stored nutes and starts drinking water that raises ppm. Ppm swings will cause pH swings, you need to find the balance. Don't worry about ppm swings as much as pH.
Click to expand...
I wasn't really too worried about the ppm swings I am more worried about why the pH is droping so fast. I totally get what you are saying as that makes perfect sense. She's getting her feed in a couple days with the high ppm and then the nutes are stored to the max and just drinks more water. So by this I need to lower my nute concentration.

Oh and if I use most of the res I shouldn't have to flush every week should I like I've been doing. I was only using half as I only have one plant and its in 10 gal pot so I figured that would be enough and it left me room if I needed to dilute the res more
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
akhiymjames said:
I dont have a EC meter just a tds meter and ppms were fed at 800



I wasn't really too worried about the ppm swings I am more worried about why the pH is droping so fast. I totally get what you are saying as that makes perfect sense. She's getting her feed in a couple days with the high ppm and then the nutes are stored to the max and just drinks more water. So by this I need to lower my nute concentration.

Oh and if I use most of the res I shouldn't have to flush every week should I like I've been doing. I was only using half as I only have one plant and its in 10 gal pot so I figured that would be enough and it left me room if I needed to dilute the res more
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Yeah, fill that rezervoir up, it will be more stable for you and the plant;-)
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Aeroknow said:
Yeah, fill that rezervoir up, it will be more stable for you;-)
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ok I'll def fill it up more I cant fill it too high as 20 gallons of water is heavy as fuck lol and I gotta bad back but I fight through it. Thanks for the help bro I should've been posted something here. Was hoping I would get answers posting in my journal but didn't get much help. I already diluted the res down so that should help. I figured I had too much nutes but with it going down after being fed I fugred it wasn't enough so I've been bumping the nutes up every week but I guess its the lady I have. I think she could be a nute hog as she's handled every bump up in nutes but she doesn't have to be as to why she's eating then storing. Once again thanks bro
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
if the lower nute concentration in res doesn't work then I'm really lost lol gonna check the res now see whats going on then hopefully when I get up in the morning pH wont have dropped under 5
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
I struggled with keeping things constant at first with wild swings up and down. What I found was by keeping the ec around 1.2 at the highest my ph would slowly drop over a period of 6-8 days in flower, longer in veg. As the week progresses the ph will get to around 5.7-5.8 at that point I change the res. as it has become unstable and drops rapidly. Using ph up only works for a day or two at that point so I dont bother with it. My res is 30 gallons and IMO to small but I have limited room.
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Honestly it has to be something to do with my tap water. Lowering the ppms did justice but the pH is still dropping after about 4 days or so. after this grow I'll just get me a R/O system so I shouldn't have to worry about this stuff anymore. My tap is not bad just think theres something that's buffering the pH crazy. I'm not complaining too much as she's still healthy as getting bigger everyday. Gonna flower at the end of this week or next week
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Personally I know nothing about hydro it's my first time running it and I'm just wondering if that would help. Honestly I'm not tripping cus like I said she's all healthy as she can be. I would like to have the pH more stable than what it is but I guess I'll figure out what's making the pH swing so crazy.
 
akhiymjames

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Was doing some research earlier and I'm thinking that since I'm not running the full line maybe that's why the pH isn't stable. I have no idea honestly but it was just a thought. I think it's just weird that everytime I add fresh nutes to the res at no matter what strength and then pH it let res mix for a few hours then feed the next day it has risen a full pH point. A few guys have told me to mix my nutes a couple days before I use them and just add a air stone then pH when I'm ready to use. I'll try that hopefully it works. If not I'll just have to keep at it like I've been doing
 
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