Ph Fluctuates always rising

Where do I begin... Last week I filled a 5 gal bucket with 4 gals of water from tap. No Idea at the time my ph or ppm until 2 days ago. I had a ph pen and a ppm pen from a grow I did a few years ago but as of writing this I havent came across yet, I also had a nutradip trimeter I picked up a few years ago but never used. And reciently I was able to get a good deal on an ebay auction on another nutradip trimeter with cal solutions. So I open the old meter and find the ph probe with a dried out storage tip but still tried to see if it worked ok. I hook it all up and drop the probes in the bucket and a few air stones and circulation pump, now i let the probes sit for a few hours and then i calibrate the ph and the ppm and after calibrating i see after a week of just plain tap water in the bucket for a week my ph was at 7.4 and ppm at 160. I add some general hydroponcs ph downand see the ph drop to 4.6 i let it sit for 15 minutes and see ph is at 4.8 so i add some ph up and see reading of 5.8. now over the next few days i see the ph rising 1/10th a point every 3 hours. so 2 days after calibration after getting the ph to 5.8 and seeming steady 2 days later nothing added ph is reading 6.8. So i decided to change out the the new ph prob with the old one and i should note this new one seems properly wet and i see an improved cap for the newer probe, the old probe had a silicone cap that must have lost its wet seal over the years. so even after replacing the ph probe with a supposedly new one, I recalibrate and stick it in the bucket and the ph is still rising. so I said lets try a fresh bucket so i draw another bucket of tap water let it sit overnight and i also switched out the old meter with the newer meter and ppm probe so now were running the new meter and probes. I reran all the calibrations and after that i adjusted the ph down to 5.9 so now we see if the ph will stay at 5.9 or what will it jump to.

So after reading all that can anybody suggest what i can do if the ph starts rising again??? I am thinking the nutradip trimeter is not the most reliable of meters and mabey i should try the bluelab combo meter i been hearing about?

GH ph drops.

Sometimes there is no substitute for good old fashioned chemistry.

I didn't read the entire post but I use GH products also.when I do a nute/water change with my dwc I always have to monitor for a couple days and generally add ph up.seems like the third day everything stabilizes..I never have seen an ill effect of a day or two at 6.3-6.7 ..

https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/701733-lets-talk-about-ph-testing.html?highlight=pH+Testing

Read this thread. It will help you navigate pH meter care, maintenance, troubleshooting, and usage.

aisach said:

https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/701733-lets-talk-about-ph-testing.html?highlight=pH+Testing

Read this thread. It will help you navigate pH meter care, maintenance, troubleshooting, and usage.

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Read and assimilated. well i am using 3 year old ph buffers i think i get new and try again

Yep, and toss that old dried out probe.

Your actually are looking for a rise in your PH. This shows the uptake of nutrients by the plant. A drop in PH can show issues with your res and IMO is more serious. I wouldn't worry to much about the rise. Find out how long it takes to actually go past 6.2 then gauge it from there. example would be start at 5.6 and adjust when it hit 6.2...or something like that. Good Luck

JonnyAppleSeed420 said:

Your actually are looking for a rise in your PH. This shows the uptake of nutrients by the plant. A drop in PH can show issues with your res and IMO is more serious. I wouldn't worry to much about the rise. Find out how long it takes to actually go past 6.2 then gauge it from there. example would be start at 5.6 and adjust when it hit 6.2...or something like that. Good Luck

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its a plain bucket of water i took to water my babies in their rockwool 1 inch cubes.

420Barista said:

Read and assimilated. well i am using 3 year old ph buffers i think i get new and try again

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and to note the Ph Down i found knocked on its side and leaking for a few months at least and now im thinking something must have went bad then.

Im wondering if I might be better off with Dry powder instead?

Never used the powder myself. Is it a one time use, or doe it make enough for a couple uses?
Powder might work for you if your stuff gets knocked around a bit. Just make sure everything is clean and well rinsed.

420Barista said:

its a plain bucket of water i took to water my babies in their rockwool 1 inch cubes.

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O.K. after reading it carefully now(you should break it up a little) I misunderstood the question. Do a little test, let some water stand for a couple of days and try reading it then, does it still increase in small increment's? If yes then your probes need replacing. You get a PH reading from tap water because your municipality puts stuff into your water, Chloramine is just one...this is what you are reading with the probe(electrical conductivity of the reaction of introducing two chemicals). The rise is most likely containment's evaporating off rising the PH of the solution. You can ask for a water analyses from your city. Do you air rate your water? This might help to stabilize.