PH problem (must be doing something wrong)

Hey guys,

This is my first grow, growing hydro. I moved the plants from soil to hydro last night after about 3 weeks.(we were waiting for everything to ship in) and I couldn't get a PH test kit until today. I got a kit that had the vial and a little thing of PH up and PH down. Checked my tap water, which i filled my 22 gal resevoir with. I filled 20 gallons. I had to use the WHOLE PH down container and it still read 7.8+ then I went to Petsmart and bought a big bottle of PH down that was for 480 gallons. Ended up using the whole thing and its still reading 6.6.... WTF?! I've done about a months worth of research before begining. Any and all advice is welcome and I don't mind answering any questions or posting specific photos if requested.

Thanks

um this is confusing...

how did you move them from soil to hydro first off...

2nd, did you add anything to the water other than pH down?

I can't really answer your question, but I use about a mil. of PH Down per gallon to bring my tap from off the charts high to 6.5. In my case, that would mean I need about 0.7 ounces/20ml for 20 gallons.

I don't know why it's not working for you. FWIW, I use the API brand PH Down from the pet store. Works for me.

what are you using to measure ph with? i would dump that water and refill with whatever you have near, even if it's tap water until you get yourself a good ph meter. try the local aquarium shops for a meter.

your tank needs to settle out....no doubt the roots were not freed of all the soil....there's gonna be lots of stuff in there.

flush it and start again

Flushed the tanks and started over. Same problem except I noticed it goes down if I check it immediately but after about 30 mins if I check again its started to rise again... WTF?! I know our tap water has high Chlorine, could this cause the problem? OR could it be my nutrients?

If it's only a 20 gallon then maybe you'd be better off going to the store and just getting a bunch of distilled for 20 bucks. Might be better than wasting nutes and pH adjuster.

Did you use the sywire method for converting soil to hydro? If so, there shouldn't be any soil in your system. I would double check your PH test method. It takes me less than a table spoon of PH down from general hydro to get ten gallons to about 6.0 from 7.5 I have to monitor the PH in my DWC system daily, it will creep up to about 6.5 on my every 24 hours for the first three or four days after a nute change, but then it stabilizes. The other thing you can use is API tap water conditioner. It neutralizes chlorine and chloromines from common tap water. Our chlorine here isnt real bad at all, so I don't really use it, but have used it in the past.

Remember to add your PH adjuster small amounts at a time and let rest for five minutes while the nutrient is circulating before testing. Hope this helps.

Grow Strong