PIA Adjusting PH

Hi all,

Ok using my tap water cause my outdoor pipes are frozen and cannot use my RO system just yet. My tap water PPM are 97-120 and Ph is 7.2 - 7-6. I am trying to lower it to 5.2 - 5.8 range for use in my Ebb/Flow system.

I am having a hell of a time bringing the water down to even 6.0, seems I cannot get lower than that without using excessive Ph down.

Does my tap water have some serious buffering action going on preventing me from lowering it down past 6.0? Also using so much PH down
surprised me that is raises my PPM significantly. Like up to 250 ppm and this is without nutes yet.


Any have problems getting tap water down to under 6.0? Hoping I wont have this problem in a few days when I can use my RO system.

Why are you trying to lower the ph before adding nutes ? Why not mix a small batch of nute water then lower or raise the ph ? I rarely even use buffers for ph control anymore , controling ph using nutrients instead of ph buffers is just as easy & you dont load the water with shit the plants dont eat .

I need to use about 2ml of ph down in 4gal of feed water to get my tap of .14ec down to 5.8

Like Pan said, are you mixing in food first?

Good question guys. My first batch of I added the nutes first because I wanted to see how the floranova nutes affected PH. It brought it down some (trying to remember I think it did lower but only to 6.5 or so) then I added the PH down and could not for the life of me get it down under 6 without having to add a ridiculous amount.

The second batch of nutes I adjusted the water first down to 6 and even after adding the nutes it would not go down below 6. Tomorrow I am getting my RO system out, my outdoor pipes should have thawed by now and will see how RO water is going to work.

I will add nutes first always, thanks for the reminder on that.

Seems very suspicious to me, could it be you ph down is defected or too old? don't know but as someone said I always mix nutes first then adjust.

mix nutes, then check/adjust ph. on my water only day, my bubbled h2o is 8.6ph. I add 1ml + 3 drops of ph down per gal of water. on nute feeding days my nutes balance out my ph perfectly to 6.5. my ppm out the tap is 103. also, water temp plays a role in ph.

Could be old PH down, I have some on the way. I also bought 7.0 PH cal solution just to make sure my meter is cal'd, (also put in new batteries you never know)

Ok got it. Using my RO water my PH is now 7.2 When I add my nutes the PH drops down to 5.2 range, so something is up with my regular tap water and its buffering abilities. Glad I invested in RO, the nutes drop the PH into range without any adjustments needed. Oh and PPM goes from 100+ down to 003. Talk about clean water.

From what I have read I will need CalMag right?