Switched to RO water from hard water, PH dropping, EC rising, water dropping slowly

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Pyreonfire

Active Member
Hi guys!

So I switched my DWC 4 week old plant over to RO water, added cal/mag and southern ag fungicide (as a preventative; roots look healthy). My plant looks good. New growth looks healthy, but I'm not seeing much in terms of growth. I've been monitoring my levels since switching and I'm seeing rising EC levels (1164), dropping PH (5), and slowly dropping water. My ppm is 547 from 467 when I changed to RO.

Using general hydroponics to, cal/mag and the fungicide from southern ag.

I'm not sure what's causing it and what I should do to correct it?
 
fragileassassin

fragileassassin

Well-Known Member
How did you mix everything, in what order how long did you wait ect.
What rates did you add the calmag and southern ag?

Usually when ec rises it means they're drinking more than eating meaning they're overfed.
Ph dropping could be not enough calmag. If they consume it all you lose your ph buffer. My ph usually trends up, when it goes down it's usually a mag issue for me.
But for your case its just a guess right now.
You may have caused lockout.
More details
 
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Pyreonfire

Active Member
fragileassassin said:
How did you mix everything, in what order how long did you wait ect.
What rates did you add the calmag and southern ag?

Usually when ec rises it means they're drinking more than eating meaning they're overfed.
Ph dropping could be not enough calmag. If they consume it all you lose your ph buffer. My ph usually trends up, when it goes down it's usually a mag issue for me.
But for your case its just a guess right now.
You may have caused lockout.
More details
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestions!

I'm using a 6 gallon bucket, filled to about 4.5 gallons. I use a medical syringe for precise measurements. I added cal/mag first at 4ml/gallon and then the general hydroponics nutrients micro at 2.5ml/gal, floragro at 2.5ml/gal, then bloom at 2ml/gal. Added 1/2 ml of southern ag to reservoir a few days later (was beginning to see the downward trend already at this point).

It's under a 300w led light right now but I have a sf2000 on order... can't get here soon enough! Temps are about 80 with RH at about 55%.

Before I made the switch to our ro, I was seeing some deficiencies in the leaves. The new growth looks really good however.
 
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Pyreonfire

Active Member
rkymtnman said:
a pic of your plant would help 4wks old. how big, many leaves, many roots, etc?
Click to expand...
Ok, give me a minute and I'll grab you some. Just to give you a sense, my EC after adding nutes was 1014 (currently1163), PPM was 467 (currently 547) and ph was about 5.8. It went up the following day to about 6.2 and has been falling since. I didn't have to add any ph up or down. Growth had tapered off the past few weeks before I changed to RO.
 
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Pyreonfire

Active Member
rkymtnman said:
a pic of your plant would help 4wks old. how big, many leaves, many roots, etc?
Click to expand...
Ok, here are some photos. It's an auto, my first grow. Definitely took some hits as I was learning about ph, hard water/soft water, etc. Killed off its buddy, unfortunately, but got another seedling going and I'm learning!
 

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rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
yeah, add some RO water til you get around 0.5 or 0.6 EC. see how they react. should be dropping daily.

get your pH in range of 5.5 to 6.1 only adjust at most 2x a day though.
 
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Pyreonfire

Active Member
rkymtnman said:
yeah, add some RO water til you get around 0.5 or 0.6 EC. see how they react. should be dropping daily.

get your pH in range of 5.5 to 6.1 only adjust at most 2x a day though.
Click to expand...
Ok. so when you say .5 or .6 is that equivalent to 500-600 on the reader? Sorry for such basic questions.. I've only had the meter a week and am still learning.

Ok on the ph. I'll add more RO and see how that affects the ph and take it from there!
Thank you!
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Pyreonfire said:
Ok. so when you say .5 or .6 is that equivalent to 500-600 on the reader? Sorry for such basic questions.. I've only had the meter a week and am still learning
Click to expand...
no worries. yes, on your meter your EC range will be 0000 to 2000 (you'll never go higher than 2000, I promise.

so 500 to 600 EC for you. they should start eating. if not, add more Ro to maybe 300 or 400 at some pt, they will start eating again
 
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Pyreonfire

Active Member
rkymtnman said:
no worries. yes, on your meter your EC range will be 0000 to 2000 (you'll never go higher than 2000, I promise.

so 500 to 600 EC for you. they should start eating. if not, add more Ro to maybe 300 or 400 at some pt, they will start eating again
Click to expand...
Awesome. Thank you!
 
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Pyreonfire

Active Member
rkymtnman said:
no worries. yes, on your meter your EC range will be 0000 to 2000 (you'll never go higher than 2000, I promise.

so 500 to 600 EC for you. they should start eating. if not, add more Ro to maybe 300 or 400 at some pt, they will start eating again
Click to expand...
One more question, when I do my next reservoir change do I need to add fewer nutrients than I did previously? Was that my problem?
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Pyreonfire said:
One more question, when I do my next reservoir change do I need to add fewer nutrients than I did previously? Was that my problem?
Click to expand...
adding fewer nutes or more RO water both lower your EC

EC and water level going down daily is your goal. pH is also impt
 
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1212ham

Well-Known Member
Pyreonfire said:
Ok. so when you say .5 or .6 is that equivalent to 500-600 on the reader? Sorry for such basic questions.. I've only had the meter a week and am still learning.
Click to expand...
It depends on your meter, some are ppm only. ppm is parts per million and it's just a conversion from the original measurement of EC or electrical conductivity. The problem is, different conversions are used in different parts of the world. Check the instructions, brand and model or a picture would help us.
 
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Pyreonfire

Active Member
1212ham said:
It depends on your meter, some are ppm only. ppm is parts per million and it's just a conversion from the original measurement of EC or electrical conductivity. The problem is, different conversions are used in different parts of the world. Check the instructions, brand and model or a picture would help us.
Click to expand...
Mine says both ppm and ec, fortunately, so need for math! (Thank goodness, too!)
 
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