Maxi-Bloom and Well Water pH and ec

[TCH]

I have recently dove into coco and blumats with some clones. I have some basic feeding questions. When I add 2.5g of MB to 1gallon of well water, it comes up to 1.1-1.2ec. It does not change the ph from 7.2-7.4. It then takes 5ml of the GH ph down to bring it down to 6.0-6.1ph.

Does that seem like a lot of ph down? The stuff is about 5 years old. Does it lose strength over time?

My well water is .6ec and 7.2-7.4pH from the tap with no additives. I am not sure of the tds reading. I can get that this evening if necessary. When I do my ec readings, should my target ec be the actual reading or should I subtract the .6?

I do have a small ro setup and could use that if necessary, but am trying to just use the MB with no additional stuff to add. Would cutting the well water with half ro be a good option?

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

You can try it and see. I've both cut mine with filtered water and/or just used filtered water. My well runs in the 240-320ppm (.48-.64EC) range depending on time of year and I always run into lockout problems with it using it as-is.

My issue with mixing with R/O or filtered water is that you really have to be precise in your mix or you'll have to pH test every gallon separately and adjust individually. Much easier for me to know that all the water is going to be the same and once I test/adjust one gallon, I can do the others the exact same way since the water all matches. So my process ends up being to filter down to 0ppm, then add back in 2ml of Ca/Mg (about 130ppm), and add Maxi from there. For me that puts the pH down in the mid 4's, so I go through a fair amount of pH Up. Unfiltered my water is in the 7.5-8.5 range.

Note that I don't use Coco though, but am in Promix HP, so looking for an end pH in the 5.8-6.2 range.

 

[TCH]

Another question I thought of. If I mix up say a 4 gallon batch of nutrients, how long does that stay good? Do I need to consider putting a small air pump in my 4 gallon reservoir for the blumats?

 

[Billy the Mountain]

I have recently dove into coco and blumats with some clones. I have some basic feeding questions. When I add 2.5g of MB to 1gallon of well water, it comes up to 1.1-1.2ec. It does not change the ph from 7.2-7.4. It then takes 5ml of the GH ph down to bring it down to 6.0-6.1ph.

Does that seem like a lot of ph down? The stuff is about 5 years old. Does it lose strength over time?

My well water is .6ec and 7.2-7.4pH from the tap with no additives. I am not sure of the tds reading. I can get that this evening if necessary. When I do my ec readings, should my target ec be the actual reading or should I subtract the .6?

I do have a small ro setup and could use that if necessary, but am trying to just use the MB with no additional stuff to add. Would cutting the well water with half ro be a good option?

Thanks in advance!!!

.6 EC is about double the max recommended base EC for hydroponics. Not that it can't work, but it's far from ideal.
What is the 0.6 EC comprised of?
Your total EC is just that: base water EC + nutrient EC, you can't simply ignore the source water EC as the plants sure don't
Ignore TDS and stick to EC (the meter measures conductivity not dissolved solids).
TDS is a derived measurement that only causes needless confusion.

*Phosphoric acid (PH down) is stable over time

 

[TCH]

Should my reservoir be a dark bucket/container? I opened it to check last night and there was a film on top of the water and a bit of an odor. It's currently in a white bucket with lid and the room it's in stays between 64 and 71° or so.

 

[Billy the Mountain]

Should my reservoir be a dark bucket/container? I opened it to check last night and there was a film on top of the water and a bit of an odor. It's currently in a white bucket with lid and the room it's in stays between 64 and 71° or so.

Ideally, yes
Maxibloom doesn't have any discernible smell

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Should my reservoir be a dark bucket/container? I opened it to check last night and there was a film on top of the water and a bit of an odor. It's currently in a white bucket with lid and the room it's in stays between 64 and 71° or so.

Yeah, dark helps keep growth to a minimum. I found in a still reservoir with Maxi, Ca/Mg and a little Drip Clean you do get a little bio-scum at about a week. I never found it did anything harmful, but when I empty the tank, I'd always wipe it down and get rid of what I could.

 

[TCH]

Yeah, dark helps keep growth to a minimum. I found in a still reservoir with Maxi, Ca/Mg and a little Drip Clean you do get a little bio-scum at about a week. I never found it did anything harmful, but when I empty the tank, I'd always wipe it down and get rid of what I could.

Would throwing a little pump in there just to circulate the water help mitigate the problem at all?

 

[Treesomewanted77]

Would throwing a little pump in there just to circulate the water help mitigate the problem at all?

I run maxi bloom with a 13 gal res and I have a pump in there that comes on for 15 minutes every hour to keep it circulating and I still get some smell to it after a few days but it doesn’t harm anything. The pump will heat the water up the more it runs. I just clean my res once a month or so and start over but I found that maxi bloom really lowers my well water PH by a lot compared to many other brands.
I will say that if you get the advanced nutrients ph down it’s the strongest stuff on the market so it takes far less to reach the target ph

 

[calvin.m16]

My well water I gotta use a shitton of pH down and my RO water I gotta use a shitton of pH UP with Maxi. That is normal.

 

[Treesomewanted77]

I have used flora nova bloom from start to finish with great results but I had to add 1ml of cal/mag per gallon of water and with maxi bloom I have been able to cut out the cal/mag but I have to run a much higher EC or I get yellowing real early and it seems the maxi bloom needs a little extra N to keep the plants nice and green. I add a little calnit to it to bring the N up a little but I’m sure using a little maxi grow would do same thing. That’s just what I have ran into so far on my first maxi bloom grow.
I will most likely just go back to flora nova bloom just wish it wasn’t so dirty

 

[calvin.m16]

I have used flora nova bloom from start to finish with great results but I had to add 1ml of cal/mag per gallon of water and with maxi bloom I have been able to cut out the cal/mag but I have to run a much higher EC or I get yellowing real early and it seems the maxi bloom needs a little extra N to keep the plants nice and green. I add a little calnit to it to bring the N up a little but I’m sure using a little maxi grow would do same thing. That’s just what I have ran into so far on my first maxi bloom grow.
I will most likely just go back to flora nova bloom just wish it wasn’t so dirty

I use RO so I always add calmag and I use Maxibloom in coco. Also, my yields suffered running no calmag compared to running calmag. It was one of the only things I changed. I also went back to adding other additives like Floralicious Plus and FloraBlend by general hydro and have only noticed increased uptake and bigger better plants. Maxi is a great base nutrient and can be used by itself but you are not going to get optimal results running the bare minimum.

KISS method works great but can be better with supplementation of humic/fulvic acids, microbes, kelps for hormones, auxins, gibberellins, other sources of nutrients and different forms of P & K. I throw the kitchen sink at them because I'm shooting for maximum yield while maintaining good quality as well.

My Rosin press doesn't lie and the weed I grew with supplements on top of maxi GUSH compared to the stuff grown with just silica & maxi. Same strains, same medium, same lighting, same environment just adding in some extras.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Would throwing a little pump in there just to circulate the water help mitigate the problem at all?

I honestly don't know. I've not used one for circulation since what did build up wasn't that much of a concern for me. And my setup is a Blumat drip system that nowadays I only really use when I'm going out of town for an extended period. I used it for most of a grow, and missed the experience of hand watering (which I actually enjoy given I only do 2-4 plants at a time). I guess it couldn't hurt, and oxygenating water isn't a bad thing in terms of feeding/watering.

And yeah, Maxi drives my pH down to 4.5 or so and I liberally use pH Up for it...though hearing that Advance Nutrients pH adjusters are strong may make me try some next. I ended up buying a couple 2 liter bottles of pH up last time I bought and go through about 3.5ml per gallon to raise my pH.

 

[calvin.m16]

I honestly don't know. I've not used one for circulation since what did build up wasn't that much of a concern for me. And my setup is a Blumat drip system that nowadays I only really use when I'm going out of town for an extended period. I used it for most of a grow, and missed the experience of hand watering (which I actually enjoy given I only do 2-4 plants at a time). I guess it couldn't hurt, and oxygenating water isn't a bad thing in terms of feeding/watering.

And yeah, Maxi drives my pH down to 4.5 or so and I liberally use pH Up for it...though hearing that Advance Nutrients pH adjusters are strong may make me try some next. I ended up buying a couple 2 liter bottles of pH up last time I bought and go through about 3.5ml per gallon to raise my pH.

I'm on the same boat, I genuinely dislike automated watering. Going in the grow every couple days allowing some dryback and pitcher bombing seems to work best. Less runoff waste too.

 

[TCH]

How much maxibloom are you guys using per gallon? I am only using 2.5mg/gal for my little clones right now, but it doesn't seem to touch the pH level in my water. I'm curious to see if I bump it up if it will lower the ph some.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

How much maxibloom are you guys using per gallon? I am only using 2.5mg/gal for my little clones right now, but it doesn't seem to touch the pH level in my water. I'm curious to see if I bump it up if it will lower the ph some.

I'm generally in the 4-5g per gallon range. But I also filter my water down to 0EC and add back about .25EC of Ca/Mg, so my water isn't starting at 7 or 8pH anymore...

 

[TCH]

I do have most of a quart of calmag, but its botanicare and I'm not sure if it will play nice with the blumats. I may mix up a batch of RO water, calmag and the MB and see how it does and if the plants prefer it. They do seem to be doing just fine with what I'm giving them right now though.

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

I do have most of a quart of calmag, but its botanicare and I'm not sure if it will play nice with the blumats. I may mix up a batch of RO water, calmag and the MB and see how it does and if the plants prefer it. They do seem to be doing just fine with what I'm giving them right now though.

I had no problems with GH Ca/Mg. Though with Blumats you need to make sure your system never runs dry...if it does it'll crust up on the insides of the tubing, then it's a pain to clear or you're replacing the old tubing. I got a small bottle of House & Garden Drip clean and use it at recommended strength anyway. Though that too will effect your pH as it's got phosphoric acid in it.

 

[TCH]

Mixed up a gallon of ro water tonight
2mL of calmag
5g maxibloom
3mL ph up
Ended up being 1.7ec and 5.8ph
Had to add 2c of ro water to it to get the ec back down to 1.4

Mixed up a 2nd gallon of ro water
2mL calmag
4mg maxibloom
2.5mL ph up
1.4ec 5.9ph

 

[LeastExpectedGrower]

Mixed up a gallon of ro water tonight
2mL of calmag
5g maxibloom
3mL ph up
Ended up being 1.7ec and 5.8ph
Had to add 2c of ro water to it to get the ec back down to 1.4

Mixed up a 2nd gallon of ro water
2mL calmag
4mg maxibloom
2.5mL ph up
1.4ec 5.9ph

That sounds pretty identical to what I've experienced.