Weirdest Thing Ive expierenced yet TRI METER question

[bubbiewubbie]

Ok i have another post where i was explaining what, at the time, was a ph ppm problem....or so i/we thought. Well after we mounted all of our hardware and timers and jaz (we had to pull for one 1000w ballast from another room because it was throwing the 20 a breaker) the nutridip tri meter has been giving readings like

*ph 3.2-.5.9 but moving up and down erratically
*ppm 3000-9000 moving up and down erratically
*temp 75-80 moving up and down a deg or two every min

NOW all these readings are when the meter is plugged in and submerged about 12 inches (as per instructions state) in my 55 gal res.
BUT if you pull the meters out of the res and get a scoop of water out in a jug the readings read

*ph-5.7
*ppm 500 (GH full line expert recirculating bottle strength or slightly higher.)
*temp is room temp 72 after it floods it rises to 80 from being in the room then back down to 72 during the wait till the next flood)

why does my 250$ tri meter show those wild numbers when they are in my reservoir and show what seems to be more correct numbers when measured aside in another container? does this seem like a power issue? or some sort of energy problem with my reservoir? my setup im using:

18 site ebb and flow (flow-n-gro) with a titan controls Oceanus 1
2 1000 watt mh optilume bulbs vented hoods and sun leaves and lumitek ballasts.
6 inch inline fan tall boy filter
6 inch inline fan to cool the lights and rout heat into another separate room that stays 68 deg.
240 inline duct booster pulling c02 outside air in
4 exhale co2 bags
4 other mycological projects in rubbermaid tubs for co2 production and temp maint.
GH nutes
tri meter by nutridip


Has anyone had this happen before and found a solution? this is my first grow and i havent even had 20 posts...i hope like hell its something im doing stupid and wrong.


DoGood

the pics are old the room is running now and plants are in 1st week transplant to buckets.

 

[Mr.Head]

do you have water being pushed directly against the probe? Like by say a pump intake/outlet or maybe air stones bubbling right into the sensor.

When I was looking at getting a trimeter I read instances of people getting inaccurate readings due to positioning of the probes. Perhaps there is too much movement in your reservoir? Maybe turn all that stuff off and see if it gives an accurate reading.

This is a wild ass random guess from someone who has never used a meter like that or grown in hydro, I did look into them but not very well I hope you get it figured out. I was reading your other thread as well, this is the kinda stuff that makes me afraid to try hydro

 

[bubbiewubbie]

do you have water being pushed directly against the probe? Like by say a pump intake/outlet or maybe air stones bubbling right into the sensor.

When I was looking at getting a trimeter I read instances of people getting inaccurate readings due to positioning of the probes. Perhaps there is too much movement in your reservoir? Maybe turn all that stuff off and see if it gives an accurate reading.

This is a wild ass random guess from someone who has never used a meter like that or grown in hydro, I did look into them but not very well I hope you get it figured out. I was reading your other thread as well, this is the kinda stuff that makes me afraid to try hydro

yeah man we pulled the pump out completely and everything else you could think of. we were tokin on LA confidential and really thinking into it. using diff outlets, setups, test meters for powers, you name it. we tried it. But the good thing is if you test it in an outside container it will work perfectly. we had the water from the well were getting tested by 2 diff hydro stores before setup just for precautions. and it all read low 30s. great water. i just think there is some kind of electrial interferance with the probes and the fill pump. thats the only thing i can think of. i have heard on occasion that if ballasts are close to the meters they will go all fucky on you. but mine is at least 10 ft away. Im hoping someone else had this prob. YES the tri meter is calibrated and works awesome (but only tested outside the res) which would defeat the purpose of 250$ device used to consistently running the meter. lol

 

[superstoner1]

Does it only happen when the ballasts are on or is it 24/7 same?

 

[bubbiewubbie]

Does it only happen when the ballasts are on or is it 24/7 same?

it happens 24/7 i have heard of some ballasts giving interference and thats what the hydro store owner asked me first today, but i just got back from my local hydro shop. and this is the suggestion i got.

The pump in the Oceanus 1 is 2 prong and so is the one in the res. but the side of the control unit it has a place for grounded plugs. i got pumps with 3 prong grounded ends on them and are going to try that because i noticed some difference in the readings getting close to regular when i would touch the water (ground it my myself with myself)

to date this is the only thing i haven't tried and i got 2 pumps one for the res and one for the drain and will see if this fixes this problem. id hate to spend 250$ on a tri meter and not be able to let it run automatically. ill update once i try these new pumps in a little while. i wonder if anyone else has ran into this problem. enlighten if you have or have the know how of electricity and ppm meters and if im correcting this the right way. thanks all!

 

[superstoner1]

Has to be the non grounded pump, which i couldnt imagine wanting to use.

 

[bubbiewubbie]

Has to be the non grounded pump, which i couldnt imagine wanting to use.

Update.....

I purchased 2 ecoplus 185 pumps that were both grounded and replaced the (wtf) marineland pumps. i thought it had the factory one in it which would have been maxijet if im not mistaken. anyhow, installed pumps initiated a flood cycle. the water still is throwing up crazy numbers like ph at 2.4 ppm 5000-7000 temp 104. ive changed the pumps ive tried with and without air stones but nothing i can do will get this expensive tri meter to work like its suppose to. but for now we just have to manually check the values in the am and the pm and adjust the ph accordingly. BTW the plants are really taking off within the past 48 hours and im pretty excited since this is my first grow. critical, og kush, white widow, blue thai, master kush, one bag seed of some extremely red fuzzy nug and a cream mandrine. So anyone wanna take a crack at why this is still happening or suggest i try something? at this point im all ears for rigging a pump and timer to fill and refil a bucket in another room just to get it to work correctly. like a nft for the probes? lol


DoGood

 

[ASMALLVOICE]

Is the meter on its own circuit, or is it sharing a circuit with other equipment. Sometimes inductive loads ( motors) can throw trash ( electrical) onto a circuit and make some finer electronics act up.

Try making sure it is all by itself on a circuit and see how that goes.

Peace

Asmallvoice

 

[bubbiewubbie]

Update.....

I purchased 2 ecoplus 185 pumps that were both grounded and replaced the (wtf) marineland pumps. i thought it had the factory one in it which would have been maxijet if im not mistaken. anyhow, installed pumps initiated a flood cycle. the water still is throwing up crazy numbers like ph at 2.4 ppm 5000-7000 temp 104. ive changed the pumps ive tried with and without air stones but nothing i can do will get this expensive tri meter to work like its suppose to. but for now we just have to manually check the values in the am and the pm and adjust the ph accordingly. BTW the plants are really taking off within the past 48 hours and im pretty excited since this is my first grow. critical, og kush, white widow, blue thai, master kush, one bag seed of some extremely red fuzzy nug and a cream mandrine. So anyone wanna take a crack at why this is still happening or suggest i try something? at this point im all ears for rigging a pump and timer to fill and refil a bucket in another room just to get it to work correctly. like a nft for the probes? lol


DoGood

UPDATE:
After more sleepless nights (im a little bit of a perfect nut and try to fix EVERYTHING) ive read alot from lumitek ballasts and the interference in the tri meter world. even the wires from and to your ballsts act as antennas and make your numbers go all fuckey. So its got to be an interferance issue with the lumitek ballsts which i dont think is insulated well. some companies insulate them and some dont. blue lab fixed this problem. sucks nutridip didnt. I have a 1000w lumitek ballasts and a 1000w sunleaves ballasts on diff corners of the room. next im going to try to move both ballsts as far away from the res as i can and or even in a different room. or switching the sunleaves and lumitek to see if its just lumiteks brand. Just thought id update and let anyone who haves this prob in the future what my last option for fixing this shit.

 

[MEANGREEN69]

this guy has the right idea. had the same prob with a tri meter. i bet you have the meter pluged in to the same circuit as the pumps? or with something else? fans,lights.ect
try this: turn everthing on then when the meter starts buggn out, one by one start to unplug your gear and see if the meter stop acting up ya dig? you may just need to plug it in to other outlets around the room that your not using.im 100% sure something like this is the problem.

Is the meter on its own circuit, or is it sharing a circuit with other equipment. Sometimes inductive loads ( motors) can throw trash ( electrical) onto a circuit and make some finer electronics act up.

Try making sure it is all by itself on a circuit and see how that goes.

Peace

Asmallvoice

 

[bubbiewubbie]

im going to my room tomorrow morning thats the first thing i will do. i mean ive already eliminated everything else and actually fixed my water temp problems by getting bigger pumps and it fills and drains faster so temps dont rise. but i never would have guessed that. now do you mean have it ran to another 20 amp breaker on the board for the whole house? or just another plug from the same room? each room has a 20a breaker. we have to pull from the bathroom a heavy duty 15a drop cord for 1 ballsts because the damn timer multi out has a 15 a fuse in it. but i deffinately will try the process of elimination tomorrows. thanks!

 

[MEANGREEN69]

most of the time you just have to give it a plug to itself. just move it around in the room once you find what the cause is. pumps and lights trip them out for sure.

 

[thecoolman]

I run a few tri meters they flake out from ballasts to close other cords to close sharing circuits etc etc
its always electrical interference of some type which flakes them

 

[bubbiewubbie]

OK well after hours of stop and go process of elimination it is the 1000w lumitek ballast causing the problems, i ran a 15 amp heavy duty drop cord to every base in the house and moved the ballasts a good 20 feet from my res and still when it was plugged in it was giving me the issue. isnt this covered by a warranty or suggestions on what to do?. the other ballast i have is a sun leaves 1000w mh/hps switchable its magnetic. so now i may get try to trade out my lumitek with a new sun leaves or unless anyone here has any suggestions for getting a good magnetic ballast to replace the lumitek. i really liked the lumitek but i like to be able to glance at the tri meter instead of dipping them 3 times a day. Sooo good 1000w magnetic ballasts suggestions? or possible fix? thanks!

 

[420Barista]

I've read on here and other forums about interference to tv's and radio given from digital ballasts. Now the cause for concern was if the ballast was causing the interference with a neighbors tv and they call the cable company the cable guy can trace where the interference is coming from. Now depending if your living in a house or an apartment if the cable guys tracks the cause to your dwelling he cant enter without permission but he can alert authorities and thats a headache no one needs.

Now I had a grow going with a digital ballast a few years ago and thankfully as far as I know the nextgen 400w ballast i used gave no interference.

I am now no longer using HID lighting but am now using CFL's for veg and soon LED's for flower. I obtained a chinese 300W led unit and tried it in my veg area and I love the light spectrum but i noticed shortly after I started using the LED my Bose cineamate remote would occasionally not work which frustrated the heck out of me. When i realised the problem started soon after i switched to led lighting I turned off the led and my remote functioned as it should. my veg area is on 24/7 but it is not sealed due to temps being a bit high. So for now i switched back to cfl's and will try the led panel again in the flower tent which will be larger and sealed when I have something ready to flower. I hope then in a sealed tent It should'nt interfere.

 

[DoseThemAll]

Excuse me if I am being repetitive, I didn't read all the responses to your post.
I have the same meter. You aren't reading ppm, you are reading EC. Now the confusing part is that it shows it within a 9999 range. So if you read 1600, your EC is actually 1.6 which would be like 800 ppm if you wanted to convert that (using .5)

PPM EC x 700
140 = 0.2
280= 0.4
420= 0.6
560= 0.8
700= 1.0
840= 1.2
980= 1.4
1120=1.6
1260= 1.8
1400= 2.0
1540= 2.2
1680= 2.4
1820= 2.6
1960 = 2.8
2240 =3.2
2520 = 3.4



PPM EC x 500
100= 0.2
200= 0.4
300= 0.6
400= 0.8
500= 1.0
600= 1.2
700= 1.4
800= 1.6
900= 1.8
1000= 2.0
1100= 2.2
1200= 2.4
1300= 2.6
1400= 2.8
1600= 3.2
1800= 3.4


These meters are amazing, I know a couple people that have been using them for years with no issues. The most tedious thing about them is the calibration because it is done with that screwdriver and its suppppppper sensitive. But, with that in mind, you need to calibrate your meter according to "S", micro siemens.

Check it out, on this image of a generic GH calibration label, its listed as 2930 S (micro siemens)

http://buymarijuanaseeds.com/community/attachments/gh-ec-calibration-jpg.247125/

Thats the number you would want to adjust too.
Now remember, adjust your temperature gauge first, then u can do either PH or EC, it dosent matter, but when you do PH make sure you do PH 7 first, then ph 4.

As far as interference, my meter acts weird when I throw a drain pump in there but its only for a couple min, I think the only time I have erratic readings is when a power cable from a pump or bubbler touches those wires. The only other thing that could fluctuate your PH dramtically are organics, which the microbes you feed could be doing. Making it worse could be your water temperature, it should be 65-75, once you get warmer microbes go crazy. If you have a pump in there, try getting a smaller one, I used to use a 400gph pump to circulate but it was getting into the high 80's so I got a 100 gph pump just to get it to move around and I throw an airstone at the bottom for maximum air.

Peace