DWC: Day 30 of Flower PH dropping to 5.0 for NO reason

Meast21 said:

I'm an expert DWC grower and I've never really seen this before. I have 2 clones into different buckets and different tents and about 1 week ago the ph would drop to 5.0. I tried lowering the ppm from 1050 to 850 and the ph is still doing this. These are clones of clones and the previous batch didn't do this. The only thing I can think I did was remove to many leaves for light penetration, but I highly doubt this is the cause. Please help.

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are you useing filtered or straight tap ?

rob333 said:

are you useing filtered or straight tap ?

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Straight tap ppm is around 155.. Would filtered water make a difference. Whats the cheapest best way to do that??

Bump

Meast21 said:

Bump

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Use a charcoal filter like Brita to filter out chlorine and other junk. I use this that goes on a garden hose, good for 8000 gallons. I use it for my hot tub but also for my 60 gallon RDWC. should be able to grab one at any tub/spa/sauna or RV dealer/accessories. I do a mix of 70% Tap 30% RO as my ppm out of tap can range between 200-260 (too hard)

you wont be putting much dent in the ppms with charcoal. what you need is a test or report from your water treatment plant which lists the alkalinity/calcium content of your water. This is what keeps your water buffered, PPM reading will give you only an ballpark on buffering capabilities.

kingtitan said:

Use a charcoal filter like Brita to filter out chlorine and other junk. I use this that goes on a garden hose, good for 8000 gallons. I use it for my hot tub but also for my 60 gallon RDWC. should be able to grab one at any tub/spa/sauna or RV dealer/accessories. I do a mix of 70% Tap 30% RO as my ppm out of tap can range between 200-260 (too hard)

you wont be putting much dent in the ppms with charcoal. what you need is a test or report from your water treatment plant which lists the alkalinity/calcium content of your water. This is what keeps your water buffered, PPM reading will give you only an ballpark on buffering capabilities.
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Yeah I'm gonna get a brita that connects to the tap. So u think it could possible be my City water?? Doesn't city's change their water a couple times a year??

Bump, yeah ph still dropping, although plants are basically showing no deficiencies. I ran water with dutch master zone through the top of the net cup, it prob won't do anything but who knows. Any other suggestions? What happens to the plant if the ph keeps dropping to 5.0 overnight from day 25 til cutting it down, even if the plant shows no deficiencies??

kingtitan said:

Use a charcoal filter like Brita to filter out chlorine and other junk. I use this that goes on a garden hose, good for 8000 gallons. I use it for my hot tub but also for my 60 gallon RDWC. should be able to grab one at any tub/spa/sauna or RV dealer/accessories. I do a mix of 70% Tap 30% RO as my ppm out of tap can range between 200-260 (too hard)

you wont be putting much dent in the ppms with charcoal. what you need is a test or report from your water treatment plant which lists the alkalinity/calcium content of your water. This is what keeps your water buffered, PPM reading will give you only an ballpark on buffering capabilities.
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So would the X10 work? Whats the difference between brita and x10?

I don't know if you can use any of this but I thought I'd throw it out there anyway.

It is possible that your water utility has changed something that is affecting you down line. To check if its that, do a run with distilled water and watch the pH. If it doesn't do the same thing, more than likely there was a change upstream at the water plant.

If you haven't already, google your water provider and go to their website. they are required by law to post water quality reports. You can find out a great deal about your water this way and it could help you down the line. Stuff like pH and chemical/mineral/metal content in PPM readings. Really handy, especially if you plan on mixing tap with RO like some people do.

As for reverse osmosis. I've been on the market for one so I've researched a little, and I have found that some RO filters don't remove chloramines, without an added filter (activated charcoal I believe), which is quickly becoming the preferred water additive over chlorine. Chloramine will not evaporate out like chlorine will. I grow soil, but I still don't like the idea of chloramine in my soil. An easy way to get rid of it is to add 125MG Vitamin C / 5 gallons of water and let it dissolve. 10-20 minutes you'll have taken care of the chloramine. I have no idea what ascorbic acid to 5 gallons of pure RO'd water does to TDS or EC though.

The 125MG can probably be dropped to 5-10MG in practice. I just use 125MG because I read somewhere that 1000MG takes care of 40 gallons for a bath.
Here is a source to ascorbic acid and chloramine removal. http://www.sfwater.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=4125

Little known/understood fact

at this stage plants dump waste products through the main stem and into the roots then into the soil/rez altering pH

Well I ran water mixed in with dutch master zone right through the top of the net cups and 1 or 2 plants ph didn't drop to 5.0 and only dropped to 5.5. So maybe if I do it a couple times it will get better.