First bubble bucket, pH issues

Using ionic hard water although my tap is only 90 ppm out of the faucet. I transplanted the clone into a 5 gallon lowes bucket with a 10" net pot, 1 air stone, and a drip ring. The water totals were 400 ppm, 5.9 pH, 65 degrees F. 2 days later the ppm is 650 with 4.5 pH. Water temp is 68.

My first thought is too many nutes. I just did a res change with 275 ppm total and 6.0 pH. Any ideas?

I think the hard water version of ionic uses less calcium nitrate, and gets those nitrate from nitric acid instead.

It really would make more sense to just use the non-hard water version, but you could also fix it it with calcium hydroxide - Ca(OH)2. Still, it'd make more sense to use the non hard water version rather than having to ever use Ca(OH)2. (it sucks to use.. hard to dissolve into reservoir)

Using standard pH up (potassium hydroxide - KOH) won't work in this case because the plant already has enough potassium and you'd need a lot to fill all the free nitrates from the nitric acid.

Also, 650ppm isn't too high by any means. 275ppm is too low for healthy growth.

That part I understood, but I have never heard of pH falling. Only rising

I guess I can try regular nutes. Too bad I wasted my money. Should have tested water first. So am I good without an ro system with my water? Can i just add cal mag and nutes?

Also what about silica blast for pH up?

This morning I checked the res and the ppm rose to 350 with pH 6.57. Now I am really confused. Why is my pH so out of wack? First it dropped, now it's rising

Your not running an organic nutrient line like Fox Farm three part are you? I ran ff 3 part line and had to switch solely because my ph was going nuts!!!! Guy at the hydro store told me that the bloom was organic and hydro systems and organic nutes dont mix. You should never use tap water when doing hydroponics. Glacier has fill stations at various groceriy stores when you can get 5 gals of reverse osmosis water for 1.50 or 30 cents per single gallon. The water comes out at about 10 PPM for a 5 gal jug and you never have to worry about ANYTHING being in the water. If that doesnt work and your not using organic nutrients then i would suggest using a nute line like advanced nutrients ph perfect whichs puts the ph at 5.7 the entire time and doesnt move. Or you can use GH 3 part nute line that has a ph buffer in it. You should never use water thats has over 100ppm to start and it seems that 90ppm is cutting it close. One of these is guaranteed to be the issue so let me know how it goes.

When your plants drink more water the nutes becomes concentrated so ph drops.
When your plants drink more nutes there is more water so ph will raise. You want your plants to drink equal parts of nutes and water.

What's in your tap water ? Chloramine? did you let your water sit around to evaporate Chlorine?Ph can drift when chems evporate.
I wouldn't use silica blast as ph up.

How is your plant doing? is she healthy ?

The plant looks the same as the day I transplanted 3 days ago. I transplanted a second clone today into 250 ppm cal/mag water. It's actually 90 ppm tap + 160 ppm cal mag. It was brought to pH of 6.0. I will see how the two change going into tomorrow

uhhhm are you using water straight from the tap? it has chlorine in it and its toxic to plants. you should let it sit out atleast 24 hours 12 with an airstone so the chlorine gasses out. you doin that?

You can also add vitamin C or lemon juice to help with the chlorine.

Silica products generally raise pH, and I use them as such. Have had no issues.
Honestly, my guess would be the tap water. For all my MJ I've used R/O for years
without issue, but recently I did some veggies and strawberries in an aeroflow, and
didn't use R/O. pH was VERY annoying... until I went back to R/O for those plants as well.

This morning I checked on my 2 clones. The one with the ionic hard water is at 420 ppm with pH 6.08, so at least it stabilized a bit. The second clone with just cal mag water is at 440 ppm and 4.9 pH. Ugh so annoying. Will try ro water, but don't want to waste my hard water nutes

Did a Rez change with strait tap water at 85 ppm with 5.7 and 5.9 pH. Going to see how they handle it. Will be getting ro water for next Rez change.

Tried a Rez change with ro water. Did 250 ppm cal/mag at 6.0 pH yesterday. This morning one Rez has 280 ppm and 6.1 pH and the other has 290 ppm with 4.5 pH. Getting pretty frustrated, can't make this work

use bennies

So I bought some distiller water and AN sensi grow. Mixed up 300 ppm sensi grow, cal/mag, and h2o2 water. The pH already read 5.62 after adding that so I put no pH down in the mix. Put the water with some new clones in the bubble buckets. 18 hours later the water is 4.7 pH and 318 ppm. What can I do to keep my pH from dropping so much?

did you solve the problem?