High EC leads to dropping PH?

High Guys
I have a question.
I've had quiet some time growing in soil and it all went fine.
I switched to hydro about a year ago with well... Ok results. Pulled around 300-350g on 4x4 with 400 watts.

I am using the Lucas Fomula on RO water with Cal/Mg to EC 0.2
Top feed with clay pebbles watered every hour.

My big question is the EC.
I'm at Bloom Day 30 atm and in all of my grows I never made it to an EC higher than 1.2
As soon as I go higher my ph starts to drop and I have to bring it up to 5.8-6.0 with KOH.
I am using the troubleshooting guide linked to this post

I made some research and some of you are pulling crazy ECs/PPMs but I am wondering why it won't work for me?
Should I ignore the dropping PH and still go to 1.6 or so as Lucas recommends?

I am asking this because my plants could look way better like I say above and I want better results.
My Temp 25-27C and 60% RH shouldnt be the problem so I am wondering what's going wrong :s

Would love to get your help
Thanks a lot

1-This is a table of stone, or dwc or sorts?
2- ph drops , how far over 12 hrs say?
3- if dwc or sorts , what do your roots look like?
4- imho I would run more calmag closer to 180ppm or .36ec ,my reason is that spring water is .44. ( just an opinion) .

If you're using Lucas formula at full strength, I don't see a need to use calmag. Lucas should have plenty of both. I use Lucas in dwc, full strength, and I've yet to run into a problem.

1. I use 1l Pots with clay pebbles 30x on 1.44m2 with top feed by a ring.
2. Around 0.3 on a 30l reservoir I would say
3.i can only check the roots coming out of the pot and they look healthy
4.i found some people going to 0.2ec but I can try what you told me. I am using Ca and Mg Mono from Canna which contain 12% Ca and 7%Mg is that fine?
I guess springwater has some other minerals in it?

Hollatchaboy: well I am not using it as full strength. My ec 1.2 consists out of 0.2 RO+Ca/Mg and 1.0 Lucas GHE
Any further advice?

Thanks a lot guys

Cocktrauma said:

I made some research and some of you are pulling crazy ECs/PPMs but I am wondering why it won't work for me?

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i run low EC too. think of it as saving $ on nutes.

I mean this in the best way, but are your meters calibrated? I would hate for someone to be going down a trouble shooting path with inaccurate readings. What meters are you using?

My hunch is that you might be able to get away with more aggressive pH adjustment if using phosphates or an organic acid like citric acid. The thing is that nutrient solutions as dilute as those need for hydro (and growing general) aren't great at buffering against pH changes at all, so even the smallest addition of acidification from your plants will change the pH. Think about RO water, its acidic because of atmospheric CO2 is dissolving in and dropping the pH to like 5.5-5 and that's not messing peoples plants up. So maybe your in the clear but you just need a little buffering capacity to your nutrients.

Just a question here... Your screen name.. was that self inflicted? Or like looking at Rosie O'Donnell trauma. Asking for a friend

Your fertilizer contains ammonium. That gets converted to nitrate by microorganism and causes your pH to drop. Better use a fertilizer that is very low in ammonium to avoid that problem.

Lou66 said:

Your fertilizer contains ammonium. That gets converted to nitrate by microorganism and causes your pH to drop. Better use a fertilizer that is very low in ammonium to avoid that problem.

Click to expand...

0.3% is already plenty low IMO.

Jjgrow420 said:

Just a question here... Your screen name.. was that self inflicted? Or like looking at Rosie O'Donnell trauma. Asking for a friend

Click to expand...

Aloha Guys
I'm back from the off
I was waiting till somebody will ask this question....
It's my childish very old gamer tag and I kind of never got rid of it ...
To be honest I don't even know why....
But afaik there was no incident in my life but who knows....

To everybody else.
I think it was root rot to be honest.
My new plants got it as well and the root rot would explain the dropping PH right?
I could finish the grow anyway with decent results but it sucks anyway.
I used to same hydroclay to plant in my new plants and that's how I recognized it.

I have to admit I did not sterilized the clay afterwards and that combined with the dacaying root matter in there made the problem.
Furthermore I'm still not sure about the watering schedule
I was watering them 2min every 20 min but read alot about 24/7 or only every 6 hours for 15 min.
I'm confused
I even think about switching to 100% because it's cheap and I can use new one every grow and only need 30l for 1.44m2
What do you think?

Thank you all alot!