New air pump causing ph problem.

I upgraded my air pump from gen hydro to commercial air pump, now my ph drops like a rock, I'm pushing twice the air through the air stones now. I don't know if I should switch back or get the "soda pop" air stones to create less back pressure and a smaller bubble size. Thoughts?

I had this problem and had it for a long time couldnt figure it out for the life of me, until i remembered the only thing that got changed was a new air pump. I upgraded from a 571gph to a 1175 or something like that, anyway the pump was pushing i guess you could call it junk through my airlines and after i switched back to the old pump problem went away.

j to the c said:

I upgraded my air pump from gen hydro to commercial air pump, now my ph drops like a rock, I'm pushing twice the air through the air stones now. I don't know if I should switch back or get the "soda pop" air stones to create less back pressure and a smaller bubble size. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Is the water warmer with your new pump?

mmjmon said:

Is the water warmer with your new pump?

Click to expand...

No, we're nearing winter. I upgraded the airstones from the small eco plus to the medium ones and the problem has gone away. I was going from 6.0 to as low as 4.3 in a matter to a day or two. I thought I had a bacteria running around, dismantled the system and bleached everything. I run a 6 site rdwc custom built. After a couple days it started happening again. So, I swapped out the air stones and BOOM. rock solid ph again. Interesting that that happened, thank goodness that was the problem.

I was running 2 GH air pumps. Love them and had them for 8 years, and not a single problem EVER. I upgraded to an eco plus commercial 3. Way more air with an 8 tee to run all 6 buckets, res, and pre veg tub. The small eco plus air stones were just too small the bubbles were too big.

I wonder what does this.... I've had the same issue once or twice as most hydro growers have... Why is it new stones or elimination of stones and just running an open airlines like I did in a recent case of this issue to my f&d resi's... The minute the airstones were pulled and the open line was put in, problem solved... Maybe it's the stones rather than the pumps? I have an Eco 710lpm and I need more but that's besides the issue... I recently built 5 individual dwc buckets and used random airstones I had until I could buy new ones and I had zero issues but I know without doubt one or more of those stones caused me grief in the past but even though there's a couple oldies I didn't replace my ph is rock steady.... It's a weird problem that just pops up and causes migraines that I'd like to know why rather than just throwing in new stones/pumps even though that is the only fix it appears....