Question About Ph Meter

i am just starting out ... about to go buy the necessary stuff for a bubbleponics setup... i am a little confused on the ph up and ph down ... when you buy that you are you buying what makes the ph adjust or just to read the ph? because i see most growers have the ph reader meter or whatever that is... should i get one of those ?

You get the meter to take readings. The ph up and down is once you take your reading if the solution is to high you add ph down to drop it or if its to low you had ph up to bring it up. Ph in a bubble system you wanna stay a ph of about 5.8-6.4 anywhere in there if its higher then lower it and vice versa. Check the ph with the nutes in it

Yes this is very important. Get a meter.

While a digital meter is ideal, it is also expensive as hell, especially for a first time hobby grower. While you're saving up for a nice digital PH meter, use the General Hydroponics PH test kit. The kit alone will run you about six bucks, but there's a packaged deal some stores carry which contains a bottle of PH Up, a bottle of PH Down, the PH test kit, and an eyedropper for adding the Up/Down to your resivoir in tiny amounts. REMEMBER: A little goes a long way. Even a large resivoir only needs a small amount of Up or Down in order for the PH to be affected.

Here's some more info:

GENERAL HYDROPONICS

My ph pen was like $28 new delivered.Its a Hanna and ph up and down is like 8 bucks at wal mart so that not much for a grower who is growing for real. Now if you have 20 buck budget get a dirt bag and bucket

A Hanna for $28? Hook a cracker up, man! Around here they're at least $100

Get on ebay man thats the deal place. At the time he had about 27 left but that was last year

I had a Hanna pH penmeter which wasn't waterproof, lasted 3 months until corrosion from simply grow room humidity (not being dropped in water) killed it.

Whatever you buy, make sure it's waterproof, with O-ring seals on the battery cover, etc.

I have a few Eutech pH meters, highly reliable... and waterproof... but not $28 anywhere, that I know of! Probably closer to $100. Don't go cheap on meters... buy well and buy once.

Many pH and nute strength meter makers recommend you keep the electrodes damp between uses. Believe this instruction! The electrodes will die prematurely if you don't. A bit of kitchen sponge in the meter cap dampened every few days will work.

storing pH electrode

Forget about storing electrode dry, this is only for specialized electrodes that you will probably not see in your life (unless you live in the lab ).

My hanna is water proof and never had an issue other then if you dont make sure you hold the off button and check it you can run batteries down in a day or 2 so I had to replace the batteries

Fletch, I know I had the cheapest of the cheap Hanna pH pens. However, this one I had couldn't even stand humidity... that surprised me.

BTW, do you have an older Hanna? I thought they had started adding the auto-power-off feature. Eutechs do have auto-power-off.