Keeping ph in check

5BY5LEC said:

A bigger airpump. Quit using hygrozyme. Lower your PPM's.

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So here’s where I’m at after 4 days of this recovery...

Plant is wilting hard but I think it’s because of the smaller air pump. I am switching back to my heavy duty pump that gives crazy amount of oxygen.

Roots are recovering very well. They are actually growing better than ever being in the RO water with some h2o2... although the old roots still have some slime and some appear dead. Hard to tell for sure.

I just switched her back into a reduced nutrient schedule. Ppm measured at 420 (ha! Funny coincidence), ph at 6.3, and stopped using hygrozyme as suggested. Also read so many negative things about hygrozyme online.

Pictures... below. Thoughts? Will she make it? Gonna keep her in veg for another 3 weeks prob since she needs to recover and grow more before budding.

Edit: won't let me upload for some reason. Here is the imgur upload instead. https://imgur.com/a/Jg4GPW6

In dwc u should see a positive change fairly quickly if youve corrected the problem.
roots look better.
what is the water level at?

myke said:

In dwc u should see a positive change fairly quickly if youve corrected the problem.
roots look better.
what is the water level at?

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Water level is around 4 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket. The majority of roots are submerged and getting lots of oxygen from the pump now.

I checked a few things this morn and just now after work.

AM: ppm @ 410. Ph rose overnight to 7.5. Didn’t notice much of a change in water level. Leaves were still very wilted. I adjusted ph to 6.1 and then left for work.

PM: ppm @ 360 (yay first time I’ve seen her taking away ppms). Ph rose to 8.10 though!! Didn’t really notice a big change in water level but she is starting to drink a bit more than before. Leaves are also still very wilted. I just adjusted the ph down, went a bit overboard and brought it down to 5.80. Attached is a pic of the wiltyness. I have no idea what I am doing wrong. I’ve stopped using hygrozyme (yes the roots look better), tried h2o2 is small daily doses. Used a bigger air pump. And try to maintain 6.1 ph as much as possible. Still not getting a pretty plant. Also, I’ve been keeping air temp around 77F, RH @ steady 50% (thx to an amazon humidifier), and water temps around 72F. This photo is the current state.

its hard to ph water that has no nutes in it.air will also rise the ph .IMO u should be at 900 then go to 1200 . when my clones are rooted they get 400 for a week then 900.remember calmag is about 150 of that 900.

Should I actually bring my ph lower then, knowing that the oxygen will bring it back up?

Ex: if I’m bringing it to 6.1 now, but it’s rising to 7.5 after a few hours, then should I ph down to 4.6 thinking that the oxygen will bring it to 6.1? Please don’t rip into me if my logic is flawed, I’m awful with science

Do a test. Take one gallon or litres what ever and add enough of your nutes to get 900. Then check ph. Then add more nutes to make it 1200 and again check ph. Report back.
Don’t put any ph down in it

myke said:

Do a test. Take one gallon or litres what ever and add enough of your nutes to get 900. Then check ph. Then add more nutes to make it 1200 and again check ph. Report back.
Don’t put any ph down in it

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Before I go ahead with this, do you mind explaining the purpose of this?

Your ph should drop and be more stable when there’s enough nutes in it. With my nutes 5 ml per litre gives me 1400 ppm. And ph of 5.8. My tap water is 7ph

myke said:

Your ph should drop and be more stable when there’s enough nutes in it. With my nutes 5 ml per litre gives me 1400 ppm. And ph of 5.8. My tap water is 7ph

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that seems excessive for veg, no? the shawnery guy on the first page of this thread suggested doing the opposite

shawnery said:

Your ppm is on the high side and more for a plant double that size. High levels of nutrients can cause root problems by itself. Lower your nutrients to 500ppm when you refill your system.

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Fibbage3 said:

that seems excessive for veg, no? the shawnery guy on the first page of this thread suggested doing the opposite

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Stay on the low and continue doing what you're doing, roots are starting to look better, maybe the plant will come back

Beachwalker said:

Stay on the low and continue doing what you're doing, roots are starting to look better, maybe the plant will come back

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Hope so.. reading a lot that a ph rise with drop in ppm means you need to add more nutrients, so I am getting a little confused. We'll see how she looks in the morning.

ok sorry i had u mixed up with another fellow,u were at 900, cleaned everything h2o ect.now your on recovery.

I use a product called Enzymes Komplete for my system. I had root rot once and this stuff cleared it up in under a week.
If this is root rot no doubt it happed Because of water temperature is too warm. You need to cover the black bucket.Maybe somehow get some cool air to flow by the bucket. But for sure cover the bucket so heat can’t touch it. Make an air space between your cover and the bucket

'Empty' water, ie RO water is super hard to maintain pH in because it has nothing in it (minerals and such aid in holding pH). What you're describing about your pH swing isn't new in terms of this. A fairly high quality nutrient line should be buffered enough to maintain pH in tap water. Fix your pH swing and you'll fix a lot of your issues. If you don't fix the swing though, all your other methods may be in vain. Good luck friend.

CannaCountry said:

'Empty' water, ie RO water is super hard to maintain pH in because it has nothing in it (minerals and such aid in holding pH). What you're describing about your pH swing isn't new in terms of this. A fairly high quality nutrient line should be buffered enough to maintain pH in tap water. Fix your pH swing and you'll fix a lot of your issues. If you don't fix the swing though, all your other methods may be in vain. Good luck friend.

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Thanks for your response. I am having a very difficult time managing the swings. Should I attempt with my tap water instead? Ppms of my tap are around 170, ph 7.5. I am using green planet nutrients, so not sure if these are considered high quality as you mentioned. I am really losing hope on this...the ph rose to 8.5 this morning and theroots are turning brown again, although I can’t tell if it’s slime or nutrient stain.

170 tap water is pretty good,Id try it.

Agreed...I'd try your tap water. Heck, just mix up a few gallons to the side using your tap water and test the pH over time and see if it holds a little better than using the RO. At 170 ppm starting values, you should be good to go. Once you can confirm it holds better and I think it will, you can use it. If it's a fail, you wasted little and didn't goof your plants up any more or less.

FYI, I don't use Blue Planet Nutrients, but I have heard of them and from what little I know about them, they seem to be decent. I think you'll find the water change makes a difference.

CannaCountry said:

Agreed...I'd try your tap water. Heck, just mix up a few gallons to the side using your tap water and test the pH over time and see if it holds a little better than using the RO. At 170 ppm starting values, you should be good to go. Once you can confirm it holds better and I think it will, you can use it. If it's a fail, you wasted little and didn't goof your plants up any more or less.

FYI, I don't use Blue Planet Nutrients, but I have heard of them and from what little I know about them, they seem to be decent. I think you'll find the water change makes a difference.

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Thanks, making the swap tonight. Fingers crossed!! Will update in a few days

Keep up with the h2o2 and cover the lid on the bucket so it shades the whole pail.Your water temp has to be below 70f

myke said:

Keep up with the h2o2 and cover the lid on the bucket so it shades the whole pail.Your water temp has to be below 70f

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Water is at 67F consistently now. Here are the pics as of this moment. No more wilting, woohoo! They’re definitely looking better, despite the ph currently reading 8.2.. I am going to flush her using tap water with h2o2 ph’d at 6.10 for 12 hours then transfer to a new nutrient bucket using tap water in the morning. Might try increasing nutrients to 500ppm this time and see how it feeds. Thoughts? I haven’t seen anybody else complaining about such drastic rises in ph. Seems uncommon