PH Buffers effect on PPM

GreenGiant49

Well-Known Member
Now that I discovered it, it seems pretty obvious .... When you put in buffers to bring you PH up or down, this effects ppms. It can add 100 or more ppm to your solution, which it did to me this morning.

I was trying to adjust my DWC for a low ph condition. I needed to add 3 L to my waterfarm to bring the level up to optimum. In adjusting my make up water to a high PH level (to counteract the res), I added over 100 ppm to the solution.

My question is this. If the ph buffers are adding PPMs which is not plant food, do you subtract the PH buffers effect on ppm from the reading to get to the "true" nute amount in the reservoir? Kind of like the way you subtract yours starting ppm from your final.
 
bump! would like to know from the experts about this topic.... I notice the same thing, after adding ~25-30 drops of a pH product into my res, the PPM will always jump like 15-25 points (at a .5 conversion)
 
you don't count that as added ppm. Just as if you were adding other non NPK supplements, they do not count against your mixture. For example you could put a half a bottle of Hygrozyme in a 5 gal mix and your plants would not care but your ppm would be sky high.
 
So because I add a good bit of pH products (whether up or down, and about 25 drops twice a week), every time I add those drops it boosts the ppm by ~10-20 points, do I tack that on to my target total nutes of 950ppm, so in reality I should be shooting for like 975~ish at the least? To account for the pH products?
 
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