Problems with PH

[Fluxx]

Hello everyone

I'm a beginner in DWC and I just built my first 2 DWC Tanks.
After this, I ordered all the needed stuff I needed. HESI Starterkit ect

Now, I'm facing the problem, that the PH is raising every day for about 1.5 - 2.
I really have no Idea what to do. I putting every day PH Down to it, and for the Moment it's good, but the next day, when I come home and check the PH, it's back at 7.5 or higher. (I'm correcting the PH every time to 5.5 - 5.

Do you have a idea, what could cause this Problem?

I'm using normal tabwater...

Fluxx

[valley]

Greetings Fluxx, Glad you dropped by. Question: What temperature is your reservoir staying at? Are you using a bubbler?

Your PH will go up and down, I guess you know that. 5.5 - 6.5 is fine, even as high as 7 or higher from time to time. Do you have any yellowing of the leaves? Good luck to you. Talk to you later.

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard
Thank you for the fast answer.
Yes, I got a bubbler. In both Tanks.
To be honest, I haven't check the temperature until now. Could this cause this problem?
What would be the best temperature?

Now that you say it, I think, they become a very little bit at the tips... Hm.

Steven

[valley]

Hi Steven, A good temp, I think, around 75f about 22c, a bit higher as you go into winter, some people keep the temperature around 64f. If the temperature is too high there can be a problem with root rot. Yellowing of the leaves would be high PH, I don't see that with your plants in the pictures. Nice setup! If your water temperature it too high you can cool with plastic bottles of frozen water a time or two each day. Certain pumps heat the water and cause problems in smaller tanks. Some nutrients can cause high PH. Not sure what you have there as far as nutrient, is there a DWC club in the area?
Advanced Nutrient is a decent product. Say! your up late or early. I just checked it's 7:28 AM there.

Richard

[valley]

Steven,

One thing to add: With tank water heat, there is a trade off. Temperatures around 78f - 80f the roots and plants grow the very best, but there is a greater chance of root sickness and infection. Temps no higher than 68degrees f, is safer. Your pump and lights or exposure to sun add to the tank heat. You mentioned you have two tanks that could be cooler, unless you have two pumps.

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard

Thank you for the fast feedback.
I have to check the temperature of the water when I'm coming home from work.
So, about 22C would be good? Correct? I'll check that.

The Lights I'm using are LED Crowlight which do not produce heat. So I think this can't be the reason.

Monday, I filled one tank (10Liters) turned the bubbler on, and fixed the PH of the water at 5.5
When I checked the PH yesterday evening, it was about 7.8! I really was shocked! There was no Nutrition or something else in the Water...

When I made this first Tank (my first DWC steps) I made a big mistake. I took the wrong Nutrition and the hole water became brown. So I cleaned it all (really proper) and restarted. BUT! I don't know, if the Bubbler is completly proper. Could this maybe cause as well the extreme raise of PH? Maybe still some dirt in it?

Sadly, Hydroponics (DWC) is not that common in Switzerland (as many other things), so there's no big chance to find a Club arround me.

And yes, I got up this morning very early.

Best Regards and once again thank you for your tips.
Steven

[valley]

Hi Steven, I can't tell what you have growing there. Short term plants, veggies? Wondering how long you've had you system running. I'm sure you know, when you ad nutrition to add it slowly, over several days. so as not to shock. The same with temperature of the water, you can tip toe up with temperature as well as nutrient, cooler temps and fewer ppm is safer.
No light touching the water at you plants, tanks or tubes to prevent algae.
If when you check your temp you find it lower than expect, below 70f- 20c, you don't need to raise it, many go out of their way to lower the temp. As I said both root and plants grow faster at higher temps but you have to watch out for root rot, if you hover over your system you can stretch the envelop a bit with temps and ppm. Have a good one.

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard

I'm growing Chillies.
I'm running my Systems now since 1Mt. and I'm changing the water every week as I worte in different Forums.

Concerning the Nutrition. As written in the instruction of the Nutrition, I put it in step by step.

Sadly, I wasn't able to messure the water, because my Thermometer is Brokern. So I've to buy one tomorrow.

To be sure, I'll use a new tank and will as well use a new bubbler. I'll see soon if it will change something.

As soon as I got everything changed, I'll keep you up to date. Hopefully, it will work.

Once again thank you very much for all your helpful Input.

Keep in touch.
Steven

[valley]

If you've grown those pepper plants from seed, you're doing great, they look very healthy.

[imafan26]

What nutrient solution are you using. There are different solutions for different types of plants. 11-11-40 was recommended for peppers as they need a lot of potassium. Calcium and magnesium need to be added separately. pH fluctuates quite a lot, so it is a lot like taking care of a swimming pool, adjusting often is not unusual.

[Fluxx]

@Richard
Yes, I've grown them from seed. (Starting in soil). And then I found Hydroponics DWC on Youtube...

[Fluxx]

Hello Imafan26

I'm using Starterkit from HESI with the Nutrition-Plan that has been delivered with it.

Concerning the PH. But is it normale, that it fluctuates that much?

[Fluxx]

Hello again

I think, the reason why the PH was raising all the time, is the fact, that I didn't buffer the Hydrotone first.
As I read on some different sites, this could cause the extreme raise of PH.

What do you think about this?

I'm going now to buffer my Hydrotone and will have another try with the buffered Hydrotone in about 2 or 3 days...

I'll keep you up to date.

[valley]

Greetings Steven, That's a good analogy imafan came up with, swimming pool. You'll get it dialed in. What is the ph of your tap water? Yes, the ph has a mind of it's own. 5.8--6.5 may be optimum, peppers can do well higher. Not many agree completely on Temp, nutri and ph. Do you have much evaporation, that will effect your ppm and ph also.
Adjust daily and change your water every 7 to 10 days for now, don't sweat if it's high the next day, just make your adjustment. You will gradually extend you times and may allow larger swings in ph as you see how the plants respond. There are those that claim their ph doesn't vary, I can't believe that.
Not every one checks their ph daily. The only reason I know the ph of the water here is the girls have a ph meter for school work. Hold your breath, the ph here is 9 out of the well.


Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard

Well, I just finished the new Setup.

- I buffered the Hydroton to 5.5 over night and planted the Peppers into the new Hydroton
- Fresh Water now at 6.1
- EC 0.9 (don't know what it is in ppm but as I read, EC starts with 0.8 for young peppers up to 1.7 for the big ones... )
- Temp 21.3C

So. Let's see what will happen.

As you wrote, I'll go on and will make the adjustment every day and will change the Water in 7 days again.

I'll keep you up to date.
Best Regards,
Steven

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, people assume tap water is neutral, but it may not be. 9 is pretty amazing! Someone once wrote in saying her tap water was 4.5. Neither one sounds drinkable.

[imafan26]

I found this article explaining how and why pH changes.

pH does change a lot. Young plants will use more nitrogen than the older plants and once you have figured out how your system interacts with all of the parts you will get the hang of it and it will be easier to check and adjust.

Different plants have different nutrient requirements. Young plants require more nitrogen than older plants.

Nitrogen is the most volatile element. Nitrogen and potasssium are the two elements that get get taken up by the plants rapidly. Nitrogen is very volatile. The ammonia form is converted by bacteria to nitrites and by other bacteria to nitrates which the plants can use, and still other bacteria denitrify and convert nitrogen back to a gas that is released back into the air. The ammonium form of nitrogen has a buffering effect on pH. In an aquaponic system though too much ammonia would be toxic to the fish.

https://scienceinhydroponics.com/2010/06 ... -no-1.html

[valley]

Hi applestar, The water here taste wonderful.The plants and animals love it also. The water in Lake Tahoe must be the same it has the same source.





Richard

[valley]

Steven, This is isn't very state of the art I know. The holes in the plastic pot are covered with that black tape used for plumbing, a hole drilled into the pot allowing some captive water, the plant standing in a mixture of rock and vermiculite, a cookie of plastic to hold the plant up, a large enough hole in the plastic disk so fiberglass insulation to protect the stem, the black plastic top wrap to stop light and hold delivery hose.
Natural light in greenhouse, the temperature is up and down, the ph is higher than most would permit, I'll check the ph when the girls bring the meter back. When winter comes most plants will die except those taken into the house.
I have a thermometer in the greenhouse, but don't check the water regularly.

[valley]

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello
As I said, I changed my setup a little bit and took care, that the temperature of the water stays between 17 and 22C.
Now, since I've done that, I noticed, that the PH isn't going that crazy as before. So it still raises, but not that extreme as before. (I'm coolint the water now every day with about 6 Icepacks).
Do you have to cool your water as well? How do you do this? Any ideas for me?

Thank you
S.

[valley]

Hi, I don't cool the water. It raises and falls as the temperature in the greenhouse does, just keep it in the shade. The water is in the shade.
Don't know what you do with the water when you're change it, but you can feed outside plants with it. Some people use plastic water bottles, frozen, to cool the water the way you're using ice packs.

Glad you have better control now.

Richard

The weather here is cooling down, the plants I want to over winter, I will put in soil, cut them back and put upstairs in the house with light for the winter. I'll want to keep a few of the peppers.

[valley]

Steven Greetings, Concerning the water. Look at it often, if it's cloudy, looks, feels or smells funny, dump it and mix a fresh batch.
The warmer the water the closer you'll have to watch it at first, you'll know after a while when you should change it.
I haven't the time to cool the water, I can feel when it needs changing, you can too, you know how fresh mix looks, you know when it gets iffy. You're doing great, I can tell by the look of your plants. I hope you keep in touch, it's interesting seeing and hearing what you're doing and learning.

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard

I change the Water now every 7days. Actually, the tank is not the big (around 23Liters).
For the moment, everything looks pretty good. The PH is stable, the temperature is between 20 and 22C and I added a 2nd Bubbler to the tank.

Next to the existing tank, I started to plant some seeds. But after 5 days, only 2 seeds seem to be ok. And the sad thing is, that they are both in the same Rockwool cube. Why the others don't grow is a bit mistery to me. Maybe too dry?
I moisten them every day with PH corrected water, but the become so fast dry again. Hm. I'll have to find a good cycle.

And now, some new pictures about the existing setup and how you can see, have my chilis grown a bit. A little bit, but a bit.

I'll keep you up to date...

Best Regards,
Steven

[valley]

Steven hi, I've had the same problem with pepper seeds at times, poor germination, I think it was the seeds. I have had no problem seperating young pepper plants when growing in the same cell or block, they never seem to shock. you mentioned earlier that you start your plants in soil, I see at times you use Rockwool. Your pepper seeds sprouted in 5 days, that's fast, did you use a heat mat? Several people on the forum use heating mats, the girls had a mat for their frogs, I used it to start seed earlier this year and it did speed up germination.
Your setup is very neat. How far are the lights from your plants?
We got our first snow last night.. we don't heat the greenhouse, I've brought in severeal peppers to overwinter inside, I have only so much room for that.
Steven you're doing great, I hope to see these plants flowering. I nip the top of most of my plants at about 20cm so that they bush out and not get so tall. It will be and adventure watching the progress of your plants.

Richard

[Fluxx]

Hello Richard
That's good news! I'll try to seperate these 2 Peppers ASAP.

You are right, the 6 Peppers that you've see in the pictures are grown in soil, but now I try rockwool cubes. It's just a try.

Yes, I'm using a heat map. About 27C. And the lights is about 50cm above the plants.

The first snow?! Wow, that's very early. Isn't it?
I hope your plants won't get too shocked of the cold...

I'll keep you up to date about the peppers.

Steven

[valley]

Fluxx, RE: the pepper seedlings, before seperating them, I allowed them to get a few leaves.

The snow is a little earley, it's not sticking, warmed up today, but there's a fire not far from here, I think it help with that, it was a wet snow.
All the plants that stay in the greenhouse will die except for the parsley and a couple other things that will come up next spring, but they are alright for now and were happy to see the sun today. We are at 6800 ft so soon the greenhouse will get no sun at all.

How far are you from Interlaken, I've frends from there, and St Gallen.

Take care, it's good to here what you're doing.

Richard