Air stones effect on ph?

[Guest 18340]

I heard that an air stone raises the ph of your water, any truth to this?
Theirs a thread asking about ph rise in a rez and that got me thinking...
I've kept ph'd plain water and ph'd nuted water in water jugs for days on end without any ph rise whatsoever so...
Anybody wanna shed some light on this?

 

[Guest 18340]

Nobody?

 

[Big D]

I have never experienced this... why don't you do a test and bubble some nutes overnite and see what happens...

 

[Guest 18340]

LOL, get outta my head Big D, i just said to myself "go hokk up and airstone in some water overnight and see what happens" and here you are. LOL Gonaa do that right now.

 

[drow]

I was wondering the exact same thing and have a thread here somewhere.

I was guessing the "real" pH of water in airstones is not that high and that the oxygen is just raising the pH and once it dissolves, it will go down to the "real" pH. Just a guess though.

But then in lake ecology it says that the oxygen removes all the carbonic acid h2co3 and thus raises the pH. Im not sure if its suppressing the h2co3 or just plain removing it. Because if its removing it, then that means I do need to PH DOWN, but if its not removing it and just suppressing it, that means the true pH of the water was not 7.0+ or so and could cause a pH lockout?

So my questions would be: Would it be safe to keep pHing down the water in the water container after weeks.

 

[SoCal Seed Co]

Been using airstones in rez for mant many years. Never really noticed a rise in PH but not saying its a false conclusion just that we haven't noticed any major PH shift.

 

[kokua]

Using ambient air and an air pump, aerating 20 litres (5 gallons) of water for 4 hours took my tap water pH from 7.8 to 8.6. Try hooking your airstones directly up to your co2 tank and see what happens to your pH...it drops like a rock! Bubbling co2 through water creates carbonic acid which drops the pH.

So...using straight co2 is going to make it drop fast. And using ambient air is going to make it raise fast(depending on your growroom's ambient air). Either way you are altering your pH.

The shitty part is that air stones don't really do a whole lot anyway. Water bubbles raising through your reservoir add very little if anything to the dissolved oxygen content of your water. Airstones are the devil!

 

[FaderVader]

Generally you will be adding Water and Nuts everyday or so and adjusting the PH often, many air stone users don't really notice the fluctuation, The only place i found air stones needed is DWC of course, other then that they really don't seem to be helpful and id agree wit Kokua, in most cases they just cause problems.

 

[kokua]

Generally you will be adding Water and Nuts everyday or so and adjusting the PH often

your not really adding nutrient and water to your reservoir's on a daily basis are you? There is an easier way!

 

[dr. ugs]

i used these black airstones once from petsmart and even after rinseing them good before use they put some white milky type shit in the water and it suficated my roots. the plants showed symptoms of root rot but the water was within the correct temps. it was def the airstones after we changed them the problems went away. stay away from the black ones they are nooooo good.

 

[simpleword]

Screw airstones! No matter what you get: disks, stones, flexible diffuser hose, etc. they always clog! I have gone to just open ended air hoses. It was nerve racking at first, because it seems like there would be less DO with huge bubbles. But I can tell you, my plants can't tell the difference.

As far as the stones raising the PH, it's probably the oxygen, not the actual stone (as stated above).

 

[dubwise]

I run an E&F table with weekly change outs, and have found no fluctuation in the ph over the course of the week. I have one large airstone on board.

Simpleword-I recently removed the airstone out of my waterfarm control tank and am much happier with the end of the hose as oppose to the airstone I had in there.

 

[jammie]

its not the airstones but the air. more specifically air bubbles in a dwc type set up will cause the buffers in nutrients and the water if you use tap water to break down and cause the ph to rise. apparently some nutrient makers use different buffers that don't break down so easily. i initially read this on a hydro shops forum then called hydrodynamics the maker of ionics (which i use) and one of their research chemists confirmed it. as far as airstones go i agree with simplework that you can easily achieve 100% saturation with the tube alone. keeping your rez temps under 70 will do more to improve o2 sat than a stone

 

[kokua]

good info jammie. This isn't limited to just DWC grows...Any res with a lot of air moving through is going to have pH drift. There are a lot of variables that can change how rapidly the pH actually swings, like volume of air, the chemical makeup of the air, the water source, the pH buffers that the nute company uses, etc... But, it is going to cause drift.

 

[Peanut Butter]

I noticed the rise with my 1/5th res volume addbacks, even when the ph of the res is 5.8 and addback with 5.8 ph'd tap water, after a few hours the res ends up slightly over 6.0. I have to ph non-aerated water to 5.3-.4 to keep the res in the 5.8 range. Always thought it was just my tap water being a pain in the ass, but the ph rise of aerated water fits my scenario.

 

[Ms Carter]

I use an airstone in my 55 gal rez, and have absolutely no ill PH effects. Infact, my PH has been stable at 5.7-5.9 for the past 2-3 weeks. I think when you first fill your rez, it take a week or two for the PH to fully stabalize, which is when people get rising readings.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Two major factors in whether an airstone will have a continuing effect on your pH.

1) The type of tap water you're using

2) The ability of the nutes you're using to buffer pH.


I used to always use RO water and GH 3-part, in DWC, with lots of airstones and lots of bubbles. Never had an issue with pH going up unless the res was teeny tiny and the water turbulence was massive.

I use GH Nova nutes now (still use RO water) and go up to a month without changing my res. Drip into lava rock filled buckets.
I have a 6" ceramic airstone in my res for aeration. Only need to pH once when I mix my nutes.



If you're using tap water...... Mix your nutes and bubble it over night. pH it again and then use it. You should be fine from there on. If you're still having issues, switch to GH Nova and RO water and leave your troubles behind.

 

[hanky3]

ph rises

ph rises

I heard that an air stone raises the ph of your water, any truth to this?
Theirs a thread asking about ph rise in a rez and that got me thinking...
I've kept ph'd plain water and ph'd nuted water in water jugs for days on end without any ph rise whatsoever so...
Anybody wanna shed some light on this?

Hes, I have the same issue, as long as you keep the air stone pumping air into the water the ph will continually rise,, I heard this is because I'm using a calcium made stone,, I'm looking to rectify that, it's costing me plenty for the vinegar or ph down to always daily lower the ph,, I'd love to hear from someone that can suggest a different type of air stone.Thanks

 

[Sgt.Stedenko]

When you aerate water, the pH will rise.
Anybody with a hot tub knows this.
The air rising through the water column will strip CO2 dissolved in the water, reducing the carbonic acid content of the water.
Set your res to 5.5 and let it naturally rise to 6.1, wash, rinse, repeat