PH rising too fast, within a DAY!

[curbiechris]

So, the past 2 days i have been flushing my DWC because the PH rise from 5.8 to 6.6 within 24 hours.

What causes this?

Setup:
1400 watts
Plants are 12 days old from sprout
Room Temp - 75-85F
Humidity - 50%
PPM - 330-350 at the time, now lowered to 250-300

anyways, suggestions would be appreciated

 

[Guest]

Only time I've personally encountered this quick of rise in pH is ALGAE!

Might wanna check your DWC tub and see if there's any discoloration to the water or run your finger up the side of it and check if anything is growing on the sides. Also check the temp of your rez, if it's high then you know what you've got.

 

[curbiechris]

k
is there a way to get rid of algae?

 

[Jesusbuiltmygro]

You should read Big Toke's thread called Basic Water Chemistry to understand how PH and buffering capacity works.

Your nutrients are probably buffered and your waters PH is probably high. A PH change of 1 point in 24 hours after adjusting your rez isn't a big deal.

You should tell us what kind of water your using and whats the PH.

Did you try just adjusting it down again? Your water will always return to it's natural PH level over time. As your PPM goes down the PH will raise because your waters PH is probably 7-8.5 and the plant is removing nutrients that lower the PH. I mean it could just be your plant is hungry since the PPM's go down significantly. I would let it go and just re-adjust your PH. If you find your have to adjust your PH two often you may want to research buffering capacity to understand how to stabilize it. An easy trick is to do half filtered water half tap water, or just in general use filtered water to lower the PH.

If you have tap water if will probably have high buffering capacity and it will resist PH change. This can be useful in creating a stable PH but it also means the PH will likely be higher then filtered water.

Filtered water is nice because of it's low PH, but it also has little to no buffering capacity leaves your PH on shaky ground basically amplifying any PH swing that might occur.

A PH out of the 5.5-6.5 range is not going to hurt your plant quickly anyway so don't be to quick to flush. Your plant will tell you if high PH is becoming a problem with signs of deficiencies. If you add a bio filter to your rez you can increase the stability of your PH considerably and even lower it.

If your doing DWC it would only take minor tweaks to switch over to a bio tub setup, which is basically the same exact thing, but using a powerhead water pump instead of air stones for aeration. This creates much more water movement and is a lot healthier for the rez then a bunch of tiny bubbles.

A guy name nimby started the Bio Tub thing and its probably the best easy way to grow. It's just not as well known about as DWC bubblers. It's just like bio buckets, but without plumbing and easier to adapt to small spaces. You get all of the benefits of bio buckets like increased growth, higher disease resistance, more stable PH and NO FLUSHING. Also unlike DWC bubblers you don't have to worry about air stones clogging and needing to be cleaned and disinfected. The benefits to managing a bacteria ecosystem in your rez are endless, but not having to flush is probably the best. It saves a lot of work, water and nutrients and it's better for the plants.

 

[curbiechris]

thanks for that!
im reading up on this stuff now
curbs

 

[Guest]

what is your ppms doing while your ph is rising?

 

[Guest]

i think your plants are hungry if they are ph will rise and ppms will go down...if ph goes down ppms go up your nutrients are to strong...peace
a little hydrogen peroxide

 

[Guest]

Hydroponics - Bubblers / DWC
How can I stop algae from growing in the bucket?
It is imperative to keep light from reaching the nutrients in the bucket. For this reason, it is recommended to use black buckets for DWC. When using white buckets,they can be wrapped with several layers of duct tape or a layer of anti-corrosion pipe tape. Be sure to tape the lids also.

Algae needs light to grow. Ensuring no light makes its way to the nutrients through the bucket is the best way to prevent algae growth.
Algae also thrives in anaerobic conditions (lack of oxygen) so be sure that plenty of air is being pumped into the buckets.

I dont know the minimum amount, but you should not have any problems if you are pumping in at least 500 cc's/min of air per gallon.
600 cc's/min per gallon will ensure plenty of oxygen is being introduced in the nutrients.

 

[Guest]

i think your plants are hungry if they are ph will rise and ppms will go down...if ph goes down ppms go up your nutrients are to strong...peace
a little hydrogen peroxide

I thought this at first, but after reading the original post I noticed these plants are 12 days old from seed! There shouldnt be any nutes in there, but he has some so no biggie.

 

[curbiechris]

yeah, i just recently read
"If you PH tends to raise then it means your plants are eating more nutes, and if your PH tends to lower then it means your plants are drinking more water".

well the PPM is staying the same...
i do have light leak issues.
but thats getting fixed today.
i did slide my finger across the sides of the buckets. got nothing but brown gunk which i think is the nutes. it wasn't slimey like algae. but maybe it is.
in any case. im going to flush again
and scrub the buckets.
fix the light leaks
and if the PH still rises this quickly.
i guess ill just get my answers from Big Tokes thread.
thanks everyone

 

[Guest]

Hard to say - chances are really good the brown stuff was algae. Either way, take care of those light leaks, make damn sure it's all light tight, keep the water temp 65-74F and aerated and I believe all your issues will go away.... at least with the pH troubles.

 

[curbiechris]

cool. ill update this in a couple days after i get another air pump (ill have 2 nicely powered 6" for each bucket.

the light leaks are fixed as of now. i still want to wipe down the insides of the buckets.
ill do that next.

hopefully its just algae and it gets fixed.
thanks!