# When to adjust PH



## pothead4life (Nov 17, 2008)

hello i m ready to start feeding my lil babys some nutrients but i have a question first. When do i adjust the ph after or before the nutrients?

and if i am mixing two diff. nutrients how do i check the ppm?


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## andy52 (Nov 17, 2008)

after you add the nutes.add all your nutes then adjust your ph,then check your ppm's


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## BuddyLuv (Nov 17, 2008)

you need a pH/TDS monitor. You adjust the pH after you have mixed the nutes and water.


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## pothead4life (Nov 17, 2008)

i got a ph meter and a tds meter but my ph keeps moving up and down it wont stay at one number. how long after adding the nutes should i wait


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## BuddyLuv (Nov 17, 2008)

What do you mean it moves up and down, like every second or everyday?


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## Elven (Nov 18, 2008)

Just jumping in on this I have a rather basic question. I setup PPM on Friday, then next day the PPM is up. do I add water to lower it back down? or do I wait? Thanks.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Nov 18, 2008)

Elven said:
			
		

> Just jumping in on this I have a rather basic question. I setup PPM on Friday, then next day the PPM is up. do I add water to lower it back down? or do I wait? Thanks.



How much has it jumped?  And how much is your ph being affected?


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## Elven (Nov 18, 2008)

The Hemp Goddess said:
			
		

> How much has it jumped?  And how much is your ph being affected?



I would say that if I add a gallon of water a day it keeps the PPM close. it goes up about 100 ppm a day. I just made some modifications to keep evaporation down to a minimum, take a look at my builds . I check my PH about 3 times a day and usually modify it once.


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## andy52 (Nov 18, 2008)

hmm something is going on there.i never have to adjust my ph after mixing my nutes.it never fluctuates very little.now my ppm's do go down as expected.all depends on the stage of growth your in also.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Nov 18, 2008)

Elven said:
			
		

> I would say that if I add a gallon of water a day it keeps the PPM close. it goes up about 100 ppm a day. I just made some modifications to keep evaporation down to a minimum, take a look at my builds . I check my PH about 3 times a day and usually modify it once.



I'm with Andy--something is not right here and I don't think this can be attributed to evaporation.  You shouldn't have to be messing with things that much.  And 100 ppm a day is way too much to go up.  Your pH is probably going down if your ppms are going up.  I think that you should back your nutes off a bit and see if that makes a difference..


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## Elven (Nov 18, 2008)

The Hemp Goddess said:
			
		

> I'm with Andy--something is not right here and I don't think this can be attributed to evaporation.  You shouldn't have to be messing with things that much.  And 100 ppm a day is way too much to go up.  Your pH is probably going down if your ppms are going up.  I think that you should back your nutes off a bit and see if that makes a difference..



Well since its fog alot of mist escapes the top of the netpots. I added a cover to them last night and I am going to see if that helps at all. I have another idea, but my PH actually always goes up.


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## andy52 (Nov 18, 2008)

what kind of water and nutes are u using?


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## Elven (Nov 18, 2008)

andy52 said:
			
		

> what kind of water and nutes are u using?



Using Filter Water starts at 1 to 2 PPM and for nutes I am using the full line of Master AB from Humboldt nutrients.


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## massproducer (Nov 19, 2008)

The reason the ppm's kept going up is because a combination of evaporation and because plants in aeroponic systems need very little nutes as opposed to their hydroponic cousins, so your water was escaping and evaporating and your plants are eating mainly water...

What are you keeping the ppm at?


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## Elven (Nov 19, 2008)

massproducer said:
			
		

> The reason the ppm's kept going up is because a combination of evaporation and because plants in aeroponic systems need very little nutes as opposed to their hydroponic cousins, so your water was escaping and evaporating and your plants are eating mainly water...
> 
> What are you keeping the ppm at?



Thanks lot for the response Massproducer, well since I had all my issues prior to this try (see grow journal in signature) I started my new babies at 500 PPM which is the week one light feeding schedule.

Just some quick info, it looks like I may be on the right track. 

at 1830 last night here were the stats

PPM 613  PH 5.7 temp 33.0c

and 0630 this morning.

PPM 650 PH 6 temp 31.9c 

The temps are res temps. it stays pretty close to ambient temp. Since the first two tries ended up looking like they were BBQ'd, I am thrilled that I still have plants that are growing . Thanks everyone for your help and please feel free to look at my build's and grow journal, and tell me anything that I may have done wrong. I like to think that I am pretty logical about things, but sometimes I overlook something that messes me up. Thanks in advance.


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## Elven (Nov 25, 2008)

OK well I figured out why my PPM kept going up so much, PH DOWN! in order to keep the PH level I was adding PH Down but not thinking that it was going to add PPM (STUPID ME) now I just need to figure out why my PH keeps going up so much. My main components are as follows:
1. Two Tough Box 27 Gallon Containers
2. Pond liner to prevent leakage from between the two containers
3. Pure Silicon to hold the pond liner on 
4. Ultrasonic Fog Generator
5. Water Pump (for sprayers)
6. PVC piping (for sprayers) 
7. Air stone
8. Net pots
9. Hydrotron pellets
10. Rockwool cubes
11. Marijuana Plants

I am running a test now on the liner and the fog generator. I will update this afternoon.


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## Elven (Nov 26, 2008)

OK I found out what is causing my PH to rise its my Nutes, apparently the organic additives that I am using when they break down cause my PH to go up. So my PPM will continue to rise while I am adding PH Down to keep that under control.


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