Stabilizing your PH

[east coast]

I know. That's why we add silicate first. We ain't making this chit up. If you live somewhere with high iron content you can use this to your advantage....

;).

Not sure if it'll pull mercury out. How much mercury you think is in fish emulsion?

i always added silicate last. never seemed to have any problems. perhaps some clouding, but no precipitation. :dunno:



lolz at that 30bad website. as much as i admire 80/10/10ers, some of the chit that gets posted there makes me ashamed to be vegan. lots of parroting going on there, and the always enjoyable "my chit don't stink" threads. (srs) but anyways...

 

[Xochipilli]

i always added silicate last. never seemed to have any problems. perhaps some clouding, but no precipitation. :dunno:

lol. me too.

that precipitation is the 'floc'

 

[east coast]

interesting. i don't recall that term ever coming up. learn something new everyday here. :)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flocculation

The action differs from precipitation in that, prior to flocculation, colloids are merely suspended in a liquid and not actually dissolved in a solution. In the flocculated system, there is no formation of a cake, since all the flocs are in the suspension.

 

[Xochipilli]

if you put a magnet over the 'poo' you'd see a film of iron adhere to the magnet. it's not really a big deal --- there is alot of iron in my water. old caste iron pipes....

 

[alabaster]

Flocculation, mastication, masturbation. Peeps don't use these terms much anymore. One thing to keep in mind about Cannabis, is that it's used for toxic metal clean ups. But the toxins don't build up, they just return to the earth, annually. Because Cannabis is an annual. Heavy Metals are not magically dispersed into outer space. You must remove it, and dump it in a well capped dump. Which makes me wonder if they aren't selling all their Chernobyl herb to the Ukraine, or Chechnya. Lol! Now as Xoch is saying about clones, this may be an interesting study. Holy shit! That is some deep shit Xoch. They are able to see the radioactivity with their special satellites. I know we're getting off topic, but one thing leads to another, eh? In the same respect, since cannabis is such a fast growing annual, I doubt if any contaminants accumulate in the growth tips. It will be in the older parts of the plants, just as most immobile nutrients are.

I use RO, and my tanks don't get cloudy. That cloudiness is exactly what you're saying. It's precipitation of nutrients.

 

[Xochipilli]

i bet different metals get deposited in different parts of the plant.

http://jpsionline.com/admin/php/uploads/201_pdf.pdf

my buddy had a plant that turned completely white after feeding it with water from a newly installed copper pipe that had not been rinsed. the copper residue was enough to compete with the iron and put a complete stop to photosynthesis....

 

[alabaster]

I know an iron deficiency effects the growth tips. So I stand corrected. There's contaminants in every source of food now days. Soil, air, water. We can't escape it no matter what we do. There is a chemical cadence that stops precipitation though. I'm not a chemist. I sent my youngest son to the best pharmacology school in the country on Friday. I'll have to ask him about that one. Talk about separation anxiety.... I guess it works the same with chemicals.

 

[Kegs]

probably has nothing to do with all the oil we have thinned out into the ocean

 

[HighBurn8]

That right there has never made one iota of sense to me.
Most nutes these days have some kind of buffer in them already that will bring plain water close to 6.0pH.
Even with out buffers in the food, I don't understand why one would ph the water first.
I just don't understand that logic.
I obviously mean no offense.
:scratch::scratch::scratch:

When I adjust the PH in my Rez by adding PH adjusters last, what happens, is I have to use a LOT of adjuster because the mixed nutes have ALREADY created a buffer.

So by adding more & more adjusters….My ppms/EC also rises.

By Adding the adjuster 1st, I only have to use a couple of drops as appose to a bunch of Milliliters and in turn, keeping my ppm's down.


Also, adding Silica last will sometimes cause lock-out unless you add it REALLY slowly to the nute mix… like at a drop at a time…

Now, if I add silica first, before adding Adjusters, or immediately After I add the PH adjusters and Before I add the Base Nutes, , then I can just Pour in whatever amount I need at that time and not have to pour it in drop per drop

By adding and mixing my Nutes in this Order, I am not locking anything out, nor am I adding to the PPM's by having to add more then what is necessary.

And again, the PH stays stable for unto 4 days before I have to adjust it again….

But I NEVER keep my nute mix that long… It always gets used within 24 hours.


..

Hope that helps…

 

[HighBurn8]

i always added silicate last. never seemed to have any problems. perhaps some clouding, but no precipitation. :dunno:
.

That "Clouding" that you are experiencing is called …."lock out"…

Instead, try adding Silica 1st.

I can guarantee you won't experience anymore Clouding


Also, when Silica is added BEFORE adding Base Nutes, you don't have to use nearly as much Silica because, once again, there is No buffer yet, so you'll only need to use a few drops as appose to a bunch.

 

[east coast]

That "Clouding" that you are experiencing is called …."lock out"…

Instead, try adding Silica 1st.

i'm not using silicate at the moment, but that totally makes sense. the particles are in suspension, rather than precipitated out.

why is it that it doesn't happen in a more dilute solution?

 

[Xochipilli]

If you stir the solution and add silicate last it won't floc

 

[2broke2smoke]

hey alabaster,
did u ever get that answer from Ferris?

2b2s

 

[DJLYSOL]

i'm not using silicate at the moment, but that totally makes sense. the particles are in suspension, rather than precipitated out.

why is it that it doesn't happen in a more dilute solution?

I think it has more to do with the local ph of the silica when you pour it in to the tank in the presence of calcium (from the micro/A) and the phosphate (from the bloom/grow/b). If there was no silica in solution and you added NaOh (a strong base) you would still get a calcium phosphate precipitate. I suspect that in the presence of silica and given the lower ph you would make apatite instead.

Pre diluting the silica first In a big tank spreads the OH out over a larger volume makes them less likely to react.

 

[oldsog]

for me, i use ro water.
i add house & garden A & B then adjust my PH usually add 1-2 tsp. then add the other stuff.
rarely an issue unless i add molasses. then weird stuff starts to happen.


peace,

 

[xxxstr8edgexxx]

i am working on piecing together a ph adjustment contraption.basically a ph probe controlled "thermostat". of course its not a therm stat but i don't know what its called. but it works on the same principle. it has a probe that tells it the ph. if the ph swings high it powers a relay to a 110 outlet.the outlet has 2 small fishtanks pumps plugged in. one is submerged in a bucket of diluted ph down to a dripper emitter on a 14 inch line feeding your rez. the other pump is submerged in your rez to stir anytime its adjusting ph. because of the low flow of the dripper and the small size of the pump, the adjustment is very slow so its stabilizing as it takes time to emit enough ph down to adjust the tank. that way you don't end up over adjusting because it can't react as quick as it is coming out. so its slow and accurate and constant. anytime you ph swings it adjusts and shuts off when ph comes back in range. this would be cheap and simple to set up and people have been doing this for a while. so we know it works but i haven't seen any good threads on one. has anyone tried this. it seems pretty bullet proof if set up with reliable parts.

 

[Shovelhandle]

i am working on piecing together a ph adjustment contraption.basically a ph probe controlled "thermostat". of course its not a therm stat but i don't know what its called. but it works on the same principle. it has a probe that tells it the ph. if the ph swings high it powers a relay to a 110 outlet.the outlet has 2 small fishtanks pumps plugged in. one is submerged in a bucket of diluted ph down to a dripper emitter on a 14 inch line feeding your rez. the other pump is submerged in your rez to stir anytime its adjusting ph. because of the low flow of the dripper and the small size of the pump, the adjustment is very slow so its stabilizing as it takes time to emit enough ph down to adjust the tank. that way you don't end up over adjusting because it can't react as quick as it is coming out. so its slow and accurate and constant. anytime you ph swings it adjusts and shuts off when ph comes back in range. this would be cheap and simple to set up and people have been doing this for a while. so we know it works but i haven't seen any good threads on one. has anyone tried this. it seems pretty bullet proof if set up with reliable parts.

It is an instrument called a pH Controller.

 

[joeyclams]

I was having an issue with pH drifting up every day, im probably doing something wrong but this little contraption helped.

Its a cap to a 3/4 gallon lactaid milk jug with piece of 1/4 inch soft poly tubing squooshed through it. The dripper is a 1/2 gph and i dont know where I got the little valve but basically when cranked down all the way it will drip pretty consistantly at every couple seconds or even every 30 seconds, whatever you can tweek it to. I filled the jug with 3.0pH solution and drilled a hole in the lid of the 15gal res and rested it upside down with cap in the hole. The jug needed a tiny pin prick on the bottom to get it going, i used the smallest needle i could find. It was DTW and the nutes were nova and calmag in RO water. There was a mini circulation pump and bubble stone in the res. I was refilling the jug every other day or so then the pH seemed to stabilize after 4 or 5 days. Crazy i know, Im new to hydro, those computerized dosers look nice.

 

[kushyman]

i find ro water helps keep it stable..takes a ton less adjustment

sometimes normal water has a high cation rate that literally absorbs the adjustment

 

[webfish]

That "Clouding" that you are experiencing is called …."lock out"…

Instead, try adding Silica 1st.

I can guarantee you won't experience anymore Clouding


Also, when Silica is added BEFORE adding Base Nutes, you don't have to use nearly as much Silica because, once again, there is No buffer yet, so you'll only need to use a few drops as appose to a bunch.

Agreed, silica reacts negatively with nitrogen (try pouring a small amount into a small cup of your straight grow solution you will see the same reaction your seeing in your tank except much stronger), it will cloud clump or even solidify depending on the levels if you add it in when you add the Calmag (which should be the first thing you do when mixing) you should be fine, its important to add all components to a full level of water to avoid any lock out issues that can be seen in higher concentrate levels (why they make and bottle separate additives)
Between the calcium and the silica the nutrients have building blocks to stabilize the PH levels, again why hard water is so much easier to stabilize than R/O water is.

Much of the probably comes from the point of view most people don't know what PH even is and how it works, here is a simple explanation, Ill leave a link to further your understanding. I know that getting down to the root of understanding has really helped me.

PH Potential hydrogen, so you understand, water is made of H2O correct? This is one part Hydrogen and two parts Oxygen, when the hydrogen balance becomes slightly higher or lower the PH is altered and in this case the plants ability to intake certain elements of its nutrient solution, calcium salts and other hard minerals naturaly found in ground water stabilize the PH but through processing we remove many of these components and leave the water stripped, so as stated above adding in these elements will make it easier and more consistent to holding a particular PH balance. Keep in mind anything organic in the tank can and will change the PH on a regular basis, as the microbes feed and excrete the hydrogen levels move around quite a bit, caused by the breaking down of micorbial waste so if your trying to stabilize a organic mix you need to do a couple of things one is to not introduce any aeration circulation is fine and recommended but aeration will increase the microbial activity and at the same times change the PH



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH