jasper

I have had problems with my PH dropping during flowering in my aeromachine for the past two grows. I have flushed countless times and gone back with very low nutes (200-400ppm) several times and within 2-3 days the PH starts dropping (like from 6 to 5.4 overnight). I have used Clearex and Hydroguard to no avail. Distilled or tap water, no difference.
Today, I lifted one of the net pots out while the light (270WHPS) was still on. Usually I do this in low light with the HPS off when I check, add or change solution. I noticed that the inside of the reservoir, which is white, was lit up by the light shining throught the plastic. I had assumed it was dark inside the reservoir. The plastic is not as thick as I had thought. Could this 'light leakage' be the culprit behind my problems? I'm going to wrap a black plastic bag around it anyway. Anyone else having this problem with aeromachines? Thanks for any thoughts on the matter.

Jasper

mellowbifta

You may want to P.M hydrosan as he uses one too

But he mabey here to answer your question for you.

MB

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Limegreens

Hey Jasper, I'm new here so you may want another opinion, but if you haven't noticed any fungus in your res., then the light probably is not going to cause a problem.
It is normal for your plants to drop in ph a little each day. I think what happens is the water evaporates daily, but not the nutes, leaving a higher concentration of the nutes in your solution. Adding a little more water each day may level it out.
Maybe sticking closer to the 200ppm might help because in my system the more I go over with the nutes the more rapidly the ph decreases.
Try allowing for ph drift. When you change your res. solution. Go with just water for a few hours and then add the minimal amount of nutes to reach proper ph (works for me). I like to think of this as compensating the residual solution still inside the plants. If I add the normal amount of nutes when I change then when the residual nutes are flushed through the plants I have more concentration than I need.
I know I am rambling, but I hope it helps.

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HydroSan

Hey Jasper

Plants tend to acidify the res when the nutrient requirement changes comming into flowering, so it's pretty normal mate Have you already switched nutes? What is the initial EC/ppm of yer tap water? Which nutes, whats the EC, and what are you using for pH down, and how much -blimey thats alot of questions

Distilled water, or RO water is too low in buffering minerals, pH can get silliy with it, and it encourages slime, so if your using RO/distilled, mix it with tap water to get an ititial EC of 0.2 -0.4

San

jasper

Thanks guys!

Limegreens: I changed again yesterday with a ppm of 150 and a ph of 6. This morning, so far so good. PH stable. PPM dropped a little. Maybe I'm just too stubborn. I read journals where it seems everyone runs ppm's of 1400-1800. And I can't run 400? I wrapped the reservoir in black plastic. I don't see any green stuff in the reservoir.

Hydrosan: Switched to flowering yet? LOL Brother, I just started week 13 of flowering on this thing. I don't know if it will ever mature. It's bagseed. Obviously has a lot of sativa in it. My tap water ppm is close to 300. Pretty hard. I don't have an EC meter. I use GH nutes and have been using only the micro and bloom. GH PH down. Enough to bring the ph to 6. With yesterday's change, I used distilled water. What would an EC of 0.2-0.4 be in PPM terms, for mixing the distilled and tap water?

Jasper

far-mer-jon

A .1 EC = 70PPM so .2 to .4 would be 140 to 280 PPM . If you mix your tap water and distilled 1/2 and 1/2 you'd be in the ballpark . Did you get a better PH tester ? FMJ

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HydroSan

The water isn't too hard, as FMJ says, mixing RO with tap water to get a starting ppm of aboput 0.2 -0.4 EC (sorry I work in EC and can't be arsed loooking up the converting table )

are you doing a final flush or something? is that why the nutes are so low?

San

scooterpie

jasper....hello scooterpie on this end... Are you using the Micro made for hard water or the regular???? I have no experience with this stuff but have seen at their web site that it is for your water conditions. I too am a solid believer in the 1:2 Micro/Bloom.

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jasper

Hey guys. I am using the regular formula GH. I have seen the hard water version but haven't tried it. My ph started dropping again yesterday. Added a 50/50 combo of ph adjusted tap/distilled water and some ph up. I did harvest about 30% of the plant yesterday. The rest should be done in the next week or so. I suppose I should go ahead and run plain water for the remaining time. The ppm is so low because if I bring it up to 500 or more, the ph drop problem becomes worse. Oh well, its about over and I'm getting a decent yeild. Fortunately, all the leaves didn't turn brown and then turn to dust like they did in the last grow. (MG def.) Thanks for all the help. I learn something new every time I visit this site.

Jasper