Ah so you use the drops. That method can be easily thrown off. So I would wait for your meter before doing anything like flushing.
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Hey @Jamie1234, I have one of those meters and it works great, I calibrat it every other week…and don’t worry I didn’t know how to navigate this site at first but after a while I figured it out…we were all new at one time at growing and starting post…you will get there…good luck with your grow!
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If your soil has a lot of peat moss in it, it can acidify the runoff water. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, as long as the water going in is pH 6.5 eventually it will wash most of the “peat effect” out. But do get a cheap pH meter. They are only $10-20 on Amazon and work MUCH better than any drops or test strips.
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I second what @1BigFella said
If your plants are not showing deficiencies then I would not worry too much about run off
Especially if you are in good soil as most good soil has peat or coco which as stated can read acidic on your run off
Welcome to the community and just start pHing your water and nutes going in with a meter
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Ty @biggFella it will be here Monday
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I got two meters in today. I checked my water from faucet and the probe said 7.5 @blackthumbbetty @Countryboyjvd1971 @swiftyrick90 @Aolelon @anon35207245 @Growit BIGE. I’m not sure how to read or use the other one that came with it. I’ll have the name in a bit. Ty all. Last night’s photos, they have signs of flowering, I think, Screenshot_2018-05-21-01-38-16|281x500
Strain; sour Diesel, bag
Soil in pots
System type?NA
PH of runoff or solution in reservoir? Last reading 5.0
What is strength of nutrient mix? EC, or TDS NA for now, checking after rest. I’m trying to flower
Indoor
Light system, size? 400 watt COB Spectrum
Temps; Day, Night 88° day night 80°
Humidity; Day, Night day about 56, night 54 varies, I live in the south
Ventilation system; Yes, No, Size Yes, some intake and outtake fans
De-humidifier
Co2; Yes and nutes now FF trio
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The other one is called a TDS meter, it measures the total dissolved solids in your water in a PPM scale (parts per million) good tap water has anywhere from 50-200. Harder tap water is around 400-700.
If using tap water, you want your PH to be around 6.5-6.6 PH. And the PPM to be from 50-200. If its higher it’s okay, just recommended for lower.
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I’m not seeing any signs. You have the lights on for 12 hours and you make sure it’s completely dark for 12 hours right?
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Yes @Aolelon, I also filled out the support ticket but posted it here, I wasn’t sure where to post it. Ty
Oh and how do I check the ppm, by the water going in?
Yes, you can check it before you water your plants, and check the runoff as well
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I’ve got to calibrate it, i think. It says to use this 6.86 buffer powder to calibrate it first. I didn’t do that before I checked my water
Calibrate before use, always calibrate first.
You’ll likely find the ph meter is reasonably accurate, but calibrating make sure you’re getting the right reading.
They say that water at 7.5 is too high, but my tap water is slightly higher but that gets neutralised by the acids in the soil/compost so my probe tells me that the dirt sits at around a constant 6.8. What I do know is my plants don’t complain at all as the water is one part of the equation and a slightly acidic dirt cancels out that slightly alkaline water.
You need the “overall” picture as water ph is just one part of the equation. If you need to drop the ph, then buy some lemon juice at the supermarket unless you can get your hands on a bottle of citric acid, there’s no need for anything fancier and expensive, and I find it’s easier to use lemon juice than vinegar as it’s not as strong an acid so is easier to gradually add it until you get it to the point you want. That’s my personal view and experience, others may say differently.
Now, before anyone says how inaccurate these probes can be, do remember that when you have a ph pen and know precisely what the ph of some water is you can stick the probe in and get an idea of any offset needed. If, for example, your water ph is 7.5 and the probe reads 7.8 then you know you have to knock 0.3 off that reading. It’s not the most accurate method, but at least it’s an indication which can give you a damn good idea regarding how good you are sitting regarding the important thing called soil/compost ph as that is what your plant is in, not the water you test before it goes in.
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Hey @anon35207245 this is my readings
PH tap water was 7.5
So it would be 7.2
Brought the ph down to 6.4 going in
Run off is reading 6.0
I took pics of the other two readings
might have to zoom in on that one
0[quote=“anon35207245, post:36, topic:19660, full:true”]
Calibrate before use, always calibrate first.
You’ll likely find the ph meter is reasonably accurate, but calibrating make sure you’re getting the right reading.
They say that water at 7.5 is too high, but my tap water is slightly higher but that gets neutralised by the acids in the soil/compost so my probe tells me that the dirt sits at around a constant 6.8. What I do know is my plants don’t complain at all as the water is one part of the equation and a slightly acidic dirt cancels out that slightly alkaline water.
You need the “overall” picture as water ph is just one part of the equation. If you need to drop the ph, then buy some lemon juice at the supermarket unless you can get your hands on a bottle of citric acid, there’s no need for anything fancier and expensive, and I find it’s easier to use lemon juice than vinegar as it’s not as strong an acid so is easier to gradually add it until you get it to the point you want. That’s my personal view and experience, others may say differently.
Now, before anyone says how inaccurate these probes can be, do remember that when you have a ph pen and know precisely what the ph of some water is you can stick the probe in and get an idea of any offset needed. If, for example, your water ph is 7.5 and the probe reads 7.8 then you know you have to knock 0.3 off that reading. It’s not the most accurate method, but at least it’s an indication which can give you a damn good idea regarding how good you are sitting regarding the important thing called soil/compost ph as that is what your plant is in, not the water you test before it goes in.
[/quote]
If your ph pen is calibrated then what it says your tap water ph is is what your tap water ph is, I used the 0.3 offset as an example of how you can get a more accurate reading from what could be a less than accurate reading from a ph soil probe meter, the type you stick into the dirt to see what the soil ph is.
Someone else will tell you whether you’re sitting good or not as I rarely measure anything, the plant tells me PDQ if there’s something wrong and, well, I see nothing wrong in this little critter (pic taken yesterday, only difference today is a slight difference in size)
.
Now, when it comes to EC/TDS, please make sure that you let people know what scale you are using, as EC is one thing and TDS is the same multiplied by one of, I think, four different factors depending on the meter. Without knowing which factor is used for TDS readings, they are meaningless. Some say EC is good enough, others say TDS is more accurate, personally I use EC as then those wot know better can look at that figure, use their preferred conversion factor for TDS, and tell you the necessary. The choice is yours, but just make sure you know which conversion factor is used by your meter if you use the TDS scale
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Nice, so that looks close to my size, I’m thinking I’m going into flowering, I hope so! Ty for your wonderful advice.
It looks like the PPM of your water is pretty good. Same with your runoff.
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