I have four successful indoor grows under my belt. I still consider myself a noob and I’m always learning. I grow in coco and DWC . Now… RO seems to be the top pick of indoor growers for allot of reasons… Better control etc. From my experience RO has 0 ppm but a pH that’s pretty neutral … 7.0 say… Our cannabis likes 5.5 to 6.5 .
Here’s my confusion… In coco my runoff is always in the low 5s when my nutes are put in at 6.0 . I feed water feed so I would think… What I put in is what should come out . To the point… How do you keep a 5.8 pH in coco ???
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I use fox farm coco loco feed and water at 5.8 and my run off doesn’t move unless I’m have problems. Maybe you need to flush you plants.
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What pH water would I flush with. ?
Same as always
Soil 6.5
Coco 5.8
Hydro I’m not sure what y’all feed at but what ever that is is what you want, and remember as a rule of thumb flush with 3 times the pot size. 3 gal pot 9 gal flush. At 3 gal pot if you need more than 1 gal to correct a problem use only the flush until corrected other wise you just purring water in for nothing.
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What brand of nutrients are you using?
Might explain some of your issues…
Some nutrients are better suited for different Medias… soil , dwc , coconut coir and anything else you can think of … 
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Using GH Lucas formula. 6/9… Micro, bloom. With 2 ml cal mag. 2.5 ml hydro guard.
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I know nothing about those nutes, but I’m sure someone on here does.
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Does the coco have lime in it to control ph ? @Steveo
@kabongster and @Donaldj use those nutrients I believe maybe they can help out here
@peachfuzz is knowledgeable as well good call peach 
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Some coco actually need to be rinsed before using it… I forgot to mention that…
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I’ve read that coco holds acidity longer than alkaline . like I said … I’m still a noob
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Ya I was a soil grower for the last 7 years up until last year , then I went to dwc bubble buckets and now I run rdwc totes… way easier to manage with temps , nutrients , pH … pretty much everything got easier , except now it’s hard to keep my plants in control as far as growth… they get out of control quick…
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I ran a RDWC last grow. Four totes. First time…feminized super skunk. What I didn’t like was two of the four showed calcium deficiency… The other two didn’t. it was probably genetics, but I couldn’t individualize if you know what I mean.
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I’m growing in coco, using GH nutes and using the 6/9 lucas or “Head goes coco” formula.
Are your plants showing signs of issues, overload, deficiency, cal-mag??
I run my hand watered coco with the 6/9 and pH 5.8 and honestly, have never checked the runoff pH or ppm’s. I also use 1 gram of epsom salt per gallon and I feed twice daily at early morning and dinner time. I have never just watered I feed every watering and my plants have really excelled given they went in very late.
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I’m in 5 gal air pots and your right… My run off shouldn’t mean anything … It’s what goes in that counts… And I need to remember that coco is Not soil…it’s hydro… Thanks.
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Yup, no problem and having read all 1100 posts of the Head Goes Coco thread, twice, I can safely say that the 6/9 formula results in a modest ppm total for the specific reason that you can/should feed daily. In fact, he (Head) often was able to rush his plants along through veg by feeding them four times daily to a 10% runoff. Important to feed to runoff everytime.
I got in trouble with those plants early on because I was not feeding to runoff and got some N toxicity or something that deformed a few leaves. Good luck @Steveo
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You have just answered allot of questions for me thanks. It makes perfect sense that in coco in air pots you basically can’t over water … So no salt build up and fresh oxygen daily to the roots.Yes.
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so true once they take off gain inches a day my new method to cope with that is short veg straight from clones or cuttings and flip fast my aero unit I started with cuttings and have in flower it was about 3 weeks after rooting it was moved to flower
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