Our city water comes from a bunch of different wells and the pH can vary widely depending on which one they are tapping off of that week. I have used aquarium test strips on occasion to test my water, not as precise but it tests for pretty much everything.
have them 
thank you
I’m in hydro so I pH a lot. I think it’s worth it to get a decent pH pen and a jug of pH down. That’s the simple route. You can get pH test drops or strips and squint at them, and drip lemon juice and what not.
Or you can put the pH pen in and add drops of pH down.
I have a blue lab like this as does everyone.
And a bottle of General hydroponics pH down will likely last you all year.
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Thank you. The meter seems like a good idea. If I ever want/have to worry about PPMs then, too, I can.
Dont forget to make few compostteas.
U should really try it, brew it for 24 hours and ur plants will get instantly the boost, beside that its organic, it will effect the plant instantly.
Biotabs has a product, maybe take a sock, put wormcastings in there as well and put the Biotabs Compostea in there (its a PK booster, so thats why i suggest wormcastings as well).
I do it third week of flower, and 5th week.
What ive found is a Silicium Product.
its called Silic Rock - its cheap as hell. If i use 0.4ml (really low amount) per litre of water, it will lower my PH from 7.6 to 6.5 so its perfect, and its not the bad acid that will kill ur microbilogy life in the soil so that would be a super product that is, Cheap, effective, reduce’s ur PH and u bring silicium into your plant.
That means thicker stems, more sturdy, the good stuff! U can google it: Silic Rock Plagron.
They Suggest 1,0ml per Litre of water, but i do use 0.4 because my PH is perfect with that amount.
1 more tool, u could use.
And do u research, maybe u wanna try a different silicium product? I dont know if it has the good acid, or the bad one.
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I’m not surprised in the least bit. My city’s water is the same.
TBPH though, this is probably just the push you needed to start maintaining a proper ph. It’s probably the most important aspect, as well as the most commonly neglected/overlooked by new growers.
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lol this is what I’m trying to not do, mate. thank you though. for me, that’s totally over-rotating – and way more than I want to do. what about this simple thing?
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it is. 
i have a vision for how I wanna grow, and I’ve been pretty skeptical of all online cannabis-growing advice because, the minute I started reading forums, from ILGM to RIU, I could see it was all a bunch of stoners and stories.
I want to grow great, organic weed with a minimal investment of time and money. I want to lock-down and systematize the things and processes that will get me to 90 percent – I don’t want to double my time investment just for that last 10 percent. My belief is: of course, I COULD spend a ton of money and time and get 100 pct weed greatness – but I want to spend only 20 percent of that time and money, and still get 90 pct weed greatness.
So I started my growing by growing it just like I’d grow any other weed, and I’d find out for myself what matters most.
I LIKE growing, don’t get me wrong. I like gardening. But I want to draw the line at performing math as in PPMs, or brewing bags of shit around the yard, or sacrificing children on the full moon. Not of that is fun for me, or even needed, imho.
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Okay, then i have the real deal for u. Maybe that will help u? Let me explain.
Its available in germany, for me… I dont know where u life and what u can buy?!
I see the way u wanna grow, and i did the same… i just use the silic rock for bigger stems and healthier plants nowadays. So let me explain please:
Biotabs - Fertilizer
Biobizz Lightmix Organic Soil
Dolomitlime for cal-mag.
Autopot (automatic watering)
U grow in a small pot, without any fertilizers, just water only.
After 10 days u transplant into 2L (half a gallon), and water the plant once with 1/3 of the pot size.
Then, if its feeling lighter, u water again, i did it like that, after the second watering, ill transplant into the last pot.
Then u transplant into 15L pots (3.9 gallon), u water once 1/3 of the Pot volume in water.
Before that, u put 2 biotabs into that soil, u water once with Orgatrex and Bactrex.
Biotabs are the fertilizer, in Pillform. U put them once into the medium and thats it.
Watering Once with orga and bactrex = Microbes and Trichoderma, so the good stuff. All nature, all organic, microbes.
In the hole, u put once mycotrex (for the roots) ITS ALL ORGANIC.
U water once with a compostea (biotabs), thats it.
U have nothing to do,
After 7 days u start the autopots, so it will automaticly water ur plants.
Then ur only “job” is to put water into the tank, thats it.
Why do i recommend that specific fertilizer and the autopots?
Because its like nature… first of all, its organic.
secondly, ur plant decide’s how much fertilizer it needs, u give the plant more then enough, and it will decide on her/his own how much it will uptake.
And the Autopot (+Airbase so u wont need any pebbles) is the exact same, the PLANT decide’s how much water it will / wants to drink, each plant is doing that, on its own.
That was for me, the best “way” plant decides everything.
Maybe u like that more? 
I use the exact system, but i juse the Silic Rock as well…
Don’t worry about ph with organic. The microbes will buffer the ph in the root zone.
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I think in organics that only functions with really big pots … 
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It’s only as complicated and expensive as you make it.
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After reading all of this …it seems like you need a good organic soil mix.
This one is super simple but there are folks here that do water only.
That is what you want right…a water only organic grow
BTW
PH down is Phosphoric acid at a marked up price.
I personally would get the PH down to 7 and let microbes take it from there.
There is a huge difference between 8.5 and 7.
But that is for a different thread.
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I’ve read and (experienced also) that ph can change seasonally
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If the ppm is high enough.
IMO anything under 300ppm doesn’t really matter much in microbe dwelling media.
Tap here is 7.8ph 450ish ppm mostly cal mag though which is good and breaks down sulfur.
Ironically Pure ro wouldnt even work well as these ferts dont have much micros like iron u find in tap.
Outdoor plants do fine here with good dry organic amendments.
Measure your run off.
1mL of Phosphoric acid in one gallon is over 125ppm P. 1ml=1000ppm/L /4 is 250 and PA is 50% P.
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Yes agreed. It’s sodium bicarbonate. None of it, please.
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same tap two different readings HOT and COLD side will have a difference in city water take a glass of hot water and smell it now do the same with the cold side what do you smell chlorine
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If you are using any synthetic fertilizer, be sure to also test pH after you add the ferts.
My city tap pH is about 9.0, but after I add my nutes (GH Flora Series) it is usually dropped to about 6.0 because some of the nutes are very acidic.
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