@vernal Thanks for the thought, and I will certainly keep it in mind if I can’t get it under control otherwise.
I am not going to lie, I am pretty against putting bleach or pool shock into my rez so am going to start with the other suggestions and move forward as I see fit. Reason being is I have been / still have OG Biowar beneficials to use up that I don’t put into the res ever, but that weekly or so I mix with the nutrient solution in a 5 gallon bucket and then hand water with and would hate to drop that bomb on them if unnecessary.
Thanks once again for all the feedback, I have appreciated every response. Hope everyone has a wonderful day, or night, and hope I sleep well!
I keep forgetting to mention rez temps. Your water temps can play a big role in how dificult the alkalinity issue is to handle.
Higher water temps make the PH rise worse because the higher the water temperature is, the less C02 it can hold. That means the tendency for the PH to increase will go up as temperature increases. Lower rez temps help keep the PH down and will slow the rate of increase because colder water can hold more dissolved C02.
Lately, I have started keeping my rez as cold as I can - closer to 60 deg F or under by using small bottles of frozen water. I am using an ice chest as a rez, so the temp stays down at least a day for one bottle.
Sorry, but I would also throw out the beneficial bacteria. Remember, they have to eat too, and its that action of eating organics that drives the PH up. The beneficial bacteria will also drive your PH up. They may help keep root rot pathogens down, but they do that by eating the same things that the bad bacteria eat - anything organic. They are no good for PH control.
If there are no organics in your water, the root rot will have a much harder time getting started because it has no food. If you do switch to a nutrient regime with no organics, they wont have anything to eat
I think he adds the microbes to a separate bucket and not to the Rez. That’s how I do it. Feeding microbes like recharge and tribes etc is a must in coco imho.
To the op, if you get something like jacks ph is stable. Well in my situation at least. I even use potassium silicate and after I ph down to 5.8, it takes like 2 days for it raise a point. No need for a circulation pump since it has no organics. I do have a pump in the Rez but i only use it to mix the feed.
Ever since I switched to pure salts my ph barely drifts.
Good point. I missed that. He is also doing DTW, so none of tat will get back to the rez.
Still, not sure how much good that stuff will do if you are not using organic based nutes for them to have something to eat, but I have no experience with coco.
There’s a couple of microbe products that work in pure salt environments like recharge and tribus. I like to use them to keep bad pathogens out of the root zone. I grow in pure coco and I’ve never had fungal problems with the root zones yet (knock on wood).
@anon32470837 Yeah I am mixing them separately. Not sure if anyone follows Capulator or uses OGbiowar but the claim is that they work in salt based setups as well and I am pretty sure he himself also does coco DTW with a Jacks mix. I also use one of them for foliar, mixed with kelp.
I bought a bit a while back so would at least want to use up what I have as I don’t think they stay viable forever.
I can see that working as long as you are running DTW, but not so much in recirculating systems.
As far as I know, all of these little bugs use up carbon when they eat. That will lower C02 levels, which means lower carbonic acid levels, which means higher PH.
One of the newer techniques being promoted to lower/remove carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere is tanks of algae/bacteria/microbes. Removing C02 is a natural result of their life cycle.
I did not have a good experience with Recharge in hydro, personally. It was such a disaster that I rather wish I’d never tried it, in fact. When I was hand watering, it was fine. I’ve never tried the OG Biowar in hydro, but I like it well enough in DTW or hand watering.
I still keep these around for revegging plants and rooting clones, though.
Very nice post , and kindly to share.
Let me ask you can you post a pic of your RO setup? Is it in the grow area or under a sink.?
Thank you very interesting.
Rising pH seems to be a fairly common issue, and all the data we can get will help.