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alex281
04-01-2012, 09:33 PM
Hey all. i managed to get my hands on some general hydroponics ph down. i started off by adding a cap full to my tank. a couple days later i measured and noticed no change so i added another cap full. well a few cap fulls later and i now realize, it seems no matter how many i add the ph isnt budging!(dont worry i didnt change it that drastically.)

so now the big question is, what do i do?

In good news, i ordered about a 1000 red wigglers and im starting to have a massive amount of lettuce seeds sprout!


Thanks :mrgreen:
Alex.

urbanfarmer
04-01-2012, 10:35 PM
You can keep trying, but if it's the media there's nothing you can do.

alex281
04-01-2012, 10:55 PM
You can keep trying, but if it's the media there's nothing you can do.

well, for when the time comes to change the medium, what the cheapest best thing? if i could go a bit lighter than gravel that would be great, just not quadruple the price!

keith_r
04-02-2012, 06:11 AM
i wouldn't use "ph down" (aquarium products aren't usually meant for fish you plan on eating)
test your media before replacing it..put a handful in a container with vinegar, if it bubbles, then it's the media that's causing the high ph..
if your media is neutral, your source water could be the problem, have you tested your water (after bubbling it out for a while)?

what kind of ph test kit are you using, and how old is it?
if your media is neutral, your ph will drop over time

alex281
04-02-2012, 12:53 PM
i wouldn't use "ph down" (aquarium products aren't usually meant for fish you plan on eating)
test your media before replacing it..put a handful in a container with vinegar, if it bubbles, then it's the media that's causing the high ph..
if your media is neutral, your source water could be the problem, have you tested your water (after bubbling it out for a while)?

what kind of ph test kit are you using, and how old is it?
if your media is neutral, your ph will drop over time

http://genhydro.com/genhydro_US/msds/pH_Down_Wet.pdf

Apparently they dont tell you the concentrations, so hopefully those cap fulls i added were so weak that they wouldnt have made a change. i also just noticed the citric acid so no more using that stuff! i tried the vinegar trick with the gravel before and maybe saw just a couple bubbles here and there, it didnt look like it was having a reaction all that much. im still pretty sure its buffering however, as the ph has been stuck at 8.2 since i poured water in the system months ago......

as for my water, the tds measures 250 out of the tap and has a ph of around 8-8.4, i use the api water treater each time i add water now!

keith_r
04-02-2012, 01:07 PM
testing the ph right out of the tap will give you a false reading,, aerate the water out of the tap for a couple hours then test..
you'll probably find that your ph is higher.. i would guess that your water is raising the ph, not your media
can you harvest rain water?
the ph in the system will drop on it's own, but that takes quite a while - my 110 gallon ft system took over 8 months for the ph to drop, and now i have to buffer it back up with shell grit..