Out of curiosity, what ph meter did you land on? I'm a noob and starting my first indoor grow attempt and feel like my two pronged, 3-in-1 ph meter isn't super accurate. We have really hard water here and tends to be more alkaline (like 7.7 outta the tap) so I really want to keep up with the proper ph, BUT I just made my initial investment into all of the stuff (tent, light, etc) so I would have a hard time convincing my wife that I need to drop another $160 on a Blue Lab soil ph pen.
Btw, my light is also the sf-1000, although I only got 1 of em for my 2x4 tent. Glad to hear u got good results on your first grow with them! That's encouraging
Greetings all very new to this too..
The issues I initially had with meters bought them all off Amazon there ranging from £10 -hundreds of £'s.. several I bought wouldn't callabrate got one that worked then broke it dropped it !
Ended up spending another £35 ph/ec meter mine is a ph983 no brand name generic so widely available at all price points and threre all pretty much the same no matter what you spend on them as long as its callabrated
:: I've now found that meters that have a small screw potentiometer to to recalibrate seem to be better ::
.and as long as you keep your eye on it should be fine. if your water is round about 7 consistently you've got a ruff idea of the reading if it's out..
But a test barrier fluid is a good shout just to check once in a while or every time you use. Without having to spend an absolute fortune on meters ..
Sp1000 great light great reviews also looked at invisible sun also great lights and got ok results from 1st run despite all the issues the ph ,underfeeding overfeeding and environmentals lot learned after 1st grow ..
If your planning on more than 4 plants in 11ltr pots in your 2x4 you'll probbabily need another light but see how you go .all trial an error i'd seek advice of others as I am new to this. I've gone with an additional sp1000 after abit of advice of a fellow grower my tent is 2half x 2half x 5.3feet .
Thinking issue I am having atm is wrong choice of soil so plants are small wont see much difference than fist attempt but time will tell after a few more grows but confident it will make a difference
Good luck with keeping peace