Live Stoner Chat Need a good PH tutorial

[ArseNick]

Hey guys, could someone direct me to a good
How to on PH. I have meter and kit, but don't
Really know how to use it.

:Stones slap:

 

[A4]

What meter do you have Nick? I will see if I can't help you out.

 

[ArseNick]

Thanks A4, I'm at work, don't recall brand

 

[A4]

Well crap, well I will give you some basic tips. The first thing you will want to do is calibrate it. Some brands allow two point calibration, some only one point. So a two point calibration would be, you set it to calibrate, it will show 7.01 on the screen and you put it in the 7.01 calibration solution. After about 20 seconds it will show 4.01 on the screen and you put it in the 4.01 calibration fluid. A one point calibration only uses 7.01. So, after it is calibrated and you want to begin feeding you can start by adding your nutrients to the water first. Always first. After all of your nutrients are added you will then put your meter in the solution and let it set for a minute or so. You will see the number on the meter rise or fall and after 30 seconds or so it will settle. The number may still bounce around a little, like .2 or so but it should settle out pretty good. If you are in soil you will be shooting for ~6.6-6.8 or in soilless like promix or sunshine 4 you will be shooting for 6.3-6.5 or in hydro you will be shooting for 5.6-5.8. So, if you are high or low, you will need to add ph up or ph down solutions to the nutrient/water solution to raise or lower the ph. Once you have it pretty close you can feed your plants. You will also want to catch the water that runs from the bottom of the plants in a clean container. Catch all of it and test the ph on the runoff. That will tell you if your soil is too high, too low, or just right. That way you will know if you need to adjust the ingoing ph on the next feeding. If your runoff ph is high, then you will want to lower your feed ph a little to dry to bring it back down and vice versa.

Hopefully that helps, let me know if you need any more assistance and I will do what I can.

 

[Kaiju]

I just watched a video apparently if you keep the meter in RO water after its been calibrated it never loses calibration

 

[A4]

RO will keep you from having to calibrate it as often but you will still need to calibrate regularly. I keep mine soaking in a cup of 7.01 solution and it still needs calibrated every couple of weeks. You will notice that after a couple of weeks or so it takes longer for your numbers to settle. That is a sign that the probe needs to be cleaned. There is a specific cleaning solution for the probe, after you soak in the cleaning solution you will want to calibrate it again.

 

[ArseNick]

Thanks guys, I'll give give it a try, I have those
Solutions. I've been putting mine back in its case.

:No:

 

[A4]

In the case is fine as well, just make sure you put a few drops of the 7.01 in the case with it to keep the probe wet. You never want the probe to dry out. It can crack and ruin your meter.

 

[ArseNick]

Ok thanks A4, I'll see to it tomorrow

 

[ArseNick]

Thanks A4, I sat down and figured it out thanks to your instructions, The Base PH of my tap water is 6.8
the PH of my nutes was 7.7, added PH down to bring it to 6.7, will test again tomorrow prior to feeding.

Added an air stone to water to add O2.

Thanks again