Problem I keep running into

[Lil Dab]

Yeah I’ve been using straight RO. Should I try blending in some tap with it?

Man o green has a fix. I just can't remember what he suggested. It's not letting me tag him right now either. I store my RO in the gallon jugs it initially came in from the store with the cap on. Limited air exposure until I'm ready to mix.

You could either store it in closed containers, mix your nutes closer to the time you collect the water, or use the light nute mix Man-O suggests. Hopefully he will swing by. I know it's mentioned in his threads somewhere to add a small bit of something, just 50ppm.

@Mañ'O'Green ! Ah! There it worked.

Yup it is best to to .3 grams water soluble gypsum and .3 grams AG epsom slat per gallon of RO water and let aerate over night


The history of why I invented stabilizing RO. When I first started using RO It did all manor of weird PH shit to my reservoir when I added it to bring the PPM down in a nutrient mix to the range I wanted. I used RO because it added only water to the mix. But it took copious amounts of up or down to keep PH in range. You know that PH+ Nitric Acid adds nitrogen, PH+ Phosphoric Acid adds Phosphorus to your nutrient mix. When you use large amounts it will change your nutrient balance. Keep in mind I am in hydro and my PPMs would change by as much as 75PPM. This was not desirable. Then I learned that RO water is hungry and will pull Co² out of the air and drop the PH to 5.5 or lower. I read somewhere that adding some base ions would mitigate this action. It can be any metal ion. I started adding a little cal-mag to the RO and Bota Boom Bota Bang it stop hijacking my reservoir PH. Then I discovered that everything mixed better without any precipitation I could see if I used this "buffered" RO. The reason I used 50 PPM of Cal_mag was because that was the lowest number my EC pen could read. Not all Cal_mags are made the same but most are calcium nitrate and Mg nitrate and maybe some iron once again a source of Nitrogen I don't want. Hence my choice of Soluble Gypsum which is Ca and Sulfur, Epsom Salt is Mg and Sulfur. Cannabis can tolerate a lot of Sulfur way more than you are likely to get in any nutrient line. I settled on .3g Soluble Gypsum and .3g Ag Epsom Salt per gallon of RO that gets me close to that 50PPM mark that most meters can read. It works well for me so I teach it.

 

[Zaaboot]

on another note and probably worth mentioning is the airstones, I did see it mentioned - I noticed that air stones with Ro water cause havoc in moving the PH up and down and sideways, (reading the excerpt above from MoG confirms it - by airing the water it is introducing fresh CO2 which in turn is lowering the PH) I swapped the airstone for an 'water agitator' which just moves the water around without introducing lots of new air, this made a huge difference in the stability of the res

 

[DogterB]

on another note and probably worth mentioning is the airstones, I did see it mentioned - I noticed that air stones with Ro water cause havoc in moving the PH up and down and sideways, (reading the excerpt above from MoG confirms it - by airing the water it is introducing fresh CO2 which in turn is lowering the PH) I swapped the airstone for an 'water agitator' which just moves the water around without introducing lots of new air, this made a huge difference in the stability of the res

Yeah as soon as I realized the pH problem I removed the air stone. I never knew RO was going to be so finicky

 

[Zaaboot]

I never knew RO was going to be so finicky

same, when I first started with it after 20+ years iof doing exactly teh same thing it sent me nuts, could not for the life of me work out why everything that I had done before was so out of whack - once you get the hang of it, it really does become easier - good luck

 

[DogterB]

Here’s where we are at unfortunately. I’ve drained the reservoir multiple times and refilled with fresh, most recent was prepared with gypsum and Epsom as suggested. The pH is holding steady, but she’s not really drinking much

 

[bearhair]

I just add some tap water to my ro to a .2 ec and bubble. When I'm ready to use some it's right around 7.2 to 7.4 ph.. but iam growing in lush, roots organics. Not hydro..

 

[bearhair]

Looks like a ca lockout. Ph should be about 5.8 not 6.8

 

[DogterB]

Looks like a ca lockout. Ph should be about 5.8 not 6.8

Even though this is a SIP? No nutrients in the water, everything is in the soil. I shoot for more of a soil pH for nutrient uptake since that’s where everything is. Or am I wrong?

 

[DoobieGrows]

Oh I was curious if the water is tap/RO blend. If it's straight RO and sits open to air it can acidify. If it's blended there is probably enough "stuff" in it to prevent that and then the problem might be something else.

I have thought about doing a blend. Just to give the water some minerals. I will give it a try and see what happens.