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water pH Down adding phosphorus to water?

Oh ok, my ec meter only reads salts as a whole not as individual salts.
More expensive meters may do that im not sure.
 
Novacastrian said:
Oh ok, my ec meter only reads salts as a whole not as individual salts.
More expensive meters may do that im not sure.
Click to expand...

If so, then we can simply measure the present level of salts in the tap water, if any, add a 5 mL solution of pH Down, and measure the changed levels.
 
Yes that makes sense. :D I will do just that after work in the interests of science.
To lower 50ltr one point i need to use 1ml. How much would you like me to use? I could just keep adding until i reach a set ppm.
What do you think?
 
Hmm... I think we should try to see how much phosphorus is added into the water, but concentrations vary by volume... So, can you add 1 mL into 1 gallon of water? That's 3.78 liters.

I'm pretty sure that my plants are overloaded on phosphorus, the symptoms fit quite well. An excess inhibits the intake of zinc and copper, where a deficiency in zinc causes the leaves to yellow, along with the leaf margins curling, and a deficiency in copper causes the leaves to turn dark green, in which I see in all of my plants.
 
I may actually perform a small experiment with my plants, risking them potentially. I will water one with the pH adjusted water, one with the tap, and one with fertilizer, and see which one begins to perk up.
 
shigshwa said:
I may actually perform a small experiment with my plants, risking them potentially. I will water one with the pH adjusted water, one with the tap, and one with fertilizer, and see which one begins to perk up.
Click to expand...
as long as you dont over water they all do just fine!
 
Ok here goes. I think my ph meter is playing up after its recent bath but for this gallon of water its saying 8.
EC is reading nothing, my meter starts at 140ppm.
Add 1ml PH down, EC now between 700-840 ppm. PH is at 2.7 .

Added a lot more salt than i thought it would.
 
Novacastrian said:
Ok here goes. I think my ph meter is playing up after its recent bath but for this gallon of water its saying 8.
EC is reading nothing, my meter starts at 140ppm.
Add 1ml PH down, EC now between 700-840 ppm. PH is at 2.7 .

Added a lot more salt than i thought it would.
Click to expand...

OUCH, that is a big jump. But it lowered the pH an insane amount. Can you try lowering a gallon sample to a pH of 7, and read the ppm from that sample?
 
Yep give me a few minutes.

Edit: This gallon started at 7.8 so i will take it down to 6.8 .
Scratch that, three drops or roughly .1ml was enough to take it down to 6.2 . EC is not registering meaning it is below 140ppm.
 
Well, the results are:

1. The fertilized plant and the tap water plants all recovered.
2. The pH adjusted plant, did just as poorly.


I think that the tap water flushed out the phosphorus, or neutralized it, and the fertilizer probably replenished the supply of nutrients. I will confirm this by watering the yellowing plant with fertilizer.
 
well what i have begun doing is, just watering a few waterings with plain old tap water to flush and then on the 3rd watering adjust the PH so the plant can uptake the nutrients. or go back to using vinegar for my saoil plants and the PH down in the hydro plants
 
And the vinegar did the job without any adverse effects, spongey? Sounds like a goer! And as a bonus, you can get a 2L generic brand bottle here cheap as chips....
 
gasificada said:
And the vinegar did the job without any adverse effects, spongey? Sounds like a goer! And as a bonus, you can get a 2L generic brand bottle here cheap as chips....
Click to expand...

Given that it's simply acetic acid diluted in water, and acetic acid having nothing bad in it, I think it's probably harmless for plants.
 
Just doesn't last long so i have heard. You dont need much either gassy a two litre bottle would last for ages!
 
Yeah, I experimented with it once or twice a little while back and found just a couple drops went a loooong way! Stopped using it though as I meant to do some research but somehow got sidetracked and that was that.

Wouldn't even have to buy a bottle specifically for the purpose of lowering pH as I always have a bottle on hand for various crap like cleaning the sink muncher and whatnot anyway. Bummer about it not lasting long though, that might stuff the plan up a little....
 
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