Using urea to stop PH drift?

[frosty]

My PH is constantly increasing in my flood and drain table. I read online this is due to ions and nitrogen salts and some other stuff that make me wish I paid more attention in chemistry. They said adding 20% miracle grow will stop/reduce ph drift.

Anyone tried this?
Does it make sense?

 

[RouteBound]

I always assumed it is supposed to change.
As the plants take up nutes and water the ph gets higher.
Try topping up with fresh water check in an hr.

Some people in aquaponics use crushed oyster shell to help nutrilize ph

 

[queequeg152]

i think the uptake of ammonium leaves an H+ ion, which drops ph. idk what the deal with urea is... im 100% chemical nutrients.

 

[frosty]

Update:
It works! I mix about 15% by PPM miracle grow bloom in my resevoir and the PH is more stable. Still upward drift but much slower. I stopped doing it because I switched nutrients and lowered the nutrient strength to force more flowers. The PH drifted up very fast. So I am back to adding MG.

I am growing 1 ground cherry and 1 pepper in a flood and drain table.

Cheers,
Frosty

 

[Datil Patch]

what nutrients were/are you using to begin with?

 

[frosty]

I started with Maxi-gro and switched to flora nova bloom. I know some say that ph drift is due to cheap nutes. Which I think is true to some extent. But if I can mix two cheap (cheapish) nutes together and get great results with less work then I am going to let others know.

 

[spongey600]

its my experience that the Flora nova bloom stablizes the PH, when i do a nute change i set my PH somewhere between 5-5.5 and it takes 5-7 days for it to get up to 6.5. i add 1ml PH down to 3 gallons and its good to go till the next nute change