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Vinigar as Ph down?

S.S.Tupperware

S.S.Tupperware

I stopped by the hydro store, for a couple things and to BS with my pepper friend up there, even turned him onto some seed. Well I don't have any meters, so he gave me a bottle of Rh tester. i tested my tap water and it's 8 or just a lil over. I got it down to 6 with a lil vinegar, obvious it worked, but is there a real need to buy a special Ph solution? Or will vinigar suit my needs? If so I assume baking soda will work if I need to go the other way.
 
yea no need to buy anything special any acid will work, but in vinegars case, its to expensive imo.

you can get gallon or half gallon bottles of hydrochloric acid for real cheap pool stores home depot etc. i use straight 8.4 molar hcl for my setup and it works great. if you mess up, baking soda works great for ph up, cheap too.

hcl is a strong acid, unprotected eyeballs are not welcome

oh yea if hcl isnt your bag, you can use citric acid. i know alot of the organic people like the stuff. its sold as dry ph down in the hydro stores, it is however alot less effective at lowering ph costs much more as well.

edit:
forgot this.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=citric+acid&_sacat=See-All-Categories
 
A gallon ovf vinegar is a couple bucks and I only needed 12 ml to a gallon to make it right, so I will stick with the vinegar. If not i have pool acid.
 
Vinegar is cheaper when buying by the gallon. I have plenty on hand because I have it for canning already. I do not know if it would matter what kind of vinegar one uses but I use apple cider vinegar myself. It will not keep the ph down long term in open air but if you are already changing the hydro solution weekly then it does not matter.
 
yea if you are working with small volumes i guess its not so bad.

i have a 30 gallon trashcan as a resivoir tho, it takes ~10 ml to drop the ph of my tap + fertilizer from 7.8 to 6 ish, i think my tap is like 300mg/l calcium carbonate too :eek:
 
I'm gonna test the lake water, its a springfed lake, so it's nice and clear. If it's good I'll go from there, I have mu irritation pulling from there, and I can hook a hose up to the pump at the shed.
 
Vinegar will cause huge Ph spikes and the effect will last for a very short time. Not a good method of Ph control.

Ph control from liquid nutrient mfgs is buffered so the effect is way more controlled and lasts longer.
 
using Vinegar as ph adjustment is very short term, and as your plants are using up nutrients, your PH will change drastically and quickly. I bet your PH will have spiked back up within 24 hrs, and will continue to change depending on your type of nutrients and how much. i suggest a true growing PH adjustment, and not pool chemicals either. remember your going to be eating this stuff. It will save you the hassle of PH changing so much, and constantly. it just sounds like more of a hassle using vinegar although cheaper.
 
ive actually had pool acid in my mouth, haha you just reminded me of that. it was like an electric shock to my mouth. ive tasted the phosphoric acid based ph down products too, which was much more inoffensive... i actually see why they use that stuff in food.
 
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