Old Reviews Cal/Mag questions

[fweedom]

Calcium is also a buffer so it could be that the calcium is causing it to rise as well. I have always added my calcium last when using chemical nutes because that is what the manufacturer recommends. I don't know what difference it makes, I figured it has the possibly of knocking something out of suspension but am not too sure.

Best guess would be the calcium is buffering the solution though. Just a guess.

Thanks for the help A4, so would you reccomend that i add my cal-mag last? i was under the impression i had to add it before i add anything else :Sharing One:

:Gary: Hey Fweed-- got your PM! You're talking about pH rising after the nutes and all have been added, right? Well, the chemical reactions (buffering) are not necessarily instant, and with all the various dissolved goodies in there, it can slow things down,... but as A4 mentioned, it's the carbonates doing their buffering job that's slowly raising the pH again,... with all the stuff in there, and other potential cross reactions, it's the one reason why you don't mix up a big batch of nutes and let it sit around for days,... biological activity is the other! Once it's added into the soil, all sorts of other influencing factors come into play, so getting your soln. pre-dialed helps make sure nothing too wonky happens once it's in there... *** Dewd, you must get an Accurate 8 soil pH meter! there's nothing like a reading DIRECTLY from the soil,... if you can scare-up the $50-60 bucks, it's a totally worthy investment... with that foot long probe (giggady!), you can test the soil pH at different level if you need to,... plus it has a built in moisture meter as well! For testing pH, comparing these two methods is analogous to starting a fire with 2 sticks, or a lighter-- :roflcry:

Hey waira, appreciate you helping yea bro its been rising after ive added all the nutes.. as far as the soil meter ive been looking into them and will probably order one soon from amazon im just tryna get this water thing down first lol i think ive been slacking in making sure my water is ideal so in order to become a better grower i need to figure this stuff out haha

So do i just have to mix it all up and water right away before it has a chance to rise or what? i thought the whole point of me adding the cal-mag was so that wont happen lol sorry for all the questions :Sharing One:

 

[Waira]

... chemically speaking, it's the bicarbonate molecule that's doing the buffering,... carbonate, CO3 2- doesn't like to keep that double negative charge, and free H+ ions will latch onto it, making bicarbonate, which is the favored form under these pH ranges,... it a pretty complex series of reactions, and as I mentioned before with CO2 dissolving into the water, making acidic,... that's also temporary, and as these series of reactions proceeds, more carbonate is made from the CO2,... Sorry for the technical stuff, not trying to muddy the waters here, just trying to keep the answers to a practical applicable level! If you want, I can try to post up the whole series of reactions that take CO2 from air, into water, and all that happens from there... :no: :roflcry: I'll have to figure out how to use the sub/super scripts feature though, to get the little numbers and charges placed where they should be! :slaps:

 

[A4]

It all depends on the manufacturer. Some want to you add it first, some want you to add it last. That is the biggest reason I always recommend people to use the same line if nutrients. We see a lot of people going with different manufacturers because someone thinks one thing works better than another. That may be the case but no one really knows how it will react once it is all added together and liquid nutrients are very well know for knocking others out of suspension. For instance, silica is terrible about it because the pH is so high.

So, I can't honestly say what is the best way to mix except to follow the recommendations from the manufacturer.

 

[Waira]

..yeah Fweed, I think when using synthetic nutes, it's generally better to mix them up and use fairly quickly,... with organics, folks like to bubble their water/nute soln. to up the O2 and boost microbe activity,... With synthertics, I see peeps doing the bubble thing too, but I believe they do a last minute pH adjusting as well, before watering....

 

[fweedom]

Ok awesome you guys are really helping me, sorry im probably annoying the shit outta you guys but google just wont teach me like this haha :Sharing One:

I jus got my ppm meter in a few minutes ago..

Distilled water- 0 ppm
Spring water- 150 ppm

Just because the spring water has 150 ppm that doesnt mean it contains any cal-mag correct? should i still add cal-mag to the spring water or is that 150 ppm enough to buffer?

im plus repping both of you by the way edit: says i gotta spread it around first i got yall when i can though.

 

[A4]

The 150 is probably mostly sodium. Yes, you will need to add cal-mag to it. The kicker is, you have to adjust for the extra 150, so if your plants generally begin with nutrient toxicity at say 1300. If you are using distilled water you can add 1300 ppm of nutrients to the solution, if you are using the spring water then you are only going to be able to add 1150 ppm of nutrients because the spring water already contains 150 so 1150 + 150 will give you 1300. That is the benefit of using distilled or RO. One of the benfits, I should say. There are other benefits as well.

No worries brother. Always glad to help!

 

[Waira]

"Bailers Booya"Shweeeet! -ppm meter!.... you're welcome Fweed, always appreciative of the help, and you listen,...! ....recall, I mentioned that some minerals are added back into bottled water, or in this case, if it's true spring water, it'll have CaCO3 in it naturally,... You can still add Ca-Mg into your nute mix, and likely should... how often do we see Ca Mg issues? LOL!- it does a few different jobs, as you see,... 150 is fine for buffering, but I think the supp's have the goodies in a more readily available form..? I add some Ca-Mg to nearly every round of fert's, but not always full strength,...the bigger the plant, the more I add basically, up to rec' dosage!

 

[Waira]

:slaps:...ah! good point A4-- I forget, some companies do use Na based minerals,... the label should have Na listed, because of health restrictions with some folks, so check it and see Fweed,... true spring water shouldn't have much Na, if any...

 

[A4]

true spring water shouldn't have much Na, if any...

Yep, since I started collecting rainwater for my grow op I haven't seen anywhere near the deficiencies I once did. Granted I am running mainly TLO now but even before that I was much happier. Rain water or natural water is awesome compared to bubbled tap.

 

[Anthropolis]

Mine seem to be happier since I just recently began collecting and giving them rainwater and I really thought these guys must be crazy to be collecting rain lol. (I had been giving them a combo of distilled and well water... But distilled has no minerals and my well is ph 8.3 lol, so not great options.) Now I'm starting to look more and more like one of those doomsday prepper hippies each day hahaha with my buckets around the edge of the house lol