Water PH

[tje25]

Does anyone ph there water? If so what do you set it at? I'm pretty sure I read somewere to put it around 7, but I wanted to here what you guys had to say.

 

[cpsammich]

You want neutral which is seven
For it to be a different pH you would have to have a large number of impurities
Any water you want for your cps should be 7ish
Though I'm not really sure I understand the question

 

[Exo]

mine tends to be either neutral or slightly acid (rainwater).....plants do well with either,

 

[Rokosauros]

Mine should be neutral or slightly acidic in terms of rainwater. Neps will do fine with normal water pH, they don't need any special pH value water.

 

[tje25]

Thanks everyone, I plan on using ro water. It comes out at right around 4-5 tds and around 3.5-4.5ph. So I will be adjusting it up to 6.5-7.0ph.

My tap water comes out at about 400-500 tds and a ph of 7.0-7.5

 

[Borneo]

You shouldn't need to adjust RO water I wouldn't think. There will be so little impurities in it, that whatever the pH seems to be, it will be so poorly buffered as to swing dramatically when it comes into contact with just a tiny amount of acid or base.

We at BE use ground water which starts at pH 6.5 at most times of the year. After passing through a slow sand filter and shock chlorinating it to be sure of no pathogens, we then adust the pH to between 5.0 and 5.5. However, we use coir fiber and chips as potting media which is not very acidic but readily available here. If your media is naturally acidic, e.g. containg peat or sphagnum moss, then neutral water should be fine.

 

[jesse]

Thanks everyone, I plan on using ro water. It comes out at right around 4-5 tds and around 3.5-4.5ph. So I will be adjusting it up to 6.5-7.0ph.

You don't need any PH adjusting when using (nearly) mineral free water.
What Borneo said is absolutely correct.

The PH of mineral free water is pure fantasy.
Such water takes the PH of the soil immediately when you pour the water over it.
Mineral free water has no buffer capacity for PH, soil has. So you can pour as much mineral free water of a certain PH over soil with another PH, and the PH of the soil will not change. The water takes the PH of the soil.

BTW: A low PH of your water is most likely caused by diluted CO2 in the water. CO2 + H20 = H2CO3 (carbonic acid). In that case, the simplest way to "adjust PH" (remove H2CO3 from water) is, to "shake well in the air". You can either put the water in a container, 1/3 water, 2/3 air, close and shake the container so CO2 will go out of the water into the air, the PH is going up (nearer to 7). Or just pour the water through the shower head of a watering can a few times with the same effect.

 

[mobile]

A good explaination of pH of pure water here: http://www.lenntech.com/applications/process/demineralised/deionised-demineralised-water.htm

As stated by others, there is no need to adjust the pH for your plants.

 

[tje25]

Thanks Alot everyone! That will save me some work and a little money lol.