stabilise ro water

( im trying to avoid the pink salt... good for steaks not for my girls) there is also something called athena balance :- Athena Balance is a simple formula of potassium silicate specifically concentrated to buffer irrigation water and stabilize to ideal pH. Silicon additionally benefits plant growth, stem structure, stress reduction, water usage (osmoregulation), and nutrient utilization. Commercial growers find better results, particularly with reverse osmosis (RO) water, when buffering first with Athena Balance. Pure RO water has unstable chemical structure that can trap other nutrients when added without a buffer. Athena Balance adds just enough to the water to create a more homogenous fertilizer solution and reduce the need to pH adjust after mixing.  the thing is, if im adding silicate, its meant to be bad for my beneficial bacteria,,, so im trying to find a way to avoid this,,,, noname have a little look at my grow diary and you will see me trying different things to stabilise, and what their effects on my system are.. maybe ill find a solution that will help others. would be lovely if someone could explain the difference between ghe silicate, athena balance, and equilibrium, and which would be the best to use in conjunction with my trikologic s, maybe 1 product would be best for my organics, whereas in a salt nutrient based system another product maybe more beneficial, many thanks for the answer... any more thoughts guys ?

Im also looking in to find a way to stabilise my RO water but to do so you need to have something to buffer it with first. RO water have almost no minerals in it so the PH will be all over the place if you try and PH it. I have done some reading on Himalayan rock salt and I don't think it is a good solution. It contains a tiny bit of minerals and a lot of Sodium that you will have to flush out of your medium. "Pink Himalayan salt is chemically similar to table salt. It contains up to 98 percent sodium chloride. The rest of the salt consists of trace minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, and calcium. These give the salt its light pink tint." I was looking in to this product and it seems to be a good source of minerals. I have not tried it my self yet so no idea of it is good or not https://www.seachem.com/equilibrium.php Guaranteed Analysis Amounts per 1 g Soluble Potash (K2O) 23.0% Calcium (Ca) 8.06% Magnesium (Mg) 2.41% Iron (Fe) 0.11% Manganese (Mn) 0.06%

thanks for answers guys, up to 10 and down to 7 is on ghe's website and someone on here told me too ,, but so is lots of other conflicting info on ghe's website , like instead you can addback 1/4 tapwater, but for me that defeats the point of doing it. in despair i added some of ghes silica powder,, at half the rate they recomend because im doing bio, and they dont recomend u use silica with bio lol... it stabilised at 6.2 and hasnt moved for about 5 hours... as they say we shall see tomorrow morning what happens.

Servus Mate. Well, I agree to Growing Granny.. U need to have ur solution puffered before u adjust pH. And just out of curiosity, did they tell u why u should go up to 10, before u bring it down again?? Sounds like absolute nonsense to me. My fresh made RO Water has a pH of 5.5-5.8 and when I add my nutrients etc its nearly on point with ~6.3 Good luck and happy growing Mate. Servus

You would need to buffer the water before you even try to adjust the pH.. you can add the minerals the reverse osmosis removed from the water by using a small amount of himalayan sea salt and then adjust the pH... 1/4tsp per gallon should suffice... Good luck!