one Liquid pH Test Kit w/Color Guide
one 8oz. Bottle of pH Up Adjuster Solution
one 32 oz Bottle of pH Down Adjuster Solution
pH Up is Potassium Hydroxide
one Challenger I air Pump
one blue Drop Airstone
four feet of 1/4" vinyl tube
Some of your friends may have told you that dropping an airstone into the nutrient tank provides the roots with more oxygen and therefore there is better growth. This theory is wrong. This is like saying that when the hands on my wristwatch show 12 o'clock the wristwatch CAUSES the church bells to ring or the fire siren to go off. The technical term for this phenomenon is "coincidence". So, even though the growth may be better after using an airstone, it is probably the result of better pH control (or else your friends may be overwatering.)
It turns out water is made up of two Hydrogen ions and one Oxygen (sometimes called H2O). If you leave water alone, it naturally starts to drift into two sets of ions: an 'H ion' and an 'OH ion'. ("Ion" just means "charged particle".) The H ion splits off the water molecule it was hooked up with and floats around until it finds an OH ion which will have an opposite magnetic charge. Opposites attract, and so the H ion has found a new mate. "pH" stands for "potential Hydrogen". It is a measure of free Hydrogen ions in a solution. The airstream in the water creates both circulation and introduces more fine Oxygen molecules for the H ions to get it on with.
Pumping air through the nutrient solution does not CHANGE the pH--it only stabilizes it. Less stress on you--only $19.95, delivered.