yellowing new growth

[Anthony Price]

All of my readings are as fallows ph is between 7.2 /7.6 Ammonia is between 2.0/4.0 ppm Nitrite is close to a 5.0 ppm the nitrate level is around 30.0 ppm 

I'm very new to this and on a limited budget. I'm not sure why i have a deficiency in my plants, can anyone help? also if you see something in my pictures that doesn't look right, please let me know. Thank you!

[Austin Bradstreet]

Hi Anthony,

I am pretty new to this as well but I do know that your ph is high and that can affect how plants absorb the nutrients.  Are you using tap water or rain water?

[Alex Veidel]

Good question Austin, I was going to ask the same thing.

You could have an iron deficiency, but it's kind of hard for me to tell at this stage of plant growth. That said, you could try throwing iron at the problem, but I would probably address your pH first. From my own experience, it's easy to look at 7.2-7.6 and think "eh, close enough", but lemme tell ya, you're going to find yourself getting much better results keeping your system in the 6.8-7.0 range, as it opens up nutrient availability for your plants. Personally, I'm keeping my system at 6.5 and getting even better results. Btw, iron is one of the first things to get locked out once the pH rises, but if you haven't added any iron in the past, then I would look into getting some soluble iron for your system.

I recommend using tap water over rainwater, it has a lot more nutrients that can be tricky to add in and manage yourself. That said, if you're using well water, then you might be having a problem getting your pH down out of the 7.6-8.0 range. This is because well water is usually loaded with carbonates that act as a pH buffer. If you're adding acid and it drops down short term but then rockets back up again, then you're probably dealing with high kH (carbonate hardness). I'd recommend investing a whoppin' $6 in an API kH test kit if that's the case, that way you can keep track of the effects of the acid you add in.