A question about sulfuric acid

Sulphuric acid can be very dangerous to handle as it causes severe skin burns and adding it to water can create whats known as an exothermic reaction.

This means it causes reaction between it and the water generating a high amount of heat which could be damaging to the containing material youre using whether it be plastic or metal. Unless youre using a highly corrosion resistant metal throughout your system you should not add it in or dilute it down.

Nitric acid and sulphuric acid are used for very harsh treatments like mineral refinement, industrial scale water treatment (attacks the really nasty things in our wastewater but removed safely through further treatment in other processes). This may be why theyre readily available. So really if its involved with anything youre consuming in the end Id not use it as build ups of deposits can happen and lead to very serious health problems. There are household friendly alternatives like citric acid. I use lemon juice from my supermarket for acidic ph blance and dilute it to whatever the need is. For the other side of ph I use baking soda and dilute it to the point where the particles mean little or are very fine.

/r/Hydroponics Thread