yay i can chuck some info in here too! also you might wanna define some terms before using them so other people know what you mean, things like NPK is the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium etc. i recognise most abbreviations you mention, although things like kh and tds?
Ok crash course on light physics time
Light comes in lots of different wavelengths, anything from a billionth of a metre to thousands of metres (just imagine it as how high the wave is!) the smaller the wave, the quicker it goes up and down (oscillates) and also vice versa.
Light is just electromagnetic radiation, this includes everything from UV, infrared, microwaves, visible light and even gamma radiation!...they are all just photons (bits of light) vibrating at different speeds and sizes. (for instance red light is bigger than blue light is)
when you see the colour of something, what you are actually seeing is the reflected light, so if something is green it is reflecting green light, but absorbing the other colours of light, if a plant was absorbing all the available light they would appear black, and if they were reflecting it all they would be white.
PH time.
PH is the activity of hydrogen ions, what this means is the amount of hydrogen atoms that are missing an electron, as the electron is the negative bit of the atom a hydrogen ion would be positive. the hydrogen ion wants to be a normal atom, so it wants to steal some electrons from something else, which is why it is reactive!....what an acid does is it "donates" a hydrogen ion that ion then steals itself an electron, and bonds either to another molecule or to another hydrogen atom, making Hydrogen gas (which is highly flammable) and some other stuff, the stronger the acid, the more hydrogen ions it has to donate.
an alkali will accept a hydrogen ion which is why when reacting an alkali with an acid you get water and a few traces of other molecules. The stronger the alkali the more hydrogen ion's it will accept.
so when your balancing pH your just tweaking these things to a point of equilibrium wherever you need it. (for reference aforementioned illegal plant likes a ph of roughly 5.6-6.2 pH, though this varies strain to strain).....so if pH is at 7 (pure water) and you want it to be slightly lower, say 5, add something acidic to the water and it'll get lower, likewise if you need a pH higher than 7 you need to add some alkali (its technically called a base though, an alkali is a base dissolved in water)....and if you ever overshoot your needed pH, just add the opposite to bring it back
Hope none of that was too technical, i'm gonna stop now before i really go on a proper lengthy discussion on it all xD
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