Hard Water, and that yellowing after your buffers run out

Hello All,
A lot of you may have spotted my enthusiasm around here to grow a small amount of the great herb in my growcabinet.

I always seem to have this problem. I'll veg for 6 weeks or so in my 7.5 litre pots, using biobizz All-Mix, no problems, PH stable between 6.2 and 6.8 - thanks to my 1litre Nitric Acid bottle PH adjuster. I know it isn't particularly recommended to use a Nitric Acid in a non hydro medium, but I use very small amounts, perhaps 1 ampule NitricAcid, per litre. This maintains a PH of 6.2 to 6.8.

but, the problems start a few weeks into flower...

Even when I do this PH adjustment, I find that the plants just lock out, the same happened when I wasn't using Nitric Acid. I've tried flushing for a week, I've tried a half strength and quarter strength feed over a week. Nothing seems to make these plants happy. This is interesting because the leaves appear to be very dark green, and curl as if they are overferted, even though PH and nutrients are at very low levels. I'm running out of leaves!! Sooooo.. what is it? It's the damned water is what it is.



HERE IS THE THEORY! The water here is VERY VERY HARD. I mean limescale build up can be measured in weeks and months, not years. I think I understand what is happening in my soil. I'm getting a buildup of unuseful `limestone` which is locking out and taking up the sites for nutrient transfer of other compounds, namely Nitrogen in this case.

Is there anything I can do to this hard water to remove the limescale causing components? It shouldn't be that difficult, quite easy, but I am definately positive this is the problem. I have a fair bit of experience as a technical type, and hope someone with more experience might be able to guide me.

I'm using biobizz Bloom (1ml or 2ml to 5ml /litre where 2ml is half strength), but that doesn't matter. I'm sure if I used a nutrient that had extra buffers for hard water I wouldn't be having this problem.

I'm sure this is a lot of peoples problem, but because of the technicality of the topic, so many people think that they can do nothing; that doesn't seem to be the case I could treat the water with a buffer, I could remove these compounds maybe or could find a bloom fert specifically for hard water.


Somebody help me out here!!? I think there should be a sticky on this matter, any takers? :)

Thanking you guys in advance,
Peace,
Denial

hmm, anyone?

It sounds like the water like you say. You need a filter or an R/O filter , it's the only thing that will help. Adding a buffer or anything will not do any good. You have to get the crap out of your water. Look at spending about 150 bucks for a filter. Check fleabay I saw some on there not to bad a price. You will not regret it.

Go to home depot and get one of their 5 gallon bottles of water...its like $6 plus a $5 deposit for the container...you bring that back to get a new 1

use it on 1 of those plants to test if it is the water:thumbsup::hippy:

I ahve quite hard water as well. Lime and iron residue builds up quickly.

Regular charcoal filters did not work for me. Filtered water left a day or two returns to the same pH as out of the tap! Charcoal filters also did not signifigantly lower the TDS of the water.

I had to drop 400 on a small RO filter and supplement that water with Cal-Mag product.

hey guys thanks a lot for your replies, this is a really good idea, buy some RO.

I see what you're saying now - there really is _nothing_ I can do, gee that sucks, I thought you could buy fertilisers/bloom feed that is specifically for hard water that turns the deposits into harmless, more useful compounds? No?

Humm this sucks :) and thanks for replying.. I will try some RO to see if this is the problem :)

I really think there should be a sticky on this. Someone should make one..

Peace,
Denial

Yea hard water nutes are for water in the 200 ppm range. It's not just your ppm it's also what's in the water. My bro has the most amazing well water and won't let me fill up tanks because I might do better than him. LOL no really seriosly.

I have a small R/O filter and used to distill my own water. Talk about a pain. but hey made my buds nice. Be sure to get the calmag or calmax.

Don't forget us, we want to learn from everyone.

word brother, I'll let you know how things go. I reckon our water here is maybe 300-400 ppm, crazy huh? I've not tested it but the deposits are just crazy on the plumbing, so at a guess - at a guess :>

We shall see :)


This is a real PITA. I'm tempted to give the hard water nutes a try too

will ofc, let you know how it goes!

peace,
Denial