Water: RO or Distilled?

I'm considering either a Reverse Osmosis filtration system or a distiller to purify water for my plants as I am tired of lugging bottled distilled water home from the store. Both systems have their proponents and detractors and I would like some input from folks who use either.

The RO negatives are that the filters get loaded with bacteria of their own and can actually be worse than tap water, in bacteriological terms. The detractors of Distilled water claim all minerals, even beneficial ones, are removed in the process and using distilled water can actually leach the soil of minerals.

Any input? Even wild guesses appreciated but solid experience is what I'm aiming for... :D

I use RO water--no problems. RO water also takes out a huge amount of minerals etc...my water usually ends up with a ppm of about 10-15 (250 before). Most people use Cal Mag to compensate. You're using distilled water now.....what's the diff to you except for lugging at around? Wouldn't you still be using the same thing you are now if you went with a distiller and you are worried about bacteria? (Either way, use Cal Mag)

well for hydro, roe and distilled is pretty much the same thing, ur looking at ppm differnce of 0 to like 30, its just which sytems is easier and less money. The RO systems ive never herd of forming bacteria, u just need to replace the filters when needed. this is all drinking water if ur getting bacteria in ur RO water its comming from somewhere else. If your concerned with the water ur using im assuming your using some nutes at some point in ur grow, so leeching shouldnt happen if u feed them some food in the water. the point of this isnt to feed your plants pure water, its to take out all the crap and put in only what u need, u should never feed them strait up 0ppm unless your flushing. personally i use my well water which sits at a very high ppm around 500, i used 1/2 stenght nutes, no filters, no problems, so its not neccessarily worth all it is. cause i dont use anything and i get 100% resluts. My water is filled with goodies i dont even know are in there, lot of calciuim, mg, can be a problem with some strains though! Fliters i would say are more for the experienced grower who are using hard strains that required very little fluctuation in water ppm.

i use distilled water only, my tap water sucks bigtime so i just add calmag plus to the distilled water and its perfect.

whats up Doco, i updated my log. check it out. how is your setup gonig?

Thanks for all the replies peeps! I'm sure either method would be more than adequate for my needs and I am over-analyzing.

Until I started investigating this I didn't even know you could get a small household distiller but that is the direction I'm leaning. I just started using Cal-Mag with the last watering so I'm covered in that regard.

Dusto2k3....I'm heading over to your thread now!

Doco calmag is the best freaking thing in the world watch the change it makes in your grow:thumbsup:

Sweet, thanks!! I'll be using primarily their nutes for this grow - Pure Blend Pro Grow, Bloom, Liquid Karma, & Calmag. Thread coming soon......:thumbsup:

Interesting side-point:::

There's no way that bacteria will be living at the later stages of a RO filter... maybe if they backtracked into the filter it self.

But really, a bacteria is HUGE compared to the things a RO filter removes from the water... So even if the filter becomes laden with bacteria, they won't be coming out the other end of the spigot.

My 0.02

So if I'm using tap water to water the plants, would calmag be a benefit to my grow?

yes/no, for me it wont be, and i think there is cal mag in the pure blend pro already, i belive i read it off the label. I have so much awsome stuff in my water as is, if i added any more additives other then nutes to it i would lock up alot. If your using tap water, i would say if u read out a ppm of lower the 200 it might help, but i dont think u will notice a change. the calmag is for ro or distilled water, and products such as pure blend pro include it in there formula for there source of mg and c

never mind there is no cal mag in it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by turtle420

Interesting side-point:::

There's no way that bacteria will be living at the later stages of a RO filter... maybe if they backtracked into the filter it self.

So even if the filter becomes laden with bacteria, they won't be coming out the other end of the spigot.

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Thats a point that only occured to me later on too, you are absolutely correct. Plus, after looking some more all the home distillers, they are very slow producers. I think I'll just get a simple 5 or 6 stage R/O off eBay for like $110.

Dusto2k3, this is the first time I am using Cal-mag so I can't comment but I have heard great things about it.

yeH man ro isnt as effective but its in reality just as good, i was thinkin of pickin one up off ebay as well there pretty cheap for a 5-6 stage.