Dear n00bs: Distilled water warning

[jmd1109]

You add it to your water/nutrients Stinkyattic.

Sensi Cal (By Advance Nutrients) will take care of that. This is one product I know of and I'm sure there are many other ways to add calcium to your water...

How's the camera cable com'n along Stinky, did ya find/buy one?

Enjoy!

Stinkyattic, Ignore the previous post, I completely miss-read your post, I didn't notice you quoting "Tigersfan420" until after I submitted my post - LOL

......

[tigersfan420]

Hey Stinkyattic. Thanks for the reply. However this only does more to confuse a pathetic noob such as myself. I am concerned about what to do about my watering situation and conflicting sources abound. I read a source on the importance of R/O water and was convinced that the ph factor of it was perfect for trying to keep things simple. But when i read your post on tap water being just fine and slighty benificial because of the minerals (and lack there of in R/O water). I am now unsure. So I read the label on my "walmart" sodium free pure drinking water and saw that it just comes from municipal water in columbus OH. It is then distilled and run through an R/O filter im guessing. Am i going to get a bunch of junk i dont want my plants getting if i use tap water? Also, im using the botanicare pro line of ferts. The guy at the hydro shop tells me im gonna need calmag a couple weeks into the flowering cycle, but its okay to get epsom salt for that. Is that true? And is there any light you can shed on my total ignorance of ph. I was under the impression that the goal of using r/o water and so forth was to have a nuetral ph, now im reading that nuetral can cause nutrient lock out. Please help. im about to go insane. Your loyal apprentice. Tigersfan420.

[tigersfan420]

sorry, i forgot to mention this is a soil grow. (promix bx mixed with worm castings, perlite, and dolomite). Couldnt find agway. peace

[stinkyattic]

But when i read your post on tap water being just fine and slighty benificial because of the minerals (and lack there of in R/O water). ....Am i going to get a bunch of junk i dont want my plants getting if i use tap water?

Tap water does contain either chlorine or bromine depending how it is treated, but the levels have to be pretty high to affect your plants. I run city water even in my hydro system- I'm lucky; the city water is fine. If you feel like you can drink your tap water (= it doesn't taste absolutely nasty like a swimming pool), it is probably safe for your plants, especially in a soil grow.

The guy at the hydro shop tells me im gonna need calmag a couple weeks into the flowering cycle, but its okay to get epsom salt for that. Is that true?

Yes, you may need calmag running the pureblend pro stuff, but he's absolutely wrong that Epsom salts supply calcium!!!

And is there any light you can shed on my total ignorance of ph.

Sure, pH is a measurement of the concentration and activity of Hydronium (H+) ions in the water after they have dissociated from the Hydroxide (OH-) component of H2O. It's further complicated by the presence of other substances in the water, and you will see that the pH of your water is different from the pH of that same water after you have added fertilizer.

I read a source on the importance of R/O water and was convinced that the ph factor of it was perfect for trying to keep things simple. I was under the impression that the goal of using r/o water and so forth was to have a nuetral ph, now im reading that nuetral can cause nutrient lock out. .

Well let's see, this is going to sound funky:
The goal of using RO water is to have an inert (non-reactive) water source. Kinda.
This is a overly simplified explanation but should help.
Basically, you would choose RO if you want to have NOTHING in there but H2O. Even so, the pH of pure RO water that has been exposed to the atmosphere is in the 6's, or even high 5's!! It is not neutral! This is because atmospheric CO2 goes into solution as carbonic acid, and there is no Calcium to allow it to go as Calcium carbonate (lime) which has a pH raising effect.
Confused yet? lol! Tap water DOES contain Ca so that equilibrium between acidic carbonic acid and basic calcium carbonate can exist, and your water is naturally BUFFERED, a term that describes the propensity of a substance to remain at a certain pH despite the addition of other substances, to a certain point.
Anyway... The short version is that if you want to use distilled or RO water, you need to add calmag to it, not just for the FERTILIZER component, but as a pH stabilizer.

You want a pH between about 6.3 and 6.8 in soil, 5.8 to 6.4 in soilless (coco, promix), and 5.5-6.4 in hydroponics.

[norkali]

....So I read the label on my "walmart" sodium free pure drinking water and saw that it just comes from municipal water in columbus OH. It is then distilled and run through an R/O filter im guessing....

This is gonna piss you off....

You've been buying tap water.

"Municipal water" = tap. If it was R/O treated, or distilled, it would say so; and cost more (.40 -.50 cents.)

Those bastards!

[tigersfan420]

Thanks again. What you wrote made sense. Im going to get some ph readings on my tap water and my soil mixture to see where this takes me. I guess i should also test the ph of the r/0 water with ferts and calmag added to it. The confusing part of the ph factor is what do i want my final end product (run-off, im guessing) to be at? 7.0 or in that range? Ive got some deciding to do i guess. Is there a link or something you can send me to end this ph confusion once and for all. I bow humbly to you. peace out
:thumbsup:

[tigersfan420]

Thank Norkali. It does say that it has been distilled and r/o'd. Its .64 cents. But since i have your attention. It was one of your posts that confused me about ph and nutrient lock out. I was under the impression it was best to keep all outside influences on my plant (water, soil, nutes,etc) as nuetral as possible to then have a happy plant. But reading about how you adjust or ph'd your water to fit with the other factors confused me. (have i confused you yet?) Maybe you can jump in with stinky and help me out. I respect both of your opinoins very much. Your grow logs captivated me. peace.

[stinkyattic]

Those ranges I gave are actually what you want the runoff to be. Ideally, you will stabilize your soil and fert solution so that the runoff is consistent. If it changes, then you can tweak the pH of the fert solution to off-set that.
You won't really be able to get a pH readin gon just the soil- you'll want to test the tap water, then run some plain tap water through the soil, and take a reading of the first couple cups that come out the bottom. This can give you the true soil pH if you compare the 'in' and 'out' values.

[maspino1]

Dear Noob:

Everyone (else ) knows that no matter what type of water you use....even tap....should be checked and ph adjusted every time you add any to your plant. That goes for soil as well as hydro.

that was exactly my point so thank you for being an asshole to my
generosity to share information that i feel is important for every beginner
grower to know in order not to screw up their first plant like i almost did

[luvfriday]

that was exactly my point so thank you for being an asshole to my
generosity to share information that i feel is important for every beginner
grower to know in order not to screw up their first plant like i almost did

ostexcuseme: I feel sorry for your plant, she is going to wind up dead or retatrded. Worse, no wait better yet dont ask us how to sex it when it gets older. We just want to wait and see how many pounds you get in the end.