Lockout- Hard water, rain water, choices!

[JeffersonBud]

Nice! You will love it. Not only will your plants be better off but you can take advantage of it as well for personal consumption. Fluoride is bad for you. RO is the only way to get it out of the water.

JeffersonBud Reviewed by JeffersonBud on 06-11-2008. Lockout- Hard water, rain water, choices! OK I'm officially back and man do I need help! We moved last year and ran into so many problems with my new setup but ironed most of the kinks out. As usual with a new setup and strain there is a learning curve as you relize mistakes and stabilize the problem. I have narrowed it down and have discoved it to be the water. So I'll tell you everything I know about my water source. It's well water, we live near a large lake that isn't the healthiest, but not biohazardous yet. The pH is at Rating: 5

[Chronic Chrissy]

Nice! You will love it. Not only will your plants be better off but you can take advantage of it as well for personal consumption. Fluoride is bad for you. RO is the only way to get it out of the water.

I know it's so bad for you and so is chlorine. In the book "natural cures they don't want you to know about" by kevin trudaue he uses his RO unit for consumsion but also for his pool and hottub. I love having my hottub but can't stand the thought of all the toxic chemicals I'm soaking my body in, not to mention my toddlers.

But really, what is the wastage for one of these systems and where does it go?

[rhizome]

Ehh, little bit o' brine- less than 5% of input volume.

Ya just dump it, wherever ya feel good about dumping.

Don't feel bad about it- this shit'll just end up back in the water table anyway.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Ehh, little bit o' brine- less than 5% of input volume.

Ya just dump it, wherever ya feel good about dumping.

Don't feel bad about it- this shit'll just end up back in the water table anyway.

Only 5%, the site I read must have had it backwards because the said that you only end up with 5% Good water.
Well I definately have my choice of method now I need to figure out what to do in the mean time. The cheaper I keep it the sooner I can get my RO going.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Awsome news! I set out tarps last night before to rain started up again to catch the water. I just tested it and the pH is 6.2 and right around 0 ppm. I am comparing colors on a strip but the colors match exactly. I don't have a whole lot of water right now, about enough for everyone for the next watering and maybe some extra, but we are going to have more rain this evening. I'm also having some city water brought out for me which I'll have to test when it gets here, and let sit out to get rid of the chlorine.

So here are my questions.

After my plants being so shocked for so long(their whole life). What should be my priority use for the rain water, and what should I used the second rate city water for? I was thinking Flush with city water as many as I can and feed with rain water and nutes.

And what concentration to I want to use for my nutes when I do go to feed them first off? They really need the nutes they are showing def for but I don't want to burn them.

Next question is which plants would benifit most from being treated first? All my plants are three days apart in all stages. I'm making sure all the new clones and plants start out right, but do I want to try and fix the late flower ones and work my way back to the early flowing stage to try to save the harvest, or start with the early flowering ones -> the late flowering ones so they have more time to correct themselves? I'm just worried the late ones are to far gone to help them much.

I have about 3 days till the next major watering.


*Stinky can you change my thread name to water qaulity choices to mend lockout or something like that?

[stinkyattic]

The Cl evap thing is kind of a myth... Chloramine is what they're using now, and the levels needed to harm plants would harm YOU too, lol! Go ahead and use it for your flushing as-is.
Use the rain water like RO: Add CalMag and bring it to 300ppm. Then add your base nutes- Start at half the recommended dosage, and keep your total ppm around 800 to start. Then pH to your coco range.
You're going to be using rain or RO a lot I'll bet, so this is the time to start learning how it works, and testing to see how high you can take the total ppms without tip-burn.

[Chronic Chrissy]

Fuck I keep telling H that I need an accurate ppm meter! Does he listen? NO! Now the bone head keeps asking me, "Why can't you do this, Why can't you use that water?..." And I keep telling him that maybe we could, but I don't know because I don't have a PPM METER! Now he's bitching because it will cost just as much for the RO unit we are looking as as it does for the meter that can let him figure it out the cheap way. hahahaha. He's tired of the "It costs something to get something" line and is really trying to get me to cut corners but I keep telling him and telling him, and then he wonders why things start going wrong. hahahaha

Seriously I'm so stressed right now it's great to lighten up a bit.

ETA Don't lie to yourself Chrissy you've been stressed out for the last 6 years non-stop! The end is so close now! Smoke another and suck it up!

[Chronic Chrissy]

Oh yeah who should be my first priority? Young or old? It might take me a week to get through this flush.

[inbud]

thanks for putting this link in a calcium question thread i had. i learned a bunch. gonna check out those hard water nutes. thanks agian.
inbud
i got a grow going now, and i dont think the water is presenting a problem now. the purple from last year was the type of plant i had.
inbud

[Chronic Chrissy]

I finished the flush in three days. The most shocking thing was how brown the water was from the recently transplanted clones that had never been fertilized. After I flushed all the flowering plants got 1/4 nutes in RO water. Some got their second watering today, I flushed 1gl of water through the 1 gl pots to check the conditions and flush any unused nutes from the soil then fed at 1/2 strength. The plants are perking up and the new growth is getting a healthier green tint back. Some of the yellowing leaves have recoved enough to keep from dying and are now a pale yellow green color. The vegging plants and mothers are doing well to and while I have missed the last two sets of plants to go into flower I expect by next week my stronger plants can get the cycle going again.

Thanks for all the help.