Tap vs Filtered Water

[demoreal]

so 1 is not a prime number because a prime number is a number with "exactly two" divisors and 1 only has 1.

anyway thanks everyone, I learned a bunch. I love learning about pH and res stabalization. There is some really cool plant nutrition books you can get on amazon but there way epensive. There is so much to learn, I read some things and feel like I do not know a thing.

[Rusty Trichome]

Sorry Khyber. I was dilly-dallying around answering the post, closing-up my flower room, and looking up links...and didn't see your post till just now.

What ever happened to that old phrase "just add water"? :jointsmile:

There is so much to learn, I read some things and feel like I do not know a thing.

Join the club. :thumbsup:

[khyberkitsune]

No worries, Rusty. Similar posts happen!

Indeed, whatever happened to 'just add water?'

Easy - chemistry came into the equation.

[WashougalWonder]

Much can be said to the positives of KISS

[demoreal]

KISS

ya, I know, it is fun talking about all this stuff but when it comes to the grand scheme of things, just add water check pH, tds (many growers do not even do that) done.

[SupraSPL]

The way I see it (at least for our purposes) alkaline is simply a bad confusing word. Instead we should use the words acid, basic and buffering capacity. (Chemists feel free to set me straight because when it comes to alkalinity is am so lost!)

R/O water when spanking new is close to PH 7. Soon it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and forms carbonic acid. The PH then shifts to about 6. However, as Demoreal pointed out, its buffering capacity is very weak. Any addition of a strong acid or base will easily shift the PH up or down.

In order to test pure water use a freshwater aquarium test kit (the liquid drops). They are $5 at Walmart for 250-750 tests.

[SupraSPL]

In many locations municipal tap water is drawn from rivers. The water is treated in a basic way (flocculation and sand filters) on a very large scale. It is chlorinated and pumped into households, business and industrial locations. The resultant wastewater is treated and released back into the river. It flows downstream where the next town draws it in, treats it and serves it to us.

5 reasons to use R/O water for drinking, pets and Cannabis/Veggies. Some of these could be debateable but I would rather use very clean water whenever possible for myself, my pets and my crops!

1. Chlorine and chlorine gas, bad for you (carcinogenic?) and certainly for your microherd if growing organic in soil. It evaporates if the water is left standing. Activated carbon filters will strip chlorine out (brita filters etc). Chlorine damages R/O membranes so it must be filtered out first.

2. Chloramines are bad for you (carcinogenic?). They do not evaporate. If you run them through activated carbon you strip off the chlorine and leave behind ammonia, which is no good either. R/O removes the ammonia.

3. Heavy metals (poisonous/carconogenic?). This is one of the things municipal water actually tests for so levels in tap water should be low lol. However, R/O will easily reduce these dangerous elements further.

4. Viruses, Bacteria and Parasites. Chlorine does a decent job killing most bacteria but intestinal parasites can survive in tap water. Some intestinal viruses can as well. Norovirus has been shown to survive well beyond typical chlorination levels. My advice, don't eat where you sh*t (unless you are using R/O filtration) The R/O membrane will stop bacteria and parasites. It will stop viruses as well, however occasionally there are imperfections in the membrane structure that can allow viruses to pass. To fully disinfect the water for drinking a UV-C filter can be added to an R/O system ($65 is the cheapest I have seen).

5. Pharamceuticals/emerging contaminants. We have health care fever in this country. Birth control tablets are very commonly used (I'm not complaining). Hundreds of pharmaceutical compounds survive the waste treatment process and are expelled back into the watersystem. Some scientists warn that small amounts of compounds can interact and have surprising effects (synergy), especially affecting hormonal systems. I don't want to play that game, I'll take the advice from #4.

You can get R/O +UVC water from the Culligan machine at Walmart 37 cents per gal fill your own jugs. Quality undersink R/O systems are available on eBay for ~$150 add UVC for ~$65. I have never sat down to work it out but I wonder if I spend more $$ on water than I do on nutes?

[Zeffer]

Hello hydo growers,
i use a 55 gal. drum with a 2ish gal. res. ph is always around 6ish.

but i'm getting the slim build up...so i'm wondering about filtration ?

Everybody keeps reefering about RO ? what is that ?

thanks
Sid Zeffer

[Zeffer]

OOOoohhhh ! Reverse Osmoses ! that's what i thought !

[Zeffer]

hello again fellow hydro indoors growers !

If i use an fresh water aquarium filter will it remove the nutes ?