Time to upgrade my water quality. I've done lots of reasearch, please chime in.

[keysareme]

[I know there are most likely a lot of threads about this, but I needed some input now, so rather than trying to re-vamp an older thread, I hope in creating a new one all is well, thanks]
-----------

Right to the point, I found a HydroLogic 200 for $100. It has the 2:1 valve and needs to new filters. I would upgrade to the 1:1 valve and get kdf filters cause I have chloramine in the tap here.

So I have that option.

I have also looked at various other water filtration systems, some reverse osmosis, and others not.

I've found that all RO systems have waste, which I would like to either avoid, or be able to capture as grey water and make use of.

I've found products like this one called "The Water Chef" [http://www.waterchef.com/store/products/WaterChef-U9000-Premium-Under%2dSink-Water-Filtration-System.html], which claim to filter out 60 contaminents, while leaving healthy minerals that would be beneficial. (Ca, Mg, etc..)

I've found a product from a company called aquasauna [http://www.aquasana.com/drinking-water-filter-systems], they have a sale which is 50% off for any of their systems. reason I didn't go with them is because I saw no mention of the removal of fluoride? everything else looked good, with no water waste, and beneficial minerals such as Ca and Mg left accessible in the water, I thought it sounded good at $179 with free shipping.

Man, there are so many water filter systems, and they are all just the same thing, a few components and filters.


Does anyone have any input, it would be greatly appreciated.

I guess I should mention that the budget is open for discussion, but if something like the Stealth RO 200 will be suitable for my garden(s) and our drinking water needs (roughly 2-3 gallons a day for drinking water), then let me know.

I'm looking to act on this fast, I've got contact with the guy for the Stealth RO, he gave me the go to pick it up for $100. But if you know of something better, more current, efficient, let me know.

So any help, greatly appreciated, have cash in hand to make best choice. I was using RO water for months, but it got costly to drive and refill the 5 gallon containers every day, I almost was going twice a day just to keep everything hydrated, and that was just too much, so I let myself get lax and just started using tap water and letting it air out for 48 hours, but I notice the affect it has on my plants. So I need to get a filter going, any help, greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

-keys

I look forwards to a lot of responses, I am going to go medicate now. Don't let me down dudes!

 

[jijiandfarmgang]

STOP!!!

I didn't check your links but their claims seem extreme. I think your becoming a victim of some sort of marketing campaign. And I think you're making it more complicated than it has to be.

What is your exact intent? I'm going to assume your on city water that uses chloramine...(I guess more common these days) and your watering your garden that is soil grown.

- Jiji

 

[keysareme]

STOP!!!

I didn't check your links but their claims seem extreme. I think your becoming a victim of some sort of marketing campaign. And I think you're making it more complicated than it has to be.

What is your exact intent? I'm going to assume your on city water that uses chloramine...(I guess more common these days) and your watering your garden that is soil grown.

- Jiji

Yeap, it's as if you already knew about my garden and chloramine in the tap water. The links are just stuff I saw as I was browsing the many available systems and filters.

My exact intent, is to have the best water, without chlorine/chloramine and all the tap contaminants. If the water can still have good minerals, Ca Mg etc, that would be helpful. I am not running any hydro or aero configurations right now, it is just for drinking consumption and plant watering, organic soil. A true 25 gallons of pureified water a day would be nice.

3g/day for drinking, 5-15g/day for outdoor garden (all on how hot it is, and eventually once we have clean water, I will build a drip irrigation, but I need the good water first so I don't contaminate the container for water storage), and I need an additional 2-5 gallons/day for my medical garden. So anywhere from 10-25 true gallons a day would be what I need.

 

[ScoobyDoobyDoo]

i use a hydro logic big boy pre filter with the kdf filter, a evolution 1000 r/o filter and a de-ionizer. honestly, my water comes out between 4-8 ppm. i'm a big fan of drinking r/o water so i have the machine tapped to the ice maker on my fridge; a tap faucet next to my sink, the feed line for my ice maker and a dedicated line to my grow room. hydro logic is the best in the residential/grow field. easy to get parts and very reliable products. i don't know about the others but i would definitely recommend a pre filter and r/o filter from hydro logic.

 

[keysareme]

i use a hydro logic big boy pre filter with the kdf filter, a evolution 1000 r/o filter and a de-ionizer. honestly, my water comes out between 4-8 ppm. i'm a big fan of drinking r/o water so i have the machine tapped to the ice maker on my fridge; a tap faucet next to my sink, the feed line for my ice maker and a dedicated line to my grow room. hydro logic is the best in the residential/grow field. easy to get parts and very reliable products. i don't know about the others but i would definitely recommend a pre filter and r/o filter from hydro logic.

Sweet, this helps a lot. Can I ask a few questions? The one I am looking at is a hydrologic 200 that has the 2:1 valve installed. Can I keep the the waste water? (Like a runoff tube or something?)

Do I need any pressure boost from my standard tap line for the hydrologic to work efficiently?

The hydrologic I am looking at has the pre-carbon and then the sediment. (I'll get the kdf filters)

Do I need the de-ionizer?

Thanks

 

[ScoobyDoobyDoo]

Sweet, this helps a lot. Can I ask a few questions? The one I am looking at is a hydrologic 200 that has the 2:1 valve installed. Can I keep the the waste water? (Like a runoff tube or something?)

Do I need any pressure boost from my standard tap line for the hydrologic to work efficiently?

The hydrologic I am looking at has the pre-carbon and then the sediment. (I'll get the kdf filters)

Do I need the de-ionizer?

Thanks

you can use the waste water in your garden or something but i wouldn't recommend it. essentially it is highly concentrated levels of macro and micro nutrients as well as bacteria and other nasty things.

check the instructions for the stealth 200. i am not sure what the psi required for that system is. mine requires a minimum of 40psi but i find it works best at 80psi. i run a dedicated 1" line from a pressure booster to my system. it's overkill but i need it for all of the separate lines i run off of it. just make sure you have the minimum required psi. check your supply line psi with a gauge before buying anything.

you definitely do not need the de-ionizer. especially if you are only using it in your garden.

 

[keysareme]

you can use the waste water in your garden or something but i wouldn't recommend it. essentially it is highly concentrated levels of macro and micro nutrients as well as bacteria and other nasty things.

check the instructions for the stealth 200. i am not sure what the psi required for that system is. mine requires a minimum of 40psi but i find it works best at 80psi. i run a dedicated 1" line from a pressure booster to my system. it's overkill but i need it for all of the separate lines i run off of it. just make sure you have the minimum required psi. check your supply line psi with a gauge before buying anything.

you definitely do not need the de-ionizer. especially if you are only using it in your garden.

Dude, thanks man. I would like to drink at least 3 gallons of this water a day too, its for four people. Is de-ionzer for drinking?

I was thinking of eventually distilling the waste water in hopes of getting a zero or little waste system going, just a thought.

It would just be plugged directly into the tap from under the kitchen faucet I guess?

 

[AlecTheGardener]

RO systems are often not needed during soil grows. I use municipal tap water and supersoil. Soil is self buffering and maintains itself, PHing water during soil cultivation is not needed typically.

Unless you have seen deficiencies or problems you should let your current crop finish before you invest in something that is perhaps unnecessary.

New growers often overthink things. This is a plant. Ever had a garden in your backyard? Water from the hose grows great cannabis and tasty tomatoes.

*edit* too medicated, just noticed your join date. Obviously not your first grow.

 

[ScoobyDoobyDoo]

Dude, thanks man. I would like to drink at least 3 gallons of this water a day too, its for four people. Is de-ionzer for drinking?

I was thinking of eventually distilling the waste water in hopes of getting a zero or little waste system going, just a thought.

It would just be plugged directly into the tap from under the kitchen faucet I guess?

no matter how you slice it just isn't worth trying to save the waste water. i just throw it in the garden; it doesn't seem to hurt. distilling it would almost be pointless. you'd waste so much time for so little return.

the de-ionizer is just an attempt by my obsessive brain to try and drink the purist water possible allowing me to flush the the toxins out of my system. it's really not necessary and a little overkill. it's great for cleaning glass with though...no water spots. haha.

i've never done a tap under the sink for a supply line so i can't help much there. i just have a dedicated 1" feed line directly from my pressure booster system.

yes, growing in soil is very easy and most times you can use tap water. i grow in a soiless medium and i would prefer to know exactly what is going into my plants in soil or soiless. that's why i start with water as close to 0ppm as possible. growing is about experimenting. playing around with the quality of your water isn't a bad thing and once you get it down you will get better results.

 

[keysareme]

no matter how you slice it just isn't worth trying to save the waste water. i just throw it in the garden; it doesn't seem to hurt. distilling it would almost be pointless. you'd waste so much time for so little return.

the de-ionizer is just an attempt by my obsessive brain to try and drink the purist water possible allowing me to flush the the toxins out of my system. it's really not necessary and a little overkill. it's great for cleaning glass with though...no water spots. haha.

i've never done a tap under the sink for a supply line so i can't help much there. i just have a dedicated 1" feed line directly from my pressure booster system.

yes, growing in soil is very easy and most times you can use tap water. i grow in a soiless medium and i would prefer to know exactly what is going into my plants in soil or soiless. that's why i start with water as close to 0ppm as possible. growing is about experimenting. playing around with the quality of your water isn't a bad thing and once you get it down you will get better results.

Yea man, I was using RO water for months, and then expenses and constant trips to re-fill 5gal and 3 gal containers, almost twice a day. So I went with tap, and I do notice a drastic difference in the quality and rate of growth.

So cool, I can stash the waste water and throw it out into the garden to keep stuff hydrated I guess, and then it's not really waste, which I am cool with. I would just throw it out front in the landscape patches, but not into the plants I am eating from, and my medical plants.

I can figure out the under the sink tap part.

So, all I need to do is buy the RO System (hydrologic 200) and the new filters, and I am good to go? That's what I was thinking, but stopped cause of the waste ratios. I looked into other filter systems, but I'm not sure about them?

Growing in soil is lovely, but when your pouring TOC's (toxic organic compounds) into the living soil, it pretty much kills all the life in it, I put way too much time into my organic garden to let myself settle and ruin my shit from the tap water.

So, Yes, RO water is great cause it's clean, and as long as I am making a smart efficient investment I should probably do this hydrologic, unless there is a better filtration system for around the same cost and or less that does more than what the hydrologic does?

 

[jijiandfarmgang]

I have a hydro logic 100 with one of there low pressure ro membranes thats supposed to put out around 200 gpd with slightly less filtering.

Its pretty decent. Although I have a well, and large amounts of calcium.

Do you know your tap water ppm?

If I were you I would use the tap water for the plants, but to each his own.

- Jiji

 

[keysareme]

I have a hydro logic 100 with one of there low pressure ro membranes thats supposed to put out around 200 gpd with slightly less filtering.

Its pretty decent. Although I have a well, and large amounts of calcium.

Do you know your tap water ppm?

If I were you I would use the tap water for the plants, but to each his own.

- Jiji

I have a ecostick ppm/Tds/ec meter, and, as long as the unit still works as it is supposed to, the ppm of my tap water doesn't even draw a reading.

I have a friend who's got both a ph and ec/Tds meter for me I think $40 for both, I've had a bluelab pH meter before, but I disintegrated the pH probe glass covering. Funny story, I just touched it lightly to clean it. So now I've been using the pH drops again, all good.

When I added some nutrients to my tap water, as a way to test the ecostick, it did draw a reading, of around 400.

When I mixed a full feeding mix, the reading did flash from 800-1200ppm I think, it would flash 800 then flash the next light and next until it reached 1200, then start over. I guess it was trying to say the ppms are in between those two readings?


As for using the tap, no bueno amigo bro. It's got chloramine. Not only chlorine that is killing the organic life in my soil and also harming the roots, but it also has amonia which just plain doesn't do any good at all for plants and soil.

Plus all sorts of contaminants that the water plant and industry filter in through all their pollution and the connection of water ways/lines.

The water may come out of the tap at a relatively decent ppm, but those few ppm it does have are nasty badness that I don't want in my body, and I don't want my plants to have it in their bodies either, I don't want it in my foods or fruits, and I don't want any of it in my plants fruits either.

Plus I notice the effects that tap water is having on my plants.

I was using RO purified water from the local water machines and water store, so it was for sure the highest quality filteration available.

All I'm wanting to say is, plants loved it, ppms were near 0, and there were no extra contaminants reacting with my organic soil and the amendments and organic nutrients I was using.

So I notice the difference, contaminated tap water hurts the plant, clean water (very similar to how rain water and the forest vibe together) helps the plants just be able to grow the best, and have access the the nutrients already available in your soil.

If the tap water would clean itself up a little bit, then sure, but because of all the stuff they put in it, long list, it simply just acts as, and is a real obstacle for plants, which naturally desire to just grow organically, think rain water!

Anyways, we ordered the aquasauna system for our drinking water, and I am getting a hydrologic 200 for the garden water, this way we won't be putting excess ware on either by trying to get all our water needs for both drinking and garden, from just one unit.

To me it will make both units last.

 

[ODanksta]

Fuck that noise, tap water will kill any beneficial mycorrihizae. RO all the way

 

[keysareme]

Fuck that noise, tap water will kill any beneficial mycorrihizae. RO all the way

Truest it could be conveyed. Well said bro!, I feel your wisdom and love.
The filter I got is not a RO, but is much cleaner that just the tap, and while it does not rid the water of Fluoride, it does remove up to 40% of it, and that's better than what the tap currently is.

So, I will most likely also get a RO for the plants.

 

[ODanksta]

I use to grow outdoors on a bunch of small plots, tap water always made my plants yellow.Water quality is one of the most important things about any kind of gardening. Never let anyone tell you any thing else.

The actual carbon filter is not as important as the chlorine filters

Happy gardening