My tap water reads 0 ppm....

[FamMan]

Hello RIU. Hope you all are having a great day. So i have checked my water a couple times the last few days and it keeps reading 0ppm. I live in Colorado springs in a house. I dont see any filtration units anywhere in my house so im a little confused. Everyone says the water in CO is really good but is it that good? BTW i am using a NEW bluelab ppm pen. Also whenever i add something to the tested water it reads it(liquid nutes or table salt). i want to get this dialed in because im going to running TLO and using tap water. THANX!

 

[green_machine_two9er]

Not sure 0 Is always better. You will just have to be aware of this when planning out your soil/watering technique. You may need a liquid camg product. General organics is a good TLO friendly brand. Or extra oyster shell, dolo lime ect. Ect.

 

[dbkick]

Maybe calibrate pen. No way your tap is coming in at 0 ppm unless there's a whole house RO system somewhere.

 

[FamMan]

I didn't know I could calibrate my ppm. I did with my pH pen. I live in a rental so I'm goin to have to ask my property management if there is one in the house. Thanx for the quick replies. THANK GOD FOR THIS SITE!

 

[thenotsoesoteric]

Hello RIU. Hope you all are having a great day. So i have checked my water a couple times the last few days and it keeps reading 0ppm. I live in Colorado springs in a house. I dont see any filtration units anywhere in my house so im a little confused. Everyone says the water in CO is really good but is it that good? BTW i am using a NEW bluelab ppm pen. Also whenever i add something to the tested water it reads it(liquid nutes or table salt). i want to get this dialed in because im going to running TLO and using tap water. THANX!

They make calibration solution that is a set ppm ratio, like 700 ppm. You dip the meter in and see if it says 700 ppm then yor tap water is 0 ppm, but I'm willing to bet your pen need to be calibrated.

 

[dbkick]

Are you worried about chlorine or chloramines since you're doing living soil , that could be a problem.
For that I've always recommended a small boy from hydrologic.

 

[FamMan]

I'm not worried just want to know what's in there before I make my final desicion on my soil mix.

 

[FamMan]

Is a small boy a RO system?

 

[green_machine_two9er]

Some cities will give you a complete hydro analysis for free. At Least in my neighborhood.

 

[dbkick]

Is a small boy a RO system?

No, there is no waste but it doesn't remove certain things. With a RO system the waste is like 75 percent if you want 0 ppm water.
The small boy removes 99 percent chlorine, sediment.
Chloramine is a different story though. Chloramine CAN be removed by carbon filtration but it requires more contact time with the carbon to remove.

 

[dbkick]

And where RO is painfully slow, a small boy will crank out a gallon a minute. 99% chlorine free. I was thinking maybe the tall boy would work for chloramines since theres more carbon in filter. RO is good for chloramines because it is so slow there's a lot of contact time in the carbon filter.

 

[dbkick]

I didn't know I could calibrate my ppm. I did with my pH pen. I live in a rental so I'm goin to have to ask my property management if there is one in the house. Thanx for the quick replies. THANK GOD FOR THIS SITE!

Do you have a clause in the lease that says you can't grow?

 

[FamMan]

Do you have a clause in the lease that says you can't grow?

Nope.

 

[FamMan]

I purposely looked for a company that didn't ask that.

 

[dbkick]

Nope.

I was gonna say if you do it wouldn't be too wise to talk why the tap is coming in at 0 ppm to management . I'm betting on bluelabs needing to be calibrated out of the box. I buy nothing but bluelab myself but I use guardians since I continuous monitoring suits my needs .

 

[FamMan]

Lol I was gonna make up a lie and just ask about if there was a whole house RO system. The secretary at pm company is one of my weed man's sister so.... i think I kinda golden. But still thank u for the great advice DB. I'm goin to call my water company and see if I can get the report. Thanks for all the great info peeps!!!

 

[Pattahabi]

You do not have a whole house RO system. I'd be willing to bet on that. Don't ask your property management. For Chloramine, I'm pretty sure an RO unit does not take it out unless you have a KDF-85 carbon filter in it.

P-

 

[FamMan]

wat kind of water do you use Pattahabi?

 

[Pattahabi]

wat kind of water do you use Pattahabi?

I have to admit I'm still using an RO system with a kdf-85 filter. However, I don't advocate this, and I don't think it is necessary. It's on my todo list to do a little research and find something like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Hydro-Life-52133-HL-180-Disposable/dp/B002UC6VJK/ref=sr_1_15?ie=UTF8&qid=1428090514&sr=8-15

Again, not advocating that one, just saying I think this could be a better option. RO's do waste a lot of water, and that's something I wish more people would pay attention to. I use my waste RO water to water house plants, outdoor plants, wash buckets, etc.

P-

 

[dbkick]

You do not have a whole house RO system. I'd be willing to bet on that. Don't ask your property management. For Chloramine, I'm pretty sure an RO unit does not take it out unless you have a KDF-85 carbon filter in it.

P-

RO allows more contact time with the carbon , this removes chloramine. But agreed , it's the carbon that filters the chloramine, a larger filter with more carbon would work as well as RO.