Spring vs Tap water

needthacheeba

needthacheeba

Well-Known Member
I'm wondering if anyone has any input on the differences between spring and tap water? I'm thinking of going with spring water for my next grow.
 
bertaluchi

bertaluchi

Well-Known Member
I know people in western Pennsylvania that use only spring water. My buddy goes to a spring on the side of a mountain and they fill up 5 gallon water jugs. There are a lot of minerals that you wont get with tap water. If it is available to you, use it.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
Tap water is typically treated with flouride and chlorine or chloramine. Either of these could cause problems if you grow organic. If planning to use nutrients then water quality doesn't matter as much. Chlorine can be bubbled off in 6-12 hours but chloramine cannot which is the reason why it is widely used in municipal water systems. See your annual water report to find out what is in your water or have it tested if you are unsure. If you use bottled nutrient then soil microbes are not needed to keep plants happy so in that case tap water is just fine.
If you grow in natural soil then you rely on microbial activity to feed your plants. Chlorides and other chemicals in most tap water systems can dry out the bodies of beneficial bacteria over time eventually rendering your mix sterile. Spring water is good if you have a source but there are several options besides lugging buckets/jugs up the side of a mountain. You can use rainwater collected from your gutters or water reclaimed from a dehumidifier or A/C unit. You can get an RO system or fill up water bottles at Walmart for .37 per gal. Either way if you use distilled/reclaimed or reverse osmosis water you'll need to add in some cal/mag.
 
coughphee.connoiseur

coughphee.connoiseur

Well-Known Member
Decided to direct my question here... Water running in the house is from a well. Ive heard well water is the best supposedly... but only thing that has me skeptical is the dried water stains left on everything that gets rinsed/washed.

tested the tds/ppm's and i came out between 145-155 up and down on the flux side...

Could i water with this and be just fine? have an ro system but it takes a long time to fill up a 3 gallon container... Get about 30 gallons of waste water to 3 gallons filtered..

Haven't been using it long and was told it could take a week for it to get better.... i guess

Should i just bubble it for some hours in batches? Let it sit for days to a week?
 
bertaluchi

bertaluchi

Well-Known Member
coughphee.connoiseur said:
Decided to direct my question here... Water running in the house is from a well. Ive heard well water is the best supposedly... but only thing that has me skeptical is the dried water stains left on everything that gets rinsed/washed.

tested the tds/ppm's and i came out between 145-155 up and down on the flux side...

Could i water with this and be just fine? have an ro system but it takes a long time to fill up a 3 gallon container... Get about 30 gallons of waste water to 3 gallons filtered..

Haven't been using it long and was told it could take a week for it to get better.... i guess

Should i just bubble it for some hours in batches? Let it sit for days to a week?
Click to expand...
I use well water and it works fine. Your ppm is not too high so you should have no problem.
 
bertaluchi

bertaluchi

Well-Known Member
coughphee.connoiseur said:
Thanks for the reply... Whats your media of choice? You synthetic or completely organic? or semi organic lol
Click to expand...
I use a coco based, something like Roots Organic. And I have both a synthetic tent and an organic tent. I find that they all work well with my well water and you should be fine. I have also run hydro with well water and that worked out fine too. I think it is way better than city/tap water simple because it does not contain chlorine or cloramine or fluoride.
 
Richard Drysift

Richard Drysift

Well-Known Member
coughphee.connoiseur said:
Decided to direct my question here... Water running in the house is from a well. Ive heard well water is the best supposedly... but only thing that has me skeptical is the dried water stains left on everything that gets rinsed/washed.

tested the tds/ppm's and i came out between 145-155 up and down on the flux side...

Could i water with this and be just fine? have an ro system but it takes a long time to fill up a 3 gallon container... Get about 30 gallons of waste water to 3 gallons filtered..

Haven't been using it long and was told it could take a week for it to get better.... i guess

Should i just bubble it for some hours in batches? Let it sit for days to a week?
Click to expand...
I am guessing the water stains are from calcium buildup which isn't really a problem for your plants. 150 ppms isn't bad either; it really depends upon what's in your local aquifers but there is no way to tell without testing...Home Depot does it for free I've heard.
I would think that as long as you are not adding salts to soften it your well water should be fine to use as is or maybe just filtered with a Brita or equivalent. RO is so wasteful I'm kinda glad my unit blew up last winter due to extreme cold...btw be sure to drain it before winter if you live in the north lol
 
B

bryan oconner

Well-Known Member
i dont know if you have a homedepot hardware store near you . they have free water testing . just take a small tube from them mail it it get results also the water company gives us water reports here in michigan .
 
coughphee.connoiseur

coughphee.connoiseur

Well-Known Member
sounds good.. will give it a try for sure, i didn't think the well water was treated with fluoride, chlorine and chloramine...i think my main concerns were the possibility of high magnesium which could potentially lock things up ye?

i will likely just switch on and off ...whenever r/o is handy i will use... mostly last two weeks type of deal and or teas and aloe foliars.

@Richard Drysift .... Lol whoa how did your unit explode? u referring to NoCAL ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top