1st time DWC issues =\, root/pest

[KoolaidMan]

Ive grown various hydroponic plants on just filtered tap water in small DWC totes. An RO filter is nice but not required to grow perfectly fine plants. Instead of jumping onto $$$ of RO equipment, try a simple <= 5 micron carbon filter from lowes for like $20-$30 and see if that solves your problem. It will filter fine particles and remove alot of water chemicals/smell. You could also run some Garden Friendly Fungicide which is just super concentrated HydroGaurd. With 200pm starting water, you dont need an RO filter, but should definitely filter it and either run it sterile or with bennies to help kill bad stuff. Id try this before going RO.

-KM

 

[Airwalker16]

Ive grown various hydroponic plants on just filtered tap water in small DWC totes. An RO filter is nice but not required to grow perfectly fine plants. Instead of jumping onto $$$ of RO equipment, try a simple <= 5 micron carbon filter from lowes for like $20-$30 and see if that solves your problem. It will filter fine particles and remove alot of water chemicals/smell. You could also run some Garden Friendly Fungicide which is just super concentrated HydroGaurd. With 200pm starting water, you dont need an RO filter, but should definitely filter it and either run it sterile or with bennies to help kill bad stuff. Id try this before going RO.

-KM

I'd say it's a good start, but if you're gonna spend money and time learning a filter, why bot just do the whole thing? there's 4 stage system for $70 on Amazon nowadays.

 

[KoolaidMan]

I'd say it's a good start, but if you're gonna spend money and time learning a filter, why bot just do the whole thing? there's 4 stage system for $70 on Amazon nowadays.

Because this simpler and far cheaper route may solve the problem and cost maybe $50 per year in filters if that. If it doesnt solve the problem....then your out the $30 initial buy. If it does work, then you just avoided spending $100’s per year on RO filters plus the initial $$ buy. Sometimes the simplest and cheapest route works perfect.

 

[Airwalker16]

True is all of that. But at 200+ ppm.. I'm not so sure one simple filter will get it close enough to 0.

Because this simpler and far cheaper route may solve the problem and cost maybe $50 per year in filters if that. If it doesnt solve the problem....then your out the $30 initial buy. If it does work, then you just avoided spending $100’s per year on RO filters plus the initial $$ buy. Sometimes the simplest and cheapest route works perfect.

 

[J232]

I would recommend a RO system if you plan on continuing in hydroponics. Sure tap water might be ok sometimes, it won’t be ok in every scenario. I can’t use tap water, how when my base is 250-300. I can’t work with that. If your worried about filter maintenance cost, I’m not sure hydro is the right path to begin with. A small boy filter does not drop my ppm worth mentioning, makes a good pre filter for RO though.

 

[Airwalker16]

Because this simpler and far cheaper route may solve the problem and cost maybe $50 per year in filters if that. If it doesnt solve the problem....then your out the $30 initial buy. If it does work, then you just avoided spending $100’s per year on RO filters plus the initial $$ buy. Sometimes the simplest and cheapest route works perfect.

Also, these filters last a good 2 yrs if you're just a home user. 20-50gals at any time in your setups total. And the price for replacement is certainly close to that $50/yr figure you stated. There are MANY options and prices on filtering systems.

 

[KoolaidMan]

True is all of that. But at 200+ ppm.. I'm not so sure one simple filter will get it close enough to 0.

You dont need 0ppm to start man, not sure where you learned that. Ive grown tons of veggies over the years in DWC totes using filtered tap water ranging from 200-400 ppm. Look at any large scale hydro veggie center or beer brewer (beer uses yeast, must have good water). Im not dissing RO filters, they are nice. But your acting like you cant grow without it, which is 100% false.

And no, RO filters do not last years lol. Every stage has different change intervals. Some stages require every few months, some stages require every 12-24 months, depending on manufacture. The RO membrane is the most expensive part and will be ruined if the pre-filters are not properly filtering particulate. Again, RO is awesome, but not anywhere near a MUST. Try a cheaper, simpler method first.

 

[Carloza]

That's a good idea, ro system will have to wait a little, just spend 1000+ on everything for the first grow and this pandemic is destroying my finances lol.

The tap water is actually 175-180 range, I rounded up lol, but still far from perfect environment. At least doesn't smell like Chlorine.

I though about using some of those RV inline water filters until I can get something better.

Yesterday just ordered hydroguard and ascorbic acid to take all that chlorine away ( can I use hydro if using vit c for dechlorination?)

Magnifier is also on the mail for a close check on the leaf for bugs, found a dead ant sitting on my water.

Another user suggested I was having issues with the leafs because they were sitting in the bubble wrap and getting hest stress zones

 

[KoolaidMan]

That's a good idea, ro system will have to wait a little, just spend 1000+ on everything for the first grow and this pandemic is destroying my finances lol.

The tap water is actually 175-180 range, I rounded up lol, but still far from perfect environment. At least doesn't smell like Chlorine.

I though about using some of those RV inline water filters until I can get something better.

Yesterday just ordered hydroguard and ascorbic acid to take all that chlorine away ( can I use hydro if using vit c for dechlorination?)

Magnifier is also on the mail for a close check on the leaf for bugs, found a dead ant sitting on my water.

Another user suggested I was having issues with the leafs because they were sitting in the bubble wrap and getting hest stress zones

You dont need to treat tap water to remove the chlorine. And if it doesnt smell like chlorine then there probably isnt as much as you think. Chlorine can take anywhere from 1-5 days to evaporate out of tap water depending on the level the water company puts in. What I do is just fill some buckets with filter tap water and leave them in a closet until next weeks water change. By then the chlorine is gone, do your water change, refill the buckets and set in closet until next week. Rinse, repeat, easy, cheap. Those household water filters at Lowes that use the Carbon Filters can be hooked right up to your outside spigot with a simple adapter fitting and can fill a 5gal bucket almost as fast as the water can come out. Buy an RO filter if you want, it wont hurt and can only help, im simply saying its not required to grow plants, regardless of species.

Regarding your initial post, your problem sounds like a form of bacteria/algae, possibly brown algae like someone already mentioned. You can clear that up with either beneficial bacteria using products already mentioned or by killing all bacteria using low doses of poolshock to create a sterile res. Tons of forums users have success with either direction. I prefer the beneficial bacteria route and add 1/4 cup per gallon of a tea containing (Bacillus, Mycorrhizae, Trichoderma). Easy and cheap to make and the ingredients last a long time because you dont need much. I DM'd you the recipe I use.

 

[KoolaidMan]

Here is a video of a dude doing a comparison grow between RO vs Tap using lettuce...He shows the root mass and even measures the final product. His tap water is around 150ppm.

 

[Airwalker16]

You dont need 0ppm to start man, not sure where you learned that. Ive grown tons of veggies over the years in DWC totes using filtered tap water ranging from 200-400 ppm. Look at any large scale hydro veggie center or beer brewer (beer uses yeast, must have good water). Im not dissing RO filters, they are nice. But your acting like you cant grow without it, which is 100% false.

And no, RO filters do not last years lol. Every stage has different change intervals. Some stages require every few months, some stages require every 12-24 months, depending on manufacture. The RO membrane is the most expensive part and will be ruined if the pre-filters are not properly filtering particulate. Again, RO is awesome, but not anywhere near a MUST. Try a cheaper, simpler method first.

A clean slate at 0ppms is the best thing you could start with.

 

[KoolaidMan]

A clean slate at 0ppms is the best thing you could start with.

Best entails plants grown in tap water are not as good, which is false. All RO water is doing is giving you a neutral base to start, so you can meticulously control the amounts of every nutrient/micro-nutrient.

Tap water contains larger molecules of Ca and Mg for example that aren’t easily absorbed by roots and are not chelated so they may bind with other minerals, whereas the artificial CalMag we use is chelated and smaller molecules allowing it to efficiently absorb. Using a beneficial bacteria tea can actually help here by breaking down those larger molecules.

The perceived problem with high ppm water as a start is nutrient lockout. This isn’t a result of high ppm, but a result of pH fluctuations due to minerals/nutrients binding and causing pH swings. However, you do not need to worry about most minerals in tap binding with minerals from additives because the majority of hydroponic nutrient solutions are chelated which just means compacted to where they can’t bind with other molecules, the only molecules that will bind are the non-chelated ones, with beneficial bacteria tea can help with. Using tap water will require more frequent pH adjustments to avoid swings outside the optimal 6-7 range to avoid lockout of nutrients tho.

Chlorine in small amounts is not harmful to plants and chlorine is actually a micro-nutrient plants need to breakdown H20 and transport nutrients among other functions.You want to reduce the Chlorine by evaporating for a period of time (1-5 days) depending on the levels in the water, I just do 1 week. However, some water companies use Chloramines instead, this cannot be evaporated, but removed with carbon filters.

If you search around a bit you will find tons of people growing all kinds of plants to include cannabis, perfectly fine with great results using tap water. If you go to your water companies website, you can usually get the latest report and see what all is in the water. WardLabs is also a resource to use, you can mail in a water sample and they will run a full top to bottom report on it for you telling you every single thing in your water.

 

[Airwalker16]

Best entails plants grown in tap water are not as good, which is false. All RO water is doing is giving you a neutral base to start, so you can meticulously control the amounts of every nutrient/micro-nutrient.

Tap water contains larger molecules of Ca and Mg for example that aren’t easily absorbed by roots and are not chelated so they may bind with other minerals, whereas the artificial CalMag we use is chelated and smaller molecules allowing it to efficiently absorb. Using a beneficial bacteria tea can actually help here by breaking down those larger molecules.

The perceived problem with high ppm water as a start is nutrient lockout. This isn’t a result of high ppm, but a result of pH fluctuations due to minerals/nutrients binding and causing pH swings. However, you do not need to worry about most minerals in tap binding with minerals from additives because the majority of hydroponic nutrient solutions are chelated which just means compacted to where they can’t bind with other molecules, the only molecules that will bind are the non-chelated ones, with beneficial bacteria tea can help with. Using tap water will require more frequent pH adjustments to avoid swings outside the optimal 6-7 range to avoid lockout of nutrients tho.

Chlorine in small amounts is not harmful to plants and chlorine is actually a micro-nutrient plants need to breakdown H20 and transport nutrients among other functions.You want to reduce the Chlorine by evaporating for a period of time (1-5 days) depending on the levels in the water, I just do 1 week. However, some water companies use Chloramines instead, this cannot be evaporated, but removed with carbon filters.

If you search around a bit you will find tons of people growing all kinds of plants to include cannabis, perfectly fine with great results using tap water. If you go to your water companies website, you can usually get the latest report and see what all is in the water. WardLabs is also a resource to use, you can mail in a water sample and they will run a full top to bottom report on it for you telling you every single thing in your water.

I've seen Exponentially better results in RO. It's why I Continue using it

 

[KoolaidMan]

I've seen Exponentially better results in RO. It's why I Continue using it

Maybe you have horrible, super high ppm, contaminated tap...I dont know. Do what works for you. Can deffinitly grow prime grass with Tap tho.