EC, ppm500 scale (NaCl, TDS) -- seeking filter system recommendations

Apostatize

Apostatize

Well-Known Member
When I moved to this place, I knew I had hard water. But until I measured ppm, I never would have guessed my water was so bad for growing.

Walmart RO bottled water tested at 28ppm. My tap water currently tests at ~680ppm and has a ~1.3 EC. That's crazy. I'm now to the point in growing that I'm finally monitoring ppm & EC.

So, now I'm looking to buy a filtration system. But it's like buying a printer -- printers can be inexpensive, but ink is expensive. And with some of these filter systems, annually you pay more replacing filters/membranes than you paid for the initial setup. That's wild.

And some will advertise 0.01 micron pores ... that don't reduce TDS. That sucks.

Any recommendations/experiences I should know about? I'm open to RO, gravity filtration, under-sink models, whatever. Ideally, the system would be less than $400 and annual costs of replacement filters/membrane(s) would be less than that (maybe ~$100) -- the fewer parts the better.

Despite some brown spots on leaves (mostly in veg), I've been pretty happy with flower I've grown with this hard water; but, there's no way I'm getting the most out of my nutrients if 680ppm is water alone. Yikes.

Side note: 3 of 7 ~18' long, 6" wide hydro-gutters in the veg room are built, there will be 6 in the flower room. Uploading pics when it's up & running. Spent 4 years trying out strains ... after >40, kept 3.
 
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driver77

driver77

Well-Known Member
I got the cheap RO buddie 3 stage from Amazon and it knocks it down to around 100ppm. I used it that way for a few grows and later added the 4th to get to 0ppm. My tap is around 400. Really saw no difference between the 3 stage and 4 stage in growth using Jacks 321. To be honest have never had a problem with my tap as is for soil but went hydro and thought it would be best.
 
Rocket Soul

Rocket Soul

Well-Known Member
Apostatize said:
Yes, bucolic coastal area. A hunter-neighbor is building some kind of rain barrel + 12' gutter + filter + (for some reason) solar panel setup where he hunts.

Also, I saw this LifeStraw filtration system (0.2 micrometer pores). See pic.
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Rain water is almost 0 ppm. If you can use some filtering to bring down ppms you can use a mix of the two. Also check what you can collect from your roof and gutters. Best of luck :)
 
Jimski

Jimski

Well-Known Member
 
Jimski

Jimski

Well-Known Member
Geekpure $ 49.99
Fittings and 32 gallon can from ace $34 .
Not having to buy 2 gallons of RO water a DAY for the humidifier priceless
Takes house tap water from high 300's to 12 ppm.IMG_20241204_094946597_HDR.jpgIMG_20241204_094958587.jpg
 
Apostatize

Apostatize

Well-Known Member
Wow! pH'ing with dry/powder citric acid brought my reservoir ppm down from 850 to 704ppm. Can someone tell me what possible chemical reactions are taking place?

I re-tested tap water (still ~680ppm) and bottled water (different brand, 8ppm). And I retested a separate reservoir that I did not pH last night, and it's still ~1000pm. So, what's going on? This is great. I'm still not getting the most out of my nutes because the water ppm is so high, but this helps!

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Jimski

Jimski

Well-Known Member
Hey do you have any type of descaler in the water system? A descaler will plug into the wall and have 2 wires wrapping around the main water pipe. The confusion of the ppm that varied so much killed my first dwc grow. Well that and me not recognizing the issue in time to stop it.
 
Apostatize

Apostatize

Well-Known Member
Jimski said:
Hey do you have any type of descaler in the water system? A descaler will plug into the wall and have 2 wires wrapping around the main water pipe. The confusion of the ppm that varied so much killed my first dwc grow. Well that and me not recognizing the issue in time to stop it.
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Doubt it, but I'll investigate. Thanks. pH'ing with citric acid seems to bring ppm down ~17%. And although I don't "flush," recently I started adding 2ml/gallon of flush to my reservoirs -- at that lower dose, it's supposed to remove excess salts/prevent biofilm buildup.

Every little bit helps. With my tap water ppm so high (~680ppm), I won't come close to providing any phase of veg/bloom's nute ppm recommendations -- super diluted. I have more equipment to pay for over the winter; but a permanent, practical water ppm fix is definitely a rising priority.
 
Apostatize

Apostatize

Well-Known Member
Aaaaannndd RIU already has a thread about it. Nice.

Citric Acid lowers PPMs

Hello all, I just noticed this and thought it might not be common knowledge...or maybe it is, idk. I've been messing around with my water a lot lately, testing it, testing various PH up/down options, etc. This is the first time I've used this source of water to grow indoors and it's moderately...
www.rollitup.org
 
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Jimski

Jimski

Well-Known Member
Apostatize said:
Doubt it, but I'll investigate. Thanks. pH'ing with citric acid seems to bring ppm down ~17%. And although I don't "flush," recently I started adding 2ml/gallon of flush to my reservoirs -- at that lower dose, it's supposed to remove excess salts/prevent biofilm buildup.

Every little bit helps. With my tap water ppm so high (~680ppm), I won't come close to providing any phase of veg/bloom's nute ppm recommendations -- super diluted. I have more equipment to pay for over the winter; but a permanent, practical water ppm fix is definitely a rising priority.
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Ok I think I understand now.
Have you had a complete water test done? When you have a lower tap ppm it is ok to just subtract your base ppm/ec from the mix. If a box of nutes says x in a gallon of water gives you 1.2 ec or whatever when you add it to the water it will be higher due to you base nutes.
Tap over 600 needs a water test to ponpoint what will be needed to fine tune your nute selection.
There are several websites who have the base PPM of about all the major nute company mixes. It breaks down the ppm of all the individual nutes such as po ph n mg ca and others. With this information you can taylor your nute choice to what your water is missing and use your water to support what the nute bag or box or bottle has.
The jacks 321 is for pure water below 300 ppm and for most your water is mostly cal and mag well thats just a bottle you will ot have to buy.
High ppm water in hydro salts will prolly lock out at some point and it will look like a deficiency cause the way they express is about the same but one drinks water like mad and one slows down. Another reason to track water usage.
I bought the filter for a hydro grow but I need to expand the system with a different tent I can reach. When the humidifier was $3 a day in ro I was glad I had it.
 
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