Chlorine in Water Debate. Do You Let it Evaporate?

Actually plants do take in chlorine and use it in small amounts. Some add bleach to their res to fight algae. I let my tap sit out and it drops 10 ppm over 24-36 hrs so I would do it for that alone, 300 to 290 ppm. Some ppl have 500ppm + tap water. In cali I've heard of ppls tap being in double digits that's really low.

I've also used straight tap when I needed too.

i leave it sit out overnight, strong smell of chlorine straight from the tap around here.

for hydo i use straight tap, for soil i let it sit out.

My tap water is really "hard" calcium deposits always building up when i boil it, or on the water nozzle in the sink. Although i've only used tap water 1 time, there wasn't much of a difference.
I am way to lazy to let it sit out. Atm i use distilled for everything. a lot of companies are adding fluoride to the water...blah im getting carried away.

R1Farmer said:

I'm coming to the same conclusion too. But one thing to keep in mind is a grower's local water district and how the local water quality is managed. I'm starting to see no difference in using tap vs tap that has sat for 24 hours but my water quality might be way better than let's say...Los Angeles. I do still let my water sit for 24 hours but will have no hesitation to use water straight from tap for emergencies (I still adjust PH though). Regardless of a growers water quality one should try it and see what happens. One might be surprised.

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HIDDEN42O said:

I just discovered chloramine which doesn't evaporate and kills beneficial bacteria in soil. More and more cities are starting to use it and it sucks.

I use to leave my tap sitting out but and soon switching back to filtered or conditioned (chloramine removed) water.

Besides killing bennies I don't believe it is harmful to MJ plants and as others have stated chlorine is essential.

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True that, Chloramine does not evaporate like Chlorine.
It's due to the added Ammonia molecule in Chlorine which makes it Chloramine.
Major cities realized the short and ineffective half-life of Chlorine against bacteria.

Cali.Grown>408 said:

maybe if you added something like Hygrozyme or Sensizyme that would sterilize the water..?? im thinking it would

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That won't work either homie.
The Ammonia molecule kills the enzymes and benies just like Peroxide or bleach.

Metasynth said:

Petco, aquatics section...AMQUEL, it'll neutralize the chlorine/chloramine in your water if you're worried about it killing your bennies...But the label DOES say "Not for use with food fish", so I'm not sure if you wanna be smoking the stuff. I don't use it myself, but I recieved this piece of knowledge from someone who does to no ill effects. Maybe in a few years his toenails will fall out and he'll grow breasts, or maybe he's slowly growing some deadly cancer in his eyeballs, but for now he's happy.

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You got right !
ONLY a water treatment like Amquel Plus, which is what I use if I have to use my city tap that does contain Chloramine, OR an ACTIVATED carbon filter ( like in R/O filters) will remove the Chloramine, Nitrates and Nitrites from the water.

I buy my Amquel Plus from PetCo or PetSmart.

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skiweeds said:

lot of people always say chlorine is bad and let yoru water jugs sit overnight to let it evaporate. on this site i came across several posts about how chlorine isnt so bad. after all, plants dont absorb it anyway right? i used to use RO water, had great results. then i switched to tap because of the convenience. i let the chlorine evaporate overnight. got virtually the same results with tap. eventually, i thought fuck it, im just going to use tap water straight up with chlorine in it. still virtually no difference. i cant really say for sure. i mean to truly test it, you would need several setups with all variables the same except the water. i dont have the space/time to do something like that, but it seems to me the water is making no difference. so what does everyone think? if you use tap, do you let the chlorine evaporate overnight?

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I know that in Riverside County there was a big difference in tap water and results from San Bernardino County.. I agree with R1Farmer and think that it depends on how the water is managed. In SB we got different PPM count with the same nutes added then in Riv. County. So from what I have learned I have to make sure to stay on top of my PPM and adjust to the water. I now use RO water ( Merlin Garden Pro 750 Gallons a day or 700 can not remember ) so I have never tried using the evaporate method but I know with RO i need to add cal/mag to it. I just stick with what works for me being in hydro. I have not done any research but have HEARD only that the fluoride in water is not good but then again that is something I need to research because it is just what I have heard so maybe I will try to find a link on it for you guys.

TheLastWood said:

Actually plants do take in chlorine and use it in small amounts. Some add bleach to their res to fight algae. I let my tap sit out and it drops 10 ppm over 24-36 hrs so I would do it for that alone, 300 to 290 ppm. Some ppl have 500ppm + tap water. In cali I've heard of ppls tap being in double digits that's really low.

I've also used straight tap when I needed too.

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My RO Tap is 20 PPM tap water is 340 PPM

I found a link that may be helpful I hope this helps your decision a little.

http://marijuanagrowing.com/dhtml/knowledgebase.php?faqid=16

At worst maybe it will just be informative but from most things I have read.. Some people will not have issues with tap depending on the water itself. Most people doing hydro like RO water and some use tap both getting good results from what I have seen. Anyways I hope that link helps a little.

Flo Grow said:

Over the long run, it's just cheaper to go to Lowes or Home Depot and buy one of the many R/O models.
Counter top
Under the sink
Whole house
Worth the $300 or less depending on which one you go with.
5gal of R/O water from the grocery store water machine is damn near $2 in my area.
A year worth of growing and watering will pay for one of those above models easily.

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Although with these RO machines if you have a bigger rez it will take forever to fill your rez. I suggest a Merlin Garden Water Pro. Does 700-750 gallons a day and allows me to drain and fill a 115 to flush with then fill again to add nutes as well as the same with my 40 gallon. This takes me about 10-12 hours. A slower RO like one at home depot may only do 50-100 a day and would take me 3-4 days to do this so also depends on what size rez you have.\

TheLastWood said:

Actually plants do take in chlorine and use it in small amounts. Some add bleach to their res to fight algae. I let my tap sit out and it drops 10 ppm over 24-36 hrs so I would do it for that alone, 300 to 290 ppm. Some ppl have 500ppm + tap water. In cali I've heard of ppls tap being in double digits that's really low.

I've also used straight tap when I needed too.

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Tap water with a high TDS likely has significant amounts of calcium and magnesium dissolved in it. In certain parts of the country there are aquifers very near natural limestone deposits and this is a contributing factor for hard water. Of course, Ca and Mg are secondary nutrients but this can still cause issues when the water is that bad\alkaline. The water that comes out of my faucet usually tests around 70 ppm or less, and I still filter it through a table-top and then add in molasses to re-institute minerals.

Chlorine is indeed necessary for life (human life, too) but in the bigger scheme of things plants barely need Cl. You'll barely hear it mentioned although it is a trace element and I doubt you're ever going see a Cl deficient plant.

The free chlorine\chloramines are used specifically to deter microbial growth in the water supply network, and enough of these things left over in the tap water that comes out of your faucet will kill off or at least hinder soil biota... not what you want if you're an organic grower/tea brewer. Note the chloramine is the secondary disinfectant, it is used specifically because it will not gas off as easily as free chlorine and because it is less reactive. However, both chlorine and chloramines have a tendency to react with organic matter and form volatile organic compounds (many of which are toxic).

How much it chorination it takes to wipe out your soil biota I can't say for certain, but consider that alcohols are toxic to plant cells at concentrations as low as 1 ppm.

I do and I don't, depending.

I have from 5-10 buckets that I'll either add the drops to, or a bit of organic matter, for the chloramine. This is for 'spot' watering. If everything is dry and needs to be watered, it comes right from the hose. 50 gallons wouldn't even come close and my back wouldn't tolerate it.

The good news is, my tap water is only ~37 PPM, pH of 7.1, and the chloramines are >3 PPM.

I also do a AACT every week or so to give the micro herd a boost.

Wet