How Tap Water Affects Soil Microbes

Brief article on how chlorine or chloramines affects soil microbes. Here is an excerpt from the article:

"Researchers have found that chlorinated drinking water may kill a number of microorganisms in soil or a compost pile. However, their reproduction rate is so rapid that populations rebound in a short time. Under normal conditions, chlorinated water will not threaten microorganism populations. Microorganisms reproduce rapidly. In one study, researchers continuously applied highly chlorinated water to soil for 126 days. Two days after they stopped, the soil microorganism populations reached pretreatment levels at all depths of soil."

Article here: https://www.dudegrows.com/tapwatermicrobes/

I let the water sit for at least 24 hours to let the chlorine dissipate and also add a little ascorbic acid (about 1/32 of a teaspoon) to ensure it is completely gone.

ascorbic acid how much would that effect the ph

could you use sterile tablets? or would that strip nutrients

DankMoss said:

ascorbic acid how much would that effect the ph

Click to expand...

It drops the PH about .50. If your water PH is 8, it should drop to about 7.5 if I remember correctly.

I just let her sit 24+h with airstone in it.

CikaBika said:

I just let her sit 24+h with airstone in it.

Click to expand...

That should work unless your utility uses chloramine instead of chlorine.

How much ascorbic acid to treat tap water?
Using Vitamin C or Humic Acid to Remove Chloramines from Tap Water. A kilo of ascorbic acid will treat 20,000 gallons and a kilo of sodium ascorbate will treat a little over 17,500 gallons. Ascorbic Acid can also be found at health food stores in the supplement isles in the form of 500 milligram or 1000 milligram Vitamin C tablets.

i have read that it only destroyes some of the microbes and is safe to use, some growers actualy adding bleach to the water to keep everything healthy.
any info on how much damage chloramines can do????
its not for me as i have well ater, but for other growers info is gold

go go kid said:

i have read that it only destroyes some of the microbes and is safe to use, some growers actualy adding bleach to the water to keep everything healthy.
any info on how much damage chloramines can do????
its not for me as i have well ater, but for other growers info is gold

Click to expand...

I think chloramine and chlorine have similiar effect on microbes. Chloramine does not evaporate Like chlorine. While many say some microbes will be killed , the microbes bounce back to their previous levels Rather quickly.

from a novice i would personally never worry about ph 1. if your girl is good andf happy and shwoing no issue with nutrient uptake. 2. if your soil is good as i have bio bizz light mix i water withwater from tap 24hours+sittin i add lil 1ml cal mag to 1ltr incase those disspate also.
i have watered at 7.2 for a while and the run off always seems to be 6.4 to 6.6
so before considering and ph up or down check run off to see how it may effect it if you go up or down.
while using organic bottle nutes ph doesnt play key figure from what i have read.
my next amnesia project i am going to see if this is true.

Chloramines are present in my tap water system. I switched to using water from my dehumidifier several years ago and never went back. My plants were always yellowing off hard by week 6; seemed like no matter what I did my mix would always fall off after 5 or so weeks in the same container.
Started up a worm bin and found I could prolong my mix by giving compost teas and adding ewc in the mix directly. Once I stopped using tap my mix seemed to stay good forever. I was emptying the dehumidifier everyday anyway and twice daily during the summer but instead of dumping it down the drain I started collecting it in buckets. So for my situation getting off tap water was the best solution. Chlorine/chloramine laden water is not instant death to microbes but it will diminish their numbers over time. You can always add them back just by throwing on more compost and/or brewing up aacts.

go go kid said:

How much ascorbic acid to treat tap water?
Using Vitamin C or Humic Acid to Remove Chloramines from Tap Water. A kilo of ascorbic acid will treat 20,000 gallons and a kilo of sodium ascorbate will treat a little over 17,500 gallons. Ascorbic Acid can also be found at health food stores in the supplement isles in the form of 500 milligram or 1000 milligram Vitamin C tablets.

Click to expand...

Glad someone has this posted recently. My dehumidifier doesn't produce enough to water with it exclusively and all I could find were recommendations for using ascorbic acid to treat bathwater without modifying pH not for purifying to the level I'd want (not like we can't adjust pH after the fact- and my tap water is around 8.3 anyways). 50 mg/gallon is less than I would have guessed.

A quarter teaspoon of ascorbic acid will dechlorinate a bathtub full of water in a couple minutes, without a significant ph drop. No need to let it set 24 hrs. This is what I do in my organic grows