I'm going to sound like an idiot, but what is that? lol The green screen is looking great as well. I wish I had an indoor setup so bad lol, I'll just have to wait til next spring. I can't wait for the upcoming weeks to watch these explode!
Thanks, B. Not an idiot. Even among indoor hydro growers, not everyone chooses to use this. The debate continues whether it's a necessary component to your grow.
RO = Reverse osmosis. It's a pressure driven osmotic process that forces your tap water through a dense, rubber-like membrane and two filter elements: carbon filter and sediment filter. The cylinder on the right is the sediment filter that catches all the particle crud. It then runs through the carbon filter on the left that absorbs much of the really fine shit that made it through the sediment filter. Most of the water is rejected as waste through the black line, and the final finished water trickles out of the blue line.
If you've ever seen those public drinking water vending machines, it's basically this little thing (on a larger scale of course) housed in that giant empty vending machine. I saw a guy servicing it once, and it looked pretty much like a bigger version of this inside that box.
There's an idea raging about RIU that RO is useless. I don't agree. Is it useless to spit polish a beautiful automobile? No. That's what RO is. It's the spit polish to your grow. It makes your faucet water pure so that you can add anything you like and you're certain whatever is in the water, you put it there.
Example: Part of the argument on the pro-tap water side is that there are elements useful to the plants in your raw tap water that the RO removes in addition to removing the harmful ones. This is true -- most notably trace metals/minerals such as iron, magnesium, calcium, etc. But the problem is we don't really know in what quantities these trace elements are present in relation to whatever else might be in the tap water. RO takes the guess work out. Because even if you do get an analysis from your local city water board, it's still a guessing game in my opinion, and probably not water you want to be giving to your infant. Those water reports weren't intended as a reliable guide for hydroponics growing even if we could trust that they're completely accurate and up to date all the time. I say just wipe it all out and put back just those exact minerals and metals intended for plant absorption (calmag).
Edit:
Remind me to change out the sediment and carbon elements. That thing looks vile and that photo was from my last grow yuck. It still produces under 10ppm water, tho.
And I must admit that I use it for the sheer coolness of it. Look at that thing. To know my water is being filtered through that mamma jamma, it just satisfies the tinkerer in me that loves cool gadgets. My entire grow system looks like a cool play thing. This just adds to it imo.
Edit 2:
But if you have good tap, by all means cut cost wherever you can. That's a big but, though. Don't just blindly trust that the water right out of your faucet is ideal or even fine. Anyone reading this can go ahead and ignore my bullshit and just use faucet water, but don't wonder why your plants aren't as sexy as mine.
i'm blessed with what i get out the tap it's not too soft or hard. but it's deffo on the list of things to 'up my game'