Water. Tap VS RO filtered

nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
My ro water is 0ppm. My tap water is 150 ppm. I see people mixing ro water and tap water to help stabilize ph better. I usually use straight 0ppm ro water and add calimagic at 200 to 300 ppm (.5 scale) or. 4 ec before adding base nutes. How do you roll in your hydroponics setup with water? I had a first harvest using tap water and no calmag supplement using Lucas formula a few years back but was unimpressed with 2 oz per plant yields. I improved my room and feeding I feel with the ro water, no chlorine or chloramine to harm the plants. I read allot or growers adding tap like 20 percent to 80 percent ro. Doesn't that defeat the purpose of getting the bad stuff out like chloramine and chlorine if you are reintroducing it even if it's at smaller traces?
 
blowincherrypie

blowincherrypie

Well-Known Member
fwiw my plants seem to like my tap water. I know tap is different depending on where u r, or if youre drawing off a well, but my personal opinion is if you can drink it so can your plants but I also respect that different styles of growing require different things.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
here the real deal about chlorine and chloramine. they do not harm your plants at all in the concentrations you'll find in municipal water systems. it would have to be at least 5 times the strength they use to do any kind of damage at all. however, if you are running beneficial organisms (benes) it will kill them. chlorine and chloramine are actually good for plants in the doses you get from city water. chloramine is chlorine that's been bonded with a small amount of ammonia, to make it less volatile, so it last longer. while this is bad for fish, its good for plants. so unless you're running benes, tap water is better for your plants than ro water.
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
Roger A. Shrubber said:
here the real deal about chlorine and chloramine. they do not harm your plants at all in the concentrations you'll find in municipal water systems. it would have to be at least 5 times the strength they use to do any kind of damage at all. however, if you are running beneficial organisms (benes) it will kill them. chlorine and chloramine are actually good for plants in the doses you get from city water. chloramine is chlorine that's been bonded with a small amount of ammonia, to make it less volatile, so it last longer. while this is bad for fish, its good for plants. so unless you're running benes, tap water is better for your plants than ro water.
Click to expand...
If using tap water would it hurt to bump my ppm up from the 150 tap to between 200 and 300ppm with calimagic (calmag supplement) ? Or just run it like it is? Also when adding base nutes do i add the ppm from the water into my target range? For example I am aiming for 600ppm in veg. Do i add 450ppm nutes since there is 150 Ppm in the tap water? Or do I add 600 ppm of nutes on top of the 150 ppm tap water for a total of 750ppm? Confused
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
Roger A. Shrubber said:
most of the ppms in tap water are going to be calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, bicarbonates, chlorides, and sulfates. most of those are ingredients in your nutes, so yes, i do count them into the total.
Click to expand...
Thank you. That's how I been doing it so far. Just making sure doing it right. Read different on a forum discussion so was confused about it. Good looking out bud
 
blowincherrypie

blowincherrypie

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
If using tap water would it hurt to bump my ppm up from the 150 tap to between 200 and 300ppm with calimagic (calmag supplement) ? Or just run it like it is? Also when adding base nutes do i add the ppm from the water into my target range? For example I am aiming for 600ppm in veg. Do i add 450ppm nutes since there is 150 Ppm in the tap water? Or do I add 600 ppm of nutes on top of the 150 ppm tap water for a total of 750ppm? Confused
Click to expand...
How much calcium is in your nutrients?

What worked best for me was running a little epsom salt with my feeding schedule and once a week hit them with a dose of camg in place of the epsom. 150 is pretty low, Im coming out the tap at 300, so swapping in the CaMg a little more often might work better for ya.
 
Jimdamick

Jimdamick

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
If using tap water would it hurt to bump my ppm up from the 150 tap to between 200 and 300ppm with calimagic (calmag supplement) ?
Click to expand...
Rain water is like 200 ppm, so feeding your plants only 300 ppm is a waste of time.
I run my seedlings at 700, and at 4 weeks they are at 1000 ppm, with no issues.
Don't be afraid of feeding you plants, especially in hydro.
 
NGA

NGA

Well-Known Member
2 oz a plant is crazy low for hydro you should be 8 oz per at lease in hydro ,sounds like not feeding enough or other problems
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
Jimdamick said:
Rain water is like 200 ppm, so feeding your plants only 300 ppm is a waste of time.
I run my seedlings at 700, and at 4 weeks they are at 1000 ppm, with no issues.
Don't be afraid of feeding you plants, especially in hydro.
Click to expand...
What scale ppm? I use .5 or 500 scale
 
nicksol86

nicksol86

Well-Known Member
NGA said:
2 oz a plant is crazy low for hydro you should be 8 oz per at lease in hydro ,sounds like not feeding enough or other problems
Click to expand...
Dude you have no idea. Grown in a attic middle of winter. They were so cold and using Lucas formula only, no additives at all, was 8 shoots (topped 3 times each) they were good size plants, barely pulled any weight due to the freezing temps. I don't know how they survived that winter with a shitty lil space heater that didn't put much heat out. Lol. I was suprised we did 2 oz per plant to be honest, 4 plants only. I was discouraged to grow again for a while (couldn't afford 1000watt hps light bill off whack yields) I was so disappointed in my yields so I did lots of research. Relocated grow room to way better environment now and put over a grand into my grow. This one's gonna pull way better numbers topping, lst, scrogging, and supercropping this go. It's gonna be sick. Hoping to pull 1 to 2 lbs off 4 plants this time
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
when it gets cold, vent your light into your attic. put the filter on the exhaust end and let the hot air keep the attic warm. you'll probably have to run a small dehui, though.
 
NGA

NGA

Well-Known Member
Knew a guy years ago vented his grow in attic ,wow not a good idea ,I never seen soo much MOLD every colour in the world crazy looking shit bad idea
 
70's natureboy

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
Yield is very strain dependent. I always grow several strains next to each other on the same nutes. Some strains are high yielders and some are not (hobbyist weed).
 
Kushash

Kushash

Well-Known Member
nicksol86 said:
Dude you have no idea. Grown in a attic middle of winter. They were so cold and using Lucas formula only, no additives at all, was 8 shoots (topped 3 times each) they were good size plants, barely pulled any weight due to the freezing temps. I don't know how they survived that winter with a shitty lil space heater that didn't put much heat out. Lol. I was suprised we did 2 oz per plant to be honest, 4 plants only. I was discouraged to grow again for a while (couldn't afford 1000watt hps light bill off whack yields) I was so disappointed in my yields so I did lots of research. Relocated grow room to way better environment now and put over a grand into my grow. This one's gonna pull way better numbers topping, lst, scrogging, and supercropping this go. It's gonna be sick. Hoping to pull 1 to 2 lbs off 4 plants this time
Click to expand...
We all have our pet peeves here.
Mine is seeing growers like you feel they have to justify yield especially when someone pops in and says you should be getting 8 oz per plant. To me a beginner or intermediate grower should focus on dialing in their grow for quality and not think about yield until learning how to grow quality weed 1st.
You don't have to justify anything.
Good Luck!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top