doc111
Well-Known Member
No, your pH is fine. I try to keep mine at 6.5 but that's just me. If 6.2 is working for you then don't change a thing! I see you have an all widow grow going. I really enjoyed my white widow.
Water: The Most Essential Compound
- Thread starter doc111
- Start date
caregivers
Member
This an absolute must read for every hydroponic grower. Such an informative in depth look at water and its components. I thought I knew basically all there is about water but dang still learned a thing or two in this thread. +rep
doc111
Well-Known Member
Always glad to hear it. Water is so important, yet so taken for granted by a lot of people.
captkron0201
Member
so this might sound really stupid but i just want a definite answer before i move forward...if i was to boil a bunch of water, pour it back into my watering bottles and let it return to room temp before giving it to my plants, that would be the best kind of water i could feed my babies?????
Someguy15
Well-Known Member
lol bacteria wise maybe... dissolved solids no way. By boiling off water your just concentrating whats left in the pot. The process you are thinking of is steam distillation. Your better off buying steam distilled water then trying to setup the equipment yourself. Hence why everyone who wants near 0 ppm water uses R/O units vs. distillation.
captkron0201
Member
awesome thanks for the info
gunnjabsgrow
Active Member
i was just doing a water change in my piranha tank and the stuff i mix in the water is called 'nutrafin, tap water conditioner'.
i add 1ml per gallon to remove chlorine and chloramine
i never thought of it for the plants, but would it work?
i am not suggesting it, or recommending it, i and just wondering. could be good
i add 1ml per gallon to remove chlorine and chloramine
i never thought of it for the plants, but would it work?
i am not suggesting it, or recommending it, i and just wondering. could be good
Someguy15
Well-Known Member
I used something similar for a couple months. Noticed no difference at all using it so I just stopped. Still nothing. Plus they tend to remove nitrates and nitrites, something we want in solution...
daisy2687
Well-Known Member
I read to about page 7 and decided to take a look at my municipal water supply. I didnt get time to read the rest of the thread so please excuse me if it's been answered already.
Like someone else asked earlier my hardness is measured by mg/L and mine is 23 mg/L. My general understanding is mg/L is the definiton of ppm and interchangeable. Correct me if I'm wrong.
My main concern is it says my ph is 8.3 and they use soda ash to make it 'less corrosive' which I assume means make it less acidic. Is this bad for my plants?
Like someone else asked earlier my hardness is measured by mg/L and mine is 23 mg/L. My general understanding is mg/L is the definiton of ppm and interchangeable. Correct me if I'm wrong.
My main concern is it says my ph is 8.3 and they use soda ash to make it 'less corrosive' which I assume means make it less acidic. Is this bad for my plants?
doc111
Well-Known Member
I am still working on a conversion from mg/L to ppm. I honestly don't know how hard that is. It sounds like it's pretty hard to me. pH is easy to fix but hardness is a different story. Have you noticed any problems with your plants?
daisy2687
Well-Known Member
I think your conversion factors would involve density of the dissolved solids but we're talking ppm. Parts per million. I think for our purposes it's a straight conversion (meaning the density of the solids plays a very small role in this equation)I am still working on a conversion from mg/L to ppm. I honestly don't know how hard that is. It sounds like it's pretty hard to me. pH is easy to fix but hardness is a different story. Have you noticed any problems with your plants?
My thinking is it makes a straight conversion easily because H2O has a weight of 18. This is a pretty happy place for a lot of our solids in TDS. They will have pretty similar densities too.
No problems with plants except for burned tips. Always had burned tips, assumed it was from chloramide or w/e
doc111
Well-Known Member
I mean I have an idea of what is considered "hard water" as expressed in ppm but not mg/L. Around here the water company uses ppm for their measurments. I'm wanting to find out what the cutoff concentrations for "hard" and "soft" water as expressed in mg/L. I've been extremely busy with work and haven't had a lot of time to do any research. Perhaps the best thing you can do is to do a comparison. Grow a couple of plants using your tapwater and do another group using distilled or r/o water. See which group is the healthiest and has the least issues. When using r/o or distilled you will most likely need some sort of cal-mag supplement.
doc111
Well-Known Member
Carbon filtration is a means for purifying water. Carbon filters remove many impurities in water such as organic compounds, some heavy metals and such. It doesn't really do anything to neutralilze pathogens (disease causing organisms such as bacteria and viruses). It also does not reduce hardness. Ozonated water is just as its name suggests: water that has been purified using ozone. Ozone is useful in destroying pathogens and breaking down some chemicals. It is also being used as an experimental treatment for certain cancers and HIV. Here is an article I found that touches on ozonated water a little bit:
http://www.sharinghealth.com/beckprotocol/ow.html
doc111
Well-Known Member
It depends on how your water company treats your water. If it is using soda ash strictly for purposes of pH adjustment then you may have an excess of sodium in your water. Sodium in small amounts isn't harmful to plants, in fact they actually use miniscule amounts of it. If soda ash is being used for the purposes of reducing hardness then the Ca and Mg ions are basically being exchanged for Na ions. Some companies then remove the excess Na from the water. Some don't. In either case there is a good chance that your water may have too much Na for your plants. If you aren't experiencing any problems then it's probably safe to assume that your water company is removing most of the Na after treatment with soda ash.
This is an interesting question and unfortunately different municipalities use different methods based on the water chemistry being treated. This makes it very difficult to predict what problems a person may run into when using tapwater for their plants.
daisy2687
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the quick replys. The website explicitly says they use it to adjust the PH because the water is drawn from a 'natural source' (we run off 1 resevoir for 250,000 people) and would cause corrosion if not adjusted.
Do you know what symptoms I should be looking for as far as excess Na goes? General salt buildup and lockouts? Or is there a specific Na toxicity
And to add our area has been listed in top 10 best drinking water in the US several times. So they must be putting some effort in to controlling minerals that affect taste and ppm of TDS (which if my 4 hours of research has said mg/L is nearly identical to ppm of TDS. That puts me at 23mg/L or 23ppm)
Do you know what symptoms I should be looking for as far as excess Na goes? General salt buildup and lockouts? Or is there a specific Na toxicity
And to add our area has been listed in top 10 best drinking water in the US several times. So they must be putting some effort in to controlling minerals that affect taste and ppm of TDS (which if my 4 hours of research has said mg/L is nearly identical to ppm of TDS. That puts me at 23mg/L or 23ppm)
It depends on how your water company treats your water. If it is using soda ash strictly for purposes of pH adjustment then you may have an excess of sodium in your water. Sodium in small amounts isn't harmful to plants, in fact they actually use miniscule amounts of it. If soda ash is being used for the purposes of reducing hardness then the Ca and Mg ions are basically being exchanged for Na ions. Some companies then remove the excess Na from the water. Some don't. In either case there is a good chance that your water may have too much Na for your plants. If you aren't experiencing any problems then it's probably safe to assume that your water company is removing most of the Na after treatment with soda ash.
This is an interesting question and unfortunately different municipalities use different methods based on the water chemistry being treated. This makes it very difficult to predict what problems a person may run into when using tapwater for their plants.
doc111
Well-Known Member
23 ppm is very low. The r/o water I use is generally between 10-15 ppm. I've never used softened water before so I've never seen Na toxicity but it is my understanding that it will cause multiple deficiency signs since it blocks most other nutrients even at small concentrations. I'm curious to know if you need cal-mag. 23 ppm is very low and I would think you would need to supplement cal-mag.
daisy2687
Well-Known Member
I've thought about it and could probably use a little bit, but I dont see any deficiences.. Only problem is some heat stress from one day (apparently closet doors add 15 degrees to your temps lol).
I've looked at my local hydro shop and its way overpriced. Any suggestions?
I've looked at my local hydro shop and its way overpriced. Any suggestions?