Vindicated
Well-Known Member
Today while smoking a bowl of Blue Dream, I decided I wanted to investigate my city tap water. Very early in the season I had been using rain water on my plants, but after a few weeks I started seeing micronutrient problems in my Hawaiian Snow, a very dominate Sativa strain. While I was able to address the deficiencies by adjusting my water to pH 6.0 to 6.3 and applying an application of Xnutrient Grow, Xnutrient Micro, and XNutrient Amino Blast, I never the less started to wonder if switching to city water would be better.
To answer this question I decided to do some research. I was going to keep these notes private but figured that since I learned so much from others, why not share what I just learned. This isn't a complete article but more of a mishmash of some of the links and notes that I remembered to save.
Where Does your tap water come from?
* Multiple under ground basins in Southern California *** Rialto Basin, Chino Basin, and from a basin called No Mans Land. ***
* Surface flow from Lytle Creek
* Local water districts *** such as Inland Empire Utilities and San Bernardino valley Municipal Water District. ***
What's in the tap water?
Calcium = 60 parts per million
Nitrate = 20 parts per million *** Safety limit for infants is 40 ppm ***
Sodium = 16 parts per million
Chloride = 10.4 parts per million
Magnesium = 6.8 parts per million
Potassium = 2.8 parts per million
Chromium = 2.8 parts per billion
Tetrachloroethylene = 0.6 parts per billion ***Safe level limit is 20 ppm ***
Fluoride = 0.2 parts per billion *** Keep below 1 ppm ***
Perchlorate = non detected
Arsenic = None detected.
Is the water hard or soft?
Hard/Soft Classification = Hard (151 parts per million)
What's the water's pH level?
pH = 7.5 to 8.3
Is the water alkaline or acidic?
It's Alkaline. Alkalinity = 189 parts per million. Alkalinity levels from 100 to 200 ppm are considered normal. Lower levels may result in undesirable medium pH depression during the crop cycle and higher levels may result in media pH levels above desired levels (> pH 7).
What does this all mean?
In the beginning my biggest concern with using tap water was the pollutants and possibly high mineral & salt levels. However once I read the report from my local water company I felt assured that toxins were very low and well within safety levels. In fact the only issue I foresee myself running into would be a nutrient lockout because of the high pH and alkalinity of the water. I learned that alkaline water makes it more difficult for nutrients to properly dissolve and leech out in peat moss or coir based mediums.
To address this I should adjust pH to 6.0 to 6.3. No extra filtration is needed since all other macro and micronutrients are very low in concentration. Furthermore I learned that I don't need to worry about adding Ca since the water has 60 ppm and my Micro nutrients contains roughly 5% Ca per application. Many hops for brewing beer prefer 200 and 300 ppm of Ca while tomatoes can take as much as 1000 ppm. My current nutrient mix appears to have 470-500 PPM of Ca. which is right in the middle.
Additional Sources:
2010 report from local water company
http://xnutrients.com/micro.pdf
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Biotech-Environ/beer/water2.htm
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0414053432030.html
http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/articles/profiles.htm
http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/6167/what-calcium-ppm-is-required-in-the-mash-for-alpha-amylase-stability-and-mash-ef
If you found this useful, please take a moment and to add my reputation.
To answer this question I decided to do some research. I was going to keep these notes private but figured that since I learned so much from others, why not share what I just learned. This isn't a complete article but more of a mishmash of some of the links and notes that I remembered to save.
Where Does your tap water come from?
* Multiple under ground basins in Southern California *** Rialto Basin, Chino Basin, and from a basin called No Mans Land. ***
* Surface flow from Lytle Creek
* Local water districts *** such as Inland Empire Utilities and San Bernardino valley Municipal Water District. ***
What's in the tap water?
Calcium = 60 parts per million
Nitrate = 20 parts per million *** Safety limit for infants is 40 ppm ***
Sodium = 16 parts per million
Chloride = 10.4 parts per million
Magnesium = 6.8 parts per million
Potassium = 2.8 parts per million
Chromium = 2.8 parts per billion
Tetrachloroethylene = 0.6 parts per billion ***Safe level limit is 20 ppm ***
Fluoride = 0.2 parts per billion *** Keep below 1 ppm ***
Perchlorate = non detected
Arsenic = None detected.
Is the water hard or soft?
Hard/Soft Classification = Hard (151 parts per million)
What's the water's pH level?
pH = 7.5 to 8.3
Is the water alkaline or acidic?
It's Alkaline. Alkalinity = 189 parts per million. Alkalinity levels from 100 to 200 ppm are considered normal. Lower levels may result in undesirable medium pH depression during the crop cycle and higher levels may result in media pH levels above desired levels (> pH 7).
What does this all mean?
In the beginning my biggest concern with using tap water was the pollutants and possibly high mineral & salt levels. However once I read the report from my local water company I felt assured that toxins were very low and well within safety levels. In fact the only issue I foresee myself running into would be a nutrient lockout because of the high pH and alkalinity of the water. I learned that alkaline water makes it more difficult for nutrients to properly dissolve and leech out in peat moss or coir based mediums.
To address this I should adjust pH to 6.0 to 6.3. No extra filtration is needed since all other macro and micronutrients are very low in concentration. Furthermore I learned that I don't need to worry about adding Ca since the water has 60 ppm and my Micro nutrients contains roughly 5% Ca per application. Many hops for brewing beer prefer 200 and 300 ppm of Ca while tomatoes can take as much as 1000 ppm. My current nutrient mix appears to have 470-500 PPM of Ca. which is right in the middle.
Additional Sources:
2010 report from local water company
http://xnutrients.com/micro.pdf
http://www.rpi.edu/dept/chem-eng/Biotech-Environ/beer/water2.htm
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/tomato/msg0414053432030.html
http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fourtwenty/articles/profiles.htm
http://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/6167/what-calcium-ppm-is-required-in-the-mash-for-alpha-amylase-stability-and-mash-ef
If you found this useful, please take a moment and to add my reputation.
kiss-ass
