On the most part i see using ro water like being the over protective mother. You believe your doing the best for them but really it’s causing more problems down the road. I see all the time new growers with a deficiency that would never had happened with tap.
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Any suggestions for improving tap water?
I wonder if the faucet units would last for long. I wonder how well they would work.
For now I let it sit for a while to out gas the flouride and drop the pH. What else can be done?
99
I use RO, and add Cal Mag and the first signs of deficiency. It works well for me.
inline refrigerator filter?
I’ve used tap water (City uses wells), RO, distilled, rain water, well water high in sulfur and mixtures. I’ve never had a cal/mag issue using any options other than RO and know the well water high in sulfur had the best results.
I don’t agree with RO if you can avoid it in your setup. Because you pay for fancy filters to remove cal/mag plus other minerals then pay again to replace them with expensive supplements.
Plus if you have a lot of plants RO is slow and I’m not paying extra for pressure tanks/holding vessels/booster pumps to achieve a good flow of water. If you have a res. and float and it fills automatically great but I don’t have time standing and waiting for water.
I like my ro because I’m starting with a clean slate. I know what’s going into my plants. I figure through flower I’m running around 1000 ppm and if I ran tap here if be starting at 300ppm before any nutes are added. I think running a quality nute line has the Cal/mag/iron etc in the mix already anyway. I don’t find using a cal/mag supplement expensive or burdensome because I generally have only noticed it necessary and m around week three of flower. Using it only on an as needed basis mean I don’t use very much every cycle so a bottle lasts me.
How would you use this?
My fridge doesn’t dispense water or ice.
99
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B002DV70IY/ref=psdcmw_13397611_t3_B071WXNPQS
Something like this is as far as i’d go with filtering
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Install one of these on a 1/2" water line
Run a 1/4" poly or copper with the inline filter from the valve.
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Easy Peasy.
I wonder if filtration is the issue or would help restore minerals. The water that arrives here is less than 1 mile from a very large reservoir. The water is hyper-base and stripped of everything except flouride.
??
99
If you read the reviews for this inline filter
One of the reviewers said it cut his TDS reading in 1/2. Not sure if that is helpful in your case.
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Out of like brother @ray
Will do. Roger!
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@99PerCent what issue are you having with your water? If you have the same problem with water from a dehumidifier (basically distilled) it might not be a water issue.
Well, what is happening is basically pH creep.
I’ll pH correct the water to around 5-6, water soil that is reading above 7 and the correction will last a short time and begin to creep up toward 7 again.
I can’t imagine this is optimal.
Have been adding some lime to store bought soil (Roots 707)
99
So, I am thinking that the H2O coming from my faucet, despite being pH balanced, lacks minerals to the point of stripping the soil as it leaches through, along with nutrient absorption, is causing the rapid changes. So, I am going to allow my next watering H2O to sit with some of my compost in it overnight. Maybe it will absorb more of the minerals and slow this process.
Dunno?
99%
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In my experience rising pH is normal. I think usually from disolved CO2 in the water (CO2 forms carbolic acid when it’s disolved in H2O so it lowers the pH) as the water sits or warms up the CO2 is released an the pH goes up. I usually set pH at 5.8 or so and let it drift up to 6.2 (hydro) I haven’t been able to stabilize it completely.
You can probably add some kind of buffer to stabilize your pH I don’t know what though. Or let the water sit before you use it, or boil it!
PS isn’t 5-6 pH way to low for soil? I thought you wanted it around 6.5.
The low pH is counteracted by the high pH and I end up just above 6 right after watering usually . The buffer is what I think is stripped from the water at the plant, along with the addition of fluoride.
I think you are correct on all points.
So, I am trying to strip minerals from my indoor compost pile.
Here is what I have going into the 24 sit. I think I will leave the pH high, in order to strip as much as possible. Maybe the wrong approach, we’ll try this first.
This pH meter is somewhat accurate, generally consistent and a piece of crap too.
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I’ve had good luck with a PUR faucet filter and Boston tap water - will not adjust pH but takes out all the chlorine and other crap. Does not affect fluoride but I don’t think the plants take the fluoride out of the soil very much.
I think the water is already filtered and treated to death.
I’ll try reintroducing things taken away and a little time.
Filters later.
99
How much are the replacement filters for the Pur faucet filter? With a large garden the 100 gallon filter life could make it expensive in filter replacements.
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See, that’s what I’m talkin about.
Ray, I will have to give this a peek.
99%