I know this sounds stupid, but I'm trying to understand tapwater, and having zero luck. Let's just pretend RO and Distilled water don't exist for a moment: My math, the water company, and my Ppm meter give 3 different results: Adding the ppms of sodium calcium nitrogen magnesium potassium and fluoride from my water report gives ~200ppm. The Gpg rating given by the same water report is 16, which is 274ppm. But the meter I just bought shows 550-580 ppm. pH is 7-7.9 according to the water report, and 7.1-7.5 from my measurements. What am I not grasping, what's not being reported, and why is my ppm more than twice as high as the recent water quality report claims it is? The asterisk footnote for the 16Gpg hardness rating says "measured as calcium carbonate". But it says calcium is 69ppm..? What does this all mean? I'm so confused...! I'm trying to avoid using RO, but I cannot figure out what's in my tap water or if it can be remedied. So far, acidification to proper pH has got some of my stalled yellow plants growing again, but very slowly, and with what looks like perpetual magnesium deficiency even though I'm throwing a good level of nutes at them, just enough for healthy new growth, but yellowing and brown spots follow right up the plants. Bonus question: Is it feasible to fill irrigation reservoirs from a tankless RO unit? God I hate having to research the spending of money...
Sound like you are in hydro. If so, your tap water might be a problem. My 190 ppm tap water was. Water company reports are far less trustworthy than your meter. It's fairly easy to install an RO system onto a spigot, then a hose from the spigot to a storage tank fitted with a float valve to keep water level constant.
Feel free to refer to my latest grow Been awhile, setting up a new grow RDWC style or I can make it short and sweet. Just use RO from the outset and thank me later. Use a calmag supplement of your choice with RO water from a cheap filter which can be had for under 100 bucks or so. I mean, it doesnt' even help you terribly much by saying how much calcium is in the water because that doesn't mean that plants can uptake it in that form! My tap water f^&&^in kills things and it's just the simplest way to put it. Even the low end reading you mentioned is way too high to start with imho.
Trust ur meter. My water company couldn't tell me the pH of our water lol Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Make sure your meter is set to ppm and not ec mate. The Ec number is exactly double the ppm number so it would make sense.
I'm not sure I get that about EC being higher, I always see EC as a single digit number? This ppm meter has µs/cm and ppm. I've made sure it's on Ppm. Thanks for the support everyone. You've convinced me to start shopping for an RO system and I might be suing my city/water company since my meter is showing they are above the EPA limit (~515ppm today) and they are flat out lying about TDS. I really thought I had my problem solved when I made this post but since then Ive done nothing but yellow more really nice rare one of a kind old school seedlings. Looks like Calmag/micronute issues but doesn't respond to added Calmag or upping the feed. I don't even want to drink this crap anymore, not knowing why the TDS is so high (although it tastes really good through the triple carbon block). Guess I'll be supplementing micronutes and wasting graywater, really pains my inner hippy but it is what it is.