Wow, that's a little alarmist. Gospel huh? whatever. Never had any problem with it. plants love it. I add 1 cup of H2O2 for every 10 gallons in addition to my standard nute cocktail and my plants thrive. I have read all the varying opinions on the subject and yours seems to be in the minority.
i use fridge water and put in an airstone connected to an air pump. Then I add the nutrients and titrate the pH to about 6.5
I think certain things need to be assessed here. I am torn with using my well water that runs through a water softener. The oh is a consistent 6.8. What I question is the dissolved sodium in the water. Will it nute lock and hurt your plants? I guess the minerals will build up in the soil. I question the amount and strength of the salts in the water and whether it will effect growth. Has anyone seen grows using water from a softener?
Ok, I sell a lot of softners. All a softner does is get your hardness (dirt, dissolved mineral) out. It does nothing for chemicals. If your on well, I would have it tested for sulfur, and iron first off.
I'm really liking Fiji bottled water, all natural and already has a low doses of nutrients - calcium,mag,potassium and a few others.
i heard that by defination distilling is boiling water to remove contaminates the water evaporates condenses and drips down as pure water fiji is super expensive and when u need to flush $$$$ wasted but ur plant would love u for it lol
Since you sell them what about the salt? Because you have to add some kind of salt - Solar Salt I think goes in ours. Is there enough in there to fuck up your plants??
Solar salt is just a brand, it comes in blue bags. What the salt is used for is cleaning the charged resin. It's usually controlled by timer. The amount of salt that comes through your pipes from that a month is generally equal to the amount in 1 piece of bread. So in short, no, your fine.
Water and the quality of water is the King of grow especially in Hydroponics. Water systems are expensive however will produce good results. I have heard that ro systems have a lot of water waste. Tap water is puke and should be avoided I received a water quality report on my city water and it is fit to drink but my beans say other wise. Its the EC of tap water that will kill you. You can always adjust the PH however you can't adjust the PPM / EC of the crap. There is a lot of sodium in tap water and that translates to salt build up in the plants roots. Constant flushing will help but that is a PIA. If you want quality beans use quality water Solution: Bottle water will run you $20-$30 a month. Only your budget will tell. RO system: Nice and pricey expect higher water bills. What I have found to be a blessing in disguise was the local "water and Ice" store locally a gallon cost $.30 a gallon. Right from their tap the PH is 6.60, the EC is .05 and the PPm is 30. Cheaper than delivered bottle water. More work? yea! I gotta hump the shit but when I harvest my beans it is all worth it. Happy grow to you!!!! Herb
The city's water quality report you get is crap. The operate under bullshit regulations. They use the term acceptable levels. But they never tell you what acceptable levels are. I hate when people go by these, and then I show them how dirty their water really is and then they yell at me.
That's good to know. Thanks. I live amongst reservoirs in a watershed area but obviously it still has all sorts of stuff in it. That sounds like a trace amount of salt. In your opinion would that effect plant growth?
Cool I'm going to continue with tap water as a test. Do you suggest doing a ppm test or something? Maybe I will use bottled water for one plant for comparison.
What type of membrane do you use? Mf, Nf, Ro (most common), or Uf? They are all pretty much for hardness, not chemicals. And a ppm (parts per million) test is not needed. The softners take care of the hardness for the most part. And chemicals are the bigger concern with plants, not dissolved rock and mineral. Also if your on well, and you don't have a sulfar, or iron build up, your fine. Remember, bottled water has just as much dirt in it as your tap water. They just use carbon to filter out the chlorine and other chemicals. Cheaper bottled water is better, deer park is the only bottled water that is semi name brand that treats their water properly, and removes most hardness, and chemicals. Fiji, and Avion are the worst, they average 12 ppm, the average house is 7ppm. But they do remove chemicals. A R/O unit will remove the hardness from your water but not your chemicals. Chlorine can still come through a r/o unit. But this is for people who are looking to produce quality plants, and are growing a good a number. Because Tao water works, just let it sit, there is all kinds of things that work. A water treatment system us just for someone who wants the best. But with a full house system, you save $ on your electric bill, cleaning products, cloths stay whiter longer, all your water using appliances last longer, your skin gets softer, your food and kool aid/tea/coffee taste 100% better, if you do hydro grows its much easier to maintain. I still have my 4 bucket ebb n flow system, I just don't use it anymore, I find soil grows though a little more time consuming as far as taking care of them, come out better for me when done properly.
Thanks for the good advice psuwrestler99. I really appreciate it since I have three seedlings and I was worried about my water quality. I have no clue what the membrane is. I never even knew it had a membrane! I just walked back to my softener and didn't know where to look. I saw the salt tank, and another large metal tank with the timer on top. The large metal tank is, I don't know how to say this: a two tiered tank? It shrinks in the middle with the bottom and the top. +rep dude
It sounds like you may have a carbon chamber, or at least something else besides just charged resin (softner).