So i have 400ppm apparently 300 is cal. Growing no till do i need to use my ro filter? Or will high ca tap be fine. I ask cause on my bottle fert grows it heavily effected the salts and caused stupid ppms and problems with ca over fert. Wondering if i need to have concern?
How hard water is depends on local geology – water hardness varies widely throughout the UK. Most of the water we supply is hard, as it comes from underground chalk aquifers with high levels of calcium. We don't soften water before it reaches your taps – there's no UK or European standard for the hardness of drinking water. soft water contains less than 100mg of calcium carbonate per litre moderately hard water contains between 100 and 200mg of calcium carbonate per litre hard water contains between 200 and 300mg of calcium carbonate per litre very hard water contains more than 300mg of calcium carbonate per litre. If we supply your drinking water, follow the link below and enter your postcode to find out how hard your water is. 390ppm tap and it says upto 300mg calcarbonate im classed as very hard Interpreting Test Results Classification mg/l or ppm grains/gal Slightly hard 17.1 - 60 1 - 3.5 Moderately hard 60 - 120 3.5 - 7.0 Hard 120 - 180 7.0 - 10.5 Very Hard 180 & over 10.5 & over
25500548, member: 1081475"]is this an email you got from your water company? sorry i'm unfamiliar with UK water. Np nah its common knowledge here local water boards tell us about it. My parents house even has lead traces from feed pipes being lead lol. Enough to stop seens germinating i found. We all drink bottled water from shops our tap water clogs ya pores up with cal and dryes ya skin out. leaves streaks on glass. I took to ordering ro water last groe cause when i added 200ppm calnit to 390ppm it jumped to 1200 in some adverse reaction. Needless to say add my base and its over 2k ppm. Most nute lines adopt to hardwater here but when i went raw salts it wasnt calculated for me so had issues less i used water with 100 or less ppm. Didnt know if it would affect organic notill beds. Or if the micro orgs and humics would buffer it and correct as i water? Ive no idea just guessing here based off it buffering ph and having all the nutes from dsy 1 in base with no burns so duno if the 300ppm cal carb would be an issue? If so il use my ro it just takes 2days to fill my tank lol[/QUOTE]
I’d get the water tested by a credible soil testing lab. “Hardness” is the least of your problems... Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I would use it. Your cal and mag will be forever taken care of. I used 300 ppm for years, and wish i still had it, as my plants now want for cal and mag, which i never had to feed heavily.
Unless you have a nutrient Photo meter your guessing at what nutrient or mineral is making your parts per millions so hi or low .....
I would go with the ro water. If you have a good living soil mix you should already have enough calcium.
I would use it but reduce the amount of lime you add to your soil by half. And you might benefit from an occasional addition of peat to your soil, maybe once a year to balance out the extra calcium in the water (the acidic peat will help break down access calcium. .
Your water carries a considerable amount of alkalinity. This will affect the soil's pH, which controls nutrient availability in the soil solution. Excess calcium can create issues too. Excess nutrient ions in any form can have antagonistic affect on nutrient availability. RO may be your best bet. It is important to add some acidity to the water to bring the pH back into the range of 6-6.5. Use citric acid, as it doesn't add any "nutrient" ions to the soil solution, citrate acts as a metallic ion chelator, and it isn't persistent in the soil like the synthetic chelators are (EDTA, for example). After filtration, it will only require very small amounts of citric acid to reach this pH range. And even with filtration, I would concur with Scoob's advice on reducing the amount of lime by half. IMO, we're adding way too much lime to these container mixes, even when using good quality water. I can't speak for adding extra peat moss to "break down excess calcium"...
Peat is acidic, it should react with the carbonates in the water. I always wondered why lime isnt sold in any agricultural supply stores in my country, you wont even find it in a google search, yet peat is the most popular base for building soils here. Pretty much all the nurseries and landscapers use a mix of peat and lava rock and no one uses lime, or crab shell, or any other sort of carbonate amendments (including gypsum). Took me a while to figure it out but its because we have very hard water here, it is mostly calcium with some magnesium. Anyway that's my theory