Hello fellow organic growers. I was curious if a particular soil sample/plants have been periodically watered with said water containing chlorine/chloramine will said sample be permanently contaminated? So, If I had been watering plants A and B with tap water (full of chloramine) and switched to water from an RO system would the soil already be contaminated? therefore making the switch to RO pointless until new soil/plants are acquired? OR. Would switching to RO applying new Myco to roots, and applying AACT, EM-1 to soil be successful? or could the leaveover chloramine/chlorine in the soil still be around and kill all of my new microbial life? I apologize for my inability to state the above question more clearly, however I tried to the best of my abilities and I look forward to any constructive comments or questions you may have for me. Thank you very much GC. -Sustain
Hey there Sustain. Welcome to GC. First off, I would lose the RO water. It's an unneeded expense, and quite possibly bad for your plants as it strips out all mineral content from the water. Two, the problems with chloramine are that it can kill off microherds and it is very persistent. Chlorine can just be bubbled off, not so chloramine. However, it seems like putting some compost into a water reservoir with chloramine, deactivates it. I can't tell you the exact mechanism but it is posted around here somewhere. My practical experience shows that this does seem to be the case. I have city water treated with chloramine. I use a reservoir to bubble and gently warm my water (which also warms the roots of my plants as my tank is under the tray my plants sit in, as well as helping to keep the grow room temps stable). Over time I have had some small planting medium spills into my tank. I'm assuming this is helping to deactivate the chloramine as my palnts do real well. If you have watered with tap water that is treated with chloramine, just apply ewc's as a top dressing or you can be hard core and brew up an AACT and treat your plants that way.
Okay first off thank you very much Weedroid for your interest and reply. I Believe that you affirmed my second supposition in that the negative effects of chloramine will be negated by continuing with a(n) AACT or EWC ammendments? You don't recommend RO? then what kind of water/from where? in the past i've used a SmallBoy De-Chlorinator/Filter system from Hydrologic. This removed the chlorine/chloramine from the water perfectly and I always experienced luscious growth with no discoloration/defects when using the smallboy in combination with the AACT's. Since then i've lost access to the Smallboy and have recently read about a small but similar unit called the Stealth RO 100 by hydrologic. This item appears to be about $50 more expensive than the smallboy, but as a complete RO system rather than merely a de-chlorinator I believe the cost would be worth it? (about my situation: biking is the main source of transportation so buying distilled is out of the question by sheer volume needed, also my tap water is filthy foul, ex: ice cubes created from my tap water and put into a beverage literally make the drink taste like chlorine.) Once again thanks GC for reading, please post and constructive comments or questions below and i'd love to reply. -Sustain
I just use city tap water and treat as I explained above. If you want to spend money needlessly, feel free. The ewc's or compost, when put into a tank of water, seem to deactivate the chloramine. An AACT would repopulate some of the microorganisms that may be killed off by chloramine, but I do not know if an AACT would deactivate the chloramine in a tank. Bicycling is my main source of transportation as well. I don't own a car. e2a: As already mentioned, the reason for treating my water the way I do, accomplishes many goals. It keeps my grow room temps moderated (warms the room when cool, cools the room when hot), it helps keep my roots at a good temp, aiding nutrient uptake processes and it provides me with a lot of water that is perfect for any grow purposes. To make teas, to take cuts with, etc.
Like the Droid said, chloramine is a small hurdle. Bubble out chlorine. Convert chloramine to chlorine by adding some organic matter- bubble that out to. Give your plants an AACT to make sure the soil is on course once you sort out the water issue and relax.
Okay WeeDroid and FunTimeGrowHap so let me get this straight ... Just put some microbial rich substance like EWC or a AACT into my water source and the microbes will convert the chloramine into chlorine? Then the chlorine is bubbled off by a bubbler / air stone? End result giving me a water supply contaminated neither by chlorine or chloramine which will therefore be ideal to feed my plants? If this is correct then how marvelous would it be to forgo the cost of an RO or De-chlorinating filter system! However, I am moderately skeptical about this method purely because of the terrible quality of my water supply, but all the same I am definitely going to give this a try before purchasing an expensive filter system like an RO generator. I'll keep you updated on if it works out with my atrocious tap water. Thanks for the idea I hadn't heard of doing that! Just bubbling for the chlorine! -sustain
Here's another thing to consider(I am on the city tap btw, and that's why I collect rain water). Some cities water supply is fine for plants, let's just say for shits and giggles 300ppm total dissolved solids is cool. If it's like my water and has too much sodium,sulphur,iron, among other things, bubbling or adding an act will not do a damn thing about it. If you don't have an meter to measure the ppm of solids in your water, there is a simple test you can do. Just fill a shallow pan with a measured amount of water, evaporate and measure the solids that are left behind. Edit: I have read on aquarium forums that the best natural chloramine to chlorine converter is aloe vera juice. Most say preferably to gather the live plant and put in a blender and add to the water. The second best is the preservative free aloe juice in the jugs that you can find at any health food store, and recently my local wally world has it as well.
Almost. DO NOT put your AACT in your water. Just the organic matter. Like compost, ewc's, even some rich soil. It's not the microbes, per se, that convert chloramine to chlorine. Other than that you've got it! To add a bit to poppy's post, I live in a city with very good water, other than the chloramine, so I'm not so woried about dissolved solids.
Hey there poppybgood That sounds like a great idea to find what solids are left over after evaporation and I've got the perfect tray I've been saving for ISO And about the Aloe Vera, I've got limited light to grow my own aloe(i use what limited light i do have for edible herbs and a few decorative succulents/cacti/bonsai ive been working on) and I doubt I could scavenge much locally(although I'll definitely be on the lookout now!) also the health foods stores doesn't really seem like an option I have a hard enough time buying groceries right now...yikes, but how much of the aloe juice from a health store would you add to what amount of water to remove the chloramine? Maybe it would be economical of it was only a very small amount, but I'm skeptical of that how much do you use? Thanks for the further great ideas on getting rid of chloramine poppybgood! I'm looking forward to any other creative ideas people have! Thanks for being awesome GC! -sustain
noted, and thanks for telling about the AACT, wouldn't want to waste any of that! do you happen to know more about this? lol. any further elaboration would be joyously received, or perhaps a link in the right direction? = ) Thanks again WeeDroid! -sustain
I suggest doing a few searches here to find out more. Try chloramine, Lumperdawgz or MIW, eco12, any of the other heavyweight organic dudes here. I'm just a humble otter.
apparently if you're new to ACt's the appropriate ratio's for the most microbes are 1 gallon of EWC to 5 Gallons water... It could be costly But you could probably substitute for very rich soil, wherever that may be found. at this point you can just add the dirt to the bucket and agitate it several times a day for around a day, with a shovel and it's as good as it gets. that's wha t aheavy weight told me the EWC can be expensive if you dont produce your own
Hold on, broham. I'll find you the link from the dude that broke it down for a whole lot of people around here....
http://forum.grasscity.com/organic-growing/650139-organic-higher-learning-lumperdawgz.html Post #3- see water quality.
Well, that sucks about the financial situation, as I am going through hard times myself. Like the late great Richard Pryor said,"wasn't no year, they just called it hardtimes". If you don't have the resources to grow your own aloe, there are small bottles of it available at aquarium shops as well. They may run anywhere from 5 to 10 bucks. Once again, I have no real proof of the claims I've read about how efficient it is at converting the chloramine to chlorine, but aquarium enthusiasts like it a lot. I love it for an organic wetting agent myself, but that's about all I've ever used it for. You could most likely use any number of things to get that bond of the cholrine and ammonia to break free, but more importantly you need to at least have some idea of what kind of solids are in your water. Edit: I've also read of people using a product called Aquasafe. IDK how organic that is, but it seems to have good reviews across the board.
Totally agree that you need to know your water. Most people on a water grid can pull up reports from the source of their taps (I'm not buying a damn meter). After a few minutes of looking around, I found my local water has a very low PPM and uses only chlorine. Point of the story, after a little googling a tiny aquarium pump was all I needed to treat my water.
The majority of my watering is done straight from the tap. Very good city water and treated with chloramines ~3ppm. I have noticed, pretty much, ZERO effect on my microherd, or plants from using straight tap. I'm sorry, but those organisms are not as delicate as being made out to be. Question??? If organic matter in a bucket of water will react with the chloramine, wouldn't the chloramine react with organic matter in the mix? I do keep ~8-5gal buckets with treated water for *spot* watering, but a full watering takes 1/2hr+ with the hose. No way with a bucket. Get a water report. That's #1. Just put in *your city*+water system and you should be able to get an online water analysis. Your water might be fine, might not be fine. No way to tell till you look at the numbers. For sure, if you can avoid RO water (in soil), you should. Hydro and reef tanks are something else. Wet
You can take tap water out and let it set for 24 hours and the chemicals dilute, I have three jugs of water I bought from the grocery store and I refill them with tap water, just let them sit for 24 and your golden
While I agree, and have heard this said before by researchers, I still like my water tepid and bubbled, which I wouldn't get out of my tap per se. While i could use the hot water tap, i know my tank has a lot of dissolved solids in it. And as I mentioned, by warming my tank, it helps to keep temps moderate in my flower room and in my veg room. I also don't see any need to keep chlorine and chloramine in my plants water. This should be pretty obvious. Things take time. In addition, if chloramine is turned into chlorine at your roots, I would be a bit concerned. That works for chlorine but not for chloramine.
