Hi folks, I live in an area where tap water is shit and am looking to invest in an RO system. I am aware that a 5 stage ro will deplete water of all nutrients and minerals, so cal-mag would need to be added. Do you recommend doing this, or get a 6 stage ro which adds some minerals back? Also apart from normal nutes, what will I have to add to the water? I will be growing in soil in summer and hydroponics in winter.
Years ago I had a ro system built into my kitchen sink. It only had one sediment filter then one chemical filter that's it. Id let the filters go way past there use by date clogging them up with slimy crap. The water still always came out to o ppms at ph 7.
For lots of Hydro water use a 4 Stage will work well, course filter, fine filter, charcoal then RO membrane. Then you can use cal-mag and bring water up to 0.3 EC or use Coco nutes that have it built in.
What is wrong with ur water. Mine is 8.0 and 550 ppms. Just bake it outside in a jug for a day!! Have u actually grown with the tap water? Sent from my SM-N960U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
I did use a 5 stage and cal-mag. The reason was they used chloramines in the water and it dont go away like chlorine does. I would kill my hydro in a week or 2 at most they now fixed that and my tap is under 100 PPM's. I don't give a shit about PH coming out I adjust it after I mix my nutes. A 6 stage uses UV light to kill bacteria
Two totally different scenarios there bud. I do both. Have a RO machine, only use it for babies and stock solutions for my dosers(hydro tech), however our city water isn't shit. The RO takes a long time to run water and the waste amount is high. So, my first hydro priorities are; pH balancing water, after nutrients and for trace minerals I use Superthrive. A drop per cup, at the end of nutrient mixing. Hydro vs soil are completely different. If your doing outdoor soil, I don't rec using a RO, huge waste of time, water and funds. If you have to filter your water, I'd find a quicker less wasteful method than RO for outdoor. Plus you don't need the superthrive, as trace minerals and what not are in your soil. I'd aim to tackle your basic understanding of EC/PH and their perspective relevance in the situation. As your ec will fluctuate as you balance your pH, the acids and bases forming molecular structures hence stability in your solution for your plants to use to grow from. In hydro you want to do this before you put nutrients in. Where as in soil, it's usually the opposite. Putting nutrients on the soil and balanced water poured over, washing them in over time or nutes first in your water and then balancing pH as minimal as possible. Often in outdoor you do, one high feed, then a bunch of watering in so the root can grow out and search. Where as in hydro it's constant and increasing EC/ppm to give them their stability and force feed them. So your conceptual understanding of the difference will be key. I hope some of this makes sense.
Hi. In a 4 stage ro, the first canister is a sediment filter to reduce large sediment from getting to the membrane and also clogging the second canister which will be carbon. The carbon reduces chlorine that will attack and degrade the ro membrane. The third canister inline is the ro membrane, usually the horizontal one on top which has the 1/4" tubing going in each end. From there the filtered water goes to the storage tank and sits till it's used. When the dispenser is pressed the water goes from the storage tank thru the final canister which is usually the third vertical canister on the bottom. This one is carbon which is used to "polish" the water that's been sitting in the storage tank to take out any rubber residue and taste from the diaphragm in the tank. When i install ro filtration, i will install the uv unit before the ro. Reason being is that once the city water gets into the ro unit and is stripped of chlorine, bacteria is then able to grow in the unit. Especially on the membrane. Using a uv unit before the ro will kill any bacteria and viruses before hitting the ro unit making contamination very low. In this situation its a good idea to use a 2-5 micron sediment filter before the uv to prevent shadow masking, which is suspended particles that block uv light from fully penetrating the water column inside the uv chamber and/ or eliminating particles that have attached bacteria from entering the uv chamber as bacteria that are riding on particles are not always exposed to the full uv dose as the particle spins around inside the uv. If you are going to get a 5 stage ro with a reminerlizer , I would definitely recommend getting a name brand from a big company who have to comply with nsf or ansi testing and will be using food grade remineralizer media. I wouldn't trust some cheapo no name brand especially if i would be drinking it as well. HTH Be careful though, some 5 stage ro units have a second horizontal canister on top and that is a de-scaler that takes out hardness minerals which also degrade the ro. membrane. In this case i would add a good quality reminerlizer cartridge on the final output of the whole ro unit between it and the dipensing tap. Ps. When changing any of the canister filters, its a really good idea to use hydrogen peroxide and soap to scrub out the canisters to get rid of bacteria then a good rinse with fresh chlorinated tapwater.