Hi guys i'm in the process of getting ready for my grow. here's my problem; i have well water. I had a lady come give me an estimate for a new water softner and water heater because the house need those anyway. she tested the water with a TDS meter and it was 400 ppm. from reading other threads, that didn't seem too far over normal city water. and i expect it to drop once the new water softner is in. I want to use a recirculating DWC setup, and my main concern is the bacteria in the water. long story short, i once grew the bacteria in my water on a petri dish and it was disgusting. plenty of bacteria and entero-bacteria. would those bacteria have an effect on the plants? how would the ppm of my water plus nutes work for the grow? i was looking into a reverse osmosis filter just for the grow to fill my buckets and resovoir. this is the one i was looking at: http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/ro-counter-detail.htm it has an optional UV light that i was thinking i might need. how well does a reverse osmosis filter without a UV light take out bacteria? what would you guys do in my situation? thanks for the input guys, i really appreciate it.
Any R.O. system will do you good, but that's pretty spendy for 90 GPD. There are 125 GPD units on ebay for half that: http://cgi.ebay.com/DRINKING-WATER-SYSTEMS-REVERSE-OSMOSIS-125GPD_W0QQitemZ280294958011QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSmall_Kitchen_Appliances_US?hash=item280294958011&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A570|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50 At 400 ppm coming out of your well, your hydro grow will be compromised because of the unknown dissolved solids in the water. Plants grown hydroponically need a delicate balance of Macro AND Micro nurients to thrive. Suppose part of the ppm in your well water is excessive iron, or manganese for example, it would feed the plants excesses of these nutrients that it doesn't need. This could, and often does lead to imbalances which show up as leaf problems. ( Spots, yellowing, curling etc.) With an R.O. system, you start near 0 ppm, so you know that your feeding program is giving the plants the right food in the right amounts. As for bacteria, you can incorporate a uv treatment system with an R.O. system, but I don't think many of them remove it.
Wow, what a rip off. Go to ebay and get one for about half that. Reverse Osmosis can be had for less then $119 and free shipping for a great 5-stage system. Even less if you wanted to shop around more. But I like the 6-stage one below for $132 with free shipping. This is a good deal It will pay for it's self in drinking water alone. You have to have it if your going hydro. I got one for my soil grow years ago. Best thing I ever did. The water is great.
I'm using this R/O system. The reason I like it is that its portable and I can hook it up and disconnect it easily from any faucet. I paid around $130 on Ebay for it with free shipping. Gets me down around 20 PPM, which is more then acceptable for me. http://www.qualitywaterfilters4you.com/crqupo3reoss.html
Hey Rump, i've been looking into a new RO unit. What brand do you recommend? Feel free to throw in your own thoughts on size. Think.... needs similar to your own. Thanx.
Remember that is its says 100GPD it'll actually be 50gallons or less of fresh water. The rest will be waste water.
All of the RO machine manufacturers do this (at least from what I've seen). They don't list what the output of fresh water is until you read the manual or they just don't say it at all.
