Reverse osmosis systems also waste a lot of water, as there is a waste or reject stream which contains the solutes. Some systems waste more than others.
If your tap/starting water isn't that bad or you just want to remove the chlorine/chloramines, you could just use a good activated charcoal/ion exchange filter. Brita/Pur are simple, tabletop examples of such filters but they sell more sophisticated/larger systems (many have dual filters) that handle higher loads. These are typically much cheaper than RO systems, they don't waste as much water and they do remove most of the chlorination, chlorination by-products, heavy metals, and various other toxic substances. They do not all remove fluoride, at least the most elementary strictly activated carbon ones won't although some filters employ an ion-exchange resin/deionizer or other technologies which make them more capable.
Good genetics...I do love my Rain catcher.Grew a plant for 4-5 weeks with it 10ppm and x2 airstones.No issues at all.
I use only rainwater when I have it,10 months out of the yr.Other 2 its froze or just to cold to mess with...
I bring my barrel in at the first prospect of a deep freeze. First it gets emptied half way or as much as is needed to be able to lift it (still, with help). I fill as many 2.5 gallon jugs as I can and store these along with the barrel in a 3-season room. Then, if I need to, I pay attention to the weather and any chance that it could rain during the Winter months I just use a 5-gallon bucket to collect what I can and dump it in the barrel.
Anyone who does have a rain barrel, it should really by emptied before winter or at least not left full and secured to something. There are a couple reasons for this. One is to prevent damage to the barrel from water expanding as it freezes. The other reason is that these things can actually be dangerous, especially if they are chock full and unsturdy as they are very heavy when full.
hello my well water has a ppm of 124 and a ph around 10+....I am using a 6month miracle grow but am changing back to ffof....does anybody know if the high ppm well water is a good thing or not?
You probably live where the ground water flows through or the water table meets deposits of limestone. Acid rain or water saturated with carbon dioxide dissolves the lime and results in bicarbonates (calcium bicarbonate, magnesium bicarbonate) in the water. As fas as TDS 124 ppm isn't really that bad, although 10 seems like a very high pH for drinking water and that could be a problem. Say the pH of that water was 8 instead, it wouldn't be that bad. I generally tell people to add lime to their soil (instead of pH adjuster) unless they have really alkaline water, since such water typically has lime dissolved into it. So, you definitely wouldn't need lime or any Ca/Mg supplements under such circumstances, but the pH of that water is probably too high regardless unless you're growing in straight sphagnum peat moss.