Hard or Soft Water?

[ItsJustMe84]

Hey guys, ive been using a soft water nutrient as advised by the guy who taught me to grow about a year back, but ive just found out the water were i live is classed as slightly hard and reads at 8.1 straight from the tap, now before i start my next grow id like to know wether i should switch to hardwater or stick with soft, i have had deficiancys in the past, and its only now ive started testing ph levels as i wasnt shown any of that by the guy who set me up, im kinda just learning that side of growing?
Any feedback would be welcome as i cant find any direct info on the internet?

 

[Budley Doright]

8.1 what? Is that grains of hardness, or is it EC? That may be so high that you may need to run reverse osmosis to have a successful grow.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

8.1 what? Is that grains of hardness, or is it EC? That may be so high that you may need to run reverse osmosis to have a successful grow.

No my PH is 8.1, its ok anyway ive found out anything over 7.8 requires hard water nutes.
The funny thing is my first grow which is all documented on here i used a soft water product, never tested the PH and F'd up a few times and still managed to pull 54oz of good weed off 9 plants under 3x 600w.
Its only now im learning how to do things propely so i can improve more.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

8.1 what? Is that grains of hardness, or is it EC? That may be so high that you may need to run reverse osmosis to have a successful grow.

How do you test EC btw? Is it necessary?

 

[budman111]

How do you test EC btw? Is it necessary?

PPM reader - few bucks on ebay but is not a necessity when you are experienced and know what a plant needs and can 'read' them...

 

[ItsJustMe84]

PPM reader - few bucks on ebay but is not a necessity when you are experienced and know what a plant needs and can 'read' them...

Cool, thanks for that dude, ive done alright up until now not using anything not even a ph tester... although i have experienced deficianys.
So how do you use a ppm meter what does it do? What exactly are you measuring?

 

[Budley Doright]

PPM reader - few bucks on ebay but is not a necessity when you are experienced and know what a plant needs and can 'read' them...

Kinda depends I think in your method of grow. Until I started hydro I never heard of an EC meter. I would say that in hydro, (flooded systems) it is if not a necessity, pretty useful. Yup got all complicated when I switched to water lol.

 

[budman111]

Kinda depends I think in your method of grow.

Such as?

 

[Budley Doright]

Thought the post was pretty clear lol.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

I get that and hear people mentioning testing the run off all the time but ill be just handwatering mine, so do i dip the ec meter in my made up nutes after ive adjusted the ph or what? And what reading am i looking for?

 

[MrStickyScissors]

hard water will fuck your grow up. Better to just go to the windmill and get 5 gallon jugs of water tell you can get a r/o. even if your tap water is good, with these droughts we have been having they can switch your water source. it happened to me had to thro out 30 clones.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

hard water will fuck your grow up. Better to just go to the windmill and get 5 gallon jugs of water tell you can get a r/o. even if your tap water is good, with these droughts we have been having they can switch your water source. it happened to me had to thro out 30 clones.

Im in the UK mate i think our last drought was over 50 yrs ago haha ive been using my tap water for the past year ive been growing, its only now in learning about ph testing that i want to know what nutes i should use.
Up until now id been using a soft water nute, but i checked the water for my area and it come up with "Slightly Hard" and my ph reading is between 8.2 and 8.4. But ive had conflicting answers, someone said they tried hard water nutes in a slightly hard water area and the hard water nutes sent the ph off the scale.. so now im at a stand still..
Has anyone got any suggestions?? Ive checked inside my kettle which ive had for 9 months and theres a little bit of lime scale but not much.. ive managed to grow good weed without all this testing so the last thing i want is to start fucking up and getting all tech...

 

[sunny747]

hard water will fuck your grow up. Better to just go to the windmill and get 5 gallon jugs of water tell you can get a r/o. even if your tap water is good, with these droughts we have been having they can switch your water source. it happened to me had to thro out 30 clones.

I agree.. the water sources are unreliable and I suspect tht as we get near the bottoms of reservoirs that the minerals may be concentrated. I tested the PPM of my tap water in January and it was 580. That's way too high. Then I tested it a few weeks ago and it was 300. Still higher than I like. Very hard water just makes a mess of things. Currently I mix bottled water with tap water to get to 150 ppm.

RO filters are pretty cheap. ou want the one that is made for aquariums, boats and campers. They are under $100. RO Buddy is the brand suggested to me. One member says he has been using his for a few years and it still spits out only 15 tds. There is no tank so ou hook it to a hose or faucet then run one line into a 5 gallon jug and the other line goes to waste so you can send this down the drain or water your shrubs with it outdoors.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

I agree.. the water sources are unreliable and I suspect tht as we get near the bottoms of reservoirs that the minerals may be concentrated. I tested the PPM of my tap water in January and it was 580. That's way too high. Then I tested it a few weeks ago and it was 300. Still higher than I like. Very hard water just makes a mess of things. Currently I mix bottled water with tap water to get to 150 ppm.

RO filters are pretty cheap. ou want the one that is made for aquariums, boats and campers. They are under $100. RO Buddy is the brand suggested to me. One member says he has been using his for a few years and it still spits out only 15 tds. There is no tank so ou hook it to a hose or faucet then run one line into a 5 gallon jug and the other line goes to waste so you can send this down the drain or water your shrubs with it outdoors.

Im not sure what a water r/o is but ill look into it...

 

[Budley Doright]

Its a reverse osmosis filter that basically removes everything from the water. I dont know much about water quality but does high PH mean hard water? I have pretty hard water but PH is like 6 out of tap. I use Aqua Flakes with no issues and well water. But I do think RO filters are a good thing as it gives you 0 base.

 

[ItsJustMe84]

Its a reverse osmosis filter that basically removes everything from the water. I dont know much about water quality but does high PH mean hard water? I have pretty hard water but PH is like 6 out of tap. I use Aqua Flakes with no issues and well water. But I do think RO filters are a good thing as it gives you 0 base.

My PH levels are around 8.2 and my water company says its slightly hard, i spoke to someone at my local hydroponics and they said i defo need hardwater base nutes and that they will adjust the ph.

I think a reading of 6 is very good for tap water, its definantly not hard water at 6.0 though.

Ive growing for a year and off my first grow i got 54 oz off 9 plants, and never used a ph tester, used a soft water base nutrient and messed up a couple of times, id say beginners luck had a lot to do with it, i just hope now in getting abit more technical i dont fuck things up.. im pretty sure hard water base nutes with ph down are the way foward.

 

[tokalotapot]

pending on the metals in the water.it can be good to check your water by testing it. but remember if you use soft water read the plant and it will ussually say i want calmag will show possible iron deficiency if not

 

[ItsJustMe84]

pending on the metals in the water.it can be good to check your water by testing it. but remember if you use soft water read the plant and it will ussually say i want calmag will show possible iron deficiency if not

What ph is soft water? Or there abouts

 

[tokalotapot]

in general i would say anything under 50ppm is truely soft water

 

[tokalotapot]

ph for soft water i dont use i just know soft water has no ph buffer which means it can change alot quickly either direction when adding nutes. i would suggest advanced ph perfect or mills maybe blue earth then it is worry free from a ph standpoint.