How important is dechlorination?

[papa canna]

I was at the hydroshop today and the guy behind the counter practically flipped his lid when i told him I use water straight from the tap. he said it's killing all the beneficial microbes and goodies in the medium. He said that i need to be aerating the water for 24-48 hours.

How important is it to dechlorinate? If its so important maybe i can just get some seachem prime from the pet store? I just find it a little silly that he tells me to aerate the water, when I read left and right that plants use chlorine that its not harmful, when the difficult chemical to treat is the chloramine. Maybe getting some seachem prime AND aeration could be the key to better water?

 

[bryan oconner]

aaaaaaaaa and aaaaaaaaa . this is a matter of opinion . some people do this some people do not . I used to do this . and I no longer doo . I have a lot of chorine in my water you can smell it . if I can drink it my dog my family then its good enough for the plants . some people are know it all . and my fish tanks have the water straight in the fish and plants live with it . so why would this very small save drinkable amount kill healthy bacteria ? to me if it will kill bacteria it will kill us. this is my opinion , I am not a chemical bio worker . just a farmer .

 

[testiclees]

If your sweating it both chlorine and chloramine are easily neutralized. Many common products will do the job.

"SFPUC determined that 1000 mg of Vitamin C (tablets purchased in a grocery store, crushed and mixed in with the bath water) removed chloramine completely in a medium size bathtub without significantly depressing pH."

 

[bryan oconner]

thanks testickees I learned some thing new today.

 

[papa canna]

aaaaaaaaa and aaaaaaaaa . this is a matter of opinion . some people do this some people do not . I used to do this . and I no longer doo . I have a lot of chorine in my water you can smell it . if I can drink it my dog my family then its good enough for the plants . some people are know it all . and my fish tanks have the water straight in the fish and plants live with it . so why would this very small save drinkable amount kill healthy bacteria ? to me if it will kill bacteria it will kill us. this is my opinion , I am not a chemical bio worker . just a farmer .

the reason it would kill the healthy bacteria is because that is what it was made to do. Chlorine and chloramine were placed in the water to kill bacteria that would otherwise make us sick. The problem being that these chemicals do not differentiate good bacteria from bad.

 

[papa canna]

If your sweating it both chlorine and chloramine are easily neutralized. Many common products will do the job.

"SFPUC determined that 1000 mg of Vitamin C (tablets purchased in a grocery store, crushed and mixed in with the bath water) removed chloramine completely in a medium size bathtub without significantly depressing pH."

i've read about vitamin C, I was also thinking about the seachem prime dechlorinator for fish water, as that might be easier and cheaper than tablets.

 

[vostok]

I was at the hydroshop today and the guy behind the counter practically flipped his lid when i told him I use water straight from the tap. he said it's killing all the beneficial microbes and goodies in the medium. He said that i need to be aerating the water for 24-48 hours.

How important is it to dechlorinate? If its so important maybe i can just get some seachem prime from the pet store? I just find it a little silly that he tells me to aerate the water, when I read left and right that plants use chlorine that its not harmful, when the difficult chemical to treat is the chloramine. Maybe getting some seachem prime AND aeration could be the key to better water?

Sellers do what they must, but I like the chlorine that gets at my plants, lemme say how?

Many water providers add chlorine to drinking water to keep it clean for human consumption. Chlorine prevents bacterial growth in water distribution systems. Many residents use chlorinated water to irrigate their lawn and garden. If chlorine is added to drinking water to kill bacteria, what impact does it have on beneficial soil microorganisms? Does it kill beneficial organisms in compost piles, too? Researchers have found that chlorinated drinking water may kill a number of microorganisms in soil or a compost pile. However, their reproduction rate is so rapid that populations rebound in a short time. Under normal conditions, chlorinated water will not threaten microorganism populations. Microorganisms reproduce rapidly. In one study, researchers continuously applied highly chlorinated water to soil for 126 days. Two days after they stopped, the soil microorganism populations reached pre-treatment levels at all depths of soil.

One reason chlorinate water has little impact is that chlorine binds to soil particle surfaces. This immobilizes chlorine and reduces its ability to kill microorganisms. The organisms in the topmost surface of soil or a compost pile may be affected after irrigation but as the water moves downward little chlorine remains. In one study, researchers found that water chlorinated at 5 parts per million killed organisms only in the top half inch of soil. Organisms deeper than one half inch were thriving.

The amount of chlorine in drinking water is quite low. In order to kill soil microorganisms to 6 inch soil depth, water containing 65 parts per million of chlorine was required in one study. Drinking water usually contains much lower chlorine levels. For example, Colorado Springs Utilities water contains between 0.05 to 0.90 parts per million of chlorine, 70 times below the threshold level.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/1548.html

so chill awhile, .. plants need and use this evaporating chem ....chill!

 

[Skunk Baxter]

If you're really paranoid about it, you can do what I do - when it's time to refill the reservoir, on the last feed of the day I drain and clean the tubs, then fill them back up with tap water, turn on the airstone, and run it overnight. In the morning, when the lights come on, I add the nutes and mix them, and by the time the roots are warm enough for their first feeding, the nutes and PH are dialed in and ready to go (I like to let the root zone warm up to the 70s before I feed them. Not a necessity, but I'm anal about some things). Anyway, it probably still has some chlorine in there, but a lot less than 12 hours earlier when I filled it.

Of course, that doesn't work for chloramine, but not every city uses that. If you're worried about it, you can find out from your city whether they add it, and if they do you can neutralize it with vitamin c. I don't know the amounts you need, but I do know it's very small, and you can find out online.

 

[kiwipaulie]

Yeah don't even worry about it. Focus more on getting it to room temp before feeding.

 

[Gary Goodson]

 

[papa canna]

If you're really paranoid about it, you can do what I do - when it's time to refill the reservoir, on the last feed of the day I drain and clean the tubs, then fill them back up with tap water, turn on the airstone, and run it overnight. In the morning, when the lights come on, I add the nutes and mix them, and by the time the roots are warm enough for their first feeding, the nutes and PH are dialed in and ready to go (I like to let the root zone warm up to the 70s before I feed them. Not a necessity, but I'm anal about some things). Anyway, it probably still has some chlorine in there, but a lot less than 12 hours earlier when I filled it.

Of course, that doesn't work for chloramine, but not every city uses that. If you're worried about it, you can find out from your city whether they add it, and if they do you can neutralize it with vitamin c. I don't know the amounts you need, but I do know it's very small, and you can find out online.

My city does use chloramine. Are vitamin C tabs expensive? I would think that some sort of fish conditioner would've been cheaper.

 

[superbak3d]

Simple, this is what I do.

Run your tap water on hot, as hot as it can go. It should be steaming.

Fill up your gallon jugs (I do many of them at a time) and let them sit at room temp with the caps off.

Then I just put them on the shelves and let them sit there until I need a jug. When it's feeding time I grab a jug, mix in my nutes, shake and go!

Alternatively, you can just fill up a big pot of water and put it on the stove until it boils, then just let the water settle and cool back down to room temp. Fill your jugs and store them.

 

[papa canna]

Simple, this is what I do.

Run your tap water on hot, as hot as it can go. It should be steaming.

Fill up your gallon jugs (I do many of them at a time) and let them sit at room temp with the caps off.

Then I just put them on the shelves and let them sit there until I need a jug. When it's feeding time I grab a jug, mix in my nutes, shake and go!

Alternatively, you can just fill up a big pot of water and put it on the stove until it boils, then just let the water settle and cool back down to room temp. Fill your jugs and store them.

I dont mean to sound ungrateful, but none of that makes any sense to me for the following reasons: boiling does nothing to water except to sterilize bacteria. Which is already sterilized from chlorine/chloramine chemicals. Boiling water down will (if boiled enough) only give you a larger amount of TDS in your water, thus making it "harder" than it was before.

Filling your jugs with warm water is just a bad idea. I work in the heating and cooling industry, and we deal with a lot of hot water tanks. Unless your hot water tank is brand new, or emptied on a regular basis (once per year is a good idea) the bottom of your hot water tank is filled with all kinds of nasty crap. Literally white fluff from all the total dissolved solids, and all the other crap that comes from boiling water over and over again. (think of the white smear in your teflon pan from boiling water for a while and then emptying it, except its no longer a smear, its not a big ball of mush). on a regular basis when we go to empty these hot water tanks, we have a hard time getting through this ball of white mush/crap in the tank, that looks suspiciously like foamy semen. That is why it is not recommended to drink or cook with hot water.

Not trying to sound like a know it all, because when it comes to growing im fairly inexperienced, but hot water I do have experience in, and i would recommend that if you feel the need to heat up the water before hand, to put cold water into a large pot and boil it for a very small amount of time. Do not fill jugs with hot tap water. I wouldnt want what ive seen in my plants.

 

[lahadaextranjera]

Sellers do what they must, but I like the chlorine that gets at my plants, lemme say how?

Many water providers add chlorine to drinking water to keep it clean for human consumption. Chlorine prevents bacterial growth in water distribution systems. Many residents use chlorinated water to irrigate their lawn and garden. If chlorine is added to drinking water to kill bacteria, what impact does it have on beneficial soil microorganisms? Does it kill beneficial organisms in compost piles, too? Researchers have found that chlorinated drinking water may kill a number of microorganisms in soil or a compost pile. However, their reproduction rate is so rapid that populations rebound in a short time. Under normal conditions, chlorinated water will not threaten microorganism populations. Microorganisms reproduce rapidly. In one study, researchers continuously applied highly chlorinated water to soil for 126 days. Two days after they stopped, the soil microorganism populations reached pre-treatment levels at all depths of soil.

One reason chlorinate water has little impact is that chlorine binds to soil particle surfaces. This immobilizes chlorine and reduces its ability to kill microorganisms. The organisms in the topmost surface of soil or a compost pile may be affected after irrigation but as the water moves downward little chlorine remains. In one study, researchers found that water chlorinated at 5 parts per million killed organisms only in the top half inch of soil. Organisms deeper than one half inch were thriving.

The amount of chlorine in drinking water is quite low. In order to kill soil microorganisms to 6 inch soil depth, water containing 65 parts per million of chlorine was required in one study. Drinking water usually contains much lower chlorine levels. For example, Colorado Springs Utilities water contains between 0.05 to 0.90 parts per million of chlorine, 70 times below the threshold level.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/ptlk/1548.html

so chill awhile, .. plants need and use this evaporating chem ....chill!

Winner winner chicken dinner!


I just leave mine out the night before. It's quite clean here anyway. I don't fill up the bottle to the top of the neck as a bit of surface area helps it escape as a gas.

Sometimes I just use it straight from the tap but it's really cold now.

 

[Jimmy Sparkle]

I use water straight out of my sink chloramine and all. No problems for me.

 

[vostok]

I dont mean to sound ungrateful, but none of that makes any sense to me for the following reasons: boiling does nothing to water except to sterilize bacteria. Which is already sterilized from chlorine/chloramine chemicals. Boiling water down will (if boiled enough) only give you a larger amount of TDS in your water, thus making it "harder" than it was before.

Filling your jugs with warm water is just a bad idea. I work in the heating and cooling industry, and we deal with a lot of hot water tanks. Unless your hot water tank is brand new, or emptied on a regular basis (once per year is a good idea) the bottom of your hot water tank is filled with all kinds of nasty crap. Literally white fluff from all the total dissolved solids, and all the other crap that comes from boiling water over and over again. (think of the white smear in your teflon pan from boiling water for a while and then emptying it, except its no longer a smear, its not a big ball of mush). on a regular basis when we go to empty these hot water tanks, we have a hard time getting through this ball of white mush/crap in the tank, that looks suspiciously like foamy semen. That is why it is not recommended to drink or cook with hot water.

Not trying to sound like a know it all, because when it comes to growing im fairly inexperienced, but hot water I do have experience in, and i would recommend that if you feel the need to heat up the water before hand, to put cold water into a large pot and boil it for a very small amount of time. Do not fill jugs with hot tap water. I wouldnt want what ive seen in my plants.

Often I can be out of RO water, and feed my seedlings with cold water from the hot tap

but papa has raised some serious points

..thanks

but in most instances the electically/gas heat hot water tank has a vent,

hence the water will heated is outgassing any chlorine,

but the point about a build up of TDS's is valid