Is "drinking water" ok to use?

[matman4444]

I have 5 gallon bottles of "drinking water" available to use to water my little grow.
The label says deionized with minerals added for taste. I could check the ppm but I doubt they add that much to make a difference but who knows.
Also will the deionized aspect mess up my ph meter readings? I thought I read somewhere without the ions the meters can have a hard time getting an accurate reading.

I also have 5 gallon bottles of spring water available if that would be better, but I don't have RO water.

Thanks

 

[Flagg420]

I used spring water for ages, works great.

holds around 120-200ppm, which is all them happy trace nutrients you generally gotta re-add after RO...

Ur spring water is a good bet. Safe for seedlings, and free of the nasties you worry about from (treated) tap water.

 

[Jimdamick]

I have 5 gallon bottles of "drinking water" available to use to water my little grow.
The label says deionized with minerals added for taste. I could check the ppm but I doubt they add that much to make a difference but who knows.
Also will the deionized aspect mess up my ph meter readings? I thought I read somewhere without the ions the meters can have a hard time getting an accurate reading.

I also have 5 gallon bottles of spring water available if that would be better, but I don't have RO water.

Thanks

Water is water, as far as I'm concerned.
Unless you have like well water, then you might have a concern, or heavily chlorinated water in an organic grow is an issue, but don't sweat it otherwise.

 

[Kerovan]

Just use your tap water, there nothing wrong with it unless you live somewhere where you only have well water that is thick enough to cut with a knife.

 

[GroErr]

For outdoor I (and many others) have used creek water & puddles of rain water collected in tarps if that's all that's available, it'll be fine, so would your tap water.

 

[matman4444]

Ok I think I'll just use this spring water so I can have the bottle then I'll just use tap water left out to let the chlorine evaporate.
Then the only important thing is to pH it right?
I didn't have a ph meter the first couple weeks so just gave it purified water and I think a couple plants got nutrient lockout, some of the new growth is a bit light in the center of the leaves.

 

[Kerovan]

Ok I think I'll just use this spring water so I can have the bottle then I'll just use tap water left out to let the chlorine evaporate.
Then the only important thing is to pH it right?
I didn't have a ph meter the first couple weeks so just gave it purified water and I think a couple plants got nutrient lockout, some of the new growth is a bit light in the center of the leaves.

If your tap water contains chloramine, which the majority does now, letting it sit out won't help. Chloramine doesn't evaporate. Besides, the amount of chlorine/chloramine they put in tap water is not harmful. Tap water in the US can contain no more than 4 parts per million of chlorine/chloramine.

 

[Gumdrawp]

If your tap water contains chloramine, which the majority does now, letting it sit out won't help. Chloramine doesn't evaporate. Besides, the amount of chlorine/chloramine they put in tap water is not harmful. Tap water in the US can contain no more than 4 parts per million of chlorine/chloramine.

I don't know about the majority with chloramines , from what I've seen about it it's pretty rare, and they're already trying to get away from it unless it's required.

Anyways chlorine is actually a necessary micronutrient, and if I'm not mistaken *very low* concentrations are not dangerous to bacteria in your medium and may actually help. It will still kill some good bacteria but I read something about killing off bad bacteria with the good bacteria makes it easier for good bacteria to outcompete the bad iirc.

I only bother with dechlorinating my water now when I brew my initial batches of concentrated teas, mostly that's just out of habit and because id rather be safe then sorry. I cut that down to 2cups/gallon in tap water afterwards though.

From my understanding most bad tap water comes from very hard water with softeners, which can add a lot of sodium to water(or maybe it was CaCo3). Which contribute to salt lockups and ph imbalances.