H20 too damn alkaline

chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
Just cant seem to win here

I have tap water with a ph of 8.1-8.3

I purchased a berkey in hopes to filter out the bullshit . chloramine, chlorine flouride arsenic prescription drugs etc etc.

well, it filtered the water just fine but the pH tested at a whopping 9.3 post filter

then i purcahse an RO filter off Amazon (the APEC) for 200 great reviews and saw a youtuber test it who had a greenhouse who was looking to neutralize his water and it worked for him. took his water from high 8's to low 7's. so i was thrilled about it (video:
)

i install it (pain the ass) under the sink,,, and i re test the filtered water and now I'm at 9.8 !!! WTF !!!!

what do i do to have free flowing water 7 and under in my dang house !!! help !!
 
G

Gumdrawp

Well-Known Member
chooselove said:
Just cant seem to win here

I have tap water with a ph of 8.1-8.3

I purchased a berkey in hopes to filter out the bullshit . chloramine, chlorine flouride arsenic prescription drugs etc etc.

well, it filtered the water just fine but the pH tested at a whopping 9.3 post filter

then i purcahse an RO filter off Amazon (the APEC) for 200 great reviews and saw a youtuber test it who had a greenhouse who was looking to neutralize his water and it worked for him. took his water from high 8's to low 7's. so i was thrilled about it (video:
)

i install it (pain the ass) under the sink,,, and i re test the filtered water and now I'm at 9.8 !!! WTF !!!!

what do i do to have free flowing water 7 and under in my dang house !!! help !!
Click to expand...
I had to let my old ro system run about 50 gallons through it before I used it. Brought my ph and ppm from ~7.5 and 225ppm to 6ish and <20 ppm. I think the first half a day or so run time is used to pack the filter elements down and rinse particulates, it was a lot more consistent after about a week of running.
 
chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
Gumdrawp said:
I had to let my old ro system run about 50 gallons through it before I used it. Brought my ph and ppm from ~7.5 and 225ppm to 6ish and <20 ppm. I think the first half a day or so run time is used to pack the filter elements down and rinse particulates, it was a lot more consistent after about a week of running.
Click to expand...
Wow seriously? I'm turning it on now.
 
chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
Gumdrawp said:
I had to let my old ro system run about 50 gallons through it before I used it. Brought my ph and ppm from ~7.5 and 225ppm to 6ish and <20 ppm. I think the first half a day or so run time is used to pack the filter elements down and rinse particulates, it was a lot more consistent after about a week of running.
Click to expand...
My ppms are immediately down though, so it doesnt make much sense that the ph is still is so high..
 
Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
You seem to be chasing your tail, ph and alkalinity are not the same thing.

If you want a ph of 7 then it will have to come from a buffer and is not so much possible in pure water.

Even still i think you are looking at this the wrong way round, you most likely will not achieve your goal :-)
 
chooselove

chooselove

Active Member
chooselove said:
progress update: pH now at 7.8/8.0 , ppm at 004 will keep running the water through the filter... Hopefully approaching <7
Click to expand...
looking like we hit 7.4 - 7.6 ish or so, i've been running it on and off most of the day.. will provide an update again tomorrow, ppm is definitely <004
 
racerboy71

racerboy71

bud bootlegger
Kingrow1 said:
You seem to be chasing your tail, ph and alkalinity are not the same thing.

If you want a ph of 7 then it will have to come from a buffer and is not so much possible in pure water.

Even still i think you are looking at this the wrong way round, you most likely will not achieve your goal :-)
Click to expand...
kinda lost me on this part .. ph is how alkaline or acidic a solution is.. anything over 7 would be on the alkaline side, and anything below, on the acidic side, unless i'm missing something of course..
 
G

Gumdrawp

Well-Known Member
racerboy71 said:
kinda lost me on this part .. ph is how alkaline or acidic a solution is.. anything over 7 would be on the alkaline side, and anything below, on the acidic side, unless i'm missing something of course..
Click to expand...
Actually alkalinity is the waters ability to buffer ph due to the dissolved ions I'm pretty sure. But from your context I knew you meant your ph.
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
chooselove said:
looking like we hit 7.4 - 7.6 ish or so, i've been running it on and off most of the day.. will provide an update again tomorrow, ppm is definitely <004
Click to expand...
RO, eh?

You DO know you have to add 5ml of Ca/Mg to that for it to work correctly, right?

In RO the amount of dissolved Co2 in the water has great effect on the pH. You are running an air stone/pump in the RO res right?

You mix your feed solution and pH it properly for hydro - period.

In soil, as long as your not over 1.5 whole points away from 6.5 -7.0
Don't bother to pH the solution. I might pay more attention to pH in soil if I was doing heavy synthetic feeding......say keeping it between 5.5 and 8.0 before feeding it.
 
G

Gumdrawp

Well-Known Member
Dr. Who said:
RO, eh?

You DO know you have to add 5ml of Ca/Mg to that for it to work correctly, right?

In RO the amount of dissolved Co2 in the water has great effect on the pH. You are running an air stone/pump in the RO res right?

You mix your feed solution and pH it properly for hydro - period.

In soil, as long as your not over 1.5 whole points away from 6.5 -7.0
Don't bother to pH the solution. I might pay more attention to pH in soil if I was doing heavy synthetic feeding......say keeping it between 5.5 and 8.0 before feeding it.
Click to expand...
Honestly it seems like with all the humic/fulvic/chelation agents 5.5-8 is all the same on my end too. I grow in 30% coco/ricehulls/peat with about 10% compost added for some starter microbes and a bit of food since I'm pretty light on it during early veg. Not sure if all the aeration is why the lower ph values work well but my plants seem to like it 6 or just below more than closer to 7. If it's between 5.4 and low 7s I don't bother phing it anymore
 
Kingrow1

Kingrow1

Well-Known Member
racerboy71 said:
kinda lost me on this part .. ph is how alkaline or acidic a solution is.. anything over 7 would be on the alkaline side, and anything below, on the acidic side, unless i'm missing something of course..
Click to expand...
Just generating conversation as i get lost on these subjects to and enjoy other members coming in and giving some good info :-)
 
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