Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Hey guys, I've been thinking about this and it's bothering me lol. Is it different chlorine that they add at the city water supply? Is it the concentration? Or do we not need to de-chlorinate in hydro?
Why do we de-chlorinate water, just to re-add chlorine to sterilize the res?
- Thread starter Hollatchaboy
- Start date
Wastei
Well-Known Member
We demineralize water. There's more things than chlorine disturbing the nutrient ratio. You want to remove any minerals not available for plant to uptake. Carbonates will raise pH for example.
Short answer is, we want to know the exact ratio of nutrients available in the solution. It all depends on what's in the water if it's necessary.
EC/ppm value of the water will tell you how much total salts is in the water. Everything over 100ppm or 0.2 EC is unacceptable in hydro IMO.
Last edited:
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Yea I get that the de-mineralization of the water is important but I'm less to believe to let water sit out for at least 24 hours to de-chlorinate. Does the chlorine change the ph/ec value of the water?
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Ok so chlorine is sodium chloride if I'm not mistaken?
go go kid
Well-Known Member
sodium chloride is table salt
Wastei
Well-Known Member
Probably chloramine you if you live in the states. Evaporating chlorine is pointless, chloramine won't evaporate. The residual dosage is to low to kill of anything IME. It will react with the organics, killing of some nasties before becoming neutral.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Ah hah... sodium hypochlorite... that's what I meant. Duh. Lol
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the help you guys! 
Actually sodium hypochlorite and by experience plant dont like it. A good alternative is calcium hypochlorite which plants can uptake in low doses. Plus keeps the res sterile. Personally I use Pool Shock and have great results (after dialing in the correct ratios). I've killed plenty of roots in my experiments haha
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
I've used h2o2 in the past but hydroguard works good enough for me.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
But really I was just wondering if I really need to let it sit out for 24 hours before using it. I guess with the hydroguard its a good idea.
I've tried jumping on the hydroguard train so many times but never had any luck. I've seen great results tho so not knocking it by any means. Ya probably a good idea to let the water sit for 24hr if using HG since the chlorine in most tap water could potentially kill benies
I fiddled with this for a while due to city water. Ended up buying a Small boy de-chlorinator with the upgraded KDF85 filter, later upgraded it to a full RO filter with thier kit. Gets me down to about 10ppm. I think I actually need their Chlorashield filter to fully remove chloramine, but I'm happy with what I got and sick of spending money on that lol.
Mirrordawn
Well-Known Member
I use UC ROOTS. Swear by it, P.H Neutral.
cch2o.com
Cultured Solutions UC Roots - Current Culture H2O
Looking for larger sizes? Use Clear Line Professional Strength Hypochlorous Acid instead.
cch2o.com
J232
Well-Known Member
What do you use for a maintenance dose? I tried it last run but really weak, was inconsistent because i didn’t have issues and didn’t want to mix something toxic. I might of used 200ml in a run.I use UC ROOTS. Swear by it, P.H Neutral.
Cultured Solutions UC Roots - Current Culture H2O
Looking for larger sizes? Use Clear Line Professional Strength Hypochlorous Acid instead.
Mirrordawn
Well-Known Member
Could you please elaborate on a maintenance dose?
I run about 2mls per Gallon in the system and then an extra 10% on the top off res.
J232
Well-Known Member
Basically just meant the minimum dose that’s effective in a system that’s not experiencing any issues, like pythium. I think I was only doing 1ml and no different on res change. I revisited this whole thing before I fired back up, I’m just going straight chiller again for now.
Mirrordawn
Well-Known Member
Honestly speaking. Current Culture recommends 2-5 the whole way through. But if you ran it 0.5 - 1ml, I doubt you would have any issues if everything is clean and sterile. If you see things start to build up, just bring it by 0.25 until you notice a difference.