A quick PPM question on bubbler!!!!

freerider

Member
Should I account for water ppm when adding nutes?

Basically I live in a very hard water area, I cant buy distilled water from any store near me so I use tap (faucet) water which I have filtered myself (although I think the filter is crap cos ppm is no diff from the normal water).
I leave it to stand for 24hrs to get rid of chlorine, but the ppm before adding any nutes is around 400, im using canna aqua and according to the chart i have ppm should be around 700 but after ive added the A + B, rhizo, etc it goes upto 1400!

Is this bad?

Im just starting with hydro after having pretty good success with coco soil, i have had a bubbler on the go for about 4 weeks now just to see how it goes and the growth has been pretty good, but some of the leaves are showing nute burn now and growth doesnt seem quite as explosive as i expected.

Facts:-
Air temp - 80f
Humid - 80+%
light - 250w blue cfl
water temp - 21 - 23c
ph - 5.9 (very stable)
ppm - upto about 1700 now

Also, should i try separate the roots?
they all tangle in a chain as they bathe in the bubbles!

Any help much appreciated!!!
Thanks
 

motoracer110

Well-Known Member
WoW ya your water is really bad. They say if your water is over 200 PPM from the tap then you should use a RO system, If you are starting out at 400 then lower your nutrients a bit more. you should be at about 700-900 PPM only 4 weeks into your grow and can go even lower. Less is more but if you go over its always harder to do the flush and reverse nute burn.

and leave the roots alone, they will get tangled into a root ball and that is normal. if they are a good color white then you have nothing to worry about.
 

cannatari

Well-Known Member
Yes, you should account for the ppm of your water. If you're not filtering your water through reverse-osmosis, it's likely that your meter is reading the charcoal left behind from your Britta filter.
 

bloatedcraig

Well-Known Member
That is appauling, just imagine the shit that is in that water.

How the hell can you flush efficently if your ppm is that high to start with.

Don't worry about roots, unless you arn't sure of the sex.
 

freerider

Member
Roots r pretty white (slight tint of very light brown), all clones so sex is all femmes, got 2 white widows and 6 super skunk in the tub, the 2 wids look the best.

My water filter is not a britta (i have a jug type 1 which makes 180 ppm water), mine is this 1 hxxp://www.watergem.co.uk/ they do an upgrade of filter for hard water areas, gonna try this before getting an RO system cos they are a bit pricey so im gonna try the better filter first.

Thanks for the replies.
 

sixstring2112

Well-Known Member
I had almost the same problems with my water (300 ppm) out of the tap. I got a ro for 160.00 and it dropped to 18-20 ppm and all my plant problems are gone. using less nutes now and ph is easy to correct, plus the ph is now staying put after i set it.
 
Roots r pretty white (slight tint of very light brown), all clones so sex is all femmes, got 2 white widows and 6 super skunk in the tub, the 2 wids look the best.

My water filter is not a britta (i have a jug type 1 which makes 180 ppm water), mine is this 1 hxxp://www.watergem.co.uk/ they do an upgrade of filter for hard water areas, gonna try this before getting an RO system cos they are a bit pricey so im gonna try the better filter first.

Thanks for the replies.
As for the roots, WW has a short flowering time..like 53-55 days. It always finishes first in my grow. Now sure about the skunk, but if the finish later(by like 10 days) you may not want the roots of both strains tangled up. Just my opinion

Hope this helps
 

SIV3L

Well-Known Member
400 is pretty high. Have you called your city to see why? Normal reads are usually around 150-250 for residential. To answer the question your would discount the 400 from the ppm equation so to get 300 ppm nutes you would want it to read 700ppm. Don't forget to mark it as PH Up/Down change the ppm in the water as well.
 
Top