Bad water??

So i am getting all kinds of weird things happening to my plants. Looked at some pics and i can distinctly pick out 2 or 3 different problems throughout the room and at least 1 is affecting almost every plant. its nothing major, but its just not right. Becuase it isnt 1 specific problem but a few, it would lead me to believe that it is a PH problem, but i have a digital meter, and make sure my PH is 5.9 every time i water. I am also very thorough and keep track of EVERYTHING (i could go back over the life of a crop and tell exactly what the nutirent temp, PH, PPM was, the amount of each nute added, and what days i watered, etc...). This would leave me to think it could be nutrient lockout perhaps due to the hardness??

Here are my thoughts and just wanted to get some other opinions here.

(BTW, its a run-to-waste system)

I have extremely high PPM and VERY HARD water (ppm is about 460 +/- and after 2 weeks of watering veg, i can see a little white buildup already forming on the top of my 6x6 rockwool).

I am considering some sort of water purification system, but not sure which way to go.

Initially i thought i would go with an RO system, but heard that there is a LOT of waste water from that. Since i have 2 fairly large res's (100 gal for flower and 50 for veg), not sure this would be the best option. From what i have been reading, you get 2 - 3 times the amount of waste water that you get in RO water (so for my system, i would be looking at using 450 gal - 600 gal of water to fill each res 1 time) OUCH!!!

Just looking for any thoughts or suggestions on how to go about this in the most effective but hopefully economical way. I dont mind investing in some good equipment. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

I'm having the exact same issue about 380 ppm. This is like my third time now and had a similar issue like the one I'm having now in the past, I purchased an RO system and it seemed to solve the problem. Unfortunately, now my RO system is on the fritz Plus it takes FOREVER to get just 20 gallons of water so, I bout a 2 stage wall mount filter and then another green knight hydro filter on the end of my hose. Still having the same issue .

I'm thinking of giving the general hydro hard water micro a try but has anyone had any similar experiences? Can someone help us out?

was wondering about the micro hard water. Also a little confused about it. Do you use that instead of regular micro or do you use both?

Also, still wondering on my original question or if anyone has any other ideas? would really appreciate.

malibusteve said:

I'm having the exact same issue about 380 ppm. This is like my third time now and had a similar issue like the one I'm having now in the past, I purchased an RO system and it seemed to solve the problem. Unfortunately, now my RO system is on the fritz Plus it takes FOREVER to get just 20 gallons of water so, I bout a 2 stage wall mount filter and then another green knight hydro filter on the end of my hose. Still having the same issue .

I'm thinking of giving the general hydro hard water micro a try but has anyone had any similar experiences? Can someone help us out?

Click to expand...

which RO system you buy? is there as much waste water as i am thinking there will be?

The micro can be used two ways depending on the calcium ppm of your water. If you have 30 to 50ppm calcium you should mix micro and hard water micro together, anything 70 and over, straight hard water micro. In general if you have anything over 200ppm it says you probably have over 70ppm of calcium.

frettfreak said:

which RO system you buy? is there as much waste water as i am thinking there will be?

Click to expand...

I bought a watts 5 stage system, got the ppm down to about 10

I was having some issues in the past with yellowing and found it do be the chlorine content in my water. This go around I bought one of these http://www.amazon.com/Rainshowr-Green-Knight-Hydroponic-Filter/dp/B0057S1I6K And this http://www.amazon.com/Watts-520022-Exterior-Filter-Fittings/dp/B0018N0XCI/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1316669022&sr=1-3 Brought the hardness down a little, plus I can fill at 2 gallons a minute

i bought the stealth RO 100. came with a optional insert to reduce waste water. put it at about 1:1 ratio. as it used to be a 1:2 ration. (good:waste)

if i could have I would have went with this instead
http://htgsupply.com/Product-1-PURE-100-Reverse-Osmosis--Deionizer-Water-Filtration-System.asp
and saved myself ~$100

but if you use a lot of water, I would look at a 200gpd + system, as my 100 takes much longer than advertised.

I'm not having the issue anymore, all good to go!!