Does a fish tank bubbler quicken the chlorine evaporation?

Like the title says.

Here is what I'm doing - took a distilled water gallon and dumped it (after reading no need to use distilled) and filled it with tap water. Tap water reeks of chlorine with a 7.5+ pH, but ppm is 140~ which I understand to be pretty decent for tap water. I also read people using fish bubblers to speed the evaporation process.

So I bought a pump, hose, and bubbler for $13 and put it in the gallon about 12 hours. Chlorine smell pretty much gone, ppm down to 70, but pH was about 8.7. No idea why that would happen.

Does this actually speed the evaporation or something, did I read wrong, or is this in my head? I don't want to keep doing this if the same results would just happen on their own given enough time.

Yes it does, I would still bubble it for 24 hours or longer before use for Chlorine, Chloramine Takes longer and requires a chemical or carbon treatment of the water to effectively remove it 100%. I mention Chloramine because a lot of cities have switched because it is more effective.

Ph change is weird but chlorine will evaporate quicker with moving water but is usually good after 12 to 24 hours standing anyways so dont worry bout the bubbler just rotate 3 or more buckets and yer good.

idk where you live but in the US tap water can have no more than 4 ppm of chlorine and thats not gonna hurt your plants

imo the 140ppms in your water is probably calcium/magnesium not chlorine and would be good for your plants.

redeyedfrog said:

Ph change is weird

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Hmmmm... yeah, I'm no where near smart enough to even guess at that shit. I used pH down and got it to 6.1 and fed them. Only my second grow - first was 4 years ago. I did everything wrong with my first grow (CMC Auto Massassin) and it turned out quite good. I'm trying to do better this time so I picked White Widow Auto because everything I see about it says its very forgiving for newbies. But my leaves are all fucky (was feeding it 7.5+ pH until I figured it out), and the plants aren't all that great, but that's for another "help" thread.

pulpoinspace said:

idk where you live but in the US tap water can have no more than 4 ppm of chlorine and thats not gonna hurt your plants

imo the 140ppms in your water is probably calcium/magnesium not chlorine and would be good for your plants.

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Good to know. Maybe the ppm that was lost was the chlorine? At any rate, I keep seeing outdoor growers say "I feed them with the garden hose and they are just fine" so I guess they would be ok just feeding them as-is? But I also assume leaving the water out 24 hrs couldn't hurt, either.

H_Aspect said:

Good to know. Maybe the ppm that was lost was the chlorine? At any rate, I keep seeing outdoor growers say "I feed them with the garden hose and they are just fine" so I guess they would be ok just feeding them as-is? But I also assume leaving the water out 24 hrs couldn't hurt, either.

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yeah i don't think it would hurt. unless you're growing in pure perlite or something. i've actually seen people use distilled/RO water without chlorine and get algae growing all over their medium and not know why.

but in general its commonly accepted practice. however lots of people just say to hell with it and water with chlorine and personally i haven't seen a difference since i stopped letting it evaporate.

H_Aspect said:

Good to know. Maybe the ppm that was lost was the chlorine? At any rate, I keep seeing outdoor growers say "I feed them with the garden hose and they are just fine" so I guess they would be ok just feeding them as-is? But I also assume leaving the water out 24 hrs couldn't hurt, either.

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If you are growing organically you should always evap the chlorine but if your using chemical based nutes I wouldn't worry too much about it as you wouldn't be depending si much on microbial ecosystem in the soil. Honestly I've never used a ppm meter and probably never will
Lol. Just something else to complicate something simple.

redeyedfrog said:

If you are growing organically you should always evap the chlorine but if your using chemical based nutes I wouldn't worry too much about it as you wouldn't be depending si much on microbial ecosystem in the soil. Honestly I've never used a ppm meter and probably never will
Lol. Just something else to complicate something simple.

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Thanks @pulpoinspace and @redeyedfrog

I'm growing in the worst soil possible, and figured it out when it was ALMOST too late. It's FF salamander soil. It's 60-70% coco, some perlite, and some other shit. The fan hit it and a light breeze blows it everywhere like fine sand. I was able to dig around the plants and dig about 5-6" deep and replace it with Black Gold (my only other choice besides miracle grow). Didn't seem to bother them and didn't hit any roots. At least now the soil on top isn't blowing around. I didn't want that shit all on my buds when it flowers. I'm just using my ppm for my nutes as RQS says that auto white widow should not be fed much. So I'm feeding it very little and at every 3-4th watering.

Live and learn...

I 'm using air pump for that,dont know if it helpd, and I keep it for 3-4 days, after each watering/feeding, I pour new tap water in my bucket,throw in air stone,and I leave it until next time.

P.s; can't you buy some proper trusted brand of soil for weed.? buy some ph test kit, use something to.measure how much ph- you need for sweet 6.5 ph, and you should be 2 worries less

pulpoinspace said:

idk where you live but in the US tap water can have no more than 4 ppm of chlorine and thats not gonna hurt your plants

imo the 140ppms in your water is probably calcium/magnesium not chlorine and would be good for your plants.

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Agree. Grown a few years and chlorine is no problem from an approved water supply.

H_Aspect said:

Like the title says.

Here is what I'm doing - took a distilled water gallon and dumped it (after reading no need to use distilled) and filled it with tap water. Tap water reeks of chlorine with a 7.5+ pH, but ppm is 140~ which I understand to be pretty decent for tap water. I also read people using fish bubblers to speed the evaporation process.

So I bought a pump, hose, and bubbler for $13 and put it in the gallon about 12 hours. Chlorine smell pretty much gone, ppm down to 70, but pH was about 8.7. No idea why that would happen.

Does this actually speed the evaporation or something, did I read wrong, or is this in my head? I don't want to keep doing this if the same results would just happen on their own given enough time.

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There are much better ways, like a brita type filter

CikaBika said:

I 'm using air pump for that,dont know if it helpd, and I keep it for 3-4 days, after each watering/feeding, I pour new tap water in my bucket,throw in air stone,and I leave it until next time.

P.s; can't you buy some proper trusted brand of soil for weed.? buy some ph test kit, use something to.measure how much ph- you need for sweet 6.5 ph, and you should be 2 worries less

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Could I get better soil? Yes. But FFOF was almost a 60 mile drive one way. I went into my hardware store that afternoon for something and saw "fox farm" on the bag and instantly thought I had saved myself a 2+ hour drive round trip. I had to do the entire set-up on the sly - build the tent, assemble all the fans/lights/exhaust, fill the pots, etc. - in about 4 hours when no one was around. I'd never have the time to do it all. I should have waited, but again, lesson learned. My last, and successful, grow was in Black Gold. Fox Farm should be embarrassed to sell this garbage.

I have several pH test kits now that I didn't have when I started and fixed my pH problem. I'm hoping that in another set of leaves or so I'll see the issue gone. So I guess I'll just use the water as-is and report back in a few months.

H_Aspect said:

Like the title says.

Here is what I'm doing - took a distilled water gallon and dumped it (after reading no need to use distilled) and filled it with tap water. Tap water reeks of chlorine with a 7.5+ pH, but ppm is 140~ which I understand to be pretty decent for tap water. I also read people using fish bubblers to speed the evaporation process.

So I bought a pump, hose, and bubbler for $13 and put it in the gallon about 12 hours. Chlorine smell pretty much gone, ppm down to 70, but pH was about 8.7. No idea why that would happen.

Does this actually speed the evaporation or something, did I read wrong, or is this in my head? I don't want to keep doing this if the same results would just happen on their own given enough time.

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All chlorination I have seen is a non-issue for plants. Do you have a lawn? Is it watered with city water? Your water is fine. But oxygenated water is super A+ awesome for your roots, keep that shit bubbly!

And look up your actual municipal water data to find out what is in it, you probably shouldn’t worry about the chlorine.

If you are in soil use fresh cold fucking tapwater, if it sits around for more than a couple hours, stick the airstone in it to oxygenate the water. I am really impatient about this topic, I apologize for my tone. Your tap sounds great for a soil grow, use it. And FFOF is fine, seriously. Just tapwater for the first 30 days then feed. I have used Black Gold organic and FFOF and the latter is a little better in my area (it varies by state, all soils do) but they are both fine. I am using a mix of them and recycled tupur coco and a bunch of amendments right now.

H_Aspect said:

So I bought a pump, hose, and bubbler for $13 and put it in the gallon about 12 hours. Chlorine smell pretty much gone, ppm down to 70, but pH was about 8.7. No idea why that would happen.

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I can't imagine what would cause the pH to go up so drastically

perhaps there was some residue on the tubing or something?

pulpoinspace said:

yeah i don't think it would hurt. unless you're growing in pure perlite or something. i've actually seen people use distilled/RO water without chlorine and get algae growing all over their medium and not know why.

but in general its commonly accepted practice. however lots of people just say to hell with it and water with chlorine and personally i haven't seen a difference since i stopped letting it evaporate.

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hotrodharley said:

Agree. Grown a few years and chlorine is no problem from an approved water supply.

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These guys are correct.
Stop worrying.

The End.

Sir Napsalot said:

I can't imagine what would cause the pH to go up so drastically

perhaps there was some residue on the tubing or something?

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Or the stone itself? Maybe after some use it stabilizes. Who knows I guess.

Michael Huntherz said:

I am really impatient about this topic, I apologize for my tone.

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No worries at all and no offense taken. I posted in Newbie Central because I'm trying to learn. And today I'm more educated on a topic than yesterday, which should be everyone's goal.

Yeah there won’t be enough chlorine in that water to matter and odds are it’s straight chlorine chloramines usually don’t present odor and taste issues like straight chlorine does. 4 ppm is the mcl for chlorine odds are your at 3 more than likely 2ppm. It doesn’t take much cl2 to present odor.

H_Aspect said:

Or the stone itself? Maybe after some use it stabilizes. Who knows I guess.



No worries at all and no offense taken. I posted in Newbie Central because I'm trying to learn. And today I'm more educated on a topic than yesterday, which should be everyone's goal.

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The stone itself wouldn’t do that, pH is important for aquaria too, those stones are inert, your pH swing is normal, use your water when fresh to avoid all of the weirdness.

bubbler pumps draw ambient air into the pump, introducing CO2 into th water 24/7= pH issues