Hard or Soft Water?

2Hearts · Sep 2, 2015

MrStickyScissors said:
Well I geuss it's how hard your water is. if its 250 to 400 you can get away with it. but if it's like 900 then your going to have a fucked up crop. Only time I have ever had problems in 8 years of growing was 2 times due to the ppm of the tap water being around 900. It's just best to run R/O that way you know what is in your water. You wouldnt run a nutrient line that had a question mark on the lable.

Dude the whole chemistry of water is not a strong point for me but i really think hard water ferts are not aimed at calcium levels but at bicarbonate levels which influence ph. If canna says you need hard water ferts at 7.8 and above it shows they are more concerned with the ph through the bicarbonate level.

I think follow their instructions on use over a certain ph and voila that should answer the question...

...im sold anyway :-)

2Hearts · Sep 2, 2015

ItsJustMe84 said:
Hey guys, ive been using a soft water nutrient as advised by the guy who taught me to grow about a year back, but ive just found out the water were i live is classed as slightly hard and reads at 8.1 straight from the tap, now before i start my next grow id like to know wether i should switch to hardwater or stick with soft, i have had deficiancys in the past, and its only now ive started testing ph levels as i wasnt shown any of that by the guy who set me up, im kinda just learning that side of growing?
Any feedback would be welcome as i cant find any direct info on the internet?

Follow the advice and use hard water ferts if ph is over a certain level...

...i hope this answers the question.

Gquebed · Sep 2, 2015

ItsJustMe84 said:
Cool, thanks for that dude, ive done alright up until now not using anything not even a ph tester... although i have experienced deficianys.
So how do you use a ppm meter what does it do? What exactly are you measuring?

Ppm is parts per million and it measures the solids in you water... calcium salts and other minerals..

Distilled water has no solids and therefore will not conduct electricity. RO water has trace amounts of solids and will therefore conduct electricity.

Incidentally....

skunkd0c · Sep 2, 2015

MrStickyScissors said:
Well I geuss it's how hard your water is. if its 250 to 400 you can get away with it. but if it's like 900 then your going to have a fucked up crop. Only time I have ever had problems in 8 years of growing was 2 times due to the ppm of the tap water being around 900. It's just best to run R/O that way you know what is in your water. You wouldnt run a nutrient line that had a question mark on the lable.

Do people drink this kind of water you speak of with an ec of 1.8

MrStickyScissors · Sep 2, 2015

skunkd0c said:
Do people drink this kind of water you speak of with an ec of 1.8

I don't. but yeah people do. And I'm not exagerating it's really 900 ppm

MrStickyScissors · Sep 2, 2015

watered with it , phed how I normally do. slowest growth ever. nothing but problems

2Hearts · Sep 2, 2015

skunkd0c said:
Do people drink this kind of water you speak of with an ec of 1.8

Its way above safe drinking water and health advice in the Uk so no not here, not even the highest mineral water in shops here is anywhere close to that.

skunkd0c · Sep 2, 2015

2Hearts said:
Its way above safe drinking water and health advice in the Uk so no not here, not even the highest mineral water in shops here is anywhere close to that.

sounds disgusting, i am in the UK so i have no concept of water that could be 1.8 ec
i would of thought something like that would of been paid for by comic relief / Lenny Henry and be in the Sudan

MrStickyScissors · Sep 2, 2015

that's what it looks like when it evaporates

MrStickyScissors · Sep 2, 2015

now imagine your pots drying out and all that remains in your pots. do the math

MrStickyScissors · Sep 2, 2015

we had well water that was 250 ppm. I grew with that just fine. then the drought hit. all the wells dryed out, they sent a letter in the mail saying our watter carrier had been switched. the quality went way down as you can see

2Hearts · Sep 2, 2015

skunkd0c said:
sounds disgusting, i am in the UK so i have no concept of water that could be 1.8 ec
i would of thought something like that would of been paid for by comic relief / Lenny Henry and be in the Sudan

Uk is like ultra strick on water, in my parts theres not any body of water they dont test and administer strict limits. The sea, lakes, rivers, streams, sewage, resovoirs, swimming pools, rainwater, drainage water, farming runoff, groundwater and every detail has to be made publically available, cant even take a piss without the water board turning up.

Public concern is really big in the Uk, if it isnt up to standard you have to deal with news groups, public demonstrations, goverment bodies and a million angry mums, it just aint worth making sub standard water.

2Hearts · Sep 2, 2015

MrStickyScissors said:
we had well water that was 250 ppm. I grew with that just fine. then the drought hit. all the wells dryed out, they sent a letter in the mail saying our watter carrier had been switched. the quality went way down as you can see

Haha wells in my country are just for throwing money in and making wishes that never come true, the rest were deemed saftey hazards and filled in.

skunkd0c · Sep 2, 2015

2Hearts said:
Uk is like ultra strick on water, in my parts theres not any body of water they dont test and administer strict limits. The sea, lakes, rivers, streams, sewage, resovoirs, swimming pools, rainwater, drainage water, farming runoff, groundwater and every detail has to be made publically available, cant even take a piss without the water board turning up.

Public concern is really big in the Uk, if it isnt up to standard you have to deal with news groups, public demonstrations, goverment bodies and a million angry mums, it just aint worth making sub standard water.

Yes i am pleased with the standard of UK tap water i have been growing with it for a long time
i only need to measure it once, to confirm it is the same as the last area , makes growing simple we are lucky i think
1.8 ec is insane, must be like the third world or something

MrStickyScissors · Sep 2, 2015

skunkd0c said:
Yes i am pleased with the standard of UK tap water i have been growing with it for a long time
i only need to measure it once, to confirm it is the same as the last area , makes growing simple we are lucky i think
1.8 ec is insane, must be like the third world or something

it's gross. when I was in prison the ppm must of been like 2000 lol for the water to be brown it has to be pretty bad

skunkd0c · Sep 2, 2015

MrStickyScissors said:
it's gross. when I was in prison the ppm must of been like 2000 lol for the water to be brown it has to be pretty bad

That sounds bad man brown water LOL , i don't know why but it reminded me of a strange story

there was a surplus of salmon for some reason or another, we "the UK" offered it to the "Russians" they said fuck off we don't want UK salmon if its anything like your mad cows
so they gave the salmon to a prison in the UK they made salmon sandwiches with it

the story leaked to the press, people were outraged that prisoners were eating salmon sandwiches
"people who have committed crimes should not be allowed the luxury of a salmon sandwich" were the outcries
so they removed the sandwiches from the prision and threw the rest away lol

MrStickyScissors · Sep 2, 2015

skunkd0c said:
That sounds bad man brown water LOL , i don't know why but it reminded me of a strange story

there was a surplus of salmon for some reason or another, we "the UK" offered it to the "Russians" they said fuck off we don't want UK salmon if its anything like your mad cows
so they gave the salmon to a prison in the UK they made salmon sandwiches with it

the story leaked to the press, people were outraged that prisoners were eating salmon sandwiches
"people who have committed crimes should not be allowed the luxury of a salmon sandwich" were the outcries
so they removed the sandwiches from the prision and threw the rest away lol

did you know that in america a long time ago they considered lobsters dirty nasty food like eating bugs. they were feeding it to the prisoners and they had to stop because it was deemed to be unhumane

Budley Doright · Sep 2, 2015

I asked how it works that you have better water than most because your cleverer. Lol

Solar Flowered · Sep 2, 2015

Water of pH 8+ is definitely too high for nutrient uptake. I would suggest bringing it down to around 6.0 for soil with a basic 3 part nutrient feeding program. If you are short on dough for a pH pen.. you can always use drops as a nice substitute. Same yellow as corona beer is about the color you are looking for with pH'd water.

ItsJustMe84 · Sep 3, 2015

2Hearts said:
Should be per litre and thinv 36mg/l = 36ppm.

Im going to guess thats calcium carbonate levels rather than total hardness

Yes but it shows that calicum is what makes the water hard, everything on the chart is based around the calcium even going so far to say that 40-60mg of cal = slightly hard, ill take a couple of screenshots and show you

Hard or Soft Water?

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