how can I simply improve my water quality

J

jonjon777

Active Member
I have city water, it comes out at 160 ppm and 7.5 to 8.0 pH. Not bad, but I'm trying to improve it, I got one of those filters that screws onto hose for pools and spas, I'll attach pic, it takes my ppm down to 80 which is not bad at all, but my pH is more of my concern, does anybody else have a pH this high?

mind tends to jump drastically at first, 5.5 to 7.

there has to be some simple fixes out there that you guys have

or should I just pony up the money for an RO?

Let me know...

Thanks guys?
 
hbbum

hbbum

Well-Known Member
Bubble your water for 24 hours after you add nutrients, but before you adjust the PH.. That will help stabilize it.

Your PPM is great, mine comes out around 400 so I use distilled when running hydro.
 
J

jonjon777

Active Member
I've been doing that, for some reason I noticed peroxide helps tremendously but I'm a fan of running bleach at a low dose all the time , I dealt with flying once before and I will never do it again
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
What are you concerned with filtering out? Unless you have something bad that needs to be removed you are just putting effort and money into something that will never pay off. RO will only cause you issues if it's not filtering out a problem contaminant. At your PPMs I wouldn't bother with any filter. Your water PH is quite normal. You have pretty much exactly the water that most nutes are designed for, if you filter too low you will have to buy the sucker product known as CalMag or make it with Epsom Salts and Calcium Sulfate.
 
J

jonjon777

Active Member
The pH has been an issue, that's all, ppm is of no concern, it just seems rather high it's always 8.0 and I hear a lot of others talking about there is a 6.4 or 6.5, I know is probably the water treatment plant, but I figured there was something I can do to get it like that even though it's good the way it is lol
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
jonjon777 said:
The pH has been an issue, that's all, ppm is of no concern, it just seems rather high it's always 8.0 and I hear a lot of others talking about there is a 6.4 or 6.5, I know is probably the water treatment plant, but I figured there was something I can do to get it like that even though it's good the way it is lol
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If you filter water to 100% purity you will have a PH of 7.0. 6.4 or 6.5 from your tap is most likely a very bad thing. Most tap comes from the ground and picks up minerals (good for you and good for plants), these minerals are basic (higher than 7.0 PH, and make your water have a higher than 7.0 PH), if your water comes out below 7.0 you have contaminants that are acidic, and a lot of them to counteract the minerals. If someone is getting 6.4 PH water out of their tap I would recommend they get their water supply fixed and stop drinking it immediately.

Rain water is the only water than should naturally have a lower than 7.0 PH, due to picking up the acids in the air.
 
bravedave

bravedave

Well-Known Member
nomofatum said:
If you filter water to 100% purity you will have a PH of 7.0. 6.4 or 6.5 from your tap is most likely a very bad thing. Most tap comes from the ground and picks up minerals (good for you and good for plants), these minerals are basic (higher than 7.0 PH, and make your water have a higher than 7.0 PH), if your water comes out below 7.0 you have contaminants that are acidic, and a lot of them to counteract the minerals. If someone is getting 6.4 PH water out of their tap I would recommend they get their water supply fixed and stop drinking it immediately.

Rain water is the only water than should naturally have a lower than 7.0 PH, due to picking up the acids in the air.
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Couldn't one contend that by using RO your starting point puts you in control of what gets added?
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
bravedave said:
Couldn't one contend that by using RO your starting point puts you in control of what gets added?
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Sort of, your plants will need more than what's already in the water anyway, so you already have that control, just tricking yourself into thinking you gained something in most cases. Getting a water test is far wiser than getting RO.
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
jonjon777 said:
The pH has been an issue, that's all, ppm is of no concern, it just seems rather high it's always 8.0 and I hear a lot of others talking about there is a 6.4 or 6.5, I know is probably the water treatment plant, but I figured there was something I can do to get it like that even though it's good the way it is lol
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My tap and ro water has the same ph (around 8). With RO you have to add calmag to replace minerals lost from filtering to 10ppm. Calmag seems to acidify the water, leading to the use of ph up.

If your tap isn't high ppm, I would use tap. Your nutes should bring it down to a decent ph. If they don't, I'd like to know what you're using.

I mix RO and tap to get 160-220 ppm. In your case, if you're not trying to get lower ppm, I don't see any reason to use RO. The ph should be the same (it's just the calmag that lowers it).
 
bravedave

bravedave

Well-Known Member
az2000 said:
My tap and ro water has the same ph (around 8). With RO you have to add calmag to replace minerals lost from filtering to 10ppm. Calmag seems to acidify the water, leading to the use of ph up.

If your tap isn't high ppm, I would use tap. Your nutes should bring it down to a decent ph. If they don't, I'd like to know what you're using.

I mix RO and tap to get 160-220 ppm. In your case, if you're not trying to get lower ppm, I don't see any reason to use RO. The ph should be the same (it's just the calmag that lowers it).
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I use RO because my well water, unconditioned is just nasty. That is not say my plants wouldn't like it. :). I just didn't start with it because of it being orange an smelly and thus went the RO route with success. I also seem to not need to add Ca/Mg as my Promix Soil "seems" to provide what is needed. (I had negative results adding it)
 
A

az2000

Well-Known Member
I agree. It depends on the water. My water is so high in PPM I can't use it. But, cutting it with RO (about 1:2 or 1:3) works, and I don't seem to need calmag as a result. Which means the final ph is higher, and I don't have to use phup.

I'm surprised you don't have to use calmag if using pure ro water. Pro-Mix has virtually nothing in it. It comes with dolomite, but I didn't think it was enough for a full grow. I add 1-1/2 to 2 Tbsp per gallon. Even then, with ro water I used 2ml/gal to add back the minerals to the water.

Maybe your nutes provide enough minerals that you don't need calmag. For example, if using GH Flora 3-part, I think the "micro" bottle provides enough. I use a dry 1-part soil fertilizer which expects calcium to come from the soil. Starting with 150-200 ppm water (tap cut with RO), it works ok.
 
nomofatum

nomofatum

Well-Known Member
az2000 said:
I agree. It depends on the water. My water is so high in PPM I can't use it. But, cutting it with RO (about 1:2 or 1:3) works, and I don't seem to need calmag as a result. Which means the final ph is higher, and I don't have to use phup.

I'm surprised you don't have to use calmag if using pure ro water. Pro-Mix has virtually nothing in it. It comes with dolomite, but I didn't think it was enough for a full grow. I add 1-1/2 to 2 Tbsp per gallon. Even then, with ro water I used 2ml/gal to add back the minerals to the water.

Maybe your nutes provide enough minerals that you don't need calmag. For example, if using GH Flora 3-part, I think the "micro" bottle provides enough. I use a dry 1-part soil fertilizer which expects calcium to come from the soil. Starting with 150-200 ppm water (tap cut with RO), it works ok.
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I think you could have made a better filter selection. Instead of using a slow, expensive and wasteful RO system you could have easily used inline carbon sediment filters. No point in filtering to RO purity to add back in 33% of what you just filtered out back. Just filter 66% out to begin with, it's a lot cheaper and easier to filter 66% out than 99.99%.
 
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