Hydroponics and tap water?

ddeck96

ddeck96

Well-Known Member
So I’m running a 30 gallon rdwc system and I was wondering if my tap water would be okay to use? It has a ppm of 197 and EC of 395 which I’ve heard isn’t so terrible. The only problem is I know for a fact my hard city water contains small amounts of fluoride and of course chlorine/chloramine. Could I use the tap water? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
ddeck96 said:
So I’m running a 30 gallon rdwc system and I was wondering if my tap water would be okay to use? It has a ppm of 197 and EC of 395 which I’ve heard isn’t so terrible. The only problem is I know for a fact my hard city water contains small amounts of fluoride and of course chlorine/chloramine. Could I use the tap water? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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I use tap water after bubbling it overnight. Not the best option but not a show stopper for me. It would be cool to install an RO purification system.
 
solakani said:
I use tap water after bubbling it overnight. Not the best option but not a show stopper for me. It would be cool to install an RO purification system.
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Does your water have fluoride in it?
Could you, if it’s not too much trouble, explain to me your process of “purifying” your water.
 
Hi Bob,
That water is usable. I've moved lots and used to use RO but now am on the coast in WA with water under 100ppm. I just pulled the RO membrane...and replumbed the filter...just using the carbon filters. That'll leave the good minerals and get rid of flouride and chloramine.

I try to not use RO (if I don't have to) because of the water waste (from cheap systems)

Good luck,
JD
 
ddeck96 said:
Does your water have fluoride in it?
Could you, if it’s not too much trouble, explain to me your process of “purifying” your water.
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Municipal tap water does contain fluoride. I fill my res with tap water and run a submersible pump and air pump overnight.
 
In a hydro system tap water will be fine. You should only need to use a chloramine or fluoride free water source if you are growing in organic soil.
 
solakani said:
Municipal tap water does contain fluoride. I fill my res with tap water and run a submersible pump and air pump overnight.
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so just let my tap water sit in a tote and that will take care of the chloramine and fluoride? Also is the air pump and sub pump absolutely necessary?
 
Richard Drysift said:
In a hydro system tap water will be fine. You should only need to use a chloramine or fluoride free water source if you are growing in organic soil.
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Are you absolutely positive? Like have you done this yourself with hard city tap water containing fluoride and chloramine with no negative effects??
 
Richard Drysift said:
In a hydro system tap water will be fine. You should only need to use a chloramine or fluoride free water source if you are growing in organic soil.
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also I should have mentioned. I will be using hydro guard along with other bennies. Will the fluoride and chloramine kill bennies?
 
ddeck96 said:
so just let my tap water sit in a tote and that will take care of the chloramine and fluoride? Also is the air pump and sub pump absolutely necessary?
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Just let it sit longer if you can. The pumps will come in handy when mixing in your nutes. RO water at the water depot measured ppm 0.
 
ddeck96 said:
Are you absolutely positive? Like have you done this yourself with hard city tap water containing fluoride and chloramine with no negative effects??
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Long story short....
I ran several hydro setups over the years: DWC and then aero rails (stinkbud systems) using chloramine and flouride laden city tap water. It literally smells like a pool when you fill a bathtub. I know it is high in chloromine because it’s listed in my annual water report. Grew some beautiful plants; decent yields too. I know everyone says you can leach it off by letting it set but I’ve read otherwise about chloromine in particular.
After awhile I decided I wanted a system that was cheaper to run and self sustainable
...oh and also we lost power for a week which killed our whole grow so I went back to soil.
Had nothing but problems with living soil btw and had to keep using nutes until I finally switched to a clean water source which proves what I’m saying.

ddeck96 said:
also I should have mentioned. I will be using hydro guard along with other bennies. Will the fluoride and chloramine kill bennies?
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Hydro guard is basiillus bacteria; sort of like natural pool shock...tap water should not hurt but honestly if you just keep the res temps low and clean by changing it out every 10 days or so you shouldn’t even need hydro guard. H2O2 was more effective in my experience at treating minor infestations of “bad” bacteria. Keep a close eye on the ph; if it keeps rising you know you’ve got bacteria in there somewhere. Clean the reservoir out with bleach and hot water regularly and you shouldn’t have too many problems.
 
Richard Drysift said:
Long story short....
I ran several hydro setups over the years: DWC and then aero rails (stinkbud systems) using chloramine and flouride laden city tap water. It literally smells like a pool when you fill a bathtub. I know it is high in chloromine because it’s listed in my annual water report. Grew some beautiful plants; decent yields too. I know everyone says you can leach it off by letting it set but I’ve read otherwise about chloromine in particular.
After awhile I decided I wanted a system that was cheaper to run and self sustainable
...oh and also we lost power for a week which killed our whole grow so I went back to soil.
Had nothing but problems with living soil btw and had to keep using nutes until I finally switched to a clean water source which proves what I’m saying.


Hydro guard is basiillus bacteria; sort of like natural pool shock...tap water should not hurt but honestly if you just keep the res temps low and clean by changing it out every 10 days or so you shouldn’t even need hydro guard. H2O2 was more effective in my experience at treating minor infestations of “bad” bacteria. Keep a close eye on the ph; if it keeps rising you know you’ve got bacteria in there somewhere. Clean the reservoir out with bleach and hot water regularly and you shouldn’t have too many problems.
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Good to know, thanks! BTW, sorry for the late response. I know that was kind of rude of me to not respond after you put so much time/effort into your response.
Quick question about the reservoir cleaning with hot water and bleach (I will be changing nutes and cleaning in a few days). How do you go about cleaning it? And afterwards how to you remove all the bleach from the system? (I imagine bleach isn’t good for my plants/beneficial microbes)
Thanks
 
Fordprefect42 said:
What is going on biologically that makes ph rise?
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Bacteria growing in the reservoir or elsewhere in the system; ph rises as their populations do.

ddeck96 said:
Good to know, thanks! BTW, sorry for the late response. I know that was kind of rude of me to not respond after you put so much time/effort into your response.
Quick question about the reservoir cleaning with hot water and bleach (I will be changing nutes and cleaning in a few days). How do you go about cleaning it? And afterwards how to you remove all the bleach from the system? (I imagine bleach isn’t good for my plants/beneficial microbes)
Thanks
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A little bleach won’t hurt the plants but obviously you don’t want it in the reservoir at high levels. The main problem with washing out the reservoir is where to put the plants. In a dwc this can be kind of a bitch; I used to have a bucket to switch out just for cleaning. My old stink bud aero rail system was easy to clean as the reservoir could be removed completely and washed out in a bathtub.
When you dump (or pump) out the old res water use a squeeze bottle or hand sprayer filled with 10% bleach and water to clean and then just rinse it out with hot water. Try to clean out any air lines regularly and let them dry completely before reassembling. Clorox wipes are good for this too. You’ll probably need to add back beneficial microbes like hydro guard or whatever brand after refilling.
 
Richard Drysift said:
Keep a close eye on the ph; if it keeps rising you know you’ve got bacteria in there somewhere.
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Not true. My PH always goes up in veg and the first week or two of flower. After I adjust it down once or twice, it settles. I don't have bad bacteria in my system. Telling people "you know you've got bacteria in there somewhere" could cause people to go looking for a solution to a problem they don't even have.
 
I ran sterile hydro for years. Always used water straight from the tap and even added small amounts of bleach to the system to prevent nasties. Plants didn't seem to care. In fact they thrived. My water contains both chlorine and chloramine. No fluoride fortunately. They tried to add that to our water but it was voted down. I voted no. I can see adding chlorine and/or chloramine to keep the water safe to drink. I see absolutely no reason to add fluoride to drinking water.
 
Johnny Lawrence said:
Not true. My PH always goes up in veg and the first week or two of flower. After I adjust it down once or twice, it settles. I don't have bad bacteria in my system. Telling people "you know you've got bacteria in there somewhere" could cause people to go looking for a solution to a problem they don't even have.
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Yes Ph fluctuates; just saying keep a good eye on it. I will clarify that if your ph is rising and you cannot seem to adjust it back in range a dirty res could be the problem. My point is ph will tell you things if you know how to listen.
 
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