Major issues after switching to RO water

I have been growing for a few years now, I am growing in Coco, using DTW with 3 feedings a day. I am feeding Jack's professional HydroFeed details http://www.jrpeters.com/Products/Jack-s-Professional/Jack-s-FeED/16-4-7-Hydro-FeED.html. Also I am adding in some of Jack's Blossom booster for some P.

I had been using tap water with a PPM of 230 and a PH of 7.2 for years, I finally got it locked down and my growth was amazing. I was then talked into trying RO water, I now have a 200GPD unit, it brings my PPMs down to 10 and raises the PH to about 8. However with the RO water, when I add in my ferts that PH drops like an anchor down to about 4.3, I never had this issue with the tap water. However that PH will drift up throughout the life of that res change (about 3-4 days, 55 gal).

Should I mess with PH up. I mean I have some serious yellowing on my fan leaves, or should I just go back to my tap water?

You need to supplement Calcium and Magnesium when switching to RO water. There is no buffer in the water when you filter it through an RO system so PH readings tend to be sketchy/inaccurate. Add the supplemented Cal/Mag first to the water then your nutrients. I would always make sure my PO is stable at 5.8-6.1 before feeding even if it involves using PH up/down. Good luck

I guess I forgot to mention that I am using cal-mag plus

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if you're in coco, you're better off using coco specific nutes. then you don't have to worry about cal-mag. i use ro, and it works out great. try using pro-tekt for ph up, works great, and it's good for the plants too....

I have used canna products before. I have had much better and bigger yields with dyna-gro and jacks to be honest, not to mention cost vs yield. There is no comparison

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Well, I decided to switch back to tap water until I can get some PH up in. My fan leaves are horribly yellow

i ran into this same problem, luckily i PHd my RO water the day I bought it, I almost didn't and suffered for it. If you use RO water you'll need PH Up even with cal mag. FYI I don't use my PH Up until after I've mixed all my nutes into the water just before feeding.

i just dealt with this and what you have to do is mix 24hrs in advance. Make sure to add 150-200ppm calmag too. after 24hrs my floranova hits 5.8, up from 4.2 right after its mixed. if its still low in 24hrs u can use ph up, butonly add it untill you hit 5.5 because that ph up takes a while to fully work-it you go.to 5.8 youll be above 6 probably in 12-24hrs, and be over 6.2 in a day or two, if not sooner.

this is my.first run with ro and im switching back to MY 230ppm tap next round. i never let it sit out to evap chlorine eithend there is zero difference except i feel like a fool-i paid for a machine to take calmag out of my water, then I bought it to put back in. the only thing that makes me want to stay ro is the gh floranova is SO stable after 24hrs-my tap doesnt, it might not make that initial drop in ph, but I was always adjusting it in the resevior. i run dtw now and top my res off when its half empty with fresh solution. my ph has usually risen to 6ish by then and when i add my freshly mixednutes with a ph of 4.3ish, it brings me to 5.2-5.4. in a couple hours its up to 5.5 and it hits 5.8 in less th

en 24hrs. it will drift to 6 within 3-4 days when i top it off. you should always mix nutes 12-24hrs in advance so it stabilizes, otherwise your not getting an accurate ph

i only use ph up or down in emergencies now that i mix 24hrs in advance

krinen said:

Well, I decided to switch back to tap water until I can get some PH up in. My fan leaves are horribly yellow

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PH up = baking soda
PH down = lemon juice

you just saved a whole lot of money available at your grocery

krinen said:

I guess I forgot to mention that I am using cal-mag plus

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just a heads up. I am using cal-mag plus by botanicare. assuming you're using botanicare cal-mag plus, they recently changed their labels, and have the application rates at HALF of what they used to be. I thought maybe that this new label meant a new recipe. I had REALLY bad calcium deficiencies all of a sudden when i followed their new feeding schedule. I asked the dude at the grow store and he informed me to use it at the same rate as the same old formula, which is 10ml. per gallon. I was using 5 ml per gallon per the new labels. As soon as I upped the calmag back to where I used to run it at, (10ml/gal) the plants perked up and everything was cool again. damn botanicare..

buut. if you're not pH'ing your nutes, then it sounds more likely that you have a pH imbalance. In which case no matter what you feed the plants, they won't take up nutrients until the pH is in check! check the pH and the ppm's of your run-off water to see whats happening in the soil. if pH is too low/high flush with properly ph'ed water, until the runoff reads what you are feeding at. same goes for the ppm-

Good luck with the grow-

PK

I ended up giving up on the RO water. Not sure if it was the units that I bought, but it was much more trouble than it was worth. Plus my water bill went through the roof lol. Back to tap water, so back to healthy green luscious plants. I guess the old saying 'don't fix what isn't broken' holds very true!

once you become a more fine tuned grower that r.o will come in handy for sure! don't get rid of it just yet!!

I actually just fired it up last night to make a 55gal drum up for some foiler sprays. I made up a batch of amended coco, so I may try hand watering a few plants RO for a bit to see how the recipe works

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I just ordered a Re-Mineralzation add on for my RO unit. I am hoping that this will alleviate my issue with the Cal-Mag by adding it and other trace minerals back into my water. Please let me know if you have used one of these, seems to be a cheaper alternative than adding what could be gallons of Cal-Mag in a DTW system.

krinen said:

I just ordered a Re-Mineralzation add on for my RO unit. I am hoping that this will alleviate my issue with the Cal-Mag by adding it and other trace minerals back into my water. Please let me know if you have used one of these, seems to be a cheaper alternative than adding what could be gallons of Cal-Mag in a DTW system.

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Can you post a link for the re-mineralization thing, I've been wanting one of those for drinking water.

CaliWorthington said:

Can you post a link for the re-mineralization thing, I've been wanting one of those for drinking water.

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hey cal, i'm born and raised california. haven't lived there in a long while though. i was just wondering, do you still see cal commercials on the tube? i know it's prob. wayyy past him, but no re-runs??? is the company still alive?

Yeah they still have the commercials. lol

He only died a couple years ago, had a hot young wife, then a divorce case in court, I believe.