No tap water?

So I'm on my 2nd grow, 1st was very potent and delightful. I recently read on this forum not to use tap water on your plants. I have been but haven't had any problems yet.

Was wondering though, why shouldn't I use tap water, and what do you fine ppl use on your little beauties if not tap?

i use tap... i just check my ph before i put it in. nothing wrong with good ole tap water if its ph'd right.

TheCaptain said:

So I'm on my 2nd grow, 1st was very potent and delightful. I recently read on this forum not to use tap water on your plants. I have been but haven't had any problems yet.

Was wondering though, why shouldn't I use tap water, and what do you fine ppl use on your little beauties if not tap?

Click to expand...

If you didn't have any problems on your first grow then don't change anything. Some of us can't use tap water because of an extremely high PPM out of the faucet. For example my water is 550 - 600 PPM out of the faucet and my water report from the County shows that the sodium content is 130 PPM . To give a comparison... a few Counties over their Sodium PPM is 6.5.... HUGE difference. I live near the coast so our ground water has a very high sodium content.

My first plants died pretty much right away when I used my tap water so I really didn't have any choice but to get an RO machine.

Consider yourself lucky you have good tap water

i dont have a ppm meter, but our house is a historic house, so im pretty sure there is a ton of iron etc. in our water, judging by the toilets.

and the tap water is pH'd at about 9.2, so i run all my water through my brita filter which brings it down to about 8, then i adjust the pH

i dont have a ppm meter, but our house is a historic house, so im pretty sure there is a ton of iron etc. in our water, judging by the toilets.

and the tap water is pH'd at about 9.2, so i run all my water through my brita filter which brings it down to about 8, then i adjust the pH

8 is still to high.
you want 6.3-6.8 thats optimal level.
if you want you can add a lil drop of lemon juice to lower it. but be careful not to go too low.

also if your doing hydro it can be as low as 5.8-6.8

A good idea is to buy a bin..fill it halfway with water and leave over night with an air stone in the water. (on of course)

This helps get rid of the chlorine in the water. (at least i think it's chlorine, it gets rid of something anyway)

Vinegar helps lower pH too.

Well I live damn near the center of North America, so I'm as far from the ocean as can be and sodium isn't an issue for me. As far as I can tell my plants take to this water fine. Thanks for the input guys