River water?

I have a river right behind my house and I was wondering if anyone uses river water with successful growth for there plants i just started doing this and all seems fine 2 weeks in. and what do you guys do to make it work for you ? I'm doing soil grows now but thinking on transitioning over to coco and wondered if you can use river water for hydro and coco growing or if you need to use RO water for hydro and coco? Thanks

I think soiless-coco will rock with riverwater as long as u not in city.hydro I douth

River water is bad ass, however it may be lacking in some minerals like calcium or magnesium ect. I have used aquifer water on and off for years. Just a little cal/mag is all that needed.

I would say as long as you filter out the particulate so it doesn't clog up any pumps or airstones you have in your system; and the water is safe to drink without having to purify it, you should be ok. I have no hands on experience with this so I don't know for sure but clear, potable water is clear, potable water. As someone else mentioned you may be lacking in a few minerals. I know well water's principal dissolved solid is usually calcium so you that may transfer over to rivers?

Is the river fed by a spring or a lake? Because if it is fed by a lake you should run a water purity test or something because it could have a bunch of different things in there from mercury to motor oil. I know there is a lake around my area that is a fucking biohazard area, literally. In my youth, I have drank water from a river that flows out of there, and I was sick for months. See, the mines in the area used to dump their waste and shit into the water there so God only knows what the hell I was drinking from that stream. Ah, the joys of adolescence

But yeah, I'm just rambling now. Do some research, run some tests, filter your water, then I would say you are ready to start the long wait for your plants to finish lol.

Drink it for a few weeks and get back to us. If it's good enough for you, then it's good enough for your plants.

Edit: Sarcasm aside, I think you would be fine as long as EC is below .2-.3 or so? I'd be very suspect of river water with a high EC.

Ok so I tested the river water vs. My tap water the river water was ppm 208 EC was 0.3 and the PH was 7.7
The tap water PPM was 165 EC was 0.3 and the PH was 8.0 so not far off from the river water I say it's safe and probably a lot better than tap not a bunch of extra chemicals. And the PH tester is a Hanna and the EC - PPM meter is a Truncheon I will be able to give my plants better water in unlimited amounts with no extra cost thanks for all the replies.