Water problems
- Thread starter puck1969
- Start date
Southerner
Well-Known Member
I don't think theyd have anything on the shelves, but you could get something like http://www.walmart.com/ip/Camco-Water-Filter-with-Hose/14504321 and do in store pickup or just ship to your house. If you want to get fancier you could go with a two step filter like the Hydro Logic Small Boy.
puck1969
Well-Known Member
Thank you for your input guy's/girls? I guess I need to try some things and maybe sacrifice
one or two to see what works best. I just know as they grow the leaves from bottom to top
yellow out and get crispy.
personal lux
Well-Known Member
You can buy a tap water filter for not very much and the filters are interchangable and will last about 100 gallons. I cant remember the brand name though
WeedFreak78
Well-Known Member
What your tap PPM/PH? Have you looked up a local water quality report to see what's in your water? What makes you think it's bad?
puck1969
Well-Known Member
That's the question, I always used regular tap water and after whatever pathogen built up in
the soil it would burn out from bottom to top. I decided to germ some for this years outdoor
grow early and I bought 2 Purified gallons of water and have been using that. Their development
went much quicker than it had in the past outdoor projects and frankly they are getting too big too fast.
Nice problem huh? Well I saw some "free" water tests at Home Depot that will tell you what's in the
water but I could do without the annoying sales calls/e-mails...
puck1969
Well-Known Member
No, wasn't aware that I could get that information. Will that attract undo notice to my project?
WeedFreak78
Well-Known Member
It won't attract attention, it should be available online..if you're in the U.S. just google local water quality for your town/city. Or if you want to call the town, and you need an excuse..exotic fish.
That Home Depot water test is a kinda a scam..it doesn't really have to do with water quality..even thought they will test that..they want to get in your house to do a "water quality evaluation" and sell you more efficient appliances/filters, etc. to help reduce your water usage. I was grabbed by a girl promoting it yesterday...no thanks.
puck1969
Well-Known Member
Ya that was what I was afraid of. I will check online and see what I find. LOL just ordered more seeds
so I may do an indoor grow as well this year! Got some DP Blueberry by mistake from Herbies and they
are really an indoor strain.
If you're in the US, the federal government requires water providers to publish an "annual water quality report." The important parts (to me) would be ppm, ca and mg. You want the ppm to be around 150. The ca:mg ratio should be 2:1 to 3:1. If the ppms are too high, you can mix it with RO (filtered) water to get something in the range of 120-220ppm.
Some water quality reports don't include ppm. You may need to spend $15-$20 on an HM TDS-3 meter on Amazon.
If you buy a filter it must be an RO filter if you want to reduce ppm. Or, you can buy it by the gallon in dispensing machines. Those carbon filters usually found for home use will only remove odors and chlorine (maybe some other stuff). The ppms will remain the same. And, the effect of chlorine is overstated in soil. There's so little of it in tap water that it will be exhausted when it meets any significantly unsanitary condition (such as soil). You can spit or put a pinch of sugar in the water to stimulate bacterial growth to exhaust the santitizer.
puck1969
Well-Known Member
Much appreciated info AZ, I am buying purified water for now ($.98 per gallon) and using it quickly
for my small girls and I put an Afghani in a larger pot that's really sucking it down I'm sure until the
canopy shades the soil. Checked for water quality for MA online but it's apparently groundwater and
I need to call them during the week. They don't post it online.
WeedFreak78
Well-Known Member
I'm up in MA and we are on aquifers also. I just went to my towns website( which really sucks btw..) and to the water dept. section and they had the last 5 yrs reports avail. as PDF. I did have to dig around a bit to find it.
Buying water at almost $1/gal you may want to consider a RO filter. According to my town it's $0.004 /gal out of the tap. I've been using tap for the last couple weeks but my town is doing a crap load of water main work now and our water keeps getting all F'ed up..i had 40gals of rusty water in my holding tank yesterday..awesome...
Alexander Supertramp
Well-Known Member
Do you have a water softener in the house? And if so and you were using water that had been softened then sodium build is likely the problem.
puck1969
Well-Known Member
That sounds like a solid plan, I am sure it's a hard water problem not chlorine. As I said above, I don't think
I will be using as much when the canopy shades the soil. I cut a strip out of one of those coated paper plates
and slid it under my plant round side up an it actually held the moisture in pretty well. How much does an RO
filter cost?
puck1969
Well-Known Member
No water softener at my house but have friends that have them. I have always had hard water growing
up in this area and have pulled off florescent light grows in the house I used to live in but they were bag
seed grows. I am sure ordered seeds are a little more sensitive.