Water: The Most Essential Compound

Medi 1 said:

who says brita removes chloramines? and like i said there is a diff in the quality of the carbon used in the systems....this is right in your link....

In choosing carbon for chloramine removal, a specially prepared carbon called “catalytic” carbon is far superior to regular carbon. there was more to the link saying the same as well.

there is a diff in carbon as we know this from making exhaust filters as well. the ones we use have a 2 year gaurantee. not many filter give that. not water but the exhaust smell filters. so my point was that not all carbon is equal.

ive gtot a chart ill show later after work...no time right now. has all what teh filters remove.

sorry for the typos here, my spell check deal isnt working

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I've read a lot of different websites and and articles and I've seen a lot of conflicting info. r/o filters and carbon filters DON'T remove everything. No filter does. Of course some are going to be better than others but how much better? Is it worth it to pay more money for a filter that removes .00000001% more chloramine from the water (I just threw that number in as an example). For some it may be worth it. I've seen companies make claims that their membranes are superior or that their carbon filter is superior because it's manufactured using some special process with special materials. Words can be manipulated in such a way as to make a product seem like it is somehow superior when in actuality it isn't. And the thing is they get away with it because of the wording. As long as the claim isn't completely false. Go ahead and put up a link or whatever. I welcome the sharing of information but I just want to caution people; just because a company makes a claim doesn't necessarily make it true.

ya i can agree that there is alot of the ...mine is better shit out there. and im not a saleman for them. i just use them and our shop sells them. selling isnt my deal. my water is near perfect from the tap but im trying the filter out to see if i do get a difference.

heres one of the charts i have. not sure if you can read what filters are for what models to the left or not.

doc111 said:

Your well water is way too hard IMO. You will more than likely need to do something to fix it. You are one of the smart ones. Many people just don't believe that poor water quality will have noticeable effects on their grow. I found out the hard way and struggled for months before I took a look at my water. I think the way you are thinking of doing it (running your well water through a softener and then through the r/o filter) will probably be your best bet. Remember to change out those prefilters (in your case I'd consider doing it at least every 6 months). This is the sinlgle best thing you can do to preserve the life of the membrane. Best of luck and happy growing.

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Update: That's what I'm going with - running the >750ppm well water first through a conventional NaCl softener (after which the TDS is still about the same, which makes sense, as it's just swapping Na ions for those coming out of the ground), then running it through the consumer-grade RO unit (membrane + 3 filter stages) to strip out the Na, after which the TDS, according to my cheap little EC meter, is close enough to zero. This little under-sink-style unit, really just built for generating drinking water, is supposed to be good for 50 gallons/day, so I think it's going to be fine for the forseeable future. I've had it for years - installed it when we moved to this house, but mothballed it because it wasn't producing any volume. At the time I didn't bother to figure out why, but now it's clear that it was because the supply pressure wasn't high enough. I've jacked up my pressure tank and jet pump, and things seem to be working well now.

justpassingthrough said:

Update: That's what I'm going with - running the >750ppm well water first through a conventional NaCl softener (after which the TDS is still about the same, which makes sense, as it's just swapping Na ions for those coming out of the ground), then running it through the consumer-grade RO unit (membrane + 3 filter stages) to strip out the Na, after which the TDS, according to my cheap little EC meter, is close enough to zero. This little under-sink-style unit, really just built for generating drinking water, is supposed to be good for 50 gallons/day, so I think it's going to be fine for the forseeable future. I've had it for years - installed it when we moved to this house, but mothballed it because it wasn't producing any volume. At the time I didn't bother to figure out why, but now it's clear that it was because the supply pressure wasn't high enough. I've jacked up my pressure tank and jet pump, and things seem to be working well now.

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I'm glad to hear it's working out for you. Those r/o units have a minimum and maximum operating pressure. If you get it running correctly it should give you plenty of nice pure water for your ladies. You can drink it if you want to as well.

ya i realy doidnt need it as im already near perfect water here in B.C but i did want to see how big a deal no chloramines would be to my microbes sicne im big intpo using those and saving money on nutes. it has taken alot to get the water back down to norml. it was as tap at 7.4 then afetr filter went to 9.4...ouch. so they said i needed more water run through even if the instructions said 15 min was enough.,..ive run about 1.5 hours now and im back down to 7.4..i still want it to be 7. ppm is now 0, but was only 20 before.

Medi 1 said:

ya i realy doidnt need it as im already near perfect water here in B.C but i did want to see how big a deal no chloramines would be to my microbes sicne im big intpo using those and saving money on nutes. it has taken alot to get the water back down to norml. it was as tap at 7.4 then afetr filter went to 9.4...ouch. so they said i needed more water run through even if the instructions said 15 min was enough.,..ive run about 1.5 hours now and im back down to 7.4..i still want it to be 7. ppm is now 0, but was only 20 before.

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That's another one of those things I'm reading conflicting things on. Some say chloramines kill beneficials, but not all of them and not enough of them to make a serious dent in the population. Others say it absolutely decimates the microbe populations and damages the mycos and all that. Who knows. I called the manufacturer of my r/o unit and they said that their carbon block filters are rated by the EPA to remove like 99.9% of chloramine so that's good to know.

nice. ya even if they kill off only some, then it alloows the bad ones and fungi to take over and usualy why we get mildew or bugs. a healthy plant wont get them other wise. they will be able to fight them off on its own.
i haver evven seen a conflicting sheet here now on the hydro logics, saying the filter gets some then sdays all in another pamphlet here.....who to believe hey. well at least we have the resources to find out wherre i work. so hopefully ill have my real unbiased answer from a user of the stuff. ya we sellt hem but if its not what they say i wont back anyone.

Medi 1 said:

nice. ya even if they kill off only some, then it alloows the bad ones and fungi to take over and usualy why we get mildew or bugs. a healthy plant wont get them other wise. they will be able to fight them off on its own.
i haver evven seen a conflicting sheet here now on the hydro logics, saying the filter gets some then sdays all in another pamphlet here.....who to believe hey. well at least we have the resources to find out wherre i work. so hopefully ill have my real unbiased answer from a user of the stuff. ya we sellt hem but if its not what they say i wont back anyone.

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I'll be interested to see how it turns out. It's hard to trust what any company says that is also trying to sell you something, know what I mean? How any filter company can say their product catches everything is beyond me. I've never seen any filter that got 100% of what it was filtering. Some get really really close but seldom get all of it.

ill agree 100% on that one. id say pretty dam hard here to do that as well. im actualy going to call them over the next day or 2 and see what the rep tells me a a retailer of his stuff and then do my testing on my own and see how close we are to what they claim.
we have alot of products youd never see in my garden but if someone buys it or asks about it ill be honest to how to use it....anyways im baked and ramblin now.....lol

Medi 1 said:

ill agree 100% on that one. id say pretty dam hard here to do that as well. im actualy going to call them over the next day or 2 and see what the rep tells me a a retailer of his stuff and then do my testing on my own and see how close we are to what they claim.
we have alot of products youd never see in my garden but if someone buys it or asks about it ill be honest to how to use it....anyways im baked and ramblin now.....lol

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lol! I don't mind rambling! Keep me posted on how this turns out please.

maybe i overlooked it....anything in there about well water ? lol i ask laughing as i want to blame my well water for my mishaps as it couldnt possibly be my fault im having possible, overwatering, overfeeding problems...lol

GRiMCreeper said:

maybe i overlooked it....anything in there about well water ? lol i ask laughing as i want to blame my well water for my mishaps as it couldnt possibly be my fault im having possible, overwatering, overfeeding problems...lol

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Well water is one of those things that can either be as pure as the driven snow, or downright nasty! Unfortunately, well water, even wells in relative close proximity can yield wildly different qualities of water. If you are on a well and can't get it tested, note how it smells (sounds funny, but a lot of well water smells like rotten eggs, indicating the presence of sulphur compounds). Is there rust or limescale on toilets and faucets? If not, you can also check it with a TDS meter, which won't tell you what's in it but it will give you an idea of how pure it is.

dude maybe u should take a note of the advice you gave to another newbie, so i posted your response to another thread to refresh your memory



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fabfun said:

dude maybe u should take a note of the advice you gave to another newbie, so i posted your response to another thread to refresh your memory




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Join DateAug 2010LocationearthPosts15Journal Entries5

Dude, you have 5 posts to wonderblunders 2.5 thousand, your a stranger--he's Mr.Ganja Sooooooooooo, I have found when one starts to judge they become judged themselves. From one noobie to another Don't be Dickish<which is not an actual word>yourself. Just some advice.Peace, weed and uh somethin else I think....oh well lets smoke.
​

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This guy had a couple of posts removed from the thread. He got pretty "Dickish" so the mods came in and put the smackdown on him!

ouch so they dusted off the mod hand on him
well it amusing when someones post are not consistent with other post they make and they become a contradiction

hard to treat their remarks with credibility

doc111 said:

This guy had a couple of posts removed from the thread. He got pretty "Dickish" so the mods came in and put the smackdown on him!

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fabfun said:

ouch so they dusted off the mod hand on him
well it amusing when someones post are not consistent with other post they make and they become a contradiction

hard to treat their remarks with credibility

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It's all good. I was simply having a hard time understanding his posts and he flew off the handle. It happens.

I am currently using the condensate water from my A/C. I have a portable air conditioner that averages about 2 1/2 gallons a day of condensate (more than I can use) in my grow room. Is this good water? I just assumed it would be.

groovedaddy said:

I am currently using the condensate water from my A/C. I have a portable air conditioner that averages about 2 1/2 gallons a day of condensate (more than I can use) in my grow room. Is this good water? I just assumed it would be.

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It's more or less distilled water and many people use it with no problems but A/C coils and dehumidifier coils cant contain some harmful heavy metals and harbor pathogens and mold spores, etc. The insidious thing about heavy metals is that they don't usually make you sick right away. They build up in your body over time and can cause a host of vague symptoms like headaches and gastrointestinal issues up to severed mental health problems and certain cancers. I personally wouldn't use it.

doc111 said:

It's more or less distilled water and many people use it with no problems but A/C coils and dehumidifier coils cant contain some harmful heavy metals and harbor pathogens and mold spores, etc. The insidious thing about heavy metals is that they don't usually make you sick right away. They build up in your body over time and can cause a host of vague symptoms like headaches and gastrointestinal issues up to severed mental health problems and certain cancers. I personally wouldn't use it.

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I always thought heavy metal was a damn good movie! Seriously though thanks for the heads up and awesome thread

All it took was one look at my dogs waterbowl to know I needed an R/O system.I'm sure its been mentioned already in this massive thread but too much calcium locks out magnesium,locks it out cold you might say.I didnt start really farming trichomes until I started using R/O water