Water: The Most Essential Compound

idlehands80

Active Member
great post! my tap water has a ph ranging from 7-7.5 and the hardness avg for my area is 61ppm. I cant afford any special filtration systems or anything so what is the best way to prepare my water. What should I add to lower the ph until I get some ph+/- and the hardness is slightly high, so what can I do to help with that or is it not that bad?
 

FootClan

Well-Known Member
A TDS meter is one way to test for hardness. These meters can be bought relatively inexpensively. They give the ppm (parts per million) which will tell you the relative hardness of the water. Unfortunately they don't tell you exactly what or how much of each dissolved solid that's in your water. You can request a report from your water company. Most are obligated to do this free of charge. As for sodium softened water. You should not use this for growing! Plants need some sodium (very minscule amounts) for growth but the sodium in softened water is too much. It may not hurt your plants outright but you will have problems down the road. You would probably be better off just using hard water (depending on how hard it is). I don't know what the cutoff levels for Ca and Mg in water are. If I come across this info I will post it in this thread. :leaf:
I think im going to do the water machine out front of the groccry store that sounds like a good idea.
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
great post! my tap water has a ph ranging from 7-7.5 and the hardness avg for my area is 61ppm. I cant afford any special filtration systems or anything so what is the best way to prepare my water. What should I add to lower the ph until I get some ph+/- and the hardness is slightly high, so what can I do to help with that or is it not that bad?
That is a pretty low ppm. If you are growing in soil you don't need to adjust your pH if it's close to neutral pH (7.0). If you are concerned about it though, you can use lemon juice or vinegar to lower your pH. Water that has a neutral pH won't alter the pH of the growing medium. If it were me I wouldn't mess with your water at all. Sounds like it's about perfect for growing. ;-)

I think im going to do the water machine out front of the groccry store that sounds like a good idea.
That's what I use. It's around $.25 per gallon if you bring your own jugs and it comes out around 10-15 ppm. If you have a lot of plants you can try a mix of 50% tapwater and 50% r/o water. :bigjoint:
 

aeviaanah

Well-Known Member
i use rain water and it has a ppm of around 3 with a ph of 5.8. i use a 65 gallon tank and a 55 gallon sitting under the eave of the house. i basically just collect the drips from the edge of the house. i realize the risk of bringing outdoors indoors but i think the benefits outweigh the risk. my only concern is what chemicals are being leeched out of the roofing. im sure something from the roof is being added being that i am collecting solely from the roof. i have been using rainwater for 3 weeks now and havent seen any ill side effects. i would like to start thinking about how i can make it a little safer any ideas? my babies drink 15 gallons a week and boiling is not practical. what are cheap RO systems running for? yearly costs?

thanks doc111 for this great thread. remember food water and shelter.
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
i use rain water and it has a ppm of around 3 with a ph of 5.8. i use a 65 gallon tank and a 55 gallon sitting under the eave of the house. i basically just collect the drips from the edge of the house. i realize the risk of bringing outdoors indoors but i think the benefits outweigh the risk. my only concern is what chemicals are being leeched out of the roofing. im sure something from the roof is being added being that i am collecting solely from the roof. i have been using rainwater for 3 weeks now and havent seen any ill side effects. i would like to start thinking about how i can make it a little safer any ideas? my babies drink 15 gallons a week and boiling is not practical. what are cheap RO systems running for? yearly costs?

thanks doc111 for this great thread. remember food water and shelter.
r/o filters go for under $100 dollars on e-bay. I am not sure how much they cost to operate. I understand that they waste a lot of water so it may not be practical to run rainwater through one. Plus you need water pressure so you'd have to get a pump that is powerful enough to force your rainwater through the membrane. I doubt you are getting much leaching going on since the rainwater doesn't sit on the roof. It has a very brief contact time and probably doesn't pick up too much junk. Look into some sort of UV-C light to disinfect your water. I will do a search and see if I can't find something that might work. Make sure you are disinfecting your rain drum regularly and you should be ok. :bigjoint:
 

aeviaanah

Well-Known Member
thanks man. other than a uv light what would u recommend to disinfect water? i have seen uv filters at pet stores.
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
thanks man. other than a uv light what would u recommend to disinfect water? i have seen uv filters at pet stores.
The methods to disinfect things are:

1. Heat (Boiling, Cooking, Autoclave)
2. Chemical (Chlorine, Chloramine, Ethylene gas, Iodine, etc.)
3. Microfiltration
4. Radiation (UV, Gamma, etc.)

Find what's most practical for your application, budget and size of garden . bongsmilie
 

Kriegs

Well-Known Member
Thanks, Doc for this thread. As a carbonate chemist in my own right, it makes me insane when people try to argue water, pH and equilibrium chemistry with a mix of zero knowledge and internet bromides, often vociferously with a little ad hominem throw in. You, on the other hand, obviously know your stuff.

Here's a discussion on chloramine in the garden that raises some good points:

http://blog.pennlive.com/gardening/2007/12/chloraminetreated_water_in_the.html

A number of regular gardening sites suggest adding a few drops per gallon of humic acid supplement to neutralize chloramine. It's also worth knowing that commercial potting soils are predominantly composted wood and sphagnum, and are just loaded with humic acids already. There's always the "aquarium drops" to knock this stuff out, too.

The vast majority of public water systems no longer use straight chlorine, so the old "degassing" thing is mostly dead. Some small town systems might still do this. Most water system web sites will tell you what they do for treatment and raw sources.


Just FYI, all -- if you're getting bottled water with some PPM in it and the source is from Florida, as many are.. That PPM is primarily calcium carbonate. Same thing if you're harvesting "blue pool" water from nature, as one poster suggested. Probably not a problem..
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :bigjoint:

Thanks, Doc for this thread. As a carbonate chemist in my own right, it makes me insane when people try to argue water, pH and equilibrium chemistry with a mix of zero knowledge and internet bromides, often vociferously with a little ad hominem throw in. You, on the other hand, obviously know your stuff.

Here's a discussion on chloramine in the garden that raises some good points:

http://blog.pennlive.com/gardening/2007/12/chloraminetreated_water_in_the.html

A number of regular gardening sites suggest adding a few drops per gallon of humic acid supplement to neutralize chloramine. It's also worth knowing that commercial potting soils are predominantly composted wood and sphagnum, and are just loaded with humic acids already. There's always the "aquarium drops" to knock this stuff out, too.

The vast majority of public water systems no longer use straight chlorine, so the old "degassing" thing is mostly dead. Some small town systems might still do this. Most water system web sites will tell you what they do for treatment and raw sources.


Just FYI, all -- if you're getting bottled water with some PPM in it and the source is from Florida, as many are.. That PPM is primarily calcium carbonate. Same thing if you're harvesting "blue pool" water from nature, as one poster suggested. Probably not a problem..
Thank you for the link and the compliment. I plan on doing a more in depth look at chloramine in a future post. My town still uses chlorine instead of chloramine so I won't be able to do any of my own tests. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of well documented scientific data to guide us. And I read a lot of hype about chloramine and the potential problems it can cause so I've wondered if it has any ill effects on cannabis. :leaf:
 

Kriegs

Well-Known Member
You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it. :bigjoint:

Thank you for the link and the compliment. I plan on doing a more in depth look at chloramine in a future post. My town still uses chlorine instead of chloramine so I won't be able to do any of my own tests. Unfortunately there isn't a lot of well documented scientific data to guide us. And I read a lot of hype about chloramine and the potential problems it can cause so I've wondered if it has any ill effects on cannabis. :leaf:
You're welcome - I look forward to your follow-up.


For my part, my tap water comes out at pH 8.0 that I'm quite sure is due to the lime fraction they use. I do let my water sit for at least a day nonetheless out of habit. I don't worry about it otherwise, don't "ph down", and have never noticed anything but very happy plants after a solid watering. I get excoriated on this site regularly for it, too.

I've also germed about 30 seeds in this toxic soup (:lol:), and have never had one fail yet. Seems if it was that toxic, it would zap that little endosperm to death. Virtually every creature in nature gets more chemical-resilient with age so, if the little endo can handle it...
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
You're welcome - I look forward to your follow-up.


For my part, my tap water comes out at pH 8.0 that I'm quite sure is due to the lime fraction they use. I do let my water sit for at least a day nonetheless out of habit. I don't worry about it otherwise, don't "ph down", and have never noticed anything but very happy plants after a solid watering. I get excoriated on this site regularly for it, too.

I've also germed about 30 seeds in this toxic soup (:lol:), and have never had one fail yet. Seems if it was that toxic, it would zap that little endosperm to death. Virtually every creature in nature gets more chemical-resilient with age so, if the little endo can handle it...
Check back periodically. I plan on doing a few different articles and perhaps some experiments. bongsmilie
 

AquafinaOrbit

Well-Known Member
Well if you by chance see this could you explain to me the differences between Spring, Well, and Distilled Water in terms of which would be best for a plant?
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
Well if you by chance see this could you explain to me the differences between Spring, Well, and Distilled Water in terms of which would be best for a plant?
Any water that doesn't have too much in the way of dissolved solids is good for growing. It depends on the quality of the well water. Some well water is very good and some can be downright nasty. Bottled water is almost always good for growing but isn't practical to use for most people because of cost. Distilled is good but you may need to add cal-mag or another similar calcium/magnesium supplement. :leaf:
 

sickman

Member
Great thread! :clap:

I have a scenario that hasn't been cover yet: The tap water in my area is pretty hard so I installed a water softener as soon as I moved in. Aware of the sodium issues, I use potassium instead of salt for ion exchange. Also this unit has a charcoal filter.

Will the potassium have ill affects on a grow show?

1st post! No more lurking!
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
Great thread! :clap:

I have a scenario that hasn't been cover yet: The tap water in my area is pretty hard so I installed a water softener as soon as I moved in. Aware of the sodium issues, I use potassium instead of salt for ion exchange. Also this unit has a charcoal filter.

Will the potassium have ill affects on a grow show?

1st post! No more lurking!
Potassium won't. Too much potassium will. Look out for magnesium, manganese, zinc, or iron deficiencies. ;-)
 

tehnick

Member
I think I have a fairly simple question. My tap water is well water and has a ppm between 64-66, and a PH of 7.9 out of the faucet. Is it possible that I could have some deficiencies in the water on some minerals? Should I treat the water with Cal-Mag?
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
I think I have a fairly simple question. My tap water is well water and has a ppm between 64-66, and a PH of 7.9 out of the faucet. Is it possible that I could have some deficiencies in the water on some minerals? Should I treat the water with Cal-Mag?
It is possible. Are you experiencing signs of a deficiency? If so then It could be Calcium/magnesium. It also depends on your growing medium and your nutes. Check your nutes to see if they have any Cal/Mag. If not then I'd say you will probably have to add some cal-mag. ;-)
 

XxTwoJointsxX

Active Member
Really interesting thread brother...

But what i have in my area is Ca mg/l of 90... is that good enough for my plants or should i be doing something about it?

easy brother
 

doc111

Well-Known Member
Really interesting thread brother...

But what i have in my area is Ca mg/l of 90... is that good enough for my plants or should i be doing something about it?

easy brother
I'm not sure about that unit of measure. I will look it up and see what I can find. :bigjoint:
 
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