Water: The Most Essential Compound

Toxic Avenger

Toxic Avenger

Well-Known Member
frizfrazjaz said:
My tap runs between 15-25 ppm. I’m in soil and I read to add cal/mag until ppm’s are between 125-150. I don’t know if that’s a sweet spot for plants, but mine completely turned around in a week. I’d been having problems for about a year.
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How are you determining that your ppm are at 15 -20 ppm? You should have no trouble getting that info from your local water plant. Call there and ask for the average ph and total hardness. It may fluctuate seasonally a little but you should get a reliable base line and the numbers will be based on chemical titration and lab grade probes as opposed to grow store ppm pens. 15 -20 ppm is extremely soft for tap water. If it truly is that soft I'm guessing it is RO or nano (membrane).
 
frizfrazjaz

frizfrazjaz

Well-Known Member
Toxic Avenger said:
How are you determining that your ppm are at 15 -20 ppm? You should have no trouble getting that info from your local water plant. Call there and ask for the average ph and total hardness. It may fluctuate seasonally a little but you should get a reliable base line and the numbers will be based on chemical titration and lab grade probes as opposed to grow store ppm pens. 15 -20 ppm is extremely soft for tap water. If it truly is that soft I'm guessing it is RO or nano (membrane).
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I test it with my meter and it’s never went outside those readings. It basically is like ro, I guess. Is there anything I should add for drinking purposes?
 
T

TheHero

Member
Hello. I bought a dehumidifier and it works great. But, why could condensate water be @ ph 5 or lower? I didnt wash tank, could that be a reason?
 
Toxic Avenger

Toxic Avenger

Well-Known Member
TheHero said:
Hello. I bought a dehumidifier and it works great. But, why could condensate water be @ ph 5 or lower? I didnt wash tank, could that be a reason?
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Ph is a measure of hydrogen ion consintration. Assuming the probe is representational, I'd say the condensate is acidic. Rain water is normally 5ish. Beer 3.

The probe isn't measuring the purity of the water.
 
T

TheHero

Member
I tested it with cheap ebay ph tester and aquarium water tester (adding red liquid to water, mixing and comparing mixed liquid with colors on datasheet which represent ph value.
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
It’s very pure water, so CO2 from the air is likely the culprit. A weak Carbonic Acid is all.

Add a drop of anything and the pH will swing wildly, as there’s no pH buffering in such pure water
 
T

TheHero

Member
I have a room that vents only when temperature exceeds limit, so I use "sugar - yeast" CO2 booster, probably thats the reason why my destilled water is so acidic. But If i NEED to lower my ph, could I use this to mix with water I use for plants?
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
That water is only registering acidic because you have very few acidic molecules in all that water.

It’s essentially neutral. It’s not nearly acidic enough to influence anything. It’s very very weakly acidic.
 
Toxic Avenger

Toxic Avenger

Well-Known Member
TheHero said:
I have a room that vents only when temperature exceeds limit, so I use "sugar - yeast" CO2 booster, probably thats the reason why my destilled water is so acidic. But If i NEED to lower my ph, could I use this to mix with water I use for plants?
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Mix up equal parts and record the ph difference. Rrog is 100% correct regarding buffer. I'm not sure I'd agree that water with a ph as low as 4 is essentially neutral. Ph is a logarithmic scale so a difference of one unit is exponentially different(times ten) in terms of hydrogen ion consintration. 0-14 makes 7 neutral. I would speculate it will not be acidic enough to act as a ph down.
 
T

TheHero

Member
Ok, that`s understood. Are there any alternatives to ph down and up sollutions? I cannot buy those where I live and ebay takes it`s time.
And aproxximately how much will 250ml bottle from ebay/amazon will last? I mean, how much ML i need, on 5L bucket to lower ph from 8 to 7, for example, aproxx?

What about dry - powder type ph down solutions?

Another thing, If I want to calibrate my cheap ebay ph meter, I could use destilled watter from shop and it should be 7 ph, right?

Sorry for so many questions.
 
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Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
It is soooooooo weakly acidic that it is virtually neutral.

Understand that starting at pH 7 and add just a few molecules of acid and your pH 7 is now a 4. Add a tiny amount of base and now you’re at pH 9. An almost insignificant change in acid/base molecules caused WILD apparent shift in pH.
 
John Levy

John Levy

Member
Well good too much information but with water sunlight is also one of the major factor for the growth of cannabis. i also have a marijuana grow and due sunlight is one of the essential component. For water don.t use it in excess because too much water can make problem and made the soil weak.
 
RetiredGuerilla

RetiredGuerilla

Well-Known Member
Just add dolomite lime to your mix and forget the PH test kits. I have never owned a PH test kit in the 30 plus years i been a grower and my shit is renowned for its quality.
 
charface

charface

Well-Known Member
Looks like the thread i need
I don't have time to read all 38 pages and I've browsed the net and all info conflicts very convincingly.

So.

Im installing an iror, sulfur, mag filter
In my house.

I don't have hard water but I have iron bacteria.
My ppm is between 70-100 usually.
Ph typically above 8

I don't want the bacteria in my iron filter.

Usually i just shock the well but the people at the budgetwater tell me this is not a good idea and that I should install a chem injection prior to holding tank.

Reason being, if I shock the well that stuff dies and falls to the bottom eventually becoming food for the next bloom and could also ruin/plug my pump.

Kink of makes sense but isn't still a problem to just let it grow in my well
While treating the holding tank?

Anyway,
I own a solution tank and injection setup but if I can simply shock the well every few months I would rather not install it.

Im not sure the source of the problem
Only that it arose years after the well was installed and even repaired a few times.

Its about 300ft

Thanks
 
RetiredGuerilla

RetiredGuerilla

Well-Known Member
charface said:
Looks like the thread i need
I don't have time to read all 38 pages and I've browsed the net and all info conflicts very convincingly.

So.

Im installing an iror, sulfur, mag filter
In my house.

I don't have hard water but I have iron bacteria.
My ppm is between 70-100 usually.
Ph typically above 8

I don't want the bacteria in my iron filter.

Usually i just shock the well but the people at the budgetwater tell me this is not a good idea and that I should install a chem injection prior to holding tank.

Reason being, if I shock the well that stuff dies and falls to the bottom eventually becoming food for the next bloom and could also ruin/plug my pump.

Kink of makes sense but isn't still a problem to just let it grow in my well
While treating the holding tank?

Anyway,
I own a solution tank and injection setup but if I can simply shock the well every few months I would rather not install it.

Im not sure the source of the problem
Only that it arose years after the well was installed and even repaired a few times.

Its about 300ft

Thanks
Click to expand...
You probably already know this but the 8+ PH is super good for the human body.
 
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