Help Figure Out What To Do With My Water

[oldskol4evr]

Your water is on the borderline I'd say. A 212 ppm TDS is about 320 ppm (700 scale) as an EC measurement. While today the TDS might be 212 - the town does show a swing of about 200, so it could potentially go up. The ca/mg in the water is good but you also have a lot of bicarbonate and alkalinity in it that could also affecting your nute mix.

It could be fine - but a little RO is cheap and then you're sure that it's good. If you're investing a lot of time, effort and money into these plants, then $100 - $150 RO will help protect that investment.

My water is about 300ppm (700 scale, not TDS) and I only use RO. I also have a background in water treatment - so... For a small cost, I'd just prefer to eliminate a potential problem.

i agree with that,,i live in a basement,i have well water,great water,,but all my tea is from the pipe running from the ac,,i see it this way,,why should the ants benifit from it,,so i collect it ,,the upstairs ceiling is lacking good insulation and that ac will fill a 55 gal drum in 3 days

 

[FennarioMike]

Please refer to the last page of . The net-net is my water has a hardness of about 340ppm, and TDS of 585ppm before I add anything. Calcium and Magnesium are 62ppm and 45 ppm respectively. pH is 8.

I'm starting a mini-grow inside with a DWC setup. Can I use this water, or do I need to budget for buying distilled? Can I mix them to save $$?

I'm planning on using the General Hydroponics Trio, possibly with the hardwater micro.

I know the ultimate answer is an RO system. My plumbing is such that I don't have a place to put an RO setup without tearing into a wall and hacking into the plumbing. As a temporary measure, I'm going to put in a rain barrel, which should work fine about 8 months of the year.

But, thoughts, comments on whether I can use my tap water? And on using rainwater?

I'm using this water in the garden outside, and everyone seems to be thriving, so I'm wondering if I can use it for hydroponics.

The part about installing an RO. There are all sorts of models, but the Hydrologic just has a garden hose adapter on the water input line. You can get a garden hose thread faucet adapter and just attach it there. There's a 1/4" drain line and another 1/4" product line. It just works on the water pressure in your pipes and takes no plumbing at all to use. It's super portable to connect and disconnect.

Take a look at them - they are pretty inexpensive and easy to use - https://www.hydrologicsystems.com/collections/reverse-osmosis

 

[OldManRiver]

The part about installing an RO. There are all sorts of models, but the Hydrologic just has a garden hose adapter on the water input line. You can get a garden hose thread faucet adapter and just attach it there. There's a 1/4" drain line and another 1/4" product line. It just works on the water pressure in your pipes and takes no plumbing at all to use. It's super portable to connect and disconnect.

Take a look at them - they are pretty inexpensive and easy to use - https://www.hydrologicsystems.com/collections/reverse-osmosis

Thanks for the lead.