zero water or ro water

[420king-MASSES]

hey my fellow farmers how you doin well ive been watching the boobtube and came across a commercial and its called zero water and what it does is remove the tds from the water leaving it at 0.000000 so my question is since i dont run ro is the zero water able to be consisered ro or what bercause it is way less expensive then the cheapest ro machine i would rather that if they =the same outcome

 

[Seamaiden]

If it's that much cheaper it's certainly worth a try, yes?

 

[chranotik]

after researching into zerowater seems like its for small scale people, small families that don't drink much because #1. the filters don't last long (less than a month) and #2. they are pretty pricey to replace. RO Systems for like 200$ last a lot longer and produce way more water, and the filters only need to be changed something like every 3-6 months.

 

[nog]

many people including myself use plain tap water, left to stand for a day or so, get good yields on this water, i wouldnt worry too much about the water, there are lots of other variables that will affect plant growth, i would rather buy more light than a ro machine to improve yeilds, i keep seeing reports off guys using fancy water and fancy nutes, and 10,000 lumens then wondering why their yeild is crap

 

[420Gator]

RO is worth it imo if your tap is over a few hundred. If its not just, use it and forget that zero filter.

 

[Dr.stickerdick]

I just checked them out at their site. I belive i'd stick with the R/O . First of all it will produce more water at a given time and take up no additional square footage of space. With both, you chage filters but the R/O will give more water, easier . And you can always add or buy a larger holding tank for the R/O . The zero water only makes a gallon or so at a time. Zero water will do what it says . The major item that reduces TDSs is a mix of cation exchange resin and anion exchange resin . It then has KDF which is an alloy that is far more effective at removing chorines and other amines plus other volitals, all of which carbon does in qualities equal to the volital's contact time. Once you exceed the capacity of the cation and anion resins its usefullness is done. Peace

 

[420king-MASSES]

so dont bother getting it cool ill just keep bubbling my tap water ya see guys i believe in minimalism so ill just stay the way in which im doing it thanks for the input guys

 

[burnedout]

nog -

everyone's water is different, suggesting that ro water is useless is pretty bad advice imo. your water might be decent, but that doesn't mean everyone's is.

 

[Xceptional]

many people including myself use plain tap water, left to stand for a day or so, get good yields on this water, i wouldnt worry too much about the water, there are lots of other variables that will affect plant growth, i would rather buy more light than a ro machine to improve yeilds, i keep seeing reports off guys using fancy water and fancy nutes, and 10,000 lumens then wondering why their yeild is crap

i agree withburnedout this is just straight up bad advice! the house next door could have good water and yours could suck. i wouldn't even drink my tap water, it stinks! my buddy has water in the sub 100ppm range so i'd run it if i lived there BUT my house is around 320ppm AND my RO filter after just 50 gal of use went from pretty white to covered in brown shit and a pile of brown sediment in the bottm of the filter container (stage 1 of 6).

if you want to talk him out of RO then talk him into a rain barrel. if you can collect rain water say a 50 gal drum outside I'd use that without second thought i think the water falling from the sky is consistent from coast to coast and is pretty damn safe to recommend and is in fact the only water that can be recommended universally besides RO!

i ran a hydro run with tap and had major issues. installed $115 RO and all of the water related issues were solved the next run.

 

[sedate]

i agree withburnedout this is just straight up bad advice!

I hate to pile on nog, but I can't even get through a grow with tap water.

i ran a hydro run with tap and had major issues. installed $115 RO and all of the water related issues were solved the next run.

^^^ That. +1.

 

[Rootbound]

RO water is manditory here. My tap water is 650ppm or 1.3 ec. HORRIBLE! I have the Hydro-Logic ro unit and it brings my ppm's down to 10-20. RB

 

[Seamaiden]

Just a little something to stir up the rain barrel mix (don't hate me X! not tryin' to harsh your mellow, just mixin' it up):
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_ideas/EnvSci_p015.shtml?from=Home

 

[GrizzleB]

Anyone care to elaborate on the tap vs Ro? My tap always checks between 85-125, ive strongly considered moving to ro system cause i always have p lockouts and problems in veg. I have no clue if its the water, but ive had many harvest and i cant seem to pinpoint my problems.

 

[Seamaiden]

Oh boy, what a question. There's a lot to say about water in general, as well as about tap. If coming from a municipal supplier (as opposed to a well on-site) then it's required by the EPA in the US that it be treated. The EPA is encouraging munis to use chloramine instead of chlorine because of cancer issues. Chloramine is also much more stable. Munis may artificially harden the water to preserve piping, and that leads to high alkalinity (alkalinity not as a descriptor of pH, but of buffering capacity). However, their source water may very well be of a high alkalinity in the first place, needing no help from the muni. It is that mineral composition that can play a huge, huge role in all sorts of problems. The only way to know for certain is to test the source water.

For instance, I know that my tap (well) water has a general hardness of 10, which is reduced to a GH of 6 after boiling for several minutes, and a dKH of 7-9 (German hardness), which is reduced to 4 dkH after boiling. Because I can reduce total levels by both measures of hardness, I can state unequivocally that my water has temporary hardness. In a pinch I can boil it, but I'd better not need dozens or even hundreds of gallons.

Reverse osmosis, or reverse osmosis with deonization, removes most, if not all sources of hardness, thusly eliminating all alkalinity (buffering capacity, or resistance to pH shift) of water. It also strips it of O2 from some of what I've read, which leads to lower pH until the water reaches a CO2/O2 saturation equilibrium.

I'd be curious to know what your source water's pH is along with that ppm level, along with hardness points.

 

[nog]

nog -

everyone's water is different, suggesting that ro water is useless is pretty bad advice imo. your water might be decent, but that doesn't mean everyone's is.

ime not saying ro water is useless, i wish my water had an ec of nothing but it dosnt, like the guy said tap water is different in different places, but unless its got an ec of more than 0.40 it should be ok i would rather use tap water at ec 0.30 and 1000 hps than RO water and a 150 watt cfl, if you get my drift.

 

[awed]

rootbound where are you the desert? lol my tap is 470 ppms horrible...
Ive used zero water and for my water it was just not worth it to go buy the filters everytime it got used up. you should definitely get a reverse osmosis filter that hooks up to your sink then getting a zero water system.

 

[420king-MASSES]

i dont know my ppms of tap but i doknow that its ph level is 7 and i buuble my tap water for 2-4 sometimes 5 days before use my homegirl seamaiden is imvho one of the most knowledgeable people on this site when it comes to water so go ahead girl and drop some knowledge for us
masses

 

[Cannibis Cajun]

I say this " you feed the plant nutrients with the water. if your water is not at the perfect ppms and ec then the nutes wll not be absorbed as easily. having water that has a lower baseline makes the efficency of feeding greater and in the long run will pay for itself. in other words go R/O and be done with the decision. its the most pratical and efficent solution.

 

[iahsound]

unless you live in the mtn's out here in cali you need to atleast get one of those big sedament filter's that take out the chlorine as well!

 

[SSHZ]

It will take 4-6 times as long to produce the same amount of water. You'll be burning thru filters so quick you'll spend alot more of time so I'd advise spending more upfront (www.freedrinkingwater.com) and buy their countertop unit. It will last more then a year.