FILTERED WATER VS RO WATER

[outwest]

As someone who is not much of a DIYer, I'll stick with my purchased solution. It was affordable and it works well.

outwest

 

[Capulator]

what i have gathered is that peat will not lose it's capacity to remove the alkalinity, the sand is at the bottom just to remove some of the particulates from the peat ... only time will tell along with ph and ppm checks after each batch if i see ppm rise from what it currently comes out at then i know the filter media might need changing ..

Are you using any carbon in this set up, or just sand and peat? ratio of peat moss and sand?

 

[Capulator]

As someone who is not much of a DIYer, I'll stick with my purchased solution. It was affordable and it works well.

outwest

and its convenient if you dont have a lot of space. I think im gonna head this route too. Take out the RO, replace with a regular chlorine carbon filter. Save a shitload of water. I'm gonna samples to jr peters today to see what the water comes in at before and after filtration.

 

[rvd]

capman just filtered water for me and it works great no wasted water.

 

[ReCway]

hell yeah just ordered my FCOO1 x 2 and the Double Filter Unit. Gonna put my Growonix 600 up for sale. What a waste of $1100. Great Find Out West.

 

[NaturalTherapy]

homemade filters are the very best imho ... it only take 6 feet of sand dirt and carbon to filter the worst water into drinking quality ... in my current case i can't even consider using an ro unit it would dry my well up and not to mention ro strips vital minerals from the water that then need to be replaced for healthy growth... being stuck on using ro is a bandaid for poor growing skills .. a formula can be figured out no matter how poor well water is ..
my current well water comes out at 400ppm at 9.1 ph .. alkalinity is 330ppm it is so buffered that it took 1 qt of ph down to bring the ph within a reasonable range in 50 gl .. this water simply could not be used for growing any crop ... so i built a filter using a 50gl drum filled with peat moss and sand ... i coiled a soaker hose at the top of the media and then used standard flood and drain fittings in the bottom of the drum as my filtered out .. water comes out at 50ppm and now at 6.5ph with a the buffering removed from the high alkalinity upon adding nutrients the water finds it's home at 5.8 ph .. plants love it and i waste 0 water ..

Grat information -for more than just growing too!

Curious if you could elaborate on this point please:
----"being stuck on using ro is a bandaid for poor growing skills"
I've often wondered why RO is suggested. I used it for one grow, but didn't have particularly thriving plants, so stuck with filtered well water after that.

Unrelated useless information: the best water I've used comes from a town called Ward in CO. The entire town has spring water pumped through the pipes. It's a magical town for cannabis cultivation in many ways, water being just one of them...

 

[Capulator]

So I ended up going with a single chamber white filter from the company outwest suggested (pure water products), and a large single 4.5" x 20" single garden filter as well http://www.purewaterproducts.com/gardenhosefilters2.htm.

For the small filter, which will be my post filter, I purchased the FC707, the doultan sterasyl http://www.purewaterproducts.com/products/fc707, which claims to eliminate all bacteria and pathogens from the source water. I like the sound of that. I also like the fact that the rep at pure water told me it doesnt really ever need to be replaced.

The larger filter will be my pre filter. I purchased it from a separate site (filtersfast). I found a filter made by pentek called the CRFC20-BB while I was surfing around. http://www.filtersfast.com/Pentek-CRFC20-BB-GAC-Filter.asp?gclid=CJ_zuebpkLICFWWCQgodyTAATQ

They did not offer this filter at pure water products but I think they should. Maybe I'll call them tomorrow. This filter is designed to remove chlorine and chloramines, and has a 25,ooo gallon capacity. Its basically the FC207's big brother. At roughly 500 gallons of res change a week, this filter will last me almost a year. I will no longer be using RO water, as I do not like wasting.

Thanks everyone for the feedback, and I think the debate on RO vs. filtered should continue. This thread is barely going and I have been lovin the useful info coming out of it and the overall tone of the thread itself.

 

[squiggly]

Honestly my opinion is that beginners are better off using RO, simply from the standpoint that building from the ground up will help you to understand what EXACTLY it is the plant needs and why.

For the faint of heart or the large scale grower, there is no question that filtering is the way to go.

Because of the purity of RO water, it should be thought of more as a tool than a commodity. There are things you can accomplish with 0ppm water that just aren't possible when you've got some stuff left in there and you don't categorically know what exactly it is.

Using RO can also offer an avenue to increased standardization so that we can all share information better, and that is something to think about. There's a ton to think about honestly.

 

[Capulator]

Honestly my opinion is that beginners are better off using RO, simply from the standpoint that building from the ground up will help you to understand what EXACTLY it is the plant needs and why.

For the faint of heart or the large scale grower, there is no question that filtering is the way to go.

Because of the purity of RO water, it should be thought of more as a tool than a commodity. There are things you can accomplish with 0ppm water that just aren't possible when you've got some stuff left in there and you don't categorically know what exactly it is.

Using RO can also offer an avenue to increased standardization so that we can all share information better, and that is something to think about. There's a ton to think about honestly.

Right, but if you do know whats in your source water via lab testing verification then you can tailor your nutes accordingly. To me knowing whats in it is the same as having 0 ppm. Like if my tap is already 50 ppm Ca I can use less CaNO3, but will need to find another N source to compensate.

 

[squiggly]

True, but those values do fluctuate throughout the year and with temperature.

 

[LexLuthor]

Even though values fluctuate throughout the year, won't his filtration system clean it to where it won't go over a specific amount??

Let me word that a lil better, lets say hypothetically, his ppm in summer is 350 and 250 in the winter. Now, with his filtration lets say its gonna be about 100, so whether his tap water fluctuates, his filter will bring it to 100 ppm regardless of the fluctuations throughout the year, so is that right or wrong??

 

[buddahslave]

homemade filters are the very best imho ... it only take 6 feet of sand dirt and carbon to filter the worst water into drinking quality ... in my current case i can't even consider using an ro unit it would dry my well up and not to mention ro strips vital minerals from the water that then need to be replaced for healthy growth... being stuck on using ro is a bandaid for poor growing skills .. a formula can be figured out no matter how poor well water is ..
my current well water comes out at 400ppm at 9.1 ph .. alkalinity is 330ppm it is so buffered that it took 1 qt of ph down to bring the ph within a reasonable range in 50 gl .. this water simply could not be used for growing any crop ... so i built a filter using a 50gl drum filled with peat moss and sand ... i coiled a soaker hose at the top of the media and then used standard flood and drain fittings in the bottom of the drum as my filtered out .. water comes out at 50ppm and now at 6.5ph with a the buffering removed from the high alkalinity upon adding nutrients the water finds it's home at 5.8 ph .. plants love it and i waste 0 water ..

I would like to see some pictures of your home made water filter if at all possible. It would make for a great youtube video!

 

[buddahslave]

I use a RV filter sold at walmart for $18 made by a company called camco. Its a high flow filter that connects to a water hose. It removes chlorine, bacteria, heavy metals, and all kinds of other shit thats on the label. Pot in soil will grow great with just a little help so a r/o in most cases is over kill. This simply cheap filter will do the trick. I know a grower who when he harvest he takes all profits and buy newer better equipment for the next harvest. The other day I saw him take a drink of water out of the faucet, and his lab is in downtown Los Angeles which might have one of the worst waters in a civilized country, but he r/o every drop of his plants water. I guess what I am saying is people come first, don't let this hobby consume you, drink the r/o water and give your plants the walmart filtered water, keep priorities in order and priority one is self. Take some profits and go to Hawaii! Enjoy life its way to short.

 

[reeldrag]

I have seen more problems using R/O water then not it seems to me that with ro you end up chasing problems all the time i was using ro for yrs then I went to tap water about half of problems fixed themselves

 

[LexLuthor]

I got in an argument with somebody on a diferent thread a couple months ago. He said RO will outperform tap water and he said "if you dont belive me then ask the experts" , I disagreed with him. Now there are some people that have horrible tap without a filter, so RO would probably do better under specific circumstances, but I feel like tap is just as good if you get it tested with a filter, especially in soil because of its buffering capabilities. Anyways, nobody agreed with me on the other thread so I just wanted to see how people felt about it, does anybody think RO will outperform tap water all the time???

P.S. What I mean by outperform is better growth.

 

[reeldrag]

Its kind of a complacted question but yes I think it would in a lab with 100 grand worth of computer monitering equipment and 4 full time scientists and a never ending list of nutes and a very big fat bank vault full of cash then sure. In the real world that we all live in no I dont think it will and this is from yrs of running hydro with and without RO and many friends that have and r fighting the ro battle. So the honest answer is no in real world application for 99 percent of farmers I dont think it will out perform. and the cost of the ro unit and the added nutes ect doesnt make sense to me but to each there own if your growing your a winner in my book. one execption some places just plain have bad ass nasty water so i can see sometimes where an ro maybe nessicary but not many just a filter and 99% of the time your good no need to over think it.

 

[LexLuthor]

^^^^Thats what I thought, I just can't see how a couple ppm's of Ca or something would effect the growth and increase yield in a noticible way, I dought 45 ppm or 49 ppm is gonna increase the growth rate to where the human eye can see the difference. Anyways, you can tailor your nute program to fit your filtered tap perfectly after getting the lab results.

 

[buddahslave]

Some women are in search for that perfect flawless diamond! Some cultivators are in search for that perfect marijuana bud, and some are in search for that Walter White storage bin stack of money. If you are in this for flawless marijuana than r/o is the way to go by far, but I personally am after the Walter White stack of money. So with that said I have to run my business like a ceo of any major corporation would "To the bear knuckles". I always have to shop for the cheapest price on everything no mater how much money I have in the bank. I must cut corners on quality to increase profit margins, thats not to say I don't sell a quality product just not the best. If I grow my sfv og kush I can produce anywhere from 3/4 of a pound to a pound per light. If I grow afghani under a 1000watt light I can produce between 1 1/2 to 2 pounds of dried bud. In my town og sells for $3300 per pound and afghani $2500 per pound. Most people would grow the og for a higher quality product, but us cash croppers will always choose the afghani because we understand profit margins and returns. COUNT YOUR PENNIES AND YOUR DOLLARS WILL TAKE CARE OF THEM SELF!

 

[azmmjadvocates]

Great thread. This has me re thinking things, i've gone so fare with my Ro as to stay away from post carbon filtration because i thought carbon can effect certain nutes. particularly a new carbon filter. Guess that's wrong. Here is a question that may be slightly off topic, but my DE-humidifyier is constantly full, it has a ppm of about 16, it should be distilled correct? So is there an ion issue with it? could i filter that and dump it back in the rez?

 

[outwest]

Great thread. This has me re thinking things, i've gone so fare with my Ro as to stay away from post carbon filtration because i thought carbon can effect certain nutes. particularly a new carbon filter. Guess that's wrong. Here is a question that may be slightly off topic, but my DE-humidifyier is constantly full, it has a ppm of about 16, it should be distilled correct? So is there an ion issue with it? could i filter that and dump it back in the rez?

I use the water from my dehuey with no issue. Apparently AC discharge can be nasty and full of bacteria and other bad things, but dehuey water seems to be fine. I've had no problems.

outwest