How bad is my water?

[criticalhedgehog]

Getting started on a RWDC system and looking for general opinions about the quality of my tap water.

These are my readings out of the tap:

pH: 9.2
EC: 0.4
PPM500: 200
PPM700: 280
(which ppm reading do people mean when they talk about TDS btw?)

I added some ph down to get it to 5.8 so now of course TDS is even higher.

How much will this hurt my plants if I don't do any kind of filtration?

I know I should get an RO filter, but it would be pretty inconvenient since I don't have a water source inside the grow room. I have to run water with a hose from a bathroom down the hall. My understanding is that the flow of those systems would be pretty slow and would probably take a full day to fill up the system. My system is five 13-gallon buckets so to fill it up requires 50-60 gallons.

I appreciate any opinions or advice

 

[Aqua Man]

Link your local water report and cover the location if you prefer. I can look at it and break it down for you.

just google your town, city, municipality and add local water e on the end

 

[Ponky]

If there's a guy who knows water. It's ^

 

[criticalhedgehog]

@Aqua Man how's this?

 

[Aqua Man]

@Aqua Man how's this?

View attachment 1332472
View attachment 1332473

Yeah lots off buffering in there. You will want a good phosphoric acid against that hardness

Na (sodium) is about as high as i would like to use. Could be better but shouldn’t be to concerned over those levels.

id say your ok to use that without issue. If you wanted you could cut it 50/50 with RO and be about a perfect alkalinity for a buffer and cut that sodium in half… but not a must

 

[criticalhedgehog]

Yeah lots off buffering in there. You will want a good phosphoric acid against that hardness

Na (sodium) is about as high as i would like to use. Could be better but shouldn’t be to concerned over those levels.

id say your ok to use that without issue. If you wanted you could cut it 50/50 with RO and be about a perfect alkalinity for a buffer and cut that sodium in half… but not a must

Thanks so much for your input! It hadn't even occurred to me to use a mix of tap and RO water. That would make it a lot easier as I could just fill up a few buckets at a time instead of having the hose run through the hallway all day long

 

[Aqua Man]

Thanks so much for your input! It hadn't even occurred to me to use a mix of tap and RO water. That would make it a lot easier as I could just fill up a few buckets at a time instead of having the hose run through the hallway all day long

I ised to take a day on the weekend to make 5 gal pails of RO. Just toss a lid on and use em as needed instead of wait around for the slow trickle when needed