res water

[budseyeveiw]

would itr be a good idea to use mineral water instead of tap water? and how many people here use ro? how many just use tap water?

 

[sycboy]

Good question. Tap water is free but has the downside of containing nasty chemicals that can damage your plants. Leaving the water to stand for a 24 hour period or longer will help some of these chemicals evaporate. I read some dude likes to let his sit for 3 days before using it in his tank. If you put an aquarium pump with an airstone into the tank then the water will become aerated with oxygen and can be stored like this for longer. R/O water will cost less than using mineral water. After installation you would only need to replace the filters as and when you need to, and at not a great cost. However, you would have to spend out on things like Cal/Mag to increase these essential minerals that would no longer be present after filtration. If I had some spare money, I'd buy an R/O filter immediately as the water that we get sucks. I have to resort to stood tap water until I can afford one...It works ok, but you do get the odd occasion when little brown spots appear on your leaves because of all the shit that is in the water!

 

[budseyeveiw]

Good question. Tap water is free but has the downside of containing nasty chemicals that can damage your plants. Leaving the water to stand for a 24 hour period or longer will help some of these chemicals evaporate. I read some dude likes to let his sit for 3 days before using it in his tank. If you put an aquarium pump with an airstone into the tank then the water will become aerated with oxygen and can be stored like this for longer. R/O water will cost less than using mineral water. After installation you would only need to replace the filters as and when you need to, and at not a great cost. However, you would have to spend out on things like Cal/Mag to increase these essential minerals that would no longer be present after filtration. If I had some spare money, I'd buy an R/O filter immediately as the water that we get sucks. I have to resort to stood tap water until I can afford one...It works ok, but you do get the odd occasion when little brown spots appear on your leaves because of all the shit that is in the water!

well now days mineral water is fairly cheap, it has listed minerals etc and not many(if any) additives. just wondered lol

 

[mastacheeser]

wiki mineral water

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies mineral water as water containing at least 250 parts per million total dissolved solids (TDS), originating from a geologically and physically protected underground water source. No minerals may be added to this water.[3]

However, in many places, the term "mineral water" is colloquially used to mean any bottled carbonated water or soda water, as opposed to tap water.

wiki distilled water

Distilled water is water that has many of its impurities removed through distillation. Distillation involves boiling the water and then condensing the steam into a clean container.

Water filtration devices are common in many households. Municipal water supplies often add or have trace impurities at levels which are regulated to be safe for consumption. Much of these additional impurities, such as volatile organic compounds, fluoride, and certain other chemical compounds are not removed through conventional filtration; however, distillation does eliminate some of these impurities."

R.O. is the way to go, but if you can id go distilled over mineral water. if your looking to save $ then stick with tap cuz ur still guna have to add calmag to distilled

 

[smokestack23]

It all depends on your tapwater. Many..well ok..SOME places have fantastic water out of the tap.

I grew painlessly for over 15 years on the west coast. Tap water all the way. Moved a province or two inland and I had troubles growing. I was so spoiled and used to wicked tap water that I wasnt even checking pH anymore. oopsies.
Turned out that the tap water here was like 8+ iirc.
I figured...wow...no WONDER all the reputation for BC bud. It's so damned easy to grow there..shit..a couple of beans fall out of your pocket in BC and by the time you turn around there are 50elbows of cured manicured buds laying there.

So..I started correcting the pH but it would just climb and climb. I forgot to mention that it took me a whole crop to even REMEMBER about pH. I was fighting deficiencies and imaginary insects and shit...idiot!!
After a couple more tries I just gave up and took a few years off...like over ten.
The age of my kids (early teens) also made it difficult so quitting for a while was a good thing for me.

Fast forward to a couple years back. Tried again but this time used (store bought) RO water. BOOM!!!!!! back to easy growing.

A while back I had a flood with a rdwc system and it dumped the res. I had no RO water and HAD to use tap. Within two days plants were looking ill, had stopped growing and...roots were turning brown!!! THAT part was a surprise. Tap water with pathogens in it? The tap water here has so much chlorine or chloramine(?) or whatever that the shit is BLUE. No idea how anything could be living in that stuff.

Went back to RO and problem went away.

SO...try with tap water. My tap water is only like 260ppm (bad but not THAT bad) but it won't let my plants grow. Many growers have great success with municipal water that has much higher levels of dissolved solids in it. Guess it depends on WHAT's in the water more than how much of it?

I wish I didn't have to use RO. It's wasteful and not as cheap as tap water but for me...it's a necessity.

 

[budseyeveiw]

tbh ro water is not availiable to me and i cant really budget for the filter yet. just thinking of other options i guess