Thanks everyone. There was some pretty good tips in this thread. This is my 4th grow. Pretty soon ill be able to stop asking silly questions. But heres one more, if i wanted to stay the organic course, whats the best way to ph the water? Is the lemon juice/vinegar, baking soda? Or is general hydroponics ph up and down good enough?
I don’t have the answer to your question, but just an idea that you might want to consider for your future grows. If you want to stay organic, one option that you might already be aware of is to use Earth Dust, by The Green Sunshine Company, that is organic, and apparently it isn’t necessary to PH adjust the water. I haven’t used Earth Dust, but many growers on the forum have with great success. Check out MeEasy’s thread/journal and poke around this forum for more info.
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I drop the clear solo cup in the hole I have prepared in the permeant grow pot I will transfer into.
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This is what I will be growing with from now on. Gaia Green & Recharge. One 27 gal tub is full of FF Ocean Forrest w/20% recycled and the other FF 70/30 Coco. Next Gaia Green purchase will be 10kg or 20kg bags. I’m open to Earth Dust but I can’t get it local.
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Happy plant you have. 
I’m not sure if they only sell it online, vs locally. The shipping is free, so that’s cool.
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No silly questions here! I have found it best to use baking soda to go up and lemon juice for down in my soil grows. I am presently using Mills Nutrients and it mixes at about 5.2 ph so I mainly use baking soda to raise the level. It doesn’t take much I use about 1/8 teaspoon per gallon.
In my hydro grow I use GH ph up and down, again a lot more of up and very little down. If using plain RO or distilled there is no reason to ph it.
When I was running organics I was using GH ph up, and the organic nutrients required a lot of it. I now wish that I had known to use baking soda back then.
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I just read back through your posts and you say that you tap water has a PPM of 126 this is fairly clear water. If I remember correctly it needs to be about 400 to hold a steady ph level, (You may want to do some research and double check me on this). You may want to add a little cal/mag to your tap water and bring it up to this PPM level before you ph your plain tap water. Maybe this is the reason you wanted to know about the lime?
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Not to contradict you Brother but around 100 is the number and anything over 300 is considered hard and often cut with distilled or RO water 
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@OGIncognito, Thanks for the reply, and I stand corrected. When I looked at the water authority’s website that supplies our water. I found your ppm numbers are very correct. Not sure where I got 400 from, I think, I must had read it somewhere.
All of the different terms and formulas for reading ppm are very confusing.
This what I have learned about it, the EC x 1000 is the ppm, unless you happen to be in Europe then you multiply this by .5, or if you are in the US or Australia then you use .7 as the multiplier, or something like that. I am glad my nutrients just use EC to measure the concentration, so that is as far as I go with measuring it.
What is the reason or history as to why there are so many methods used?
@detroitpwp3. Please disregard my previous post about your water ppm!
no idea on the why different geographical areas use the 500 or 700. I’m learning everyday Brother and try not to overload my pea brain 
While on the water authority website, I looked up our water quality report. If anyone is on a public water, and can obtain this report it has some very good info on exactly what is in your water. It was when they started adding fluoride to the water that I went with a RO system. Our tap is actually very good except for the fluoride. The water authority is charging the fluoride to 4ppm.
Do you or anyone else know what level of fluoride is considered harmless to the plants?
Hate to think that the RO was not even needed, but after all the people who sold it to me said it was.
What’s the TDS and PH of your tap water
Ph is 7.4 and the EC is .230. My little online conductivity converter tells me that is 147 TDS. I hope it is not lying to me or I am not doing anything wrong.
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That’s sounds about right, I generally subtract 1/2 for a EC to PPM conversion. Those numbers are pretty good for a tap source. Mine is 7.1 and TDS is below 100 so I don’t treat or do anything but add nutrients (jacks) which comes out at 5.9/1060
Do you know if yours has any fluoride in it?
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Man, 5.9 and 1060 sounds perfect for my hydro set up. May try some of my Mills Nutrients with a gallon of tap and see where it’s ph is after it is mixed. Or I could just give the famous Jacks a try, this will happen sooner or later.
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I’m not sure and never pulled a water report. Haven’t had any issues so I stayed with my tap as a water source. I don’t even let it set out, straight from the tap and add nutrients and feed. I’m trying my 1st organic run right now and not accustomed to not having to to add nutrients, PPMs or PH 
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I generally run coco and jacks is my best friend for not having to PH after mixing and the ability to feed daily to run off keeps my root zone issue free and healthy. I do add beneficial microbes every 2 weeks to help with nutrient storage
My wife uses our tap water straight from the water hose onto her plants also, and they all seem to do just fine. She also loves using the RO water to mop her hardwood floors. She claims it does much better than the distilled water she used to buy.
Is this a great Friday morning or what, grow advice, and housekeeping tips.
I knew it was going to be a good day. When I started it with a cup of coffee, a bowl, and watching LooneyToons.
great day