For everyone talking about tap water, do you use filters? If so, which ones do you use?
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@detroitpwp3, I did a google search on the effects of fluoride on weed, and the results scared me back to my RO system. Since I am already dialed in on the RO, why change? And it is probably better for the hydro anyway.
You may want to look at what my local shop has called the chlorine snatcher, for about $70.00. It is a two cartridge filter, made by ArgoMax. After looking at it again it claims to remove fluoride, maybe I should had read this before buying the RO.
The RO that I use cost around $170, and it takes about two hours to produce 5 gallons. It requires that the inlet pressure be at least 60psi. If your home’s water pressure is not that much you can get one with a booster pump for about $270.
Chlorine Snatcher
$69.95
SKU: FIL-TCS
The Chlorine Snatcher water treatment system removes up to 99% of chlorine and 90% of sediment at 1 GPM. Ideal for organic gardening, this 2 stage chlorine filter mo
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Thanks for the advice. I looked into RO. It seemed expensive and kind of wasteful. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done lol. Ill head to my local shop and see what they have
What’s your PH and TDS of your tap? My tap is 7.1 and not enough solids to measure (60) but no city water report. I water and mix nutrients straight from the tap 
7.5 and 126. I never asked for a water report
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That’s not bad at all Growmie. Jacks nutrients would most likely drop that to around 6.2-6.5
I’ve only ever used a local supersoil called Michigannabis. So i dont really use nutrients. Although i do use organic Calmag and it brings the ph 6.5 -6.8. I was just wondering if using a filter would improve anything.
I have used all types of water including lake water, well water, city tap, condensation from AC unit, and Now RO. There is only one reason to filter your water that to get rid out something in the water. Since you usually filter a lot of good stuff out in order to get rid of one bad thing. You really should know what it is that you want to remove from the lineup.
So a few questions:
First how did your past grows do? Did you maintain good vertical growth during veg and first half of flower?
What is your water source private well or city?
What do suspect is in your water that needs to go?
Something like fluoride will need to be filtered out.
Chlorine can be gassed off by leaving it set in a bucket, or maybe not. Let me try to explain in my poor way. When the wife had a hot tub I received an education on chlorine.
When you check a pool or hot tub for chlorine you check for three types of chlorine. These are Free chlorine, Active chlorine (or activated), and Total chlorine.
All of the chlorine goes in as free chlorine, and it is fairly odorless at this stage. This free chlorine just kinda hangs out suspended in the water. Until it bumps into something like a biological growth. Then the two molecules bind together to become active chlorine. This loving couple slowly makes their way to the surface so that they can evaporate together. This where the chlorine smell mainly comes from.
So when you read the chlorine levels. The free chlorine is the locked and loaded stuff that waiting to be used up. You usually load up a pool or tub with a lot reserve free chlorine. The active chlorine has a short life and it’s number indicates how much work the chlorine needs to do. Total chlorine is simply the total of free and active.
When you try and gas off chlorine in a bucket it should work OK. Provided that there is very little chlorine in it and there is a little something for the free chlorine to attach itself too. For example it would that much longer to gas off chlorine in RO water. When compared to say AC condensation water that typically contains some biological growth.
My water is tap, so city. I never got a report so i don’t know if there’s anything in it. I just figured it could be better. More certainty. With a filter i would know the water is clean. Now im just assuming. This is my 3rd grow. First one went good. Had some issues with my last one. Last a plant early on and then a couple of them seeded on me in flower.
If you are on city water, you can bet your ass that they putting some type of sanitizer in it. If this sanitizer is not chlorine it will need to be filtered to remove it, since these can’t be gassed off. And there is very chance that they are putting fluoride in it also.
You can call your water department and ask how to obtain a water report. Or just ask them if they are dosing your water with chlorine or fluoride. It is your drinking water and you have a right to know what’s in it.
If your only want to filter out the bad stuff you kinda need to know what that stuff is. So that you can obtain a filter that is designed to remove that element from the water.
On the other hand RO cleans everything out of the water, and you add back in just what is needed. Then you will know exactly what is in the water. I think that RO with a little of your cal/mag added to it would work great with both of the soil types that you mentioned.
Oh by the way, how are your plants doing since you opened this thread?
My city only had reports up to 2020. Looks like no fluoride but chlorine. My current grow is doing so so. Growth seems slow. They are light green. Ive been adding cal mag to the water at 2teaspoon per gallon.
They look better than when in the solo cups, but only one looks happy still. I tried to find a picture of a plant with excessive chlorine but no luck. Here is a description of it that I copied. Not sure if it fits your pictures.
“What the Cannabis community commonly thinks of as nutrient burn, pH issue, or deficiency is actually the result of Chlorine and Chloramine in Cannabis. Chlorine and Chloramine problems will present themselves in multiple ways. The symptoms are burnt leaf tips (reddish brown tinge about 1-4mm in length that point up), rusted spots, naturally torn leaves that shrivel where broken, and a reddish brown micro spots on your leaves. You may also experience narrower fan leaves. When in flower, buds take 2-3 weeks longer to hit their stride and will never hit their full potential. You wont get massive buds if your plant has been in contact with to much Chlorine and Chloramine.
Chlorine, is only a micronutrient and your plant requires it in only very small quantities. If using tap water, you’ll hear commonly that you need to bubble off your water for the chlorine to evaporate because it can kill the good bacteria in the water. This problem is only the tip of the iceberg. Chloramine is said to do the same thing but it cannot be bubbled off, and both (especially Chloramine) causes a wide range of other problems.”
You may want to research calcium excess, not sure if this is what is going on or not. But it sounds like you may be giving too much. Don’t think it would hurt to drop the cal/mag for a week or two. Some of these excesses can cause other nutrients to be locked out. The combination of excess and lock out can make it almost impossible to ID the problem by slight.
@BobbyDigital, what do you think of @detroitpwp3 pictures after transplanting, and his ongoing issues?
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Why lights and how close? Looks a little like light stress.
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I have two spider farmer sf4000s. At 50% brightness and 28ch inches away from the tops of the plants. Which is within the manufacturer’s recommendation.
That should be plenty good. Maybe even a little high for that low of power level. What soil are these in?
They are still in fox farm happy frog.
@detroitpwp3. My friend, I am obviously over my head with your situation. But I hate to give up on anything though.
Common sense and your history on this grow brings me back to nutrient excess from your soil. How is your run off looking still much residue in it?
When surfing the intertube for info on my hydro grow I came across the following on excessive nutrients. The potassium excess looks one of your pictures and phosphorus excess looks like another. I think the symptoms appear differently on the different strains you have going.
I think if I were you that, I would water with plain water ph to 6.5 for a couple weeks, and water to a 25% run off.
Also there appears some leaf canoeing a sign of light stress in some of the pictures as @BobbyDigital noticed. You may want to cover all the bases and raise the light about 6 inches more for awhile also. This may give the plant a little stretch, but from the looks of the pictures you could use a little more stretch at this stage.
