Hard water question

The colas are acidified with phosphoric acid. The most common acid sold in PH down solutions for growers. Off brand/store brand 2 litter bottles of cola are also acidified with phosphoric acid. Usually < 2$ per 2liter. And high fructose corn syrup feeds the microbes similar to molasses.

In recirculating hydro that could be a problem making microbe bioslime clogs in your lines…

You could also precip out the Mg+ and Ca+ by increasing the ph of your water. Use baking soda (or ph up hydroxide OH-) to increase the ph. The Mg and Ca will precipice out into carbonate (limestone). Heating the water makes this reaction even faster as they both loose solubility in warm water. Then you gently pour off the liquid leaving behind the “dust” once it settles. Now you have high ph water without the Ca and Mg. You have replaced them with sodium. The high ph water will then be buffered acid once the Ca and Mg precipitate out.

This is exactly how water softeners work. Excess sodium is easier to deal with than excess Ca and Mg. This would be very cheap to do with a box of baking soda or callgone.

That said if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. If your buds are stacking up don’t change a thing. Most growers have to add ca and mg as @Autos-only aptly pointed out.

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I don’t see anything alarming from that water test.

Sodium of 50+ ppm is a bit high, I would be cautious with things that supply it like seaweed extract, seabird guano, things like that.

You even have good potassium in there, it may be hard water but I think it’s good.

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Softening the water would up the sodium too. Very good point. Maybe stick to adding tannins.

When I used peat I would pretreat 500 gallons in a vat with several pounds of peat moss suspended in nylon bags with an airstone bubbling up thru it. It would take over a week to get the softening effect on the vat. To get the ph in range. I bred discus and the ph range is the same range we need growing.

Tannins (peat moss, coffee) dilute the hard water minerals in your mix. It doesn’t remove them. That’s why it’s relatively slow dissolving it out of peat. I switched to the coffee because it has more tannins and a lower ph. Quicker to get the softening and acidifying effects. Basically instant. Also, my discus would hump like rabbits with the coffee tannins. I think the caffeine amped them up. Then that 500 gallon vat became a grow out tank instead of a mixing vat. I paid for college breeding discus. End of boring highlighting story….

All I am saying is with tannins to soften the water you may need to make it a week in advance. Be it 5 gallons or 500 gallons.

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Growing up in a fush shop my dad paid me to breed fish also. He always wanted me to do discus, but i liked breeding African cichlids
Goldfish will drop ph fast, but they put off a lot of body slime. I have no idea if that’s good or not. Unfortunately I don’t have any indoor climate controlled area to sacrifice. I have acres of outdoor space that is useless for growing weed :confused:

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@xXDEATH666Xx i used to have tanks of South American Cichlids…huge oscars, moromortus cat, jack Dempseys, a huge pacu piranha, Blue Severum Cichlid, and gold severum cichlids…and if course enormous plecostomus.

tanks for feeder fish as well.

i miss that.

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I am trying to give this thing away. Need another tank…? 72” 200 gallon w built in overflow tower.

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Dood… my ball pyhton would freaking love that thing

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Those are pretty decent numbers — your water’s definitely on the harder side, but not extreme. In most cases, 80–100 mg/L calcium and 40–50 mg/L magnesium can actually be beneficial for plants, especially in soil grows. You probably don’t need to add CalMag unless you start seeing deficiency signs. I’d just be cautious with vinegar since it can affect microbial life in the soil over time; citric acid or a natural pH down might be a bit gentler. Overall, your water should work fine as is.