Hi everyone. Hoping to get some more experienced growers opinions…
Which is better, RO water or tap that sits for a couple days??
Obviously they both need to be PH’d. THANKS!!
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I use RO so I can control micronutrients myself. Plain RO doesn’t need to be pHed and it’s actually not possible to pH RO properly. Tap water will provide trace nutrients. What those trace nutrients are depends on where you are located.
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Thanks for the reply. I fill up my water jugs at the local RO dispenser thing… PH is usually around 8.5 before I use PH down. Are you saying that’s unnecessary ? Or possibly not accurate ?
I may be using the term RO incorrectly.
No need to ph RO. There’s not enough solids in it to hold a proper ph. It’s neutral and with take on the ph of what it’s poured into
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But as for your question, I use tap when no nutes are used and RO when I’m mixing in nutes.
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Has anyone used those RO filters that can hook up to a hose line that people traditionally use them for RVs and stuff? If so do they work well enough to be worth the money? I think I’ve seen them a bit cheaper than the systems that you place directly into your faucet water line. But they also may not do a great job I’m guessing? I always wanted to try RO water. But I currently use tap water. Thank you for this post and topic of conversation. I’ll be following along as I would like to use RO water but I don’t have a ton of extra cash to throw into a nice system I would like to put in the house. Thanks everyone and happy growing! 
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If you don’t mind me asking how much does that roughly cost you? I would love to try a grow with RO water but I’m on a bit of a budget currently. If I could make it cost-effective I would love to try it. Thank you for your post. Have a nice afternoon
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That’s good information thank you. I’ve been PHing RO water since April lol. I’m outdoor in FFOF and have only fed a few times with FF trio. Just so I’m 100% on this… the water station I use that has a “12 step purification process”, one of those steps being reverse osmosis, will not need to be PH’d at all unless I’m feeding? At that point, I would PH AFTER adding nutes??
Thanks bro.
@BobbyDigital perhaps a simple explanation of why you do that?
Because tap water uses up some of the available space that could be used for nutrients?
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I’m not experienced enough to weigh in on this, but thank you for the tag. I’m following for the info.
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You’re very welcome. No worries at all. I’m in a ten gallon fabric pot and typically have to water once every 3 days or so with about a gallon. 5 gallons bucket cost $1.75 to fill. I don’t feel like that hurts my budget too much. Plus my family drinks a lot of water anyways so I usually have about 50 gallons on deck.
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I’m like you. I’m just trying to learn about all this stuff. I have my notepad out and I’m taking notes as the topic goes along. Happy growing
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No worries I appreciate the reply
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Thank you very much for sharing the info. I appreciate that. I think I’m going to get my feet wet using Ro water first time growing with it by buying some of those bottles and giving a grow a try like you do. If I get the hang of it I’ll probably invest in one of those little systems to hook up in my basement. I was wondering if one of those RV Ro filters would work cuz I could always hook that up by hose line to my basement laundry sink and just pour into my water storage jugs to mix nutes etc.
Thank you for the help. I appreciate it. Good luck with your growing!
I’m on a feed, water, feed schedule so I use the tap on non feed days so I don’t need to add calmag.
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Correct.
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A lot of us use the RO buddie. It’s basically a portable RO system and is budget friendly and works like a charm.
https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Changing-Deionization-Cartridge/dp/B00204CQF6
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Thats a good reason, however, it wont work for everyone the same as not everyone has abundant Calcium and or magnesium in there water supply.
I would only recommend that if the grower has had an analysis of their water and it doesnt tend to change from season to season as some lake, river, and well water does.
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