So as some of you may know, I am waiting for my TDS and pH meters to arrive so I can check my tap water to see if its usable. While waiting for my devices, a few questions popped into my head I thought I would throw at you guys.
What is an acceptable ppm reading, from tap water? I know PH is adjustable, and therefore I’m not that worried about that. Unless you think I should be?
I have recently found a couple cheap sources of RO water (35 cents to $1/gallon depending on where I get it) however it does not seem cost-effective to run an entire DWC grow using purchased RO water. If my TDS reading is a little high on my tapwater, can I cut it with RO water, essentially lowering the PPM?
I can view my water quality report online, but do not totally understand it. Can I get any of my information from that? I know I should still test it with the meter, but can I find anything useful from the report? I did notice that my water is treated with chlorine, which means I can let the water sit and bubble to remove the chlorine right? Will this lower the PPM?
How will I know what it is in my water, that is causing the TDS to read whatever it is? Im curious if I need to get CalMag or not, since Ive heard most of the TDS in tap water comes from those minerals already?
Sorry to ask so many questions in one post, but I found out yesterday that I am limited on the amount of posts I can make in a certain period of time. So I am trying to ask as much as I can at once!
@xDeeTeRx
Ok lol
that depends on what’s in the water I have well water and my water is 350-400 ppm
All good minerals
With city water you can see a water report as you stated on line and it will list exactly whats in the water so good option
Yes you can use a bubbler to help get chlorine out
It might be less expensive it you purchased a ro filter system instead of buying it all the time even at .35cents a gal you can get a nice system to meet your needs from Amazon I’ll see if I can find a link for you
As far a s calmag goes depends again on the nutes you plan on using most have those minerals in it
And with proper feeding and phing of your water and nute mixes you probably won’t need to add any more
Thanks for the response! I know it was a lot of info. I would greatly appreciate that link to the cheaper RO filter - as I dont wanna have to go out and buy water all the time either.
Secondly, I am a little worried about raising my water bill a lot, by running the RO filter. I read ill be wasting almost 4 gallons for every good gallon i get. Im worried about using 25 gallons just to get the 5 i need for one plant! The zero waste filters are super expensive tho
See what your water measures at. Chances are you’ll be fine. Like @Countryboyjvd1971 says, some of that ppm you would have to supplement to ro water, so tap does have its benefits. I also agree that bubbling to remove chlorine is fine.
If your water comes back really high, you could probably just install a standard filter to knock it down to reasonable levels without having to go with ro system.
I’m a newbie and the advice you’ve received is good. All I can add is IF your water goes through a water softener find a way to bypass that, i.e. use outside tap. Otherwise in my case I ended up with a salt build up. I also have used 5 gallon buckets for the chlorine and have a couple sitting for rotation. Hope this helps
