I have a whole house ispring ro system thats after a water softener thats feed with well water that has 260ppm alkalinity with around 7.2ph. After the ro filtration im getting 30ppm but the ph is 8.6 now…Can i just lower the ph and use the water after adding calmag? Thanks
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That’s seems really high for an RO system output. Mine is a 3 filter system and I get 3 ppm and a pH of about 6.4.
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Thats what i was thinking…maybe i need too change out the filters this ones a 5 stage
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May be a good option to do so.
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You can use the water by the time you add calmag it’s going to bring ph down
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@Chad311 welcome to the community!
When ppms are very low, as with RO or distilled water the pH may not be accurate. There isn’t enough minerals in it to get a proper reading… To pH you’ll have to add a little tap water, silica, cal-mag, etc to get a proper reading after upping the ppms.
As per @Nicky I have been adding silica until ppms are about 100 then pH to 7 then add other nutes one at a time mixing between. Then pHing to 5.8-6.5pH before feeding.
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Like @Growmoredank mentioned, you can’t really pH RO water. When to pH might depend on what nutes and media you grow in. For hydro with General Hydroponics for example, you add all nutes first (in the proper order), since they have buffers in them, then pH the final, mixed product.
I’m doing hydro with GH, and even though I add a little CalMag, I’ve taken to using 25% well water and 75% RO, as it seems to give me a more pH stable solution.
Edit: Oh, and welcome to the Farm! 
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