Hello I have a question around the type of water to use in hydro and soil setups. I’ve been using distilled and adding nutrients. I’m using the sensi grow parts a and b with voodoo juice and I’ll throw a squirt of cal mag plus in there every once in a while.
I’ve been reading that using plain tap water and not filtering out the mineral levels is what a lot of growers prefer because tab water has essential nutrients.
My question is if you use tap water and don’t filter do you add the nutrients as you typically would or do you use less? The water here in Vegas is typically around 450 ppm if it’s straight out the tap. So after adding recommended dosage of nutrients it’s going to be around 1200 ppm I am guessing.
When I add nutrients to distilled water the ppm is typically around 750 ppm considering distilled water has close to 0 ppm.
So much conflicting information out there it’s hard to tell what’s right and what’s wrong. Thanks if anyone can help clear this up.
I have tap water in the 500 range. This summer i dealt with that and 100+ temps in the greenhouse. I was told I had to account for the tap water PPM’s when feeding. Ended up with a nasty nutrient lock. By the time I got it figured out and fixed that problem, turns out I was starving them. I did a serious flush and invested $60 in an RO Buddie system. My girls are now happy, but I get to look at all the nasty leaves from the process. If feeding 1200PPM’s and starting with 500 of who knows what is a recipe for trouble. I now start with nearly 0 PPM’s and the plants are much happier
Your tap water sucks as bad as mine (over 400ppm), which is why I use RO water. Starting with over 400ppm tap water, yes you need to account for it in your total ppm and not get it too high or you will have problems.
I use tap water which is at ~300+ ppm. I just dose the nutrients according to the manufacturer’s recommendation and adjust pH to 6.5 (in soil). On non-feeding days I just add epsom salts and adjust pH.
I have never had any problems with nutrient lockout or deficiencies (other than during some experiments LOL).