I just purchased a ppm meter and measured my tap water (water is from a well on my property) and much to my surprise the meter read 1469. This is a shocker to me but now I don’t know what to do with the nutrients I’ve been adding etc etc.
What should I do to get the ppm down? I don’t want to purchase a new water treatment system however I do want to be able to use the water for my plants.
Any suggestions?
Test it with Distilled and it should be under 10 but probably much closer to 2, or something like that. It will help you verify if the meter is off.
I say under 10 to include purified water.
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If it’s correct you can get a cheap RO system but better yet, collect rain water. I just started doing it and got a lot surprisingly fast from my rain gutter. It has a PPM of about 5 and it’s free :-). I collect in a 5 gal bucket then dump into a 32gallon plastic trash barrel.
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I think the meter is fine since I took some bottled water from the store and tested it - the meter read 50 which sounds reasonable enough. I think I’ll test some rain water to see what that test at and go from there.
I think the well has some colloidal clay in it thus the high reading…
I have been growing for 2 years now with no adverse affects by using this water so one side of me says why do I care if there are some suspended particles in the water…
Any thoughts on this would be great.
David
Hey, if it’s working 
That seems pretty high though, I assume you’re drinking the same water? I wasn’t happy with 164 PPM. Maybe I should have been. I’d be wondering what that 1400 is.
A reading of ppm of 1469 is way off the chart for healthy consumption, you should call appropiate institution in your country, your well is probably contaminated if you’re drinking this, stop immediatly. I don’t want to see alarmist, here’s a copy / paste of the section in wikipedia that is treating of the subject, good luck 
Health considerations Edit
The World Health Organization says that “there does not appear to be any convincing evidence that water hardness causes adverse health effects in humans”.[1] In fact, the United States National Research Council has found that hard water can actually serve as a dietary supplement for calcium and magnesium.[10]
Some studies have shown a weak inverse relationship between water hardness and cardiovascular disease in men, up to a level of 170 mg calcium carbonate per litre of water. The World Health Organization has reviewed the evidence and concluded the data was inadequate to allow for a recommendation for a level of hardness.[1]
Recommendations have been made for the maximum and minimum levels of calcium (40–80 ppm) and magnesium (20–30 ppm) in drinking water, and a total hardness expressed as the sum of the calcium and magnesium concentrations of 2–4 mmol/L.[11]
Other studies have shown weak correlations between cardiovascular health and water hardness.[12][13][14]
Some studies correlate domestic hard water usage with increased eczema in children.[15][16][17]
The Softened-Water Eczema Trial (SWET), a multicenter randomized controlled trial of ion-exchange softeners for treating childhood eczema, was undertaken in 2008. However, no meaningful difference in symptom relief was found between children with access to a home water softener and those without.[18]
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Just confirm you don’t need to calibrate meter I had to with mine
Mine will do both conductivity and ppm so maybe that’s why buy just a FYI bro
You should get water tested so you know what minerals are present also just a suggestion
You msy be surprised I have over 500 ppm after my filter system in my well water but My ladies love the extra minerals
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I agree with @Countryboyjvd1971, made the well water analyse by competent specialist ! 1469 ppm is very concerning.
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Might be worth trying this. I think I’d check it but I wouldn’t be freaking out until you know what is making up that PPM, or at least rule out bad stuff. If you’ve been drinking it for years and haven’t grown a third arm out your back, you’ll probably survive the couple days it will take to get the kit.
That being said, do you have a baseline from a previous test (has it drastically gone up?) or is this the first time you checked the PPM?
http://www.amazon.com/Watersafe-WS425B-Drinking-Water-Test/dp/B00005AUHX
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I don’t drink it or cook with it. I buy bottled water for that purpose - I only use it for washing, bathrooms etc.
I’ll check the water quality before too long…
David
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Go to an aquarium supply store and buy some angel hair and charcoal. Get a coffee can or milk jug and put a hole in the bottom, fill halfway with charcoal then top with angel hair. Run your water thru that and test it. It should take out anything pm10 or bigger for starters. We made one of those out of a roll off dumpster for the EPA to cleanup ground water.
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That’s some great info @Stomper will definitely find some space to tuck that handy little trick in my burnt brain lmfao
@hrlevi1 those test kits @Matthew420 posted work great for a quick test
He also posted a $60 ro filter system which is reasonable if you ask me
On another thread maybe he can post it here again for you
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Comes with a garden house attachment.
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You can also add a 4th stage for an additional $30 or so.
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I upgraded to a 55 gallon rain catchment barrel. Plenty of good pure water for my outside and inside gardens. My ladies love that sweet mountain water.
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Ditto. Collecting as we speak!
I’m thinking about upgrading to a 250gal tank in the spring. One rain will fill at least 2 of those. Two car garage, metal roof. Lots of water to catch.
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That little RO system is really cool.
Do you rain water collectors use any filter system? I would be concerned about introducting microorganisms from any foliage in the gutters? Or possible pests?
I tried purifying 2 gal by light in the sun, barely had the caps off and came back like a week later and when I went to use it I saw a little bug on the surface of the water. Not interested in that. I have been buying water but I am looking for alternative.
I live in a state where it rains a ton so the barrel might be a good idear.
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I’m not currently filtering but I’ll put a screen over my catch bucket in the summer to keep insects and leaves out. My main storage is in my basement. I lug 5gal at a time when it rains.
My rain PPM is about 6. Right now it’s a light rain and the PPM is 14. I think it’s probably washing my roof. Bigger storm tomorrow so I’ll dump this out and catch the new rain tomorrow.
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I was wondering about that too?
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