So as some of you know I just started with dwc and I’m trying to get it tuned in and figured out. I got it down to two things either it was too hot in there but I think I got that figured out or it is this tap water I have or maybe both. But I’m looking into filters, I don’t have the money for an RO machine at the moment so just trying to see if the cheapest route will help any at all, I know y’all are going to tell me to just get an RO machine or whatever but in the meantime I’m just trying to research the cheapest thing I can do even if it doesn’t zero my water all the way out
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Typical water filters like this can reduce sediment in lines, but the primary focus is removing odor and chlorine to a degree. They won’t get you to zero. Most RO don’t hit zero, but come close. Ppm likely won’t shift much. Same goes for garden hose filters like boogie, or RV inline filters.
Cost being a factor have you considered Affirm or Klarna for financing? RO buddie is like $70 through Amazon. Could probably get that broken up to bi-weekly or monthly payments.
Honestly unless your water is extremely high in ppms, chorine, or chloramines, it’s probably not the cause.
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@Low right my PPM is about 200 out the tap but I’ve been noticing after a day or two you can see all kind of residue at the bottom of my bucket and a line where my water is at the top
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What kind of residue? Is it oily or is it build up
200 is great for tap
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My water is very hard, ~400+ ppm. Residue on everything. My plants do fine.
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@Low I would say it is build up
If you didn’t know what was going on and you looked at this picture you would think I took an up-close picture of the moon but this is an up close picture of the bucket LOL and this is when I first started and didn’t have much nutrients even in there. But I think this is from when I was letting my tap water sit out too long
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Ok, so solid sediment. How long was that sitting?
What if you just used a couple buckets and let the water set, settle, separate. Then pour the top water into the usable bucket? The only thing I see build up over time when running tap is calcium.
My old place tap was around @merlin44 range. I set up an elaborate whole house filter and it kinda mitigated it, but still saw build up. And the filters got expensive fast. when running through lines, starting water is important, not necessarily for the plants, but for the system.
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480 ppm out of tap after 3 stage whole house filters, works well, and yes most build I find is calcium, have to clean faucets every 3 weeks to stay on top of it.. 
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Take a cup of tap water, measure the TDS, boil it and let it cool then measure TDS again. This will tell you if you have something like calcium in your tap water.
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@Myfriendis410 ok I’ll try that when I get home
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You can always use a Boogie Blue on the end of your garden hose 
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