R/O and sodium?

[the gnome]

I'm going to buy an R/O system, havent decided which one yet but the water its going to treat will be water treated by a water softener.
I hear treating hard water puts some sodium into the water
SO.. will an R/O filter remove the sodium from softened water?
and is there enough sodium in softened water to do damage to our plants?

 

[Lazyman]

No, sodium is easier for RO systems to remove than calcium, they recommend the softeners if your water is over 300ppm anyway. Mine is on a system like you mentioned, works great. Output water is around 80 ppm, down from 520.

 

[the gnome]

thanks lazy!
now on the subject of RO units, this is my 1st grow and Ive already spent some coin on seeds, lits, ballasts etc etc.
so I really don't wnat to drop 3-500 bucks for water, I'll just use tap and let it sit for 24hrs to let the chlrorine gas off until I get the $$

Ive found a small 2 stage RO unit that does 60 GPH.
but I'm not sure now, they are advertising on the bay as an RO unit but if you go to their site its says:
De-Chlorinator & Sediment Filter
This filter removes up to 99% of chlorine and 90% of sediment, rust, silt, etc. @ 1 GPM. Easily produces 60 gallons per hour of clear water filtered down to 5 microns. This unit has a filter capacity of 3,000 gallons. Includes: 2-Stage 10 in. Filter Unit Wall Mountable Metal Bracket Garden Hose Connector 4 ft. Feed Line 6 ft. Outlet Line 1/4 in. Shut-off Filter Wrench Instructions

is it a RO system? or??
it sounds like a nice reg whole house filter?
all thought RO units used a 3 stage filter system.
I like this unit becuase I will have different grow site and I can easily take this from grow to grow and set it up on quick connects at each place and it delivers the water fast enough to be effecient.

 

[Lazyman]

Nope, it doesn't say ro or reverse osmosis, it's not. That ones just a prefilter really, they do little to reduce your ppms, they really just help keep the RO membrane cleaner. There's lots of good threads on where to buy cheap RO filters on IC< do a search!

All RO units are slow, even my big Merlin takes about 12 hours to make 200 gallons.

 

[the gnome]

yeah I thought so, my house does 2gal a day.
thought it was too good to be true.
I'll do the RO search and see what comes up.
thanks for the input lazy man!

oh, last Q! promise hehe
if i don't want to drop the coin on a RO system will I have any sodium probs using
softened water and just letting it sit for a day to the the chlroine to gasoff?

 

[Lazyman]

Yes, the softened water would kill your plants. Letting it sit out only offgasses the chlorine, the salt remains in the water and will get more concentrated the longer it sits out.

 

[tequila_sunrise]

you could do like I do and just run to the local gas station / supermarket and fill up on RO there until you get your own machine.


it is $1 for 5 gallons of RO. Can't beat that!

 

[Lazyman]

Well, if you bought a 125gpd RO system for $200, you'd make 45000 gallons per year for $0.0044 per gallon, and not have to pay for gas to fetch it.

There's no question an RO filter is the better investment, but if you can't swing $200 then it's to the store with ya until you can!