Hardwater Thread!

[cr0n]

I would like to start a thread about hardwater. I am sure a lot of people have to deal with hard water and I think one place to get info would be great. If you have any experience with hard water please let us all know how you dealt with it.

I have 550 ppm water coming out of the tap (changes slightly with the seasons). I can not afford an RO machine and hate to use one due to the amount of waste water. Does anyone have any other methods of getting my ppm's down. I currently grow in promix, but I am switching to coco soon.

I know I can get hardwater specific nutes and I will be checking into it. But, I still got a bunch of nutes left that I would rather not throw them out.

In promix I have to just add enough ferts to get my ppm's to about 1200 ish (plant dependent) .

Also, if you have any links to other threads with good info please post them here.

 

[cr0n]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=184828&highlight=hardwater

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=184286&highlight=hardwater


Here are a couple of links with some good information in them!

 

[emerald city]

Im pull-in up a chair for this one...Ive been dealing with an unstable water quality issues for years and would love to hear how others a dealing with the situation...Im in Maine ,stuck between a mountain and a lake.Water table is extreamly high and im working out a shallow dug well...When the h2o is at its best/cleanest it comes out at .17 ec/at worst it comes out at.49 ec...Hard water scale build up is obvious yet the alkilinity tests at 40mg/l and is considered good..ph comes out at b5.8-6.0 then creeps up from there,over 7 if left long enough.....
Real interested in how others deal with "hard "water.

 

[BillFarthing]

General Hydroponics Flora Micro for hard water is great. I highly recommend it to those with high ppm water.

 

[supermanlives]

i switched to organics and my problems went away . my water is extremely hard here in so cal.

 

[cr0n]

i switched to organics and my problems went away . my water is extremely hard here in so cal.

Please give some more details about you change to organics. What to you feed your girls etc...

 

[igrowone]

interesting post on the organics and hard water getting along
i use MG Organic Garden soil, and do find it quite acidic
i have hard tap water but a good source of spring water
however, if i could get out of hauling spring water by hand, that would be good
gives me a pause whether acidic organic and hard tap water might mix well

 

[chunky_nugs]

i have hard water full of heavy salt and chlorine.
I got a 5 gallon zero water machine. It is a lot like a brita, but fda certified for creating 0 ppm water.
Thing works great, and has def been a big help.

 

[cr0n]

i have hard water full of heavy salt and chlorine.
I got a 5 gallon zero water machine. It is a lot like a brita, but fda certified for creating 0 ppm water.
Thing works great, and has def been a big help.

how much are those things? Does it take forever to get enough water ready?

 

[chunky_nugs]

how much are those things? Does it take forever to get enough water ready?

they are pretty cheap, i got mine at target, they sell them on amazon, ebay.
It take a bit for the water to drip, but when you have it on the stand thing it has a huge base, so i just fill it up and use jugs to count out how many gallons i use, for the results pretty simple.
The filters running for 3 months with heavy use only at the end have like tops 40 ppm in the water, so easily still good to go.
it comes with a ppm meter as well.

 

[Tr33]

i have hard water full of heavy salt and chlorine.
I got a 5 gallon zero water machine. It is a lot like a brita, but fda certified for creating 0 ppm water.
Thing works great, and has def been a big help.

worthless if you have over 50gal, worthless

even if you use it for only 10gal a week it won't survive a year's worth of abuse

@croniholic - you need a water softener and an R/O system
to clean your water correctly, way cheaper and you best solution

or spend a fortune at your local supermarket once every 2 weeks filling 50 - 100 gal

think about your investment of time space energy involved and all
total it up
is it worth it in the long run?

 

[Chiefin]

I second superman's comment. Go organic, bubble tap water for 24 hours to remove chlorine (very important!), throw a bit of ascorbic acid in there (vitamin C) to neutralize the hard water, plants also use it. Then use that water to make teas. This has been working for me for some time. I do buy distilled or spring water for seedlings, just to be safe. Peace

 

[emerald city]

i have hard water full of heavy salt and chlorine.
I got a 5 gallon zero water machine. It is a lot like a brita, but fda certified for creating 0 ppm water.
Thing works great, and has def been a big help.

I ordered mine today...After all the headache the past year with lockout/ph issues the few dollars they cost will atleast let me know if The water is the REAL problem im fighting..
Cost threw walmart 1 zero pure machine,1 case extra filters=125.$$ spent more then that out to dinner with the ole lady,So ill pay the price and see how she works.
My h2o varies from month to month,storm to storm...My plants appear to lockout during flowering....As ive kept track and ruled out most potential problems im left thinking that im either dealing with excess calcium carbonate,raiseing alkilinity and participating out the phosporus OR excess sodium from road salt run off locking out nutes....Either way my end weight is severly diminished and my leafs are falling off bleached yellow by the end.Good note is no need for flushing as the flavor taste and smell[high to] are all there.....I dont want to start changing fert again,looking for a more acidic reaction,or spend the big bucks and spring for the new well[no garurntee with that either] so ill start with a cheap zero pure machine ,mix that water with mine keeping the number at say 50-75 ppms[keeping some of the natural alkilinity]and track from there...At least it will give me stable number to start with when mixing fert or phing water.
Sorry for the long ramble my water been an issues for WAY tooo longggggg.. E/C out

 

[cr0n]

worthless if you have over 50gal, worthless

even if you use it for only 10gal a week it won't survive a year's worth of abuse

@croniholic - you need a water softener and an R/O system
to clean your water correctly, way cheaper and you best solution

or spend a fortune at your local supermarket once every 2 weeks filling 50 - 100 gal

think about your investment of time space energy involved and all
total it up
is it worth it in the long run?

I have looked into the water softener and R/O system. I only use maybe 10-15 gal. per week and only have a small set up. Ideally you are probably right, I should get the R/O, but I may not stay at this residence for too much longer. So, I may try the water filter idea. It is cheap and should fix the problems that I am having. It seems like a good short term solution.

I think for water as hard as mine, using nutes made for hard water may not be enough (I am not sure though).

 

[Bullfrog44]

Small boy filter with a chlorimine filter upgrade. That is what I just bought.

 

[hush]

I second superman's comment. Go organic, bubble tap water for 24 hours to remove chlorine (very important!), throw a bit of ascorbic acid in there (vitamin C) to neutralize the hard water, plants also use it.

This is good advice, but make sure your water supply doesn't have chloramine added to it. This is added in place of chlorine in many municipalities' water supplies, and it can't be removed by bubbling. So if you are trying to go organic, and your water has chloramine in it, you will kill off your microherd.

Just something to keep in mind.

 

[GreenMind]

I wouldn't even THINK about torturing myself by growing without an RO.

Do yourself a favor. Drop the 200. Its the best 200.+/- you'll spend on your grow, period.

Plus, you'll never have to buy another bottled water, again. It pays for itself in no time.

gm

 

[chunky_nugs]

It is easy to say go Organic, but !st that does not solve the water problem. Second you have to learn how to use BB, and all this other stuff. We would all love organic, but I got to much other shit in life to worry about my water tank.
I use at least 20 gallons a week, and the Zero Water has refill cartridges.
I would love an ro machine or something else, but it was my simplest solution, and I found it works for me in terms of nice nice clean water.

I found it as a simple solution for my problem and was just passing it on because it worked for me. I know there are so many other ways as well.

 

[emerald city]

I wouldn't even THINK about torturing myself by growing without an RO.

Do yourself a favor. Drop the 200. Its the best 200.+/- you'll spend on your grow, period.

Plus, you'll never have to buy another bottled water, again. It pays for itself in no time.

gm

In my situation,12 ft dug well...With an r/o machine your wasteing aprox 90% of your water supply.My small well doesnt have the recharge capasity to use such a unit...Plus after looking into various filtration devices im getting prices of thousands of dollars not hundreds to fix my particular issues....I fear to get the consistant water supply i need to survive and run the farm we will have to drill over 1000 feet to hit "pure" water..Funny when the water table out back is only a foot at times.

 

[chunky_nugs]

In my situation,12 ft dug well...With an r/o machine your wasteing aprox 90% of your water supply.My small well doesnt have the recharge capasity to use such a unit...Plus after looking into various filtration devices im getting prices of thousands of dollars not hundreds to fix my particular issues....I fear to get the consistant water supply i need to survive and run the farm we will have to drill over 1000 feet to hit "pure" water..Funny when the water table out back is only a foot at times.

I found online a thing i debated on merlin magic or garden genie or some shit, and it was RO machine you hooked to your hose and that is something I had thought about doing.