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looking for new Ro unit.
- Thread starter mack 10
- Start date
anyone know of a good Ro unit? have looked at the growonix 150 and hydro logic small/tall boy. what are the pro's and cons of either unit? my water is 0.6 Ec and 7.2 pH and is on the hard side.i would love to clean it up. mack.
T
thefatman
http://www.thefilterguys.biz/
Great prices and great RO and RODI systems. Most favored RO supplier of the reef keepers, and they demand great water.
Great prices and great RO and RODI systems. Most favored RO supplier of the reef keepers, and they demand great water.
I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think RO is the way to go. I remember reading somewhere that it isn't really very good for the plants, although i'm no botanist. Are there any alternatives you could try?
Anyways, I would at least do a bit of reading around here first. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but the water around here is pretty good.
Anyways, I would at least do a bit of reading around here first. Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but the water around here is pretty good.
RO water is the BEST way to go in my opinion depending on your grow methods. If growing organic soil, the best.
If growing hyrdo or using bottled nutrients, you should mix 25% tap with 75% RO to help make it a bit more stable. As RO has very nearly NO ppm...ie molecules aside form hydrogen and oxygen, it is very apt to form ionic bonds with the already ionized form of minerals that are readily available for uptake in liquid nutrients...which can cause issue with the stability of your solutions.
Otherwise, you can consider the environmental aspect of RO water....it takes roughly 5g water to produce one RO gallon. This can be made more efficient with the addition of high pressure pumps that help create / make a more efficient use of the filters...this is some what specific to systems and manufactures...but do look into the proper amount of line pressure needed to operate a system, as these pumps can be costly.
Personally, I just head down to the local store and fill 5g water jugs...but this would never be practical on a larger garden...
Hope this helps any question or concerns that were raised by Mr. Eckted.
dank.Frank
If growing hyrdo or using bottled nutrients, you should mix 25% tap with 75% RO to help make it a bit more stable. As RO has very nearly NO ppm...ie molecules aside form hydrogen and oxygen, it is very apt to form ionic bonds with the already ionized form of minerals that are readily available for uptake in liquid nutrients...which can cause issue with the stability of your solutions.
Otherwise, you can consider the environmental aspect of RO water....it takes roughly 5g water to produce one RO gallon. This can be made more efficient with the addition of high pressure pumps that help create / make a more efficient use of the filters...this is some what specific to systems and manufactures...but do look into the proper amount of line pressure needed to operate a system, as these pumps can be costly.
Personally, I just head down to the local store and fill 5g water jugs...but this would never be practical on a larger garden...
Hope this helps any question or concerns that were raised by Mr. Eckted.
dank.Frank
Ahh, I see. I thought I remembered reading that the ion exchange process can saturate the water with salts that we don't want. (Oh, and had I read you post carefully enough before typing that sentence, I would have seen that you addressed that, haha.) Anyways, I'm sure that if Dank Frank says you're good to go, you're safe.
T
thefatman
Deionizing water will not saturate the water with salts we do not want.. Water softeners which usae resin beads charges with Sodium will however add great deals of sodium to the water that is undesirable. The problem with deionizer filter cartridges is that they can only clean up a small amount of water before they are saturated and therefore need to be recharged. If the water starts out with a lot of calcium then the water right after it is filtered will contain a lot of CO2 so the water should be aerated before use to drive off all the excess CO2. One does not need to use part tap water and part RO water unless one for some reason buys hard water micro from GH. Expecting hydro water to provide much buffering is ludicrous. Using good RO water followed by a DI filter assures the diluted nutrient mix comes out as advertised by the Guaranteed analysis if the label is truthful. using tap water for buffering jusyt means supply less of the balancedd nutrients as it will just raise the EC with calcium compounds that are better supplied in known quantities and by known types of calcium compounds. There are easy ways to decrease the amount of water used to produce RO water.
T
thefatman
The mixed bed deionizing of water will not saturate the water with salts we do not want. Water softeners which use resin beads charged with Sodium Chloride (salt) will however add great deals of sodium to the water that is undesirable. The problem with deionizer filter cartridges is that they can only clean up a small amount of water before they are saturated and therefore need to be recharged. Recharging is considered a pain in the ass by most people so they spend money foolishly by just replacing the DI resins rather than recharging them. If the water starts out with a lot of calcium then the water right after it is filtered will contain a lot of CO2 so the water should be aerated before use to drive off all the excess CO2.
A grower does not need to use part tap water and part RO water unless one for some reason buys hard water micro from GH. Expecting hydro water to provide much buffering is ludicrous. Using good RO water followed by a DI filter assures the diluted nutrient mix comes out as advertised by the guaranteed analysis if the GA on the label is truthful. Using tap water for buffering just means supply less of the balanced nutrients as it will just raise the EC with calcium compounds that are better supplied in known quantities and by known types of calcium compounds.
There are easy ways to decrease the amount of water used to produce RO water other than just boosting the pressure. For an example RO filters can remove very large amounts of salts., metals etc from water so you can simply fill one large trash barrel with water and use a booster pump to pump water to the RO filter. Send the return water back to that trash barrel. Catch the filtered water in a second trash barrel. Continueto add fresh tap water to the first baqrrel and as long as the RO water produced is less than about 90% of the PPM of the tap water just keep reusing and toppoing off the first barrel. When the RO filters water output rises above 10% of the original tap water throw out the majority of the first barrel of water. Most RO filters can remove 95 to 96% percent of all salts etc if the water feed is an bout 2000 ppm or less. However water is quite cheap so unless your worried about conservation just accept that RO water can be produced without the hassles by using 5 gallons of tap water to produce one gallon of filtered water.
HobbyGrower
Member
Give this one a shot. http://amzn.to/oOHIrZ
Takes my city water from ~275 down to about 12 ppm. Counter top, portable, no plumbing required, tastes great, plants love it. I can make about 3 gallons an hour. Perfect for my hobby plus we use it to drink and cook. $140, free shipping.
happy growing!
Takes my city water from ~275 down to about 12 ppm. Counter top, portable, no plumbing required, tastes great, plants love it. I can make about 3 gallons an hour. Perfect for my hobby plus we use it to drink and cook. $140, free shipping.
happy growing!
S
seedee
http://www.advancedwaterfilters.com...ilters/tap-master-artesian-hydrogardener.html
try this out 150 gpd
try this out 150 gpd
pezmasterelite
Member
Hi,
I have a Stealth RO 100gpd machine, I think this should be a link to google shopping.
http://www.google.com/products/cata...=AIiITpb-NePIsQLW67mnDw&sqi=2&ved=0CDkQ8wIwAg
It seems to work quite well, my friend has the same and lives a block away. Our water source is terrible, 8.1pH, 400-425ppm. The Stealth RO has a 3:1 ratio which means it will take 3 gallons of wash water to make 1 gallon of RO water. With the standard setup it will take our water down to ~35ppm, but it does not touch the pH for some reason. There is a flow restricter option for the waste water which they say changes it to 2:1 ratio of waste to RO water. I put that on mine and I get out like 90-100ppm water with 8 pH.
I think I only get like 80 gallons per day or so with the restricter in there. It is simply a corkscrew looking thing that slides inside the wash hose to restrict the flow of wash water out.
I am not really concerned with the 100ppm water, I think it sort of helps with what dank.frank was referring to. Also, 100ppm is still twice as good as any other water source I have used.
That is my .02, I think there is an RO which has a 1:1 ratio, but I am unsure of the brand.
Peace
I have a Stealth RO 100gpd machine, I think this should be a link to google shopping.
http://www.google.com/products/cata...=AIiITpb-NePIsQLW67mnDw&sqi=2&ved=0CDkQ8wIwAg
It seems to work quite well, my friend has the same and lives a block away. Our water source is terrible, 8.1pH, 400-425ppm. The Stealth RO has a 3:1 ratio which means it will take 3 gallons of wash water to make 1 gallon of RO water. With the standard setup it will take our water down to ~35ppm, but it does not touch the pH for some reason. There is a flow restricter option for the waste water which they say changes it to 2:1 ratio of waste to RO water. I put that on mine and I get out like 90-100ppm water with 8 pH.
I think I only get like 80 gallons per day or so with the restricter in there. It is simply a corkscrew looking thing that slides inside the wash hose to restrict the flow of wash water out.
I am not really concerned with the 100ppm water, I think it sort of helps with what dank.frank was referring to. Also, 100ppm is still twice as good as any other water source I have used.
That is my .02, I think there is an RO which has a 1:1 ratio, but I am unsure of the brand.
Peace
singularity
Member
interesting information regarding the mixing of tap and r/o to help with more stable solution mixes.
the hydro stealth is almost fool proof, and convenient to boot. just make sure whatever unit you decide on, that your water pressure is up to spec. the amount of water you could possibly waste with low pressure is astounding but low pressure also negates the effectivness of the aparatus.
the hydro stealth is almost fool proof, and convenient to boot. just make sure whatever unit you decide on, that your water pressure is up to spec. the amount of water you could possibly waste with low pressure is astounding but low pressure also negates the effectivness of the aparatus.
