Tap water is 400+ PPM, go for it, or NOT?

[Growcephus]

As it says in the title, my tap water is a "little" hard.

O.K., as far as I know, it's REAL hard.

I'll be doing hempies using coco, and it is my understanding that coco needs cal/mag supplementation, HOWEVER, since my tap water is so..."nutritious", I figure I might be able to use it in the coco and not have to worry about adding ca/mag.

Anybody have experience growing in coco with hard water?

I'd LIKE to be able to use my tap water, but if it's not a wise course of action, I'll find another route.

Thanks in advance.

(Picture of what my tap water looks like)

 

[TickleMyBalls]

Damn that's some serious hard water. I personally wouldn't trust it. I use RO water to feed my plants in coco, just so I know exactly what every ppm in the solution is. I feel like coco is less forgiving than soil or other soilless mediums. So be very careful if you decide to use that tap water as is.

 

[HeartlandHank]

Tap is at about 270 here. Never had troubles with canna coco. Actually adding calmag+ at about 1-2ml per gallon.

Bet it would work just fine.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

I stopped and thought about it the other day.... I've literally spent a small fortune on vending machine R/O water in the last 10 years.

I'd do it all over again.

Even if you only 'flush' with clean R/O water... the more sensitive tokers are going to get that hot burn from excess elements in your end product.

There's no question on my end, R/O water all the way.

With a good nutrient (like Maxibloom) there isn't any need for cal/mag. Epsom salts will cure your mag deficiency if you get a hungry girl for that. It's cheaper and doesn't have nitrogen to mess with your coco and potency.

Stay Safe!

 

[DHF]

You know....There`s no tellin how many 10`s of 1000`s of gals of H20 I wasted over the yrs runnin fast hydro with R/O filters so I KNEW what was in my juice and dwindled down ppm`s accordingly till chop without flushing , but..

When I went full out coco for production , I sent my tapwater off to the county agent and it came back way less than 200 ppms from mostly buffering agents and small amounts of cal/mag , so....

I decided ta go with 1/2 R/O and 1/2 Tap to try and waste less water as a "Green" type thingy , but I STILL hadta supplement with Cal/Mag due to the Cation Exchange Capacity of my blend along with runnin lower ppm`s across the board with 15-20% runoff back in the day to prevent any residual salt buildup occurences....Anyways....

HS..How much epsom salts are needed to do away with cal/mag supplements , cuz I ran GH 3 part for almost 20 yrs and still hadta supplement cal/mag on my coco plants without EVER worryin bout deficiencies when I ran fast hydro, and since "Maxibloom" IS GH 3 part in dry form and supposedly "KISS" Lucas formula it`d be cool to know how many grams/tsp`s per gal to spend as least as possible with some "dripclean" to help less runoff and residual salt buildup.....

Peace...DHF........

 

[DIDM]

holy shite

Bull Run res gives us between 4-13 PPM water

Thanks Mt Hood!

 

[Growcephus]

holy shite

Bull Run res gives us between 4-13 PPM water

Thanks Mt Hood!

That's beer brewing water right there now....or cannabis cultivation water.

Well friends and neighbors, I opted to go the grocery store filtered water route to start with, as I believe the more control I have of what exactly is in my water, the better I'll be able to troubleshoot potential issues. With that in mind, lemme' throw some numbers at y'all:

Tap water (PPM - 327) (PH 7.29) @ 82deg
Brita filtered tap water (PPM - 323) (PH 7.38) @ 79deg
Hot water (PPM - 329) (PH 7.29) @ 89deg
Grocer store filtered water (PPM - 69) (PH 6.9) @ 79deg

Now, with these numbers in mind, I have learned a few things:

1. The Hanna meter I am using is kicking my ass! I've calibrated this bastard like 4 freaking times, however, I am still not consistent with it when it comes to testing samples other than control samples. Not good.

2. The Britta faucet filter I bought was a HUGE waste of money. The damn thing barely makes a dent in the PPM reading, and IMO, that is borderline fraudulent on their part.

3. The grocery store filter water is....meh. Better than my tap water, but certainly not as "neutral" as I expected.

Alas.....

I'm rolling with what I've got, for better or worse.

Thanks for your input, and I wish you luck and bountiful harvests.

 

[Desert Hydro]

my tap is ~750. i win. period. LOL

 

[GDK]

Wow 750...i thought i was fucked with my 600+ppm tap.

Stay Safe

 

[Hydro-Soil]

HS..How much epsom salts are needed to do away with cal/mag supplements , cuz I ran GH 3 part for almost 20 yrs and still hadta supplement cal/mag on my coco plants without EVER worryin bout deficiencies when I ran fast hydro, and since "Maxibloom" IS GH 3 part in dry form and supposedly "KISS" Lucas formula it`d be cool to know how many grams/tsp`s per gal to spend as least as possible with some "dripclean" to help less runoff and residual salt buildup.....

Peace...DHF........

Depending on the strain... anywhere from 1/2 to a full gram of epsom.
The biggest issue I see is people using grocery store epsom.
Horticultural grade epsom will be more consistent and reliable.

Never used dripclean with lucas from GH products... never had a buildup either. Can't give advice on dripclean.


Stay Safe!

 

[GP73LPC]

my tap water is 450 PPM with a PH of 9.0 :jawdrop:


i ran walmart drinking water for a while until i purchased some rain gutter material and a 330 gallon water tank. now my hydro runs on rain water...

12 PPM, 7.0 PH <--damn near perfect...

hell my cats even drink rain water now... i've even drank some and in a pinch i don't need the city water...

check out my rain water collection link in my sig...

 

[irobot sd]

Well 400ppm seems ok to me as far as the tap but a few other things to keep in mind. Is this your first time growing in coco? Are you doing multiple strains or just 1? Who pays the water bill? Do you have a decent ppm meter?
IF your answers are: No, just 1, landlord, yes then I'd run tap water and keep the total ppm around 900-1100 it'll save you some money in nute$, Others will argue tap is terrible but this way works just fine...

 

[Growcephus]

Well 400ppm seems ok to me as far as the tap but a few other things to keep in mind. Is this your first time growing in coco? Are you doing multiple strains or just 1? Who pays the water bill? Do you have a decent ppm meter?
IF your answers are: No, just 1, landlord, yes then I'd run tap water and keep the total ppm around 900-1100 it'll save you some money in nute$, Others will argue tap is terrible but this way works just fine...

That's an honest opinion and I appreciate the feed back. There are so many growers out there having success with a wide variety of approaches, that it's good get feedback about some approaches that may not be considered "ideal".

Yes, 1st time grow. As a matter of fact, I have only had a whopping total of THREE plants in all my seasons on this rock, and I killed two of them within about 90 days. 1 survived, but it was a water lilly (I think) that was a bad ass indestructible mofo that I had to leave with a relative due to a deployment. All I did was water it from time to time, and it was like "whatever....can't kill ME bitch!" (Got get another one of those things now that I think of it....)

Single strain grow. SS AK47. I've seen a lot of folks grow this strain, and it seems to be somewhat N00b friendly. Which is good....

I pay the bills. No land lord.

PPM meter is a Hanna combo deal. Is it good? Well, I've seen folks use them, and I'll certainly have an opinion here in the next couple of months. It's certainly not the top of the line, but I don't believe it's at the bottom either.

I like the rain water approach, however, rain is fairly scarce in these parts.

Another option I'm going to pursue is solar distillation, as we get a whole lot of heat and sun around here. If I can't fulfill all of my water demands, at least I'll be able to supplement it on the cheap.

Cheers.

 

[Mediaeval]

That's some seriously hard water. Filtered FTW.

 

[growyourboat]

The PH is the big thing....if it's way off, then that's when I'd look into R.O. etc. Rainwater capture sounds like an excellent idea, unless you live in a desert.

 

[Mister_D]

I look at water like this. Not a single commerical greenhouse in the world uses ro water, so why would you? Like freds said get ahold of the county extension agent to see what is really in your water, or have it tested (google for labs that test). If nothing is in excess figure out what you need to add to make a complete profile. Or if a mineral(s) is in excess look into a good pre/sediment filter (you'd be suprised how much ppm one of these will take out). There are even filters that specialize in removing one mineral, i.e. iron. It's easy to go the ro route and add everything back, but why pay to remove something then pay to add it back? Each to their own, just my point of view.

 

[nikolaos_t]

Your water is hard? Think again.

Your water is hard? Think again.

my tap is ~750. i win. period. LOL

I guess I am the winner now, with ~830ppm. I believe most of the solute is Calcium Carbonate, since I use bore water in a land with large carbonate deposits. Does anybody have any experience with such hard water? Will it ruin my crop?