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What water filters to buy?

Bloom

Member
Hello all, I am looking to buy a water filter, but I would like it to hook to my main water supply for the entire house and would like all of your options and opinions on the overall best filter to get.


I put an order in 3 days ago for 9 beans, I will do a grow diary on these strains:

2x Nirvana - White Rhino - Regular
1x Freedom of Seeds - Mighty Grape - Feminized
1x Simply Female - Spineapple - Feminized
1x CannaBioGen - Sandstorm - Feminized
1x Free - 2 Free Feminized Seeds
1x Cali Connection - Original Sour Diesel - Regular
1x Green House - King's Kush - Feminized

Any advice would be apreciated!
 
S

SeaMaiden

We got one of those inexpensive whole-house units from Lowe's. I think you can customize them to include mechanical as well as chemical (carbon/ion exchange resins) filtration. Honestly though, it's not that great. It mostly filters mechanically, hardly softens the water, and since we're on a deep well those are really the top priorities.

However, going with a really good whole-house filtration unit is going to be a few thousand as I've been told, and we've been using that money for other stuff.

I would avoid any water softening that uses salts (Culligan) if it's going to be used on plants at all.
 

Bloom

Member
Awsome news, I will look there at Lowe's, Yea I am also on a deep well, my water is hard, turns the toilet brown, the faucets get a white residue on them, and in a soil grow, it leaves white residue on the bottom tray. This sound similar to what your issues were?
I don't mind the hard water, but my PPM is like 800+

Thanks again SeaMaiden!
 
S

SeaMaiden

Awsome news, I will look there at Lowe's, Yea I am also on a deep well, my water is hard, turns the toilet brown, the faucets get a white residue on them, and in a soil grow, it leaves white residue on the bottom tray. This sound similar to what your issues were?
I don't mind the hard water, but my PPM is like 800+

Thanks again SeaMaiden!

Holy crap! It sounds a lot like ours, just like it in fact, until you mention the ppm's coming out of the tap. You may need to hook up two or three units, we were dealing with something like 300ppm out of the tap, around 9dKH (degrees German, or carbonate hardness) and around 8-10GH (general hardness, all other minerals).

And yes also on the white residue on stuff. I have this area where I'm growing heirloom squashes on top of a thick layer of wood chips. I've got it on a timed sprinkler, gets hit 1x/day. The wood chips were wood colors before, now there's this area where they have a whitish coating on them. It's from the water.

I've never dealt with so much crap building up in my toilets before moving here, either. I hate it, if you don't always have them scrubbed out it looks like someone's left pee in them, even if they've been flushed. Nasty.
 

Bloom

Member
Great site and prices, What one looks like the one that will work good for me, its hard to believe the filters are only rated for 3 months though, Would I be looking for a RO system for the entire house too? Or would it be best to get a good inline filter for the main water supply and then add a RO filter for just grows?...
Maybe I'm off on the PPM, maybe it was 300ish

Thanks again!
 

Bloom

Member
Heck, think I'll run with this one for the money..
Portable 4st 100GPD Reverse Osmosis ROWaterFilter+3ps#PO-43P100


It wont be for the entire house 8-( ... But its a huge step to great success!
 
S

SeaMaiden

We filter what's coming into the house, and then I have an RO/DI filtration unit from PWC for my indoor cultivation and my Shark Steam Mop.
 

Bloom

Member
We filter what's coming into the house, and then I have an RO/DI filtration unit from PWC for my indoor cultivation and my Shark Steam Mop.

... My wife had one of those small steamer gadgets I tried to use... calcium built up inside it, and its broke now.

Whats the brand on the one you use for the whole house?
 
S

SeaMaiden

You've got to use very, very clean water in anything that makes steam.

I think the brand is Whirlpool. Dave confirms, it's a Whirlpool.
 

Bloom

Member
I found the whirlpool whole house filtration, do you know if that would work fine for plants? Do you know what your PPM is after that unit is installed?
 
S

SeaMaiden

It's fine for plants, it's a particulate and chemical adsorption filter (activated carbon), IIRC. It brought down the hardness a little bit, but not a whole lot. I didn't test before and after, because when we installed it I didn't care about anything except the plumbing.

Remember, if you do decide to use RO, you can still use the 'waste' water for a lot of things, better things than just washing clothes or flushing toilets. It should still be 'cleaner' (better filtered) than what went in.
 

Jhhnn

Active member
Veteran
It's smart to chat up the neighbors, anyway, and to find out what they may use & who provided it. Sometimes local pros can have it pretty well dialed in, saving you a lot of trial & error. You may find that a water softener for the house & a RO unit for the garden to be a good answer, dunno. Everybody's water is different, particularly well water.
 

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