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My tap water & coco indoor - good or bad or ???

A

aragorn1999

New member
Last year's small indoor home grow with soil and hand watering worked out OK despite my newbie efforts. This year I decided to make it more complicated :) and went to coco, drip-to-waste, and have had all sorts of issues despite studying the "big growing in coco" threads, gearing up with Bluelab monitor, good watering automation, temperature control, etc. Having some issues (another story), but learning a lot.

Maybe my tap water is a factor? I ran a water analysis and hope to get some opinions about how my numbers look, and what they suggest I ought to be focusing on.

If you are up on water analysis, how do you think my tap water analysis numbers look? Trouble areas? What's good, what's bad?

Thanks!

[Parameter - Result (mg/L/PPM) - PQL/Practical quality limit]
(ND = not detected, below the PQL)

BORON 0.06 0.05
CALCIUM 12.4 0.5
COPPER ND 0.02
IRON ND 0.05
MAGNESIUM 9.2 0.5
MANGANESE ND 0.01
POTASSIUM 3.3 0.5
SODIUM 14.5 1
ZINC 0.035 0.05
CHLORIDE 3.7 1
FLUORIDE ND 0.1
NITRATE-N 1.02 0.1
SULFATE 5.1 0.2
SODIUM ADSORPTION RATIO 0.76
BICARBONATE 98 1
CARBONATE ND 1
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY 220 10
HYDROGEN ION (pH) 8.06
 
Loc Dog

Loc Dog

Hobbies include "drinkin', smokin' weed, and all k
Veteran
Are you adjusting the PH???? What is total PPM?
 
A

aragorn1999

New member
I'm not getting into my grow details in order to focus on the water as an obvious important factor, but for context I am seeing consistent raw tap water testing at 150-160 PPM(700), pH ~ 8.4, and having no trouble maintaining consistent reservoir pH 5.8-6.0 after initial adjustment. (Drip to waste.)
 
Loc Dog

Loc Dog

Hobbies include "drinkin', smokin' weed, and all k
Veteran
I am no expert, but should be fine. I have heard 150 PPM as being the max. Only thing that looks high is sodium, but not sure if that would be a problem. RO filters are cheap, and I only drink RO water. Ours is 250 PPM and a lot of calcium, which tastes lousy.
 
Levitationofme

Levitationofme

Active member
I would get a R/O filter and start with a really pure very low ppm water to build from.
Perhaps I don't trust my city to deliver consistent anything.
 
stoned40yrs

stoned40yrs

Ripped since 1965
Veteran
My well water is 0.3ec which is 150ppm. 7.0 ph. Great stuff, would never run RO. I grow in coco and use V+B RO/Soft formula, it's good for water up to 0.4ec. Your water looks good for growing.
 
DJM

DJM

Well-known member
id use that right out of the tap, most my grows were done with almost identical water. id take good tap water over ro any day
 
RulaTone

RulaTone

Well-known member
Veteran
Your tap seems ok...you can use a chlorine filter in order to use tap water directly. Cheap and easy to install..i have one as my tap water is awful so i mix roughly 3 parts RO and 1 part filtered tap in order to reach 150-200ppm starting water.
Djm why you prefer tap water over RO?
Thanks
 
MickFoster

MickFoster

Active member
Don't purchase an R/O filter - your tap water is perfect. Tap water has calcium and magnesium which usually eliminates the use of a cal/mag additive. I use the kiss method which calls for tap water and I have never had an issue. Peace.
 
N

nukklehead

Active member
MickFoster said:
Don't purchase an R/O filter - your tap water is perfect. Tap water has calcium and magnesium which usually eliminates the use of a cal/mag additive. I use the kiss method which calls for tap water and I have never had an issue. Peace.
Click to expand...


As above. Use KISS Maxi, coco,,,, my tap was ( I thought) terrible for growing .. used r/o with Kiss Maxi and had all kinds of issues...

Went back to tap and Maxi makes it spot on ph and taps Mg and Ca seem to be doing the rest of the work.

In soil I used r/o because tap just too much work. When switching to coco I did the same(r/o) and had above problems. After going back to tap water seemed to work itself out for my coco.
 
H

Hookah79

Active member
stoned40yrs said:
My well water is 0.3ec which is 150ppm. 7.0 ph. Great stuff, would never run RO. I grow in coco and use V+B RO/Soft formula, it's good for water up to 0.4ec. Your water looks good for growing.
Click to expand...
My tap water comes in at 150 ppm,7.5 ph,and .2 ec.Would that be ok for dtw coco?
 
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