Water Purification - Which system is NECESSARY?

I need a water purification system for hydro. At the moment, I do not know what the conductivity of my tap water is, but I know its terrible.

I would like to AVOID getting an RO system, because they are expensive and are designed to filter out stuff I dont care about (like organics)

I would prefer to use some cheap system like a GE in-line filter based system.


Now I guess what I am asking is if anyone has ever had any experience with one of these systems, and knows if they reduce the EC/TDS of your water.

The important things are a reduction in chlorine and the various dissolved salts.


Has anyone tried the MR Clean auto dry system?

gordonliu said:

I need a water purification system for hydro. At the moment, I do not know what the conductivity of my tap water is, but I know its terrible.

I would like to AVOID getting an RO system, because they are expensive and are designed to filter out stuff I dont care about (like organics)

I would prefer to use some cheap system like a GE in-line filter based system.


Now I guess what I am asking is if anyone has ever had any experience with one of these systems, and knows if they reduce the EC/TDS of your water.

The important things are a reduction in chlorine and the various dissolved salts.


Has anyone tried the MR Clean auto dry system?

Click to expand...

I have a Whirlpool inline/whole house filter setup but it did not bring my PH or PPM down. I now also run a Whirlpool 3 filter RO setup in conjunction with the inline and this got things where I needed them.

PH PPM

INLINE 7.9 584

COMBO 6.1 024

RO was the only way with the nasty water around here.

Another way to go depending on where you live & your DIY capabilities -

2-55 gal olive barrels - free
cinder blocks & 16" pavers - $26 HD
Plumbing - about $30
Water - 110 gal @ PH 6.5 to 6.7

Thats a nice water system ya got there Old Yeller..

gordonliu said:

Now I guess what I am asking is if anyone has ever had any experience with one of these systems, and knows if they reduce the EC/TDS of your water.

The important things are a reduction in chlorine and the various dissolved salts.

Click to expand...

To make a long story short, I think the inline or faucet attachments will filter the chlorine and chloramine, but not completely. Chloramine being the important one imo, as chlorine will go away after the water has sat out for a while, but Chloramine will not.

The basis of my opinion is a longer story. I used to have one of the faucet attachment filters myself, a Dupont one like this:



I eventually replaced my faucet though and the new one wouldn't fit the filter without some trouble so I stopped using it.

Well, turns out that in the meantime my area had switched to using Chloramine for purifying the tap water, and this stuff messed up my seedlings and young plants pretty bad, and seems to sap the vigor from my older plants as well.

In the end, I discovered a thread here about Chloramine and the gist of it was that a 500mg Vitamin C tablet will treat 20 gallons or so of water for Chloramine. If you just have to treat for Chlorine, then 500mg tablet will treat 100 gallons apparently. Worked like a charm and my plants are happy as could be with the treated tap water.

Anyways, this experience is why I believe the faucet filters will remove chloramine acceptably, but I find the treatment method to be easier.

If I were to go back to filtered water for some reason though, I would bite the bullet and get an RO system, because the inline ones are ridiculously slow and turn filling up a bucket or jug into an exercise in patience.

For further reading on Chloramine, check out this awesome article that discusses removal with RO systems and even touches upon the chloramine removing abilities of carbon vs. the full RO process.

Chloramine and the Reef Aquarium