Tap water chlorine levels

[magiccannabus]

My water rates at less than 1mg/liter. The regulations state that it can't be allowed over 1.2 approximately, so I definitely don't have excessive amounts, and thankfully no chloramine.

What I want to know is; How deadly is this chlorine to the micro herd? What microbes are most vulnerable to this chlorine? If you had to guesstimate how many of your micro herd die in your soil if you use water straight from the tap, what sort of percentages would we be looking at? Would 20% of the micro herd die from a thorough watering? 40%? 80%? 100%? Just how deadly is the stuff?

For the record I now keep my water in a jug and let it sit for a day or two before I use it, but earlier in my grow I used it a lot straight from the tap. How big a difference will I see from this?

 

[SuperConductor]

I used to have a watering can with an airstone that I just topped up with water and molasses and it would foam up constantly. One time I put water straight from the tap in and the foaming stopped immediately, completely dead. Now I read elsewhere that lack of foam doesn't always mean lack of microbial activity but I reckon chlorinated water kills all of the microbes right away.

 

[doodah]

For the record I now keep my water in a jug and let it sit for a day or two before I use it, but earlier in my grow I used it a lot straight from the tap. How big a difference will I see from this?

Leaving the water standing for a day or two will remove most of the chlorine and prevent it from killing the microbes.

 

[CannaExists]

Leaving the water standing for a day or two will remove most of the chlorine and prevent it from killing the microbes.

Even better, bubble it. Teaming with Microbes says that bubbling can remove all chlorine within an hour or two but I usually do it for around 24 hours before making a tea, to be safe.

Chlorine is put in your water to kill bacteria so like... you can assume it'll serve such a purpose and murder most or all of your microbes.

 

[magiccannabus]

Thanks, I suppose I should just assume it's a 100% killer. I hate to think I have been sterilizing my soil between tea feedings.... Oh well, on track now at least!

 

[magiccannabus]

Thought I would come back and update this, in case anyone later searches for info and wants to know how it went.

I would say letting the chlorine evap for even 12 hours is a world apart from using it right out of the tap. I see a noticeable increase in green foliage, and a related decrease in lost leaves. Calcium issues no longer are occurring, and the plants are happier without transplant for longer than they were. I really do think the chlorine was at the least heavily attacking my micro herd. I'd recommend to anyone growing organic to store water for 24 hours prior to use, or use filtered water. Just have to remember not to top off the water bottle and then have chlorine in it again. Just use it up, then refill it, or keep a rotation of a couple of water storage containers, so hopefully you always have usable water when you need it.

 

[CT Guy]

I think you'll lose much less than you actually think. There's so much organic matter in the soil, that I wouldn't really be too concerned if it's just to water with. I just switch my kitchen sink to spray mode on the nozzle and then let it fill my water jug. This is going to allow a lot of it to come into contact with the air and create a lot of agitation on the surface (both of which will release some of the chlorine). I can't imagine it being a big issue, of greater concern is what else is in the water that might need to be filtered or removed. If you are worried though, just let it sit out for 24 hours with the lid off, or throw a handfull of soil or compost in the bucket and stir it up.

 

[10k]

It's always best to aerate aggressively to de-gas the chlorine out of your tap water. But I believe it's better to have a large water reserve set aside and ready to go rather than constantly topping up a jug or two like many folks end up doing.

In other words, you set up a working reservoir for ageing / storing and de-gassing your water supply.
A couple of nice big heavy duty plastic garbage cans works great for this purpose. Heck, once you have a good working nitrogen cycle in your second water tub, just toss in an air stone or an aquarium powerhead to vigorously agitate the water surface and a handful of cheap goldfish and your water res will stay live and active for the duration of many grows.

Here's a cut and paste of something I wrote a while back about having a working drum of water in order to have a great reserve of beneficial bacteria enhanced water for use in mixing fertilizer solutions from, and to avoid the dredded slime many growers battle in their chem hydro reservoirs. I believe having this as a starting point for use in organic poop soups is also a key to a healthy micro herd for organic growers...

Richyrich and D.I.Try...
I believe you're onto something regarding having a good beneficial bacteria colony in the water to void the slime. Back in the day when I did some Aquaponics grows, I never had any slime problems whatsoever and had some of the most beautiful white root systems I've ever seen.

In regular chem hydro setups, I've never believed in the "everything but the kitchen sink" nute coctail mixers either, and thought that was what's behind most folks slime gunky res problems. I've always believed in keeping things clean, simple and not polluted with every kind of damned snake oil the hydro shop wants to push on growers. But I've always ran aged aerated water so its ready when needed, and never strayed away from the old faithful GH flora series nutrients with little or no additives other than the occasional silicone additive (potassium silicate makes a great pH up btw) and the usual pH down phosphoric acid.

Now, I havent really given much thought to why I haven't had the dredded slime problems, but perhaps its because my water is well aged and aerated before I mix fresh nutes. Hmmmm ?

Why not set up a healthy thriving water barrel with beneficial bacteria and use that for nute mixing, reservoir topping off etc. ??????

Think about it ?
It's really not hard at all to get a good nitrogen cycle going in water. People who keep aquariums know never to put the expensive fish into a newly setup aquarium without having properly aged water, so that there is a living nitrogen cycle running in the tank before the fish are introduced, lest those expensive fish all die.

There are two main ways 'methods' to accomplish this beneficial bacteria or "Nitrogen cycle"...

Method #1...
Bubbling the water to de-gas the chlorine, then adding some sacrificial fish. The fish will add the ammonia in their excrement and urine. This ammonia will cause the nitro simmonas bacteria to show up, these bactors will consume the ammonia and convert it to Nitrites, which in turn will cause the nitro bactor bacteria to show up... they then consume the Nitrites and convert it to harmless nitrates. The nitrogen cycle is complete and the water is then a safe symbiosis for the fish. The fish feed the bacteria and the bacteria make the water non toxic for the fish. The only problem with this method of starting the aquarium is that Nitrites are toxic for the fish and some if not all the fish will die by the time the nitrogen cycle gets going properly. Fish keepers use cheap expendable goldfish for this method and when they can they'll also help the cycle get going sooner by innoculating the new tank with some aged used water from an already existing fish tank. Of course, always keep the water well aerated and the cycle will continue living and healthy.

Or Method #2,
Instead of sacrificing fish, the fish keeper simply fills the tank with fresh water, then adds common household ammonia. About a cup for a 29 gallon tank of water is plenty enough ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to show up in the system and get the nitrogen cycle process going. Just test the water with a Nitrite test kit and when you see the nitrites spike, its a good sign that the cycle is starting to take place....after a couple days test again and you'll see the nitrites drop...the nitrogen cycle is now established. Of course with either method, good aeration must continue and you'll need to either add a teaspoon or two of ammonia every couple weeks or just throw in some goldfish to keep feeding the cycle. Fish don't need an aquarium just a good nitrogen cycle and a dash of fish food to thrive.
Hang a filter off the side of the water barrel and you've got yourself a perpetual "live" water supply.

Folks,
Any seasoned hydro grower with experience will already have a garbage can or other barrel or tub for their tap water to age and aerate in in order to "de-gas" the chlorine out of the water... to use for their res top offs and for mixing current and future nute solutions. Those that have large water barrels bubbling away all the time probably already have some nitrogen cycle (although a weak one) going in the water already and don't realize it. I see no reason why one couldn't have two big garbage cans or tubs, one to de-gas new tap water in so you don't kill any BB's adding back fresh tap water to the barrel, and the second barrel to keep that nitrogen cycle thriving in so you never are adding chlorinated tap water to the "live" water barrel.

Use that second "live water" barrel for your plant waterings and nute mixes.

Discussion ??

 

[magiccannabus]

Interesting! This year I am going to get some pond sludge from a relative's pond filter. It's a 5000+ gallon pond, so it should have some great stuff for my compost! When I have more room, maybe I'll try some fish indoors. Just seems like another thing to mess with though. I guess I'd have to see how the results compared.