BaldEagle

Hi, I have seen reverse osmosis ("RO") mentioned in several old threads. I am looking for advice from those who have used RO. If we gather some good info, I am willing to write a summary that can be added to the Hydro section of the Grow Guide.

1. What benefits did you observe after you switched to RO?
2. What is the combined volume of your res's?
3. What model/size RO system do you use? Are you pleased with the unit?
4. Any other advice or recommendations?

Thanks!

Mendrel

1) More constant ppm
2) Several 15ga resevoirs, using 50/50 RO/tap mix. Tap water here is so good RO not needed, but use occasionally.
3) It's an (SpectraPure?) 80gpd @ 60PSI. Other than being a bit slow, it's good.
4) You may want a special RO resevoir hooked up to a float valve so you have a constant supply of RO water if you need it. It also allows the water to come to room temp.

__________________
I came. I grew. I....uhhh...I forgot.
----------------------------------------
The guide for growing is the Grow Guide.
Three threads you should read before posting. New?
-- Acceptable Use -- Grow FAQ -- Perqs of GC.com --


“You never really leave a place or person you love, part of them you take with you, leaving a part of yourself behind.”

skitzo63

hey mendrel et all...

i have a slow RO filtre as well. how i combat the room temp thing and having more RO then i need is i have 4 of those blue water cooler things i just let the filtre do its thing till one of those is filled, then i move it an add another. 4 jugs is 72L of water, perfect for my res.

just thought this info might help a little

__________________
skitz

Welcome to Hemp Cultivation

Posting Guidelines

My Grow Journals

HydroSan

Something I learned about RO water, is that Pure RO will encourage bacterial slime running pure RO will also mean unstable pH as there is a distinct lack of buffering minerals So, the trick is, to mix yer RO water with regular tap water to get an initial EC of around 0.2 to avoid both issues

San

far-mer-jon

Hey San , What's .2 in ppms ? FMJ

__________________
scooterpies grow

Scooters other grow

Raw salts

Pinching

Tokeitup

HydroSan - My tap water is .25 EC. Are you saying this is what I want?


Peace...

JimiC

far-mer-jon
0.2 EC is about 140 ppm as i remember.

theres a conversion table in the [Nute & pH Soundoff] thread in my sig



Tokeitup
There is always the chance that the 0.25 EC of minerals in your water are something toxic or will cause a problem when mixed with your nutes. i however wouldnt hesitate to try that water in a hydro system as thats a fairly low reading and will probably be fine

__________________

o· [ JimiC vs. Chaos '05 - More chaos than order atm ]
·o
o· [Posting Guidelines] o [Grow Guide] o [The Library] o [Marijuana Botany]
·o [pH] o [Nute & pH Sound Off] o [h2o2] o [Nute Burn Recovery] o [Unstable pH?]
o· [SOG The Planet] o [Bubble Cloner] o [AFT model] o [Latitude] o [Original Haze] o [GWL]

Tokeitup

JimiC - Thanks for the reply. I am currently on my 4th grow. 1st grow was soil and did ok. 2nd grow was hydro using RO water with good results. 3rd grow I switched from RO to my tap water in the middle of the grow. I was also using different nutes. The results were poor but I still was able to harvest some bud. I can't really go by that 3rd grow though, because there were other factors involved that could have screwed that grow up. On my 4th and current grow I am using my tap water and I went back to using GH flora series nutes. I am using the Hardwater Micro instead of the regular Micro. I guess we'll see what happens.



Peace...

HydroSan

Hey Tokeitup,

0.25 EC water is good to go The worry point is about 400ppm, again that may be fine too, it depends what minerals are making up the 400ppm I started to preveg my clones in 0.8 EC water (about 540ppm), and they're sucking up the nutes n looking healthy for it *phew*

as your water is at the lower end of hard, I would hazard a guess that you could use either hard or softwater nutes, the hardwater variety being the better choice, but there's not much in it IMO.

As long as the sodium content is low (just have to try it or get a professional water test), the crux becomes weather the nutes precipitate out of solution, i.e. if your water is too hard for your choice of nutes, the particles bond together becomming too big for the plants to take up and eventually forming visible bits in the nutes (precipitation), looking a bit like sand. If your water is too soft for your nutes (as my last location) the pH becomes very unstable, a difficult problem to solve, as I found to my cost I only became aware of the cause after I moved and had to look at water quality from an oposite angle

San