What To Add To My R/o Water?

[jayt]

Many manufacturers of pH up and down are mostly water so you use a lot. GH, Technaflora, and Europonics are good examples of more water than chemical. Advanced Nutrients is more concentrated, you can even feel a noticeable increase in weight between an equivalent bottle of AN to any of the others. I'm sure there are other manufacturers that don't over dilute the pH up and down.

[Sinsemillaplease]

Below is a typical analysis of my tap water. Most of the contents are actualy good for the plants. Some or all of the first 4 items can actualy act as a buffer to stabilize the ph, even if it is adjusted. With R/O water all these chemicals are taken out, and this will contribute to your PH fluctuating the way it is. Letting this tap water sit for 24-48 hours will remove the chloramine which is toxic to plants. There are 2 or 3 other undesireable components which can be partialy removed with a carbon filter. All in all I would prefer to use this water over R/O water when I am growing in soil. Otherwise, it becomes neccesary to add the chemicals back that you have removed with R/O. If you don't, your PH can fluctuate like yours is doing, and also the plants can be deprived of nutrients neccesary for proper growth. I only use R/O water in my bubble buckets, as the results I have gotten using R/O in soil have been less than spectacular. Why spend so much extra time and money adding back minerals that are there in the first place? Try using your tap water instead of R/O and you may find your PH becomes much more stable. Or you can add back the Calcium and Magnesium you have filtered out and this will help too.

 

 

Analyte Reported as mg/l

(except as noted) Typical

Concentration

Range

Calcium CaCO3 50 40-60

Magnesium CaCO3 40 30-40

Total Hardness* CaCO3 90 85-100

Carbonate (CO3) CaCO3 20 15-30

Bicarbonate (HCO3) CaCO3 15 10-25

Total alkalinity CaCO3 35 25-60

Sodium* Na 44 30-60

Iron* Fe 0.2 0.1-0.5

Sulfate* SO4 70 40-150

Chloride* Cl 46 10-100

Silica* SiO2 10 9-14

Fluoride F 1.2 0.6-1.4

Phosphate, Tot P 0.8 0.2-1.0

Phosphate, Ortho P 0.2 0.1-0.5

Chloramine Cl2 (at plant tap) 2.0 1.0-3.5

pH pH units 9.4 9.2-9.8

Turbidity NTU 0.2 NTU 0.1-0.5

Conductivity* uS/cm 350 250-750

 

Letting your water sit will not remove any chloramine. Very important for those living in ann arbor.

[purklize]

Don't ever buy liquid pH up, it's a ripoff. What I do is weigh out 10g of *solid* pH up on a scale, and dump it into a 1 liter bottle full of distilled or RO water. Much much much cheaper. For pH down it's a little trickier, the solid stuff in solution will grow some kind of yeast, and ferment, so it's best to keep that one in the fridge.

 

Expanding on what SinsemillaPlease said... chloramine also has very little odor, so you can't really tell if it's gone. If you water doesn't smell strongly of chlorine you likely have chloramine instead of the old fashioned hypochlorite.

[mike44]

Letting your water sit will not remove any chloramine. Very important for those living in ann arbor.

You are correct and I mis-stated myself. Letting water stand for 24 hours by itself will not remove the chloramine. I use a carbon filter and let my water sit for 24 to 48 hours. I use a good quality chloramine tester (the type used for aquariums) and it tests negative after sitting. It may be the filter that is taking it out, but the testing indicates a heavy presence right out of the tap. I don't know if the chloramine removal drops are safe to use, I guess they might be since the fish don't seem to mind. I will keep doing it the way I have been because it obviously works.

[Green-Nubie]

I bought a r.o. unit and had all kinds of issues, then I ditched the r.o. membrain and kept the 2 filters. Works great now..... :-). Simple fix. Change Out my filters every 3 months.

 

I do have bad news thoe I did some testing and found that the harmfull green alge in lake Erie is making to my tap somehow. It was confirmed with testing and culturing the alge... I'll type up a post later on it.