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Well water PPM/EC looks REALLY high. What to do?

LeastExpectedGrower
LeastExpectedGrowerstarted grow question 3 years ago
I just did a quick test of our well water with a new cheap little meter and found that with our softening system on I hit 267PPM and an EC of 568(!). When I bypass the softening system I end up with 209ppm and and EC of ~450. Am I killin' my own plants?
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Ezzjaybruh
Ezzjaybruhanswered grow question 3 years ago
Thats really not bad honestly IMO.. Im lucky and my tap is about 120-140 PPM. Ive never heard of tap or well water ever being less than 80ish PPM.. so thats like the baseline without doing RO. Youre right around double that, so I wouldnt be concerned. Anywhere in the 100-200 PPM range isnt bad, so youre right in a good spot. Much higher than 200 PPM and there is specific nutrients you can get (GH has a micro for hard water over 200PPM) . The salt thats added in softeners isn't beneficial to plants (I dont believe cuz i think its sodium chloride) but some of the stuff in your well water can be. Bottom line, 200 PPM isnt hurting your plants.. if youre super worried about it tho you could get a RO system for a few hundred to get it down below 100
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MrStinky
MrStinkyanswered grow question 3 years ago
My TDS / PPM after filtering is ~250, if you were to use RO water and add calmag you'd be adding up to about where you are now. Should be fine mate.
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Ezzjaybruh
Ezzjaybruhanswered grow question 3 years ago
PPM and EC are directly correlated.. Depending on which "scale" you use - so on most of those cheap EC/PPM readers the EC is double the PPM - if you PPM is 215 - the EC will read out 430 which is actually what most ppl refer to as an EC of .430
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GreatAssSmoke
GreatAssSmokeanswered grow question 3 years ago
Depends on what's in the water. U either need a RO system to clean your water or a cleaner water source. Distilled and purified water have 0 ppm. Or even the water that runs from the pipes of your air conditioner. That water is pretty clean too.
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GMSgrows
GMSgrowsanswered grow question 3 years ago
Your ppm is your ec, same thing. Just a few different ways of measuring it. Hanna scale is double. 500 PM is 1.0 ec, 200 is 0.4. Your 267 ppm reading doubled would be 0.534 ec. Considering a normal grow with hydroponics runs at 800 ppm 1.6 ec and dirt grows run about 1.2 ppm which is 2.4 ec your water should be fine but I wouldn't use the softened water. Cheers
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LeastExpectedGrower
LeastExpectedGroweranswered grow question 3 years ago
Ah, just answered my question. The meter is reading MuS rather than mS...so .45 That makes me feel better.
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LeastExpectedGrower
LeastExpectedGroweranswered grow question 3 years ago
@esoteric_growing, should I assume that the meter reading I'm getting is not 450 and instead .450? The meter literally has no documentation with it. Would that make more sense? @ChitownnCannaChica, I was looking at getting one of the pitcher filters (Brita style but better) and give that a try at 40$ and see if that helps. @Ezzjaygrows. I'm less worried about the ppm rather than the EC reading which looks to be either 450 or 550ish Depending on if I have my softener on or not. I believe that number ties more to salts in the water? Again, the meter I got has no documentation and doesn't say that 450 is actually .45 etc. Should I assume that that's the way it works? Thanks for the tip on the HydroLogic stuff. I will definitely check it out. Not in the cards for this or my next grow (fronted the tent, T6, carbon filter, HLG 225w light, etc.) so it'll have to wait.
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Ezzjaybruh
Ezzjaybruhanswered grow question 3 years ago
Check out HydroLogic - they have small systems for 100-200 bucks that will filter a few gallons an hour. Thing that sucks about it is that you have to set it up in advance and get yourself several gallons ahead of feeding cuz it only does single digit gallon per hour filtration. I wouldnt tho if you can consistently get ~200 PPM
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Esoteric_growing
Esoteric_growinganswered grow question 3 years ago
I have a EC of about 0.45 and my plants are totally fine. Feel free to look at my plants which seem to thrive and that’s in all different types of mediums.
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ChitownCannaChica
ChitownCannaChicaanswered grow question 3 years ago
I bought a cheap filter system for my plants. It helps a lot!
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LeastExpectedGrower
LeastExpectedGroweranswered grow question 3 years ago
More info: well water, with a softening system that's from 2003. I'm getting lower readings with the system bypassed, but still 214ppm & EC in the 450 range. A quick control with distilled water shows 1ppm and EC:2 Not putting a full reverse osmosis system in the house or whatever. Worth cutting my well water with distilled? Or getting a small hand filter of some kind? Am I just abusing my plants?
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