Chat
RecommendedRecommended

Ro or tap for watering 30 gallon no till

Popsgrow
Popsgrowstarted grow question 7 months ago
I have been watering with ro water growing totally organic going into 30 gallon no till tap water ph 9.6. Ppm running around 400 and the ec between 615 and 700 would that be okay to water with or stick to ro seems to waste a lot of water anyone have any input on this thanks
Open
Week 10
Techniques. Other
like
Answer
Ctrellis90
Ctrellis90answered grow question 7 months ago
No you're going to have at least filter that water. I know organic no till grows are more forgiving with pH but thats still a bit high. Ph is important to those microbes brother. Hope this helps.
2 likes
Complain
TheFattyMcCoy
TheFattyMcCoyanswered grow question 7 months ago
Tap water will kill your microbes in your no till living soil. Please look into water quality more. Local water quality information is almost always old, outdated and untrustworthy information. Chlorine and chloromine are terrible for yours and anyone else's set up. That and if the water treatment facility had indeed cleaned the water, the way to your house is outdated and nasty heavy metal leaching pipes. Do you in the end, it's all good, but your microbes will be hurt and that is the whole point in no till. Might as well use salts if you use Tap water. No microbes = no nutrient cycling = you lose. Don't do that
like
Complain
Sciolistic_Steve
Sciolistic_Steveanswered grow question 7 months ago
RO has fewer unknowns, therefore easier to work with -- if convenient. This is the better way to go. sounds like you have a baseline doing it this way, so you'd be able to compare any deviations if you try tap water. that's a good thing. I doubt your eye will discern a difference as long as formula is adjusted properly, if necessary. if terribly inconvenient or in a rush, tap is fine too. You'll have some extra Mg, Ca, S in there, maybe.. you can check your local water quality report for analysis -- in the usa and somewhre with "city" water system, vs a well. with a well, you'd need your own analysis on your dime, if you wanted it. REally shouldn't make a huge difference. may need to adjust fomrula a few percent here or there to account for anything extra in tap vs RO. Your water us quite hard. I trust your EC readings more than ppm readings as that is jsut 1 of 3 conversion factors to convert ec to ppm on those devices, and that depends on the manufacturer. My tap is ~0.6EC (same as 600 on the scale you used). I've not had issues with my hard water before. It's supposedly borderline at this level of concentration. YMMV. RO definitely wastes more water. if you switch, maybe drop your dose 5% and see what happens. i doubt it makes much of a difference. may end up jumping back up to original dose. of the "400ppm" it isn't a ton of plant nutes.. 10-20ppm of one thing might be the most of any 1. Ca, i'd wager, and usually can afford more of that.
1 like
Complain
TheFattyMcCoy
TheFattyMcCoyanswered grow question 7 months ago
hello! yes i use strictly RO water, municipal water treatment facilities are horrendous. RO gives the cleanest option. I know the waste sucks but I save it to wash my car or to clean off dirty shoes and things like that. The waste water can be collected and used to flush your toilets too! save that water, it is still good for non drinking and non living things. But to remember the most important issue with using RO is the fact that there are zero minerals on the clean side. So you have to remineralize, its easy with some trace mineral drops from amazon. You could use pink Himalayan salt for the trace minerals and I used to but stick with the trace mineral drops now to reduce a little excess salt, there is some in there but that works to remineralize the clean RO water. Other than that keep going! you are kickin ass! the pH seems high at 9.6! thats the only thing I see that may become or already is problematic. Would be interested to test the pH of your run off. Let me know either way, will give you a follow! I want to see you crush this harvest! Fatty McCoy
1 like
Complain
Similar Grow Questions