Is excess copper in the water bad in a hydro system?

[dropdubs]

Hey guys,

Moving into a new property soon. The water comes from a borehole (not pumped either so no chance for an RO filter). Unfortunately the water leaves a blue/green tint on baths etc. Research shows this is caused by acidic water eating away at the copper pipes.

So, the question is will levels of copper that high adversely effect a hdro grow? If so, any sugguestions what I can do?

Cheers!

 

[Dirty Harry]

I don't think that water is even safe to drink and I am sure it will cause copper toxicity to the plants.
I read somewhere where someone took two 55 gal drums. He put a high flow high pressure (50-60 PSI) pump on one barrel with an RO machine. He ran the collection tube to the 2nd barrel to collect the RO water and the waist line would drain back into the first barrel. When the first barrel got down to 1/4 remaining he would dump it as that is the rejected water and would refill it. Instead of letting the waist go down the drain he put it back in for repeat attempts to get good RO with little waist. You can get 12 volt farm pumps that are used on those yard sprayers for about $30 bucks but you will need a high amp power supply for it, like a batter charger that puts out 40+ amps. I used on of them on a barrel I mixed nutes in for my outside vegetable garden. Connect a garden hose to the pump and it had enough pressure to push through 100 feet of garden hose to fertilize my whole garden.

 

[PetFlora]

The problem with the 2 barrels technique is

1. It takes 3-4 gallons of water to make one gallon of RO
2. The reject water is more highly concentrated with the impurities putting a greater load on the membrane. I can't imagine how long the prefilter or membrane would last with such a high copper concentration.

Dropbuds You can still install an RO, it's just going to need an extra step and pump. You are going to want one for cooking and drinking water anyway. If you are doing laundry there you will need additional filtering as an RO won't produce that much on demand, unless you store it in a large pressurized vessel ($$$$). Do not use a metal drum as the aggressive nature of pure water will attack the sides, at the very least it will taste weird. hth

 

[jrinlv]

Yes..........

 

[Dirty Harry]

... Do not use a metal drum as the aggressive nature of pure water will attack the sides, at the very least it will taste weird. hth

Yes, I only use plastic drums I get from car washes...Sorry I didn't state that.

 

[PetFlora]

Food Grade I trust.

 

[Dirty Harry]

Food Grade I trust.

Probably not but not sure. They have two openings, I spray them out at the car wash then bring them home. I put each one in the yard upright and put the pump pump hose in one opening and it overflows from both. I let each one rinse out for about a week. During the summer my sump pump runs about every 5 min due to the high water table and a shit load of water goes through them. I would not drink the RO water out of them though unless it was a dire emergency.