how bad is hard water?

My tap water is like 800 ppm, how bad would it be to use it for a flood and drain?

hard water has High ca. get a filter or r/o unit, you can mix r/o and tap for a nice blend that still has all the needed micros in it.

The other problem you'll be faced with is dropping your PH w/ a PPM reading that high you will probably have a ridiculously high KH(Carbonate Hardness) ...Which mean that your water will likely rebound no matter how much PH down you put in ....Like @chuck estevez said invest in a R/O it will allow you to control that specific aspect and the PH will follow naturally

I don't see a problem with 800 ppm as a starting level. Probably save you money on nutes.

Alrighty thanks guys

Just remember: it's not as simple as just buying an RO unit. Everyone's municipal tap is different. I run saltwater reeftanks, and long story short, you simply can't keep a successful salt reef aquarium without knowing what's in your tap like the back of your hand.. For example my tap has chloramines so I needed to add in a Chloramine filter in addition to the DI resin. If I hadnt, I'd be burning through DI every couple weeks. So in short: yes, run RO, but know your water first!

r/o man a reg filter won't touch the ppm that much. 800 may not be a problem but with hydro I wouldn't play with that since its more scientific(exact). In dro you have to be in total control and not knowing whats in your water is not total control.

WHODAT@THADOR said:

The other problem you'll be faced with is dropping your PH w/ a PPM reading that high you will probably have a ridiculously high KH(Carbonate Hardness) ...Which mean that your water will likely rebound no matter how much PH down you put in ....Like @chuck estevez said invest in a R/O it will allow you to control that specific aspect and the PH will follow naturally

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Been there done that. Had to add down on a daily basis and mine is 200 ppm's but high in calcium. The other issue was mag lockout

My tap is around 600 high in chlorine when I get home I'll check my brand of RO filter it takes it down to 20 been running it for about 5 months at around 60 gallons a week and have let had no problems with ph . But it does take about a hour to fill five gallons so your going to need a few five gallon water jugs or a 50 gallon drum to leach off thoughtout the week . And you need to test your water pressure I think it has to be at least 60 psi to push through filters , if not you'll need a booster pump good luck and yea 800 is too high for dro

As most have said your water is to hard to be conductive (hahaha) for a great grow and you will struggle. I have no way to get RO filter in my shed so I plod along tweaking things. I have found that different nutes produce different results but have not tried many in my short hydro life. Having high calcium does affect mag I believe, only because epsom clears it up and calmag makes it worse. In saying all of this (sorry high) 800 is just way to high lol. I have learned that it is possible to work with screwed up well water but it takes time to dial it in. My PH stays extremely stable now using HG nutes but the shit is way beyond pricey!! Trying to find a new product actually if there are any suggestions, sorry for the highjack!

waterdawg said:

As most have said your water is to hard to be conductive (hahaha) for a great grow and you will struggle. I have no way to get RO filter in my shed so I plod along tweaking things. I have found that different nutes produce different results but have not tried many in my short hydro life. Having high calcium does affect mag I believe, only because epsom clears it up and calmag makes it worse. In saying all of this (sorry high) 800 is just way to high lol. I have learned that it is possible to work with screwed up well water but it takes time to dial it in. My PH stays extremely stable now using HG nutes but the shit is way beyond pricey!! Trying to find a new product actually if there are any suggestions, sorry for the highjack!

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I would give cutting edge solutions a try. It is superstable and ph should not be a problem. I also think 800 is way too high.

Thanks for all the input

Dude depending on the size of your grow, I'm a huge fan of Brita filters. They are bad ass for smaller and guerrilla grows.

That's fucked that your tap PPM is that high. The government mandate is that it should be under 500 PPM. Water quality is often the difference between getting an ounce or a pound of a plant. Starting with such fucked up water is a recipe for frustration. Like I said, if you're going guerrilla, look into Brita filters. If you got the money, go for a 3-stage R/O system.

800 ppm is going to choke out younger plants.

My buddys is 250 is that still too high?

DREAMSPACEY said:

My buddys is 250 is that still too high?

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Possibly, I grow hydro (nft and soilless) using hardwater. The salient specifics for my water is it is 250 and under (usually around 200), and the water company uses chlorine not chloramine. Running hydro I prefer a clean reservoir so I do not have the water sit prior to use.

I subtract the beginning number from my PPM I'm shooting for. So say I'm mixing for 800 PPM I'd actually mix it to 1000 because I started with 200. I simply add Mg (1 tsp Epsom Salt/Gallon nutrient base), as I see the beginning of Mg def.

I would think that 800 could be to high but the only way you will know for sure is do some cloning and then run a clone using same nutrients, substrate etc... side by side. Then you will answer your own question and trust me learning to grow cannabis can end up with you doing that a LOT LOL. Good luck, you can't really go wrong, any way it comes out you learn about growing cannabis.
hth

250 doesnt sound bad. but like people have been saying, what makes up that 250?

Plants can grow in pretty diverse conditions. So unless you're on a well or have something funky, it should be no problem at 250.

I imagine your city has a municipal water analysis available? dig around!