How important is reverse osmosis water for hydro?

Is it critical I filter my city water? I know that you can let it sit for a couple days to let the chlorine evaporate, but what about all the other stuff? Can I just PH balance it and call it good or should I be a snob, buy they $60 pond water chemistry test kit from the local garden supply store and know exactly what's in my water? Last go around I just bought distilled water from the supermarket every week but this go around will be 4x so in house filtration is a must.

It depends entirely on the quality and the consistency on what comes out of your tap. If your water is consistently under 100ppm and you have no chloramine issues, RO is entirely optional imo. Your most valuable tools are an instrument (a good TDS/EC meter) and a document: your municipality's water report. cn

And if I do decide to get a RO filter for the house is this adequate?

http://www.hydrofarm.com/product.php?itemid=13183

How long would a filter like this take to fill up at 50 gallon barrel?

I would expect that one to take half a day to fill 50 gallons. cn

This is my current one. LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.aquariumwaterfilters.com/shop-by-product?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=68&category_id=12

According to a report I read from a government website, the water in the US is generally good. I use the water from the tap and adjust the pH accordingly. I have produced all sorts of herbs and flowers using hydroponics with continued bountiful havests. I use RO/DI on my reef tank only. The added expense and time to make RO water is, IMO, a little over kill. Besides, there are elements in natural water you wont have to add with epensive additives from the market.

yea i only feed mine ro water when im doing a tea or nutes.... other wise just tap is good enough.

There are lots of options......the true expense on these is replacing the filters. If you use a whole house filter, then all the water is cleaned and you replace your filters more often. I use this: http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/ro-counter-detail.htm, and have for over 5 years now. It's portable, and can hook up to bathroom sinks, kitchen faucets, etc. I only use it for grow room water and it lasts at least a year before I need to start buying filters again. City water is generally better then well water but I'd rather start with "clean" water and know where I stand. The pH of the water comes out at around 6.2, with a ppm at 30. A good starting point...

I should also mention I'm using organics... chlorine/chloramine is bad for organics

allthose filters are rip offs go to eastwesthydro.com and get a stealth 100 or 200 for them I order bulbs and shit from them and they got the 200 for 210$ (100$ under MSRP) and the 100 is 160 and thats at 100 or 200 gallons per day looks like what im getting