Opinions and Prefrences: RO, Distilled, or Tap water?

budtoker0987

budtoker0987

Active Member
Opinions and prefrences: RO, Distilled, or Tap water???

Here i've been thinking RO water is great cuz it gets rid of bad shit but it also gets rid of good stuff i guess I'm starting to find out. I add Cal-Mag to it but thats it. And i have leaves that have brown freckle spots on them and the younger plants have some yellowing bottom leaves.

I'm going to see if I can get my tap water tested to know exactly whats in it then possibly use that. What do you ppl think????
 
hoagtech

hoagtech

Well-Known Member
Ro man. But you'll get that if you sign up for clean water contract. I get 15 gallons of .004 Tds water for 4.50 for 15 gallons. I just keep airstones going in my nutrient bun and add ph down 2 hours before I give it to my plants along with fertilizers and cal mag.
 
Metasynth

Metasynth

Well-Known Member
Only need to evaporate the chlorine in tap water if you're going organic, cause it kills the bio-life in your soil. But most tap isn't treated with chlorine anymore, it's treated with chloramine, which doesn't evaporate from the water. You can get drops from the aquatics section in your local pet store/fish store...Amquel, it neutralizes the chlorine and chloramine in water, though it DOES say "Not for use with food fish" on the label so I dunno if you wanna smoke it. But my nutrients actually contain chlorine, so it doesn't hurt your plants. All that being said, I think plain ol' tap is cool.
 
budtoker0987

budtoker0987

Active Member
hoagtech said:
Ro man. But you'll get that if you sign up for clean water contract. I get 15 gallons of .004 Tds water for 4.50 for 15 gallons. I just keep airstones going in my nutrient bun and add ph down 2 hours before I give it to my plants along with fertilizers and cal mag.
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I was wondering about if ph changes after a while of being it water?? does it then??
 
budtoker0987

budtoker0987

Active Member
I dunno.... im halfway thinking i might try some tap water..... i have some lingering issues with some yellowing bottom leaves and dark/brown spots on older leaves.... cant frickin figure it out....
 
Harrekin

Harrekin

Well-Known Member
I think people that use RO water on their plants are the kinda people that drink RO water themselves cos "its better for them".

Just use tap, you pay for it to be treated with your taxes. Plants dont need fancy RO water to grow.
 
budtoker0987

budtoker0987

Active Member
I wish I would have asked this question before I got this RO machine from my buddy.... dont owe him til harvest but still... I am gonna try some tap water and see how that goes. I also dont like to see all the waste water that comes with the RO machine either :(
 
asaph

asaph

Well-Known Member
it all depends on your water really. where I live, tap water comes out at 0.8EC (400-500 ppm), which is quite a lot. So if I can feed my plants up to say 1.5EC without burning them, tap water would take up about half of this amount with i dunno what. It is mostly calcium and magnesium, true, but also other stuff, and also cal mag are indeed required but not at this amount. So for me RO is very important if I wanna give my plants a good feeding. no?
 
I

IVIars

Active Member
Check your tap water ppm. Mine comes out at 1200ppm, so i use RO. I live around alot of farm land, so it has their nutrient runoff in it. Your water supplier should have test results showing you whats in the water. I have no problems with using straight RO water, just add calmag to 250ppms.
 
budtoker0987

budtoker0987

Active Member
So, testing the ppm just tells you the TOTAL of all the stuff right? It's not like you find out exactly WHAT it is that its measuring right? I need a damn ppm meter... I'm right next to downtown so I'm somewhat worried about whats all in there... I wanna get it tested.... BUT! for my RO water I'm using.... Adding Cal-Mag is all you need to add?? AND!! do you add the cal mag to your feedings as well or just use the nutes since they have that stuff in there??
 
budtoker0987

budtoker0987

Active Member
IVIars said:
Add calmag everytime when using RO water.

Dont use distilled water, its bad
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Hmmm.... that could be part of my problem then. I was thinking that since the floranova had some of that in it that I shouldn't add any. But now that I think about it. If it was already in the water when I made my feeding then it would be in there. And me NOT adding it is leaving that out.... i just kind of rambled that hope it makes sense :) If you guys using RO. Do you just add the normal dose of 10ml (or a tsp) ? Or the accelerated dose of 20ml ???
 
Cali.Grown>408

Cali.Grown>408

Well-Known Member
IVIars said:
Add calmag everytime when using RO water.

Dont use distilled water, its bad
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u are so full of it...stop googling shit and reading other forums and listening to people u dont even know or spoke to before..distilled water is not bad for your plants..u should try what u preach before speaking on it
 
I

IVIars

Active Member
Depends on who the cal mag is from. I use General Organics CalMag. Its made of Calcium and Magnesium Carbonates and Molasses. Some are made with Calcium Nitrate which will break down to Calcium and Nitrogen in the medium. I like to be a little more precise with what im putting in which is why i use the GO. I know 1 1/2 tsp will give me 250ppms with 1 3/4 gallons with my calmag. Thats why a ppm meter is important so you know how much of what you are using. Use your ppm meter and add just calmag to know how much you need.

If you really want to fine tune your nutes, get Epsom Salt and straight calcium. Then you can make your own calmag the way you want
 
I

IVIars

Active Member
Cali.Grown>408 said:
u are so full of it...stop googling shit and reading other forums and listening to people u dont even know or spoke to before..distilled water is not bad for your plants..u should try what u preach before speaking on it
Click to expand...
You do know that the distillation process will make the water into somewhat of a solvent? Hence the word distilled.
 
Cali.Grown>408

Cali.Grown>408

Well-Known Member
dont try to argue just know that im on to you ye damn GOOGLER..get some experience in and then give some input..distilled water will work and is not bad and that's a fact
 
I

IVIars

Active Member
It may work, but it isnt that good. It has a tendancy to become acidic when it is exposed to air. So because im educated, im a googler? It wouldnt be because im a 3rd generation dairy farmer could it? Nah, all us farmboys are just dum.


Now wheres my John Deere and Copenhagen?
 
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