Water questions

So far ive just been using filtered tap water (not softened) to water my seeds and seedlings. Well I got a TDS meter the other day and calibrated it today. I decided to check my PH'd water. Its PH'd at 6.0 and its ppm is 540. I have some distilled water with mild nutes in it that reads 150ppm. Should I not be using tap water? Ive read alot of people using it with no problems.

I guess a small dim lightbulb just lit in my skull..........say i want 200ppm nutes....do I add that to the ppm of the tap water? So 740ppm?

My plants look good (i think). My runoff PH is 5.8 in the Promix.

You should ph UP your tap water to 6.5. Once you start using nutes, add your nutes to your tap water, check the ph and then adjust to 6.5. I know alot of people who have been growing for alot of years and ppm is the least of their worries.

Check your tap water by itself, see what it is before you put any fertilizer\pH Up or anything else in it. Some people have extraordinarily hard tap\well water with lot's of dissolved minerals in it already... we're talking 300-600+ ppm. [Pure] Distilled water should read around 1 ppm. Spring water may read from ~25-200 ppm (depending on source), purified bottled water from 0-10 ppm and similarly for water put through reverse osmosis (about 10-20 ppm).

The tendency for tap water to cause problems depends on what is in it exactly, and how you're growing. It is less frequently an issue for people growing in soil/soil-less potting mix in containers, although really hard water can still potentially be detrimental. If tap water has excessive amounts of certain minerals it can lead to either nutrient lockout or pH troubles.

The most prominent minerals in tap water are usually calcium, magnesium and iron. Other metals (and heavy metals) such as zinc, copper, manganese, barium, etc may also be present in some amount. The minerals, especially Ca and Mg, are often present as the carbonate or bicarbonate but may also be in the form of sulfate or chloride salts. While many of these minerals are considered trace\micro-nutrients or even secondary nutrients (Ca and Mg)... too much can cause certain reactions in the media which end up locking out other nutrients. Too much Ca or Mg could cause both to become unavailable to plants; as well as other micro-nutrients. Too much calcium will react with\bind to phosphates, creating insoluble precipitate (lockout).

I use filtered water, follow my my nute feeding chart (by and large), and ph everything to 6.5 religiously. I don't check ppm and am fine. But not all municipal water is alike.

I start my plants with distilled water, then I used non pH'd tap throughout the grow. My tap is ~150-200 ppm

I use well water @ 200 tds and yes it took a while to get things dialed in where ph stayed constant as well as tds but no issues now. I start to have issues if i add back to res. i change every seven days.

Im going to double check it tomorrow to make sure i was right. Just seems high. Thought we had better water than that.

It is high but I've seen higher lol. Also not sure if what I do is right but i add the base in when adding nutes. For instance if I require 600 I will add 400 ppm tds of nutes to get to 600. Ive never had any issues that I know of lol, newb here .

Your run off pH isn't equal to your growing medium pH.

plaguedog said:

Your run off pH isn't equal to your growing medium pH.

Click to expand...

expand on that if you will please. Im pretty new to this world. Im using promix HP if that makes a difference.

Thanks man! Cleared up a few things. Wish there was just one set in stone way of growing this shit! Lots of conflicting info floating around the interweb. After reading this though i might skip my plans for an RO system. Ill probably just keep using tap out of my carbon filter.

I think if you have issues stabalizing things an RO filter may be a great option. I resisted getting one due to the logistics of having one near the grow. Like I said I just kept good records and was able to dial things in. Are they optimum, not sure, lol. Pretty new at this stuff! But the plants seem happy so far! I would think as well that soil would be a bit more forgiving but perhaps not. And your right there's alot of info out there for newbs to sift through lol.

Checked my ppm of the tap today again.......370 now. Wish I didn't have to have an RO cause I don't want to have to add supplements. I'm using Veg&bloom all in one dry nutes. Just trying to keep it simple.