anyone know how to make water safe for plants?

theceo13

Member
curious to know if anyone knows how to make tap water safe for watering my plants...i tried using my tap water in the past but all it did was negatively effect my plants because of either the ph level of the water or the flouride they put in the tap water here...will boiling water make it safe for watering my plants with? all your help is greatly appreciated
 

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
Go buy distilled water! It is less than $1.00 a gallon! Or you will spend more money on ways or chemicals to un-fuck your plants. You are growing a plant that is worth so much money and spend so much on your grow room/lights why would you try and save money on water?
 

theceo13

Member
i was just curious to see if there was a better way than constantly going and buying distilled water, cuz yea its like 90 cents a gallon...but these plants run through water like crazy :/
 

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
i was just curious to see if there was a better way than constantly going and buying distilled water, cuz yea its like 90 cents a gallon...but these plants run through water like crazy :/
Yeah I know what you are saying but like said above, get PH tester, ph up, ph down, A good ph tester is around $100.00 you can get the cheap ones liquid for around ten bucks. Then ph up and ph down is around 20.00 a bottle. So you are looking at spending over $50 to have water that isn't as good as distilled! JMHO. GL brotha I would go with distilled. Or go with filtered, not good but better than tap. You can refill your jugs for like 30 cents!
 

theceo13

Member
ahh i never even thought about going to those refilling places and just having my jugs refilled...i may do that, but ill probably just end up sucking it up and continue to buy the distilled water :/ so boiling water wont work eh?
 

max316420

Well-Known Member
Not really, I once tested the ppm in water before and after boiling and didn't see any difference. You can get a cheap Reverse osmosis system for around 100 bucks, took my ppm from 350 to 6 and ph from 8.5 to a 7.0. Pays for itself
 

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
How many are you growing? I have 6 in flowering right now and they only take about 5-6 gal a week. Not too bad $5-6.00 bucks a week! You probably spend more than that on fast food in a week! I want the best for my girls, if you give them the best you will avoid problems, stressing them and you out, and get a better return. Just remember how stressed you were when you were using tap water and killing your other plants. I think it is worth 5 bucks a week not to stress out about my girls. next grow I plan on haveing 18 plants at least going at a time so I can harvest 6 a month, so I am going go be possibly be buying 15 gal a week! LOL that wont look weird.

But if you can harvest 6 plants get 2 oz each and sell for $250 that is $3000.00 so spending 60 on water doesn't seem to bother me so much!
 

theceo13

Member
i had at one point 5 going...but disaster happened, long story short...theyre gone now :(:( but ive just started 2 new ones..i guess your right, i didnt really stop and think that even if i spend 5 bucks a week on water...thats only 20 bucks a month lol, and thats nothing compared to what i can get from the plants...especially considering where i live the oz go far between 350 and 400 :D
 

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
i had at one point 5 going...but disaster happened, long story short...theyre gone now :(:( but ive just started 2 new ones..i guess your right, i didnt really stop and think that even if i spend 5 bucks a week on water...thats only 20 bucks a month lol, and thats nothing compared to what i can get from the plants...especially considering where i live the oz go far between 350 and 400 :D
Yeah dude this is my first grow but I spend around 3-4 hrs a day reading about these ladies. Just spend the little extra money and you will see it in the end! Yeah I could sell it for 280-290 but once he 8th's it up he is only looking at 320, I am going to sell to medical paitients also so I would feel bad taking advantage of their disability. Wshat strain are you growing?
 

Dirtfree

Well-Known Member
How many are you growing? I have 6 in flowering right now and they only take about 5-6 gal a week. Not too bad $5-6.00 bucks a week! You probably spend more than that on fast food in a week! I want the best for my girls, if you give them the best you will avoid problems, stressing them and you out, and get a better return. Just remember how stressed you were when you were using tap water and killing your other plants. I think it is worth 5 bucks a week not to stress out about my girls. next grow I plan on haveing 18 plants at least going at a time so I can harvest 6 a month, so I am going go be possibly be buying 15 gal a week! LOL that wont look weird.

But if you can harvest 6 plants get 2 oz each and sell for $250 that is $3000.00 so spending 60 on water doesn't seem to bother me so much!
I have six plants going right now and they drink about a gallon a peice a day. Thats 6 gallons a day! The size plant makes a difference in your equation. Thats 42 gallons a week! Even at a dollar a gallon, thats 336 dollars just for flowering. So ya that ph meter is lookin a lil more affordable.
 

DawgMountain

Active Member
Boiling water does not get rid of disolved solids, only bacteria. Filtering the water with RO will lower your PPM of TDS. Then the pH may need to be adjusted. And then there is CalMag... not sure about the details on that but I just bought some...
 

Howard Stern

Well-Known Member
I have six plants going right now and they drink about a gallon a peice a day. Thats 6 gallons a day! The size plant makes a difference in your equation. Thats 42 gallons a week! Even at a dollar a gallon, thats 336 dollars just for flowering. So ya that ph meter is lookin a lil more affordable.
what size plants do you have? what size planters?

Oh and I think filtered water is better than tap so if you are that straped for cash wouldn't it be better to just get a water filter?
 

gobbly

Well-Known Member
as mentioned, get an RO/DI (reverse osmosis / deionized) filter. I get 0 tds for roughly 3-5 cents per gallon. Last jug of distilled I got was 5 tds, and a trace copper test was positive (probably from the distillation equipment). If your budget is tight, take a look at http://www.purewaterclub.com/. They don't have inline meters, but hard to beat a <$100 5-6 stage ro/di unit. Comparing the cost of this to distilled, and factoring in your usage, it might pay for itself pretty fast. Also many aquarium stores sell RO/DI water for around 20 cents a gallon, which is still cheaper than distilled (but you usually have to provide your own containers).
 

satire

Active Member
Boiling water does not get rid of disolved solids, only bacteria. Filtering the water with RO will lower your PPM of TDS. Then the pH may need to be adjusted. And then there is CalMag... not sure about the details on that but I just bought some...
Thank you DawgMountain for clearing that up. For a second I was starting to think they didn't teach chemistry class in high school anymore. Boiling water will turn H20 into a gas, so any dissolved solids in the pot will remain.
 
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