Hard Water

My water reads 350ppm out of the faucet. Is there anything I can do to make this water viable in a DWC set up? What are my options?

use Distilled water.
Or but a RO system.
I don't think you could just filter it. Something I think with the filter exchanging a ion
and makes salt

topfuel29 said:

use Distilled water.
Or but a RO system.
I don't think you could just filter it. Something I think with the filter exchanging a ion
and makes salt

Click to expand...

Man, that's an issue. My system holds around 40 gals

iv been having a hard time with my clones and it is because of hard water... im going to the store and geting some distilled in the AM

JayDoe71 said:

My water reads 350ppm out of the faucet. Is there anything I can do to make this water viable in a DWC set up? What are my options?

Click to expand...

Yeah, my tap water is is about 400 ppm, and 7.7 pH.
I bought a Reverse Osmosis system. $129.99
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/RO/DI-Filters-&-Systems-RO/DI-Systems/c9_10/p603/Economy-4-stage-RO/DI-unit/product_info.html

Upside: The water that comes out is 0 ppm, pH 6.5
Advertised at 75 gal\per\day. For me it takes 15 minutes to fill a one gallon bottle.
Downside: It spits out waste water at a rate of of 3.5 g to 1 gal good water. I guess could water the lawn with the waste.

Ro is awesome rem to use cal mag supplement. Also I use flora micro hardwater with gh veg and gh bloom. The Mix si a 3 part set of the most famous astronaut used nutrients and witht he hardwater micro instead of plain micro they acct for peoples hardwater with special buffers and such, works awesome for ph and you cant tell the rest but the plants like it.

use bottled water, or buy an RO set up like people have said. i buy culligan 5 gal jugs. its 12 bucks for the jug but u can swap it out for 6 bucks at home depot.

OPZ

water softeners use sodium to bring down the hardness-something u dont want especially in hydro. I doubt any place even carries 40 gallons. even the supermarkets carry only about 20 gallons that I have seen put out. why dont u test the water out on a plant and you should know in a week or two if they are of proper age what effect it is having.

Is your DWC just the plants, or will you be incorporating fish into the system, like aquaponics? If you're including fish, don't worry about it too much. I actually wouldn't worry about it much anyway, but that's just me.

Cheap filtration to soften the water: Get a canister filter for aquariums and stuff it with peat moss. Filter through that for a couple of days, depending on how quickly it takes up the mineral material. Cheaper, use a box filter with air pump, though I'm not sure how much you can filter off that way in a given period. Check your pH, it's probably going to be fairly low after doing this, and the water may be stained brown, this shouldn't hurt your plants.

ionic nutrients do a hard water version i think

brand name water filters will remove temporary water hardness

Squarepusher45 said:

Yeah, my tap water is is about 400 ppm, and 7.7 pH.
I bought a Reverse Osmosis system. $129.99
http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/RO/DI-Filters-&-Systems-RO/DI-Systems/c9_10/p603/Economy-4-stage-RO/DI-unit/product_info.html

Upside: The water that comes out is 0 ppm, pH 6.5
Advertised at 75 gal\per\day. For me it takes 15 minutes to fill a one gallon bottle.
Downside: It spits out waste water at a rate of of 3.5 g to 1 gal good water. I guess could water the lawn with the waste.

Click to expand...

Thanks, man. That thing really works, huh? I guess I'll have to break down and buy one. Does it hook up to the sink? lease tell me how it works

Thanks to everyone for their input. My system is 40 gallons so I can't picture myself lugging water in. What about boiling it or leaving it out for a week?

JayDoe71 said:

Thanks, man. That thing really works, huh? I guess I'll have to break down and buy one. Does it hook up to the sink? lease tell me how it works

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Yeah it has fittings to hook up to the sink faucet or garden hose, comes with the system. That way you don't have to tap into the water lines or waste lines.
It comes with filters already in the units and they give you an extra set also. And yes it really, really works. 0 PPM, PH 6.5.
But like I said it is kinda slow 75gpd. I guess you could stick it in your 40 gallon reservoir and let er rip for 12 hours or so.
Go to the website I linked and it has a video that shows how it works, I had mine up and running within minutes.

Wow I get RO water at the grocery store for $.30 a gal 0 ppm and a ph that after I add my nutes and everything sits at 5.8 its awesome, I only add ph down throughout the week to bring it back down.

My tap is at 500 ppm and 7.5 ph way too hard, I was having major problems until i switched to RO water.

Check your local grocery stores for bulk water, not the 1 gallon jugs, well worth the extra $.

Good luck!

JayDoe71 said:

Thanks to everyone for their input. My system is 40 gallons so I can't picture myself lugging water in. What about boiling it or leaving it out for a week?

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Then it's just going to be boiled or left out for a week hard water. It will need to be filtered or distilled somehow. That's how the minerals/material that brings the TDS up are removed.

anyone make there own Still?
I was thinking about a pressure cooker with a copper tubing
condenser coming off of it, with a spot to fill it with water.

Bad idea to have your water running through copper pipping.

You can purchase nutrients for hard water. If you are having problems with the young plants, just use the RO and distilled water for them.

I Did the buying of water last grow and the money add's up real quick. I have a 10 gallon res drip system and in flower I was wishing I had sprung for the RO. In the winter I go another route. I live in the Northeast in the snow belt. In the winter I collect snow in a rubbermaid container and let it melt and into gallon jugs. The PPM"s are around 0 and ph in the low 6's. Goodluck, gotta go shovel!

topfuel29 said:

anyone make there own Still?
I was thinking about a pressure cooker with a copper tubing
condenser coming off of it, with a spot to fill it with water.

Click to expand...

I'd actually like to build a solar still. Our water is pretty fucked up out of the well, really screwy.