Is RO water too acidic?

I finally tested my water sources today with an aquarium tester. For a yr been trying to figure out why my plants start dying in flower. And the water machine was 6.0 or less. My tap is over 7.6 and my new home RO is about 7.6. The runoff was 6.0 or less. I flushed with higher ph water til runoff was low 6s. Should I get lime or ph up and flush more soon? Didn't wana shock em. Think I've been fluctuating ph between acid and alkaline, lockout or something. Does RO need ph up? Or does cal msg help?

nobody can tell u anything unless we know what your in soil is a good guess but need to know for sure and no way do you need to go up for any reason no matter what.

Is it possible you might not be getting accurate readings? Or maybe a mistype with the pH of your new RO unit? RO water is normally slightly acidic (6.0-6.9'ish). Reason being that since RO water is almost pure it should be coming out at a close to neutral pH (around 7) and then become slightly acidic just from reacting with carbon dioxide in the air - the amount varies some but a drop of up to a point is normal by the time you could take a reading. But you really shouldn't expect to see the water come out with a pH higher than 7 if it is working correctly and purifying the water...

In any case, if you are getting the exact same pH reading from your new RO unit as your tap water... I'd suspect something isn't right. Either with the RO unit or your readings.

Thank u, it's a three stage so apparently it doesn't purify like the 5 stage more commercial ones. It's one of those drinking water outa the sink ones. Only 2.5 gal tank so I'm not really using it much for watering.

RO water is perfect for soil, soiless its a good idea to do a half and half mixture of RO/Tap (or use more cal/mag instead of tap). RO can be used in Hydro systems but not necessary, tap water is just fine.

but remember RO can fluctuate on PH depending on the system and what the ph is set at. always test your ph no matter what

businessmen said:

Thank u, it's a three stage so apparently it doesn't purify like the 5 stage more commercial ones. It's one of those drinking water outa the sink ones. Only 2.5 gal tank so I'm not really using it much for watering.

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I hear you - just thought you might want to make sure you are taking your readings right. Or if you use a meter, that it is calibrated and given the time it needs to give an accurate reading. Because there really should be a difference in the pH between the tap water going in to an RO unit and the water coming out regardless of anything else. And if it's not the meter or how you are taking readings you might want to ensure the RO unit doesn't need some maintenance or something.

if this is a new ro you need to run for a while to clear it out to get a real ph reading,. and dont go high ph to fix the ph in the medium. just use the same ph as foiod and water as norml. the lime in the soil..if soil...will do this for you. thats what ph buffered means. some think it means no need to ph..
and ya in an ro the ph will be in tyhe 6 range.

It shouldn't matter much if it's 3 or 5 stage. RO should be pretty clean regardless. The pH should be around 5.9-6.0. You will also need to add cal-mag since RO contains none. Nutrient solutions will usually bring the pH of water down, so you should adjust it to 6.5 after you add all your nutrients (if you are growing in soil).

ro water is absolutly dead not just no cal. but dont forget RO dosent remove all the chloramines eihter...needs a diif filter for that, if the pH isnt to bad at the tap then its actulay better than RO water. as long as its ran through a simple filter with the right filter to remove the chloramiens again. thats all i use here. ythe upgradefilter i use andthe hydro logic RO needs to get the chloramiens out is called a KDF85

Doesn't the charcoal in an RO get out chloramines? Do they even hurt anything? I'm just using aquarium indicator liquid. It reads from 6.0 to 7.6 the tap is over 7.6 I think and RO is about 7.6. My ph and tds are so high to begin w the water guy said a 3 stage can only do so much... Tds runs 650+ from tap

businessmen said:

Doesn't the charcoal in an RO get out chloramines? Do they even hurt anything? I'm just using aquarium indicator liquid. It reads from 6.0 to 7.6 the tap is over 7.6 I think and RO is about 7.6. My ph and tds are so high to begin w the water guy said a 3 stage can only do so much... Tds runs 650+ from tap

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yes, the charcoal gets rid of chlorine and chloramine. And no, chlorine/chloramine is actually good for the plants in the minute quantities in tap water. Some fertilizers even have chlorine in them.

no it dosent get all of it out..i can post a chart on what they do and dont do and what filters are needed if anyone wants. and no chloramine isnt any good for the plant. it kills all microbial life so how is that good. so does chlorine but that is somehwat of a food. but not a good source of it.

id like to know what co uses chlorine in their foods...

yes, a good RO filter does get out all of the chlorine and chloramine. And yes, chlorine is beneficial in trace amounts. I have read many a label on fertilizers in garden center and have seen chlorine listed on more than 1.

Here is a link I found quick.

http://www.donnan.com/fert.htm

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Minor Elements
[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Nutrients needed by plants in lesser amounts are known as the minor elements. These include Iron[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica](Fe)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica], Boron [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica](B)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica], Manganese [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica](Mn)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica], Copper [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica](Cu)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica],[/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica]Chlorine [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica](Cl)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica], Molybdenum [/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica](Mo)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica], and Zinc

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ya and i agreed it is a food but like i said i work for a nute co and dont know anyone that spends thousadns on water filtration to remove all that then adds it back...they both kill microbial life.
that link isnt a nute companies label. its a general info page.

businessmen said:

Doesn't the charcoal in an RO get out chloramines? Do they even hurt anything? I'm just using aquarium indicator liquid. It reads from 6.0 to 7.6 the tap is over 7.6 I think and RO is about 7.6. My ph and tds are so high to begin w the water guy said a 3 stage can only do so much... Tds runs 650+ from tap

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As long as it's a carbon block filter it should remove most of the chloramines. It has to because chloramines can damage most types of r/o membrane. There is a lot of misinformation regarding reverse osmosis and what they can remove and what they can't. It's mostly marketing IMO. Most r/o units have, at the very least, a sediment prefilter, a carbon block filter and then a reverse osmosis membrane. The problem with pure water is that it picks up the pH of whatever is in the water. Pure water should have a pH around 7 but the purer the water the more stuff it "picks up". Carbon Dioxide in the air gets picked up by pure water and creates a weak acid called carbonic acid. This causes the pH of pure water to drop. I honestly doubt pH is your problem here. Especially if you are growing in soil, there should be some sort of buffer (such as dolomitic lime). I'm not sure what's causing your issues but I would try adding some cal-mag and see if that helps.

Medi 1 said:

ya and i agreed it is a food but like i said i work for a nute co and dont know anyone that spends thousadns on water filtration to remove all that then adds it back...they both kill microbial life.
that link isnt a nute companies label. its a general info page.

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notice how some of them do remove chlorine and chloramine according to that chart? Like I said, "good" ro units do remove them. And you didn't "agree that is was a food", you said it killed everything and said "so how could that be good"...

I would recommend a RO/DI system to anyone.
DI removes the mineral ions from the water.
when you mix your nutes you get a more stable solution because theres no extra ions in the water to mess with your ph.

topfuel29 said:

I would recommend a RO/DI system to anyone.
DI removes the mineral ions from the water.
when you mix your nutes you get a more stable solution because theres no extra ions in the water to mess with your ph.

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I agree with this statement. My tap water has a ppm reading of 500ppm and pH of 7.9 - it is pure and total garbage IMO, it leaves lime scale build up on anything it touches. So badly, a clear glass run through the dishwasher comes out white and cloudy. I bought a $1200 whole house anti scale unit and a 5 stage RO. My water's pH is now 5.9 with a ppm of 50. In the past I had a water supply company deliver 100 gallons of distilled every week, but now I no longer need to do this. For hydro I do not ever use pH UP, sometimes only a little pH DOWN. For dirt I do use a little pH UP.

Loui and Doc thank u. Gonna try cal mag and ph up, maybe lime. Weird tho if it's cal mag. I've tried molasses and used some of my hard tap water. And light doses of Epsom and tried complete nutes with cal and mag. Didn't see anything help.

businessmen said:

Loui and Doc thank u. Gonna try cal mag and ph up, maybe lime. Weird tho if it's cal mag. I've tried molasses and used some of my hard tap water. And light doses of Epsom and tried complete nutes with cal and mag. Didn't see anything help.

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Good Luck man. Some people swear by tap water because of it's cal/mag. I know some hydro growers that swear by tap but still use RO. Basically, they have a 55gall res and they use 20 gallons of tap and 35 gallons of RO or distilled and never use cal/mag. I guess it's trial and error. Do some side by side tests and see what you think.