RO water

Do you use it? What about the waste water? Is it worth it? Can you tell the difference between cannabis using tap water or RO water?

Yes I use it.
I think mine goes into my septic, don't remember I installed 2 years ago.
It's worth it because city water fuctuates in quality, even if you have it analyzed it can go hard.
If you have hard water it undebatably causes problems in nutrient solubility.

I am anti snake oil, for exreme example; I don't use root stimulators when I know they work! RO water isn't controversial everyone has it or wants it, or may not know basic chem. And I am eventually gonna cave on root stimulators too lol

It all depends on your starting water quality if your are under 125ppm out of the tap I would use that in super soil style grows right out the tap as long as it is well water. If you are on city water I would use ro with out a doubt all the time. With most hydroponic nutrient formulas require the use of RO or low ppm tap water but some formulas out there are fromulated to work with hard water specifically. Waste water just goes down the drain.

I used to run supersoil with Ro water because my tap water wat 220+ppm.
Veg+Bloom dirty formula I used tap water and The advanced Sensi line I use RO water.

I use RO not because its some magic potion to make my weed way dankier but because I have less chance of nutrient lock out occurring because my tap water is 220+ppm. This in turn makes plants very happy and way dankier as a result.

I use it for house water

Well I'm in Denver, but I have friends in Michigan

I use tap water and it test 323 ppm

Water in CO could be sold for $$$. Best water in the world!

I am in SoCal - water is full of birth control and Xanax. No way I would drink anything but RO. I use it for seeds because all of the studies say 7.0 pH is the best.

I use tap for the outdoor garden and just lower the pH with Phos Acid. The worms don't seem to be affected by the drugs

Cheers,
Mo

My local city water runs around 325ish, but I also don't want that crap in my res.

My plants don't need chlorine, chloramine, fluoride, who knows what else....

Downside... it rips out what I DO want (namely the cal/mag) so I add that back in...

Waste line just goes down the drain right now, but will be converted to it runs a coil in my main res bucket... then goes down the drain. (No sense wasting cold running water!)

I do suggest a brute container, a float valve, and in my case at least, a few concrete blocks as a stand.... waiting on water sucks, and having 30gallons ready on hand is nice. (Never know, may be a zombie apocalypse)

I'm filtering well water, btw. Mineral buildup in the drippers and the soil is avoided. RO is like rainwater

Thanks for all of the responses. I'm at 187ppm. Can anyone suggest a unit for a small grow? Never more than 12 plants in flower at one time. A big concern of mine is the wasted water too. Do any of you recycle the water to the hot water tank?

Tyleb173rd said:

Thanks for all of the responses. I'm at 187ppm. Can anyone suggest a unit for a small grow? Never more than 12 plants in flower at one time. A big concern of mine is the wasted water too. Do any of you recycle the water to the hot water tank?

Click to expand...

This is what I use. Less than $100, removes 90%+ of chlorine/chloramines (doesn't remove dissolved solids like cal mag) and does not waste a drop of water unlike conventional RO units. Super easy to install, and the replacement filters are reasonable (they email you coupons too). I've had it for about 3 years now and love it. Takes about 5 minutes to fill a 5 gallon bucket.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Perfect-Water-Technologies-Home-Master-Jr-F2-Elite-SinkTop-Water-Filtration-System-in-White-TMJRf2E/203841387

Thanks. That's a great option. It may be the way I go. I can't validate losing all that water with a RO system.

RM3 said:

Well I'm in Denver, but I have friends in Michigan

I use tap water and it test 323 ppm

Click to expand...

Do your friend have any of your gear?

Bachomp said:

Do your friend have any of your gear?

Click to expand...

yeppers

RM3 said:

yeppers

Click to expand...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh heyyyyyy

I'm pretty much going through the same ordeal. I got well water that is 300ppm and it has that rotten egg smell. I recently changed over to all organic super soil and people keep telling me that my well water will be fine with it. But I don't want to take that chance ? So I am gonna use ro and add cal mag here and there and see what happens?? It would be nice to just grab a pitcher of water and dump it on the ladies with no other work! Wow like Xmas after 2 years of coco ! Ro wastes a lot of water ! A lot !

No need to calmag. You have all that already in the soil. As long as you're not flushing and leaching out.

I try to keep my runoff to near zero. Sometimes a little bit but not enough to get rid of too much though . Thanks I won't use cal mag at all then !

Staring to have cal mad deficiency in my little ones? I have pretty good soil and it is still coming on . So I believe that you do have to add some cal mag back into the ro water no matter what ?? Maybe next time I will add some glacier rock dust in my base mix as I'm running super soil with a 50/50 mix of ocean forest and some coco loco as my base with some extra ewc and garden lime ? Not enough though ?

You don't add calmag to rain water. Why add it to RO?

With RO and not adding CalMag, your plant will miss it, if it's not in your soil beforehand.