best water at home

I was considering installing a reverse osmosis system for my hydroponics setup as well as my homebrew makings. Does anyone use a at home setup? It seems like it would take forever to fill up a 30 gallon reservoir considering most home units only hold like 4 gallons. What is the best option for hydroponics? I want the cleanest water from the tap possible.

basement nirvana said:

I was considering installing a reverse osmosis system for my hydroponics setup as well as my homebrew makings. Does anyone use a at home setup? It seems like it would take forever to fill up a 30 gallon reservoir considering most home units only hold like 4 gallons. What is the best option for hydroponics? I want the cleanest water from the tap possible.

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http://www.thefilterguys.biz/ro_di_systems.htm

The $199 system is an excellent system as it will tell you when to change the prefilters, membrane and the DI cartridge. It is more than most growers need though. Most growers do fine with just the RO filter without the pressure gauge, dual TDS meter, flush kit and DI cartridge. IE the $124 model. Yes the first model will provide better water, and is easier to maintain. Either will easily fill a Rubber Maid trash can in about 12 hours.

so do you just turn on the ro system and wait 12 hours to fill up a trash can?! That seems like a long time to wait for water. you would definitely need to plan ahead of time for that one!

basement nirvana said:

so do you just turn on the ro system and wait 12 hours to fill up a trash can?! That seems like a long time to wait for water. you would definitely need to plan ahead of time for that one!

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Using the collection barrel generally means you always have enough on hand for your needs as you just turn the water on to your filter any time the level gets low. RO filters work best when they run for long periods of time versus many short periods of time.

Even my commercial RO filters only produce 10 gallons per hour each. They are quite a bit larger and use a pump to run the systems at 200 to 225 psi. About 20 times more expensive, but a lot more efficient.

I think I could run a flexible water line from my kitchen sink to my basement grow room then could just set up a permanent water resoirvoir down there...trash cans are ok for this? I guess it doesn't have to be food grade?

I have a R/O system at home. The $200 system works pretty good. I have 10 gallons on hand at all time in case i need to flush something or other. I normally get about 2 gallons at once fromt he system then about an hour later another 2 gallons. So I can re stock my supply in about 5 4 hours. You just have to plan ahead and have some water as an emergency stash in case something goes haywire.

Happy growing!

sounds like a lot of planning ahead of time but I may be able to make it work. I brew beer too and it would be awesome to have clean water for the brew as well... thanks for the positive feedbacks! Do you have the ro systems mounted under your sink? How easy was it to install?

basement nirvana said:

sounds like a lot of planning ahead of time but I may be able to make it work. I brew beer too and it would be awesome to have clean water for the brew as well... thanks for the positive feedbacks! Do you have the ro systems mounted under your sink? How easy was it to install?

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The under the sink units are not ba to install if you have an extra hole in your sink like the one the spray hose runs through. If not you need to disconnect that and install the RO sytems faucet there. The tank under the sink really holds only a dismal amount. The flow from those units is typically only about 1 gallon per hour. The amount of ions they remove is uasually about 85% versus 96% to 98% for the larger capacity stand alone units.

With the stand alone units I install for friends, I set them up with a ball valve on both the entrance and the exit. The unit needs to also have the automatic shut off valve that some sellers call an oprtional item. Plus a float valve on the 32 gallon plastic trash can. The grower opens both valves and the RO filter produces water until the float valve shuts of the outlet flow through the filter. This triggers the auto shut off valve. When you have noticed the sytem has been shut down then you manually close the two ball valves.

If you do not close those valves every time you take even a small amount of water out of the barrel the automatic shut off valve will allow the filter to run until the barrel is full again. The filter performs best and cheapest when run for long periods of time not short periods.