De-Gassing water for hydro

Is this really needed? I've been doing this for years now. Letting the 250L header tank de gas with a large air pump and 4 stones for 24 hours before feeding to the brain.

I'm starting to think 24 hours is overkill using commercial air pumps etc. 3-4 hours seems to do the same job... What's your experience? My main concern was creating sodium chloride and causing a lock out. But I'm starting to change my school of though...

slinkysaurus said:

Is this really needed? I've been doing this for years now. Letting the 250L header tank de gas with a large air pump and 4 stones for 24 hours before feeding to the brain.

I'm starting to think 24 hours is overkill using commercial air pumps etc. 3-4 hours seems to do the same job... What's your experience? My main concern was creating sodium chloride and causing a lock out. But I'm starting to change my school of though...

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I think if doing hydro, RO water should always be used.

You got a 62gal res? Daaaaang.

What is it you are "de gassing" from your water? Tap water is fine quality dependent.Check your local water quality report. The chlorine being bad for our plants in the concentration found in municipal water sources is a myth.Chlromines...could be different. I jumped off the R/O only hype train a few years ago.MY tap is fine. Yours may be different. If unsure of the quality and mineral content.R/O is a nice blank slate to start with.

CoB_nUt said:

The chlorine being bad for our plants

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it's actually a tertiary nute for cannabis. dyna gro adds it to their nutes.

but yep, chloramine is nasty and you can't get rid of by gassing anyway

i started with RO just to eliminate one variable of potential trouble but i've weened myself onto all well water. no change in final results.

That's right plants will die without chlorine. They don't need much at all, but they need it. Scientists think that plants get chlorine from us touching them, where chlorine is completely removed from water sources.

To add to that.... I read a study where one grow they removed chlorine from the plants regimen. In two separate grows, one where they touched plants like any grower would making they're rounds and the other they wore latex gloves when they touched the plants. The ones that were being touched with gloves end up dying. That's how they came to the conclusion that plants are get chlorine from us touching them.

rkymtnman said:

it's actually a tertiary nute for cannabis. dyna gro adds it to their nutes.

but yep, chloramine is nasty and you can't get rid of by gassing anyway

i started with RO just to eliminate one variable of potential trouble but i've weened myself onto all well water. no change in final results.

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n someone has had a good experience coming off R/O water and lives to tell about it.I used it exclusively for a few years,then went with 50/50 Ro/tap then onto 75/25 Ro/tap. Now I'm100% tap Like you,no noticeable changes,although I'd like to think I am a better grower than when I first started.There has been many adjustments to my grow quiver along the way.Nutes,lighting,media/medium(?),genetics,environmental control,style of grow etc.

Yes chloramine is very bad and can't be "off gassed" or evaporated out.
I like to think of it this way,that low ppm of chlorine keeps that nasties away in my tap water,should do the same in my media and on my cuts in the cloner.I have no scientific study to cite..lol no a peer reviewed paper either. Mere broscience and pure speculation on my part.

Some of the first sentence was cut off in the above post. It should read.."I'm glad someone...."

I can't edit it as that sentence isn't even in the edit window.When I was writing the response,My cursor started going crazy in reverse as if it were deleteing my post.
I did get the "messages have been added since..."alert at the time I suppose that was it. Weird ish happens when I'm writing a reply and someone is posting in the thread or I get an alert at the time.

CoB_nUt said:

Some of the first sentence was cut off in the above post. It should read.."I'm glad someone...."

I can't edit it as that sentence isn't even in the edit window.When I was writing the response,My cursor started going crazy in reverse as if it were deleteing my post.
I did get the "messages have been added since..."alert at the time I suppose that was it. Weird ish happens when I'm writing a reply and someone is posting in the thread or I get an alert at the time.

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I get some pretty weird stuff happening some times too

slinkysaurus said:

Is this really needed? I've been doing this for years now. Letting the 250L header tank de gas with a large air pump and 4 stones for 24 hours before feeding to the brain.

I'm starting to think 24 hours is overkill using commercial air pumps etc. 3-4 hours seems to do the same job... What's your experience? My main concern was creating sodium chloride and causing a lock out. But I'm starting to change my school of though...

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Where would the sodium come from?

Next if you have chlorine in your water 24 hours and it's gone. But I water with chlorine and get great effects (even when I ran NFT) it keeps your res clean. Chloramines are a problem and can't be removed by aeration alone.

Finally you have to check your reservoir 24 hours after mixing with nutrient for pH rebound. Then you should be set.

@cannabineer correct me if I'm wrong but I believe chloride is the nutrient form not the gas.

curious2garden said:

Where would the sodium come from?

Next if you have chlorine in your water 24 hours and it's gone. But I water with chlorine and get great effects (even when I ran NFT) it keeps your res clean. Chloramines are a problem and can't be removed by aeration alone.

Finally you have to check your reservoir 24 hours after mixing with nutrient for pH rebound. Then you should be set.

@cannabineer correct me if I'm wrong but I believe chloride is the nutrient form not the gas.

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Chloride is the biologically useful form for sure. Elemental chlorine is a different thing altogether.

Chloramines have to be treated with a reducing agent to knock them back to harmless chloride. I've seen sodium thiosulfate and vitamin C used for the purpose.

cannabineer said:

Chloride is the biologically useful form for sure. Elemental chlorine is a different thing altogether.

Chloramines have to be treated with a reducing agent to knock them back to harmless chloride. I've seen sodium thiosulfate and vitamin C used for the purpose.

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That's very interesting

I use both RO and tap depending on time or what I'm doing. I prefer tap for the elemental content, so I primarily use that. In soil, I'll throw a handful of old dirt or leaves in water I want dechlorinated fast if I'm doing a tea or for fresh plantings until the herd is established. The high organic load helps to quickly neutralize the chlorine. Otherwise it's direct from the faucet. When I did hydro I'd use RO, or bubbled tap, initially until a decent micro herd was established in the system then straight tap. Again, with enough organic load chlorine can be neutralized quickly from most municipal water supplies and the system won't notice it. If you're running sterile it's a non issue. When I just bubble water I can still smell chlorine up to 6 hours, when I put organic matter in the smell is gone in about an hour.

Wow, thank you all for the replies and input.
It's great to read and learn what other people have to share.

I normally treat my res with a water conditioner that's suitable for fish and aquatic plants in an aquarium. This binds the Chloromine and renders it useless.

I tried your advice and just put straight form the tap into the res, corrected PH and put 200L into the system. Re fed. They ate all the food that night! Re fed last night and today my PH was crazy high. Definitly starting to think that it's a myth about tap water and plants, but tile will show in the me t week as I have no fish tank conditioner left

I use that Api with aloe in it for fish. Couple drops in my tap water 5 gal jugs. Just ran out few days ago. Not gonna grab anymore just tonsee how my girls react without it. They haven't skipped a beat thus far!

Airwalker16 said:

I think if doing hydro, RO water should always be used.

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Only if needed. The water from my tap is EC .05

No, that's not a typo.

'Degassing' water before use in hydroponics is generally unnecessary unless the water utility really screwed up.

ttystikk said:

Only if needed. The water from my tap is EC .05

No, that's not a typo.

'Degassing' water before use in hydroponics is generally unnecessary unless the water utility really screwed up.

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Right, I'm in soiless and on tap only. My tap is.4 ec. 200 ppm. My girls love it.
R/O isn't a hydro only thing. It's a shitty tap/well water alternative. R/O is just a blank slate. Period.

slinkysaurus said:

Is this really needed? I've been doing this for years now. Letting the 250L header tank de gas with a large air pump and 4 stones for 24 hours before feeding to the brain.

I'm starting to think 24 hours is overkill using commercial air pumps etc. 3-4 hours seems to do the same job... What's your experience? My main concern was creating sodium chloride and causing a lock out. But I'm starting to change my school of though...

Click to expand...

if temps are 'normal' 10-15C leave it open over night no pump

you only want the CL to vape off

cheers/

CoB_nUt said:

Right, I'm in soiless and on tap only. My tap is.4 ec. 200 ppm. My girls love it.
R/O isn't a hydro only thing. It's a shitty tap/well water alternative. R/O is just a blank slate. Period.

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Agreed. I do love knowing what's going in the water though, so if something weird pops up, I can eliminate anything nutrient/water related.

I have taken some time to trial and error.
You don't need to bubble your tap water. All these years of thinking I did.... Thanks for the input!

My ec out of the tap is non existent my plants have reacted totally normally to a res which hasn't been treated or bubbled.... So my age old thought process of chlorine creating sodium chloride when mixed with your feed and locking you out, is also wrong.