Noob question regarding water / dolomite lime.

Diggidy McDank said:

letting it sit without aeration does nothing for getting rid of chlorine, you do not want to boil that would be the same as using distilled no nutrients left.

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Lululady said:

Being a newbie, normally I defer to the more knowledgeable folks on the forum. However, from somebody who has some chemistry background, I couldn't let this statement go.
Chlorine is added to tap water to kill germs. If you let water sit out for 24 hrs or so, the chlorine will evaporate. If your tap water pH is 7.5, it will take a bit longer to shed the chlorine than if the pH is lower, as some of the chlorine will stay in the form of hypochlorite, which is a liquid aka bleach, versus converting to chlorine's natural gaseous state at room temperature (along with hydrochloric and hypochlorous acid -- for chemistry buffs Cl2 + H2O <-> HCl + HClO). The pH of your tap was probably adjusted up a bit above 7 by adding some hydroxide to take advantage of chlorine's added solubility in basic solutions, i.e. to slow the same evaporation of chlorine you now want. However, chlorine has a boiling temperature that is well below 0 degrees, which is why it eventually evaporates, and you must keep adding more to your swimming pool or hot tub every few days. You might want to leave your water sitting out an extra day or two to be safe, or you can lower the pH below 7 before setting it out to sit. While aeration may speed up the evaporation of chlorine, it is not necessary, at least to get rid of chlorine (increasing dissolved oxygen and CO2 may well have other benefits however, IDK). Boiling the water does NOT affect the concentration of any elements/nutrients except for those that would convert to gas at 212 deg., the boiling point of water, e.g. chlorine, flourine, nitrogen...... basically those that are gases at room temperature. If anything, it would increase the concentration of solid elements by decreasing the amount of water through evaporation. So, if you boil off half the water, you would double the concentration of sodium, calcium, magnesium, and whatever other minerals are found in your water. You would NOT lose any of them. RO would be required to remove them.

If you do a search online, you may be able to find information about the content of your tap water. I don't recall where it was right now, or exactly what information was listed, but I remember finding a site that had quite a few specifics about the results of testing on tap water where I live. If you have "hard" water, as most places do, that indicates a high concentration of minerals, mostly calcium and magnesium. "Soft" water has a high concentration of sodium but contains nothing else.

Dolomite lime will buffer your tap water to some extent, but is better used for raising pH than lowering. Why don't you lower the pH of your water? About a teaspoon of plain white vinegar to a gal of water should lower the pH by about one point, and unlike trying to raise the pH, it is a common household agent that doesn't add any additional nutrients to the mix. Outside of any contaminants, vinegar is a plain vanilla hydrocarbon. My tap water is right at 7 but since my soil is a little acidic now it works out perfectly. Folks around here thought I was nuts but I used Milk of Magnesia in my distilled water when I was using that, which tested out at pH 6 (don't ask, don't know why, should be 7...... but tested with two different pH testing supplies with same results). MOM, or MgOH, is a fairly strong alkali, about 1/8 tsp/qt was more than sufficient, and since was planning on using epsom salts (MgSO4) to add magnesium anyways........

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