PH up/down options with rdwc?

That tap sounds great lol. We are on different systems,but My tap is 200-220 ppm, I was mixing it 50/50 ro,I decided one lazy day to not go out and buy the 13 gals ro i usually get and went all tap. Not a hitch,I do have to use more sulphuric acid to get it into range now tho.
Have you ever tried your tap?

CoB_nUt said:

That tap sounds great lol. We are on different systems,but My tap is 200-220 ppm, I was mixing it 50/50 ro,I decided one lazy day to not go out and buy the 13 gals ro i usually get and went all tap. Not a hitch,I do have to use more sulphuric acid to get it into range now tho.
Have you ever tried your tap?

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No this was my first run and was worried about chlorine so just went with RO and let it fill a big tank with a float valve off my filter so it always stays full. When I need water, I need as much as 130-140 gallons at a time and I was concerned that dealing with de-chlorinating that much water at a time would be a pain in the ass.

Plants do like some chlorine. Your tap is safe for your plants. That low ppm tap is to die for.You can let some chlorine off gas by letting the water sit(so I've read). I'd give it a go if the space and time permitted. At least mix test small test batch up. All tap and 50/50 ro/tap. Your plants may just thank you,so will your wallet.

curious2garden said:

I use this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BPUTXGQ/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I mix 1 tablespoon (15 cc)/ 1 quart water, add to reservoir as necessary.

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Tried out your mixture last night and it took a whole quart to get from 5.4 to 5.9. I think I may need to mix it a little stronger or add some of the hydroxide

CoB_nUt said:

Plants do like some chlorine. Your tap is safe for your plants. That low ppm tap is to die for.You can let some chlorine off gas by letting the water sit(so I've read). I'd give it a go if the space and time permitted. At least mix test small test batch up. All tap and 50/50 ro/tap. Your plants may just thank you,so will your wallet.

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I may give this a go. If I do a res change tonight itll leave my storage tank half empty so I could fill the other half back with tap water. Would give it a few days to sit before i need water again.
Is using the tap going to have any effect on beneficials?

fragileassassin said:

Tried out your mixture last night and it took a whole quart to get from 5.4 to 5.9. I think I may need to mix it a little stronger or add some of the hydroxide


I may give this a go. If I do a res change tonight itll leave my storage tank half empty so I could fill the other half back with tap water. Would give it a few days to sit before i need water again.
Is using the tap going to have any effect on beneficials?

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@cannabineer is the organic chemist here. Let's ask him

fragileassassin said:

Tried out your mixture last night and it took a whole quart to get from 5.4 to 5.9. I think I may need to mix it a little stronger or add some of the hydroxide

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I don't think that was a bad thing. The buffer "cliff" for phosphate near the desired pH of 5.5 to 6.0 is steep. So I think you actually did pretty well. I would not admix hydroxide. Keep in mind that you're introducing carbonic acid into the res so expect the pH to relax in an upward direction a day or so after application. Small increments and patience will help a lot in that instance.

I may give this a go. If I do a res change tonight itll leave my storage tank half empty so I could fill the other half back with tap water. Would give it a few days to sit before i need water again.
Is using the tap going to have any effect on beneficials?

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There are two kinds of chlorine: volatile (elemental chlorine) and nonvolatile (chloramine). The nonvolatile will, as the name suggests, not evaporate. You'd need to add a bit of reducing agent ... like a single 500mg vitamin C tablet. Even so, at the low dosings of chloramine for typical drinking water, I'd expect the bennies to survive. (Volatile) chlorinated tap water does not kill the bennies, a grower I know has determined.

cannabineer said:

I don't think that was a bad thing. The buffer "cliff" for phosphate near the desired pH of 5.5 to 6.0 is steep. So I think you actually did pretty well. I would not admix hydroxide. Keep in mind that you're introducing carbonic acid into the res so expect the pH to relax in an upward direction a day or so after application. Small increments and patience will help a lot in that instance.

There are two kinds of chlorine: volatile (elemental chlorine) and nonvolatile (chloramine). The nonvolatile will, as the name suggests, not evaporate. You'd need to add a bit of reducing agent ... like a single 500mg vitamin C tablet. Even so, at the low dosings of chloramine for typical drinking water, I'd expect the bennies to survive. (Volatile) chlorinated tap water does not kill the bennies, a grower I know has determined.

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Thanks for the reply and info! Ill watch it for a while longer and see what happens. I added 1 TBSP potassium carbonate to ~90 gal of water.
I have local water report now and if im reading it right, it has ~0.5ppm of chlorine, I see no mention of chloramine.
Looks like half my ppm is sulfate.

found another ppm chart
Chloride mg/L AVG 1.85
Chlorine Residual (free Cl2) mg/L AVG 0.85

fragileassassin said:

Thanks for the reply and info! Ill watch it for a while longer and see what happens. I added 1 TBSP potassium carbonate to ~90 gal of water.
I have local water report now and if im reading it right, it has ~0.5ppm of chlorine, I see no mention of chloramine.
Looks like half my ppm is sulfate.

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Put a tablespoon of the bicarbonate into a quart of water, then use that solution. A quarter cup of that 1.5% solution does for a 10-gallon reservoir. So it sounds to me like you got equivalent results. Doing the math over my thumb, about 10 grams dry bicarb should be just right in your 90-gallon reservoir.

Sounds good on the rest of it. What is the TDS on your tap water?

Yes I mixed 1tbsp in my empty 1qt ph up bottle first. Started with 30ml of that first and it didnt do anything so I poured a quarter of the bottle and waited an hour. Did another 1/4 bottle waited another hour. Then dumped the other half. 12 hours later its sitting at a lovely 5.9

Here's meter in water right out of bathroom tap.

Looks like lovely tap water. Can't wait to see the results of the tap water experiment.

CoB_nUt said:

Looks like lovely tap water. Can't wait to see the results of the tap water experiment.

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Yes this is all very encouraging.
It was just one of those things at the start that i figured id just throw an RO filter on it so I knew it was good water so I could focus on other things.
Now that ive got a bunch of the other stuff out of the way im looking at ways to reduce cost and this will likely be one.

fragileassassin said:

Yes this is all very encouraging.
It was just one of those things at the start that i figured id just throw an RO filter on it so I knew it was good water so I could focus on other things.
Now that ive got a bunch of the other stuff out of the way im looking at ways to reduce cost and this will likely be one.

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That is very good tap water.
Have cal-mag handy.
Harder water has some Ca and Mg, and hydro nutes are generally low in these two ions.

If you're going to make a stock solution, it's better to measure the solid by mass, that way you know the mass concentration of the solution (mg/L aka ppm).

Knowing the mass concentration allows you to inject a precise amount of mass, by volume.

churchhaze said:

If you're going to make a stock solution, it's better to measure the solid by mass, that way you know the mass concentration of the solution (mg/L aka ppm).

Knowing the mass concentration allows you to inject a precise amount of mass, by volume.

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yeah i am weighing out 14g to mix per quart. seems ok enough so far.

So I have to PH up so little that the quart I mixed back in this post just ran out today. It took me half an hour to find this post to see how much to mix for a new bottle. LMAO 2 of my favorite ppl helping me here