Lake water in Hydroponic system

[the breezeway]

I am using RO water with flora grow nutes (veg,bloom.micro) and the plants are in the veg cycle. My question is I would like to switch to water from our city water supply (lake) not the tap, and will it be ok for a DW hydroponics system, and what about adjusting the nutes with lake water also. Thanks

 

[JJ Bones]

Test the water first, check the PPM of the lake water to get an idea of how pure (or not) it is.

The advantage of RO water is it is typically 0-20 PPM so you are in full control over what feed is going to your plants. If your lake water does not have many total dissolved solids in it, it can be okay to use.

 

[nibec]

lake water is going to have tons of nitrates, and beneficial bacterias.

this can be a good thing and a bad thing, depending on the nutes you use, you could overdose on nitrogen i believe. i dont know for sure as i'v never acutally done anything with aquaponics, or using lake water. but from being a fish owner, i do know that there are bacterias that convert the fish waste from ammonia, to nitrites, then to nitrates, and this is what causes algea to grow in fish tanks that arent properly maintained. (excess nitrates)

so i'd be interested to see how it goes, but, just be carefull.