Ppm/Ph problems.

[rob71668]

Hello, I just recently got my grow room ready to go and bought all of my supplies, I just started germination today and now i'm running into some problems.
First of all when I use a TDS meter on my well water I get a reading of 230-250ppm. 230 for fresh and 250 if it's been sitting a bit. I'm going to be growing in soil and i'm unsure of weather I need to get a RO system or not?
Also I bought a liquid Ph kit, I don't have the funds to get a good Ph meter so I figure what the hell, i'll just use the liquid stuff for this grow. Little did I know my ph is in the 8 range and it takes wayyy too many drops for me to get the Ph in the right range. And once I finally get it correct, my ppm shoots through the roof due to soo many drops. It would take hours for me to water my babies using this method. What do you guys suggest I do?

 

[Java]

Hello Welcome to

First off the PPM guide lines are for the Nutes you add to the water. So you would minus the 250 ppm from the total after you add the nutes. You also want to add your nutes before PH'ing the water. So say you wanted to add 600ppm of nutes. The total ppm would be 850 but that gives you 600ppm of nutes. Reason to add nutes before PH'ing is Nutes will change your PH. I personally dont count the acid added ppm , just the nutes.

There might not be anything bad in your well water. The 250ppm could be good stuff like calcium, potassium , Magnesium and so on. It could also have some bad stuff, but being well water there shouldn't be any chlorine in it which is good. RO water works well but you will have to add Cal / mag to it since RO proccess takes pretty much everything out of it. I get 1 to 2 ppm from my RO water. RO ph is usually around 6.5 to 6.8 PH for me so if your in soil you might not need to PH it. But your looking at about $160 bucks for a 5 stage RO unit that will do 75 gallons a day.

Personally i would get two plants going. Feed one distilled water and the other your well water. Then watch them to see how they grow. If there is no difference it would be a waste to buy a RO system unless you used it for drinking water too. Hope this helps