Dechlorinating tap water

[Boed styles420]

Hello I recently have been trying to lower the ppm of of my tap water i started by leaving it out in a bucket for half a day but there was no difference so then I tried leaving it out over night and still no difference the ppm was still way to high, I then done some more reading and stuffing around and found out that it is actuly the sun and uv rays that removes the chlorine out of the water by turning it to gas so on a warm day I left a bucket out and shure enough down went the ppms I still had to leave it out for about 2 days but still, has anyone had any luck with leaving the water overnight to lower ppm? a few people have told me to try this method but I have only had luck by leaving in out on warm/hot days I have found direct sunlight on the water helps also by the time the ppm has gone down the water is ushaly warm that is a good indicator that things are working!!!

 

[Dankman_420]

Cheapo reverse osmosis system are worth the cost. Real game changer

 

[MickFoster]

I've never had an issue with tap water.......and I never let it sit before I mix my nutes.

 

[Emilya Green]

most municipalities no longer use chlorine in their water supplies because it does evaporate, and it gets expensive to keep adding it to the system.
Instead they use chloramine, specially combined with an ammonia atom to become stable, and it does not evaporate. Sun, UV, aeration... none of it has an effect, and chloramine happily remains in your water...
If you really have a need to remove the chloramine, it is actually ridiculously easy. Fill a bathtub with water and stir in ONE vitamin C (ascorbic acid) tablet. I use the large chewable tablets. The sediment that drops to the bottom of the tub is the chlorine and chloramine... it drops out of the solution. Bottle up the water and use it freely.
Also please note that unless you are running a hydro system where you have a need to start with a zero ppm, or a true living organic grow using microbes and water to feed your plants, you have no need to remove the chlorine. Chlorine is actually needed by our plants in trace amounts and it is not harmful to a typical grow using synthetic nutrients and it can help keep mold from growing on the top of our soil in our containers. I am running tap water right now in my grow, even though during this time of year they add more chloramine to the system than at any other time, just to take care of the fall leaves that fall into the supply.

 

[Virgin Ground]

I let mine sit out for 24 hrs. When it comes out of my tap it measures 8.4 pH. If I let it sit 24 hrs it drops to 7.5. You can see why I don't use mine straight out of the tap.
I don't remove chloraine or chloramine. They aren't in large enough quantities to harm anything. Any damage they do to microbial herds is repaired in a matter of hours. Like Emilya said it is an essential chemical that every living thing needs in trace amounts.

 

[Dankman_420]

If you are on a well like myself and don't want to have your ppms up from unwanted natural salts, sulphur and irons then r.o. is only way to go. That is if you're chasing low ppm. When I was using bottled nutes it made a huge difference. Now I'm fully organic with water only and still using r.o. Best runs I've ever had. Anyone interested in my garden stop by for a visit

 

[Boed styles420]

Thank you my friends I couldn't of asked for a better replys lots of good info for my little brain to think about haha I did hear that tap water is better than ro because it has things in it that our plants benefit from but anyways I think I'm gona give the vitamin c tablet a shot and see how I grow thank you all.

 

[Dankman_420]

Good luck brother Are you going to do a grow journal

 

[SmokingWings]

If for some reason you do not want to fill up the bathtub or use the vitamin C tablets you could consider using some of the stuff that is used to remove the chlorine and/or chloramine by those who have tropical fish. For my fish I use some stuff from the local mom & pop tropical fish stores. I have seen similar products for more money in department stores that have a pet fish section.

Every 10 days I remove 5 gallons from each tank and fill with the treated water. My fish do not complain about the new water. I take the used water after the change and use it for the houseplants and the weed plants when I run out of rain water. Have not had a problem with any plants that I felt was caused by the treated water.

 

[Virgin Ground]

If for some reason you do not want to fill up the bathtub or use the vitamin C tablets you could consider using some of the stuff that is used to remove the chlorine and/or chloramine by those who have tropical fish. For my fish I use some stuff from the local mom & pop tropical fish stores. I have seen similar products for more money in department stores that have a pet fish section.

Every 10 days I remove 5 gallons from each tank and fill with the treated water. My fish do not complain about the new water. I take the used water after the change and use it for the houseplants and the weed plants when I run out of rain water. Have not had a problem with any plants that I felt was caused by the treated water.

I have been keeping fish for over twenty years and have looked into this.

I would not use dechlorinators for fish. They are designed to use on ornamental fish only. They sometimes contain formaldehyde and sodium salts. Both of which can be detrimental.
People that raise tilapia aquaponically use the vitamin C tablets because the fish are meant for consumption.
I would rather have the chloramine, personally.

 

[SmokingWings]

I would not use dechlorinators for fish. They are designed to use on ornamental fish only. They sometimes contain formaldehyde and sodium salts. Both of which can be detrimental.

That was interesting and got me going down the "web search rabbit hole".
I got as far as finding that the product I have been using for the last 7-8 years does not not contain formaldehyde according to the companies website. It does contain complexed hydrosulfite salts.
This link is someone's review of the product I use:

Aquarium Water Conditioners; Review, Information

www.aquarium-pond-answers.com

From that link I picked up about the product "Prime also detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria to more efficiently remove them. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels. "

Salts are one of the reason that some people recommend flushing the containers of soil. The idea is that the use of the large volumes of water will help move the salts out of the soil. Question now on my mind is whether it is now a plus-plus situation in that the Prime being used in the aquarium water before being used to water the plants is helping the naturally occurring bacteria which is removing a percentage of the salts and then the flushing helps remove even more.

Now I am mentally nibbling away at the idea of the nitrogen occurring in ammonia in the soil and if there is still a lingering effect left in the aquarium water?

All interesting topics going back to the original question of de-chlorinating tap water.

Have a good day.

 

[Virgin Ground]

That was interesting and got me going down the "web search rabbit hole".
I got as far as finding that the product I have been using for the last 7-8 years does not not contain formaldehyde according to the companies website. It does contain complexed hydrosulfite salts.
This link is someone's review of the product I use:

Aquarium Water Conditioners; Review, Information

www.aquarium-pond-answers.com

From that link I picked up about the product "Prime also detoxifies nitrite and nitrate, allowing nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria to more efficiently remove them. It will also detoxify any heavy metals found in the tap water at typical concentration levels. "

Salts are one of the reason that some people recommend flushing the containers of soil. The idea is that the use of the large volumes of water will help move the salts out of the soil. Question now on my mind is whether it is now a plus-plus situation in that the Prime being used in the aquarium water before being used to water the plants is helping the naturally occurring bacteria which is removing a percentage of the salts and then the flushing helps remove even more.

Now I am mentally nibbling away at the idea of the nitrogen occurring in ammonia in the soil and if there is still a lingering effect left in the aquarium water?

All interesting topics going back to the original question of de-chlorinating tap water.

Have a good day.

I use prime. I contacted Seachem and they said not to use it for edible applications. They have not studied the effects on human consumption. Until Seachem does that they are suggesting not to use it as such. Sodium hydrosulfite is hazardous to ingest and can cause skin and lung irritation among other things, per the SDS. They are probably basing their suggestion on that.

That was about two years ago that I contacted them. I don't see any change to their MSDS on Seachem Prime.

I

 

[SmokingWings]

I use prime. I contacted Seachem and they said not to use it for edible applications. They have not studied the effects on human consumption. Until Seachem does that they are suggesting not to use it as such. Sodium hydrosulfite is hazardous to ingest and can cause skin and lung irritation among other things, per the SDS. They are probably basing their suggestion on that.

Plenty of discussions on this message board about how plants do not absorb unnecessary nutrients from the soil. All those discussions on flushing and whether the plant will pick up tastes or smells from what the grower is fertilizing with.

It goes back to what Seachem means by "edible applications". Does it mean not to wash the tomatoes with treated water? Or, not to water the tomato plants with treated water?

None the less, I will keep this info in mind. Thank you for the research.