Hard Water PPM and Nutrient Corrections

[SeaBow]

I may be misunderstanding you. But you say you filled at 1720ppm. If your meter says 1720 ppm, then that's what it is. You don't divide that number buy .5 in your head and come up with 860. The meter is giving you the ppm at the conversion rate already, if that makes sense.

I consider myself as a little sharper than the dullest knife in the drawer, uh... but I have to get this straight.
I may have a .5 conversion TDS Merter that reads a correct ppm reading as is. When the meter reads 1000 it's 1000 ppm.
Soooo, I have a chart that says feed 850 ppm nutes and I add the formula up to 850 that reads ON the meter and that will include my water hardnest.
Am I on track now?

 

[Bassman59]

Yes, correct.

But is your tub at 1720 ppm or 860? The 1720 number has me funcused and worried you'll burn the hell out of those girls.

This also leads me to wonder, what your feeding chart conversion is based on. Are they giving the number on .5 or .7 conversion?

Personally I need to learn more about ec. and it's relation to ppm. I don't have my head wrapped around that part yet. I should spend a little time reading up on it.

 

[SeaBow]

I had 1720 but threw that tea OUT. It's not a major grow to be alarmed about. I'm between grows playing with a reveg. I yanked it up and threw it in potted dirt for mobility. I've spent the day cleaning the space and tubs for the next go around. She's from my first "test" grow and I learned a lot but didn't have a ppm meter. I'm waiting on a Nirvana lifeboat to drift by my house soon. Then I can get back to business.

 

[SeaBow]

I was told by a grower that manages 75 1k lights that with a .5 meter never ever nute over 1000ppm and mostly try to be in the 750-850 area. He also stated with .7 never above 1400ppm.

I have the AN nute chart here - Veg Growth formula for Micro/ Grow/ Bloom product.

Wk1 800ppm
2-1000
3-1100
4-1200
5-1200
6-1300
7-1300
8-1400

I believe this is a .7 conversion. At least that's what they say to use to covert to EC.

 

[Bassman59]

Seabow,

I used AN on my first grow and stayed below the AN chart. I still got some nute burn. That being said, that grower I mention above told me to mostly stay way under the suggested feed charts as it's just a waste of $$. He basically stated we can easily over feed and waste nutrients without showing burn. Nutrient just wasted and never on the uptake of the plant so to speak, and that burn is from more massive over feeding. Obviously this lends towards throwing more $$ away by going through our nutrients much faster.

I've been feeding my current grow at 50-60% of schedule for it's entirety and it's doing great. I'm sure it's strain dependent to some degree, but you get my point.

BTW, I switched to BPN two part and add AN B52, and Humboldt Ginormous (BPN has a bud booster too), and Hygrozyme. AN make a fine product. Just super expensive. BPN, a sponsor here, and an active owner on 420mag makes a great product for a lot less $.

 

[SeaBow]

FINALLY Found the manufacturer's website.

ZT-2: Basic TDS Tester - HM Digital

It's a .5 conversion.

I'm taking the EC which I read is considered a standard without much variation and converting it. Say EC was 1.4 I make it 1400 and using .5 gives me 700 ppm. 1.3 = 650 ppm, ect.

Correct?

I'm continuing this thread because I'm sure there's more people out there wandering this same thing.

 

[Bassman59]

Glad you found the conversion.

Yes your math is correct based on what I understand from Xlr8's "Flo N Gro" Hydro Multiple Strains 2011 post #1422.

 

[dadums]

I just tested my tap water and I'm at 480 with a carbon block filter on the house. I went to distilled and will add cal/ mag for now. I was looking into filter softener etc. and many cities add lime to coat old lead pipes in their system so you may not have as much cam/mag as you think.

 

[SeaBow]

I ended up going to a local superstore that has filtered water and refill a 5 gallon bottle with their 28 ppm water for about $.30 a gallon. Northern Cuba has heavy deposits in the well water. At home we tested ppm at 680.

 

[Bassman59]

I do that every week. 25c gallon, 20-30 gals. My ppm is high like yours out of the tap.

 

[Icemud]

I just tested my tap water and I'm at 480 with a carbon block filter on the house. I went to distilled and will add cal/ mag for now. I was looking into filter softener etc. and many cities add lime to coat old lead pipes in their system so you may not have as much cam/mag as you think.

Thats really high ppm..... a carbon block filter doesn't do much for lowering PPM....its there to remove chlorine/chloramines as well as improve clarity and taste.....

A sediment filter, carbon block, and Reverse Osmosis will get that water down <60ppm.. check out my earlier post...I found a site for saltwater buffs that has build your own systems, they put together and send it ready to install...best prices and support that I found for R/O...

My water was around 350-400ppm before....now with my R/O system I am getting 18ppm water, and with my D/I filter....0ppm

The system ran me about 190$ and hooked right to my sink nozzle..

 

[dadums]

I'm not using much water now so I'll test wally world's spring water. I want to treat the whole house and not add sodium, that won't be cheap, so I'm saving for now. I may get the mister clean car wash and use it to filter. I always like DIY after-all I'm a cheapskate.

 

[FrankFoster]

Or get online for the water spects in your area, do a bit or research, and figure what parts of your chemical spectrum exist already in your water and then go get different chemicals to even out your grow... 800 ppm is enough at 58-74 degrees with ph of 5.4 to 6.6. Why mess that up? It's interesting that anyone would buy fertilizers that incorporate the elements that exist in you water naturally or polluted... I would do N-p-K, whereas a buddy does n-p-K, emphasis to get the right amount of everything in the water, with as little expense a possible.

Nowadays it's not ppm, it's structure and absorption rate, fungal symbiosis, bacteria gasing the water for acid stabilizer in 7.8 ph water so you don't need to check ppm all the time, or say bicarbonate plant matter floating on the surface of a large res to counter the acidity of the free water.

 

[HydroManster]

There is also hard water formulas available for people with high TDS content.

I might also suggest you to test for "total alkalinity" which lots of folks miss and do not think about. When your TA number is too high, no amount of ph down in the world will help you.

Not saying your TA is too high just saying it is a most important factor to know and most never even test for it at all.

Cheers!

 

[ZOKKUFU]

i was in the same boat for a while. You WILL get nute lock if you dont flush enough. I finally spent 150$ for an RO set up

 

[chucho]

I follow the nutrients and get the correct formula from the manual I got on facebook under the title of outdoorhydroponic
I only paid $24 for the nutrients and they last me for more than a year.
After reading the information of the manual I got amazing resuts.

 

[Prop215ER]

RO system is worth it for hard water. The content within the water can mess with the nutrients ratio. Get a good one for about 100 usd and really good one for couple of hundreds. Or you can go with the less expensive route by getting a Faucet-Mounted Filters which can help cut down the water PPM.

Without filtering system you will have to compensate by lowering the nute strength by 1/2 and slowly work it up from there.

To let future readers know if ur water is that hard you will prob have calmag problems unles growin in 100% soil and still may have problems. You'll prob have to much calcium wich will lock out itself and other nutes