Must The Water Always Be Dechlorinated?

[Stunned]

And the King of shit disturbers might as well chime in here
I mix my daily waterings straight from the tap
Dump in my nutes in the correct order
and feed within half an hour
I used to use RO water and make trips to Canadian tire to fill jugs
No more and here is the result

IMG_2673.JPG

• Stunned
• May 4, 2019

week 5 flower 3

 

[Remystemple]

Dudes hurt my head. Nobody telling you to stop what works for you, just trying to clear it up a little.. and yes for new growers, who read it and suddenly think they gotta get Ro water filters etc

I almost bought an Ro filter. what a waste of money that would have been.

 

[LiberalThinker]

I almost bought an Ro filter. what a waste of money that would have been.

For you.

 

[Stunned]

yeah, there's certainly nothing wrong with doing an RO

 

[Remystemple]

Dudes hurt my head. Nobody telling you to stop what works for you, just trying to clear it up a little.. and yes for new growers, who read it and suddenly think they gotta get Ro water filters etc

I agree it's crazy for a new grower.
Vets - " you need Ro water system, and should be building your own soil because it's superior, making compost tea, going by ec instead of ppm because one isn't just a multiple of the other, pissing on your plants and pulling 3 billion true watts FROM THE WALL"

New grower - " I quit"

 

[Stunned]

or just grow in coco
screw soil

 

[Barney86]

I use about half to 3/4 of a cap full of Clorox to roughly 18 gallons of water, sometimes more if temps are going to be higher, I do it with every nutrient change, generally you want to run 5-10ppm of bleach if your nutrient temps are above 68-70 degrees (F), I don’t actually measure it anymore I just give a rough guesstimate, be careful not to use too much however as it can cause foaming and overflowing of bubbles if you have a good source for aeration, I have a good size air pump and a water pump that moves 3-400 gallons per hour so it agitates things pretty good. If you can get a very faint smell of bleach when it’s being agitated, your good to go brotha

Sweet mate thanks I'll give it a bash. Don't worry about my temps iether. Res is usually 25*c and it's never gave me any grief. If anything I get better growth when it's "too hot" . Im in NFT though which is like the opposite of Dwc. That uses water as a medium with lots of air. I use air as my medium with a little bit of water.
Im wondering now if it's because we're sterile that temps doesn't matter as much ? I've always wondered why it doesn't give me issues and that's only just dawned on me. Most folk use bacteria to keep it clean. No bacteria for us though so no need to worry about them multiplying in the heat.
Something along those lines anyway. It's gotta be.

 

[Barney86]

or just grow in coco
screw soil

very true mate but Even that's not easy for the noobs cos there's always some OG jumping in trying to convince them that you gotta treat coco like soil. Or some twat with 20k views on YouTube trying to convince the masses to put amendments in and and topdress it so it boils the pot when you feed it and gives you uncontrollable pH swings.

This is why my vote goes to full hydro growing being the easiest way to learn.
There's only one way to run a Res.
You have the option of sterile or using bacteria to keep it clean but other than that we all follow the exact same rules. Don't really see hydro growers arguing over how best to do things cos we all have to do it the same way.
You don't even need to know anything to grow hydro really. If anything goes wrong then 95% of the time the answer is just "empty the Res and refil with half strength nutes" the other 5% is usually a toss up between "stop putting organic stuff in it" and " add more air" .
It's just following numbers on sticks like a monkey. Ppm goes up the Res is too strong. Ppm drops the Res is too weak. Ppm stays steady or drops slightly then it's perfect and you won't get any more than a healthy rate of pH swing.
Do that and literally nothing can go wrong. I barely even adjust my Res these days. Just set it and forget it till I can hear the pump through the ceiling. Then empty it and start again. So much less hassle than growing in pots

 

[Stunned]

or......
just grow in coco

 

[LiberalThinker]

I agree it's crazy for a new grower.
Vets - " you need Ro water system, and should be building your own soil because it's superior, making compost tea, going by ec instead of ppm because one isn't just a multiple of the other, pissing on your plants and pulling 3 billion true watts FROM THE WALL"

New grower - " I quit"

The main differences in information from people is they are drawn from different growing philosophies and a noob has to choose which one they want to follow. Nobody can do that for them.

 

[Barney86]

The main differences in information from people is they are drawn from different growing philosophies and a noob has to choose which one they want to follow. Nobody can do that for them.

I like the way you put that mate. "Growing philosophies", very explanatory statement in just 2 words. You're right, we all have different ways of doing things so the best thing noobs can do is find a few guys who grow with similar set ups and listen mostly to them.
I was confused as shit as a noob for the first 3months till I finally found someone with the same set up who gave me the fundementals without all the techno jargon .

 

[Camaro1691]

very true mate but Even that's not easy for the noobs cos there's always some OG jumping in trying to convince them that you gotta treat coco like soil. Or some twat with 20k views on YouTube trying to convince the masses to put amendments in and and topdress it so it boils the pot when you feed it and gives you uncontrollable pH swings.

This is why my vote goes to full hydro growing being the easiest way to learn.
There's only one way to run a Res.
You have the option of sterile or using bacteria to keep it clean but other than that we all follow the exact same rules. Don't really see hydro growers arguing over how best to do things cos we all have to do it the same way.
You don't even need to know anything to grow hydro really. If anything goes wrong then 95% of the time the answer is just "empty the Res and refil with half strength nutes" the other 5% is usually a toss up between "stop putting organic stuff in it" and " add more air" .
It's just following numbers on sticks like a monkey. Ppm goes up the Res is too strong. Ppm drops the Res is too weak. Ppm stays steady or drops slightly then it's perfect and you won't get any more than a healthy rate of pH swing.
Do that and literally nothing can go wrong. I barely even adjust my Res these days. Just set it and forget it till I can hear the pump through the ceiling. Then empty it and start again. So much less hassle than growing in pots

You run your res till your sucking air too ehh? Lol.. sometimes I’ll add enough plain water to get me by another day or 2 before a nute change, letting them drink all the way down deff helps the roots over keeping the buckets full all the time, glad I’m not the only one doing this with good results. I run stuff a little harder than most do, my grow room has a thrive or die mindset, and this year things are deff thriving! I haven’t broke out the water chiller yet, however that will be being made into a res chiller and an air conditioner combo for the rooms. Even when we get our rooms to where we think we want them, we always find things to improve or make more efficient. Such an amazing plant

 

[LiberalThinker]

I like the way you put that mate. "Growing philosophies", very explanatory statement in just 2 words. You're right, we all have different ways of doing things so the best thing noobs can do is find a few guys who grow with similar set ups and listen mostly to them.
I was confused as shit as a noob for the first 3 months till I finally found someone with the same set up who gave me the fundementals without all the techno jargon .

Yes. Perhaps we should ask ourselves sometimes " is this my style?", and if not, defer to those who you know do that style competently and let them take over with a new grower who wants to pursue that style. You are right in that people have to choose from 420 mags membership who's advice they are going to follow. Advice can only be wrong within the parameters of a particular philosophy. This thread is a good example where there are 3 opposing philosophies: "Don't care because it doesn't matter" or "Chlorine and clean is good for the sterile approach" or "Chlorine is bad because it kills good bacteria".

 

[LiberalThinker]

deleted

 

[TerpDeDerp]

The main issue with tap water is dissolved solids. Chlorine is just like other gases/chemicals, once dilluted its bioavailable. Plants actually use it. Lime scale can alter pH, so build up can be counterproductive for what the microbes are trying to do with it. Microbes are also extremely dependant on "surfaces", so high tds and build-up harms the environment for the microbe. In small doses no worries. I use it like I'd use fertilizer. Use it once to get by until you get your regular water going again. Every now and again tap water is fine. I've read a lot of guys say thay "used to pH" and use RO only. But there are those who claim its fine.

Ultimately your question might reformulate to, how perfect do I want my nutrient delivery and soil balance? While not bad, it can, (depending on municipal water supply) progressively harm soil and plants.

 

[LiberalThinker]

The main issue with tap water is dissolved solids. Chlorine is just like other gases/chemicals, once dilluted its bioavailable. Plants actually use it. Lime scale can alter pH, so build up can be counterproductive for what the microbes are trying to do with it. Microbes are also extremely dependant on "surfaces", so high tds and build-up harms the environment for the microbe. In small doses no worries. I use it like I'd use fertilizer. Use it once to get by until you get your regular water going again. Every now and again tap water is fine. I've read a lot of guys say thay "used to pH" and use RO only. But there are those who claim its fine.

Ultimately your question might reformulate to, how perfect do I want my nutrient delivery and soil balance? While not bad, it can, (depending on municipal water supply) progressively harm soil and plants.

Concerning dissolved alkaline solids: I'm pre-treating my tapwater (300ppm) for DWC with nitric acid to lower the pH and make the calcium part bioavailable in the form of calcium nitrate. Obviously, one has to take into account the added nitrogen in the fertiliser schedule.

 

[Barney86]

Yes. Perhaps we should ask ourselves sometimes " is this my style?", and if not, defer to those who you know do that style competently and let them take over with a new grower who wants to pursue that style. You are right in that people have to choose from 420 mags membership who's advice they are going to follow. Advice can only be wrong within the parameters of a particular philosophy. This thread is a good example where there are 3 opposing philosophies: "Don't care because it doesn't matter" or "Chlorine and clean is good for the sterile approach" or "Chlorine is bad because it kills good bacteria".

To be perfectly honest it's not something I fully understood untill a few days ago.
Im a sterile Res grower. My roots actually grow on a shelf above the Res with a recirc pump that dribbles around 40-50L a day over the shelf. Guy that taught me said use sm-90 and don't listen to anyone who tries to say otherwise.
Use it in every feed at 0.3ml/L and you never get any problems from high temps...
He was right. But they've stopped making it now so in about to try bleach. Technically the same end result so should work sound enough lol.

 

[Barney86]

Ooh also, do the guys with dodgy tap water realise you can buy specific "hard water" nutes from a lot of brands these days.
My tap water is 48ppm so I get specific "soft water"nutes. I rarely need calmag before the stretch hits, even under blurples.
Once bloom hits I use it once a week or so at quarter strength for Coco plants. NFT takes upto 2ml/L but it's usually to deal with iron Def.
I use vitalink calmag "Ca/Mg/Fe/N" specifically because I get the iron Def . The added N in it freaks people out but I've been using it from day 1 and never had a problem from it.

 

[Bud]

I’d rather air on the side of caution, and let the tap water sit for 24 hours before adding additional fertilizers or cal- mag to the mix. I agree that the water should be aerated to get as much oxygen to the roots as posable. IMHO .

 

[Anoobis]

The obvious solution would be to run an air pump or use the correct ascorbic acid. Personally I reckon a little chlorine isn't to bad for a soil grow. When I water I use tap water, a bit of molasses and this stuff called go go juice (I am guessing its like URB in the states, a plant probiotic). If your dosing them with fresh microbiology from a bottle, with some sugars from the molasses to help them reproduce quickly, its got to offset anything chlorine is doing in such tiny amounts. I was reading some question and answer page where the makers of gogo juice said they use chlorinated tap water to brew the product, so obviously they weren't too concerned.