My Tap Water is 250 PPM - Do I Need RO?

mellowmama

New Member
I just completed my first grow ever, hydroponically, and starting my second. I made some mistakes first time, such as not monitoring water temperature, not checking TDS and unable to control wild PH swings. In spite of my ignorance I still got a small harvest from two indica girlies, 73 grams of dried bud, 22 grams of trim. At least I got something besides some hard lessons!

I've been reading up and bought some equipment to help me take care of these things. But I'm on the fence about my water. My TDS meter, which I have calibrated, tells me my tap water is 250 ppm.

I see some charts here and there that classify that as moderately hard. Is it too hard? Would you experienced growers recommend an RO system in this case? Or would you just adjust the nute soup to work with the existing 250 ppm? Or should I complete this second grow and see how things turn out?

Thanks!
 
I just completed my first grow ever, hydroponically, and starting my second. I made some mistakes first time, such as not monitoring water temperature, not checking TDS and unable to control wild PH swings. In spite of my ignorance I still got a small harvest from two indica girlies, 73 grams of dried bud, 22 grams of trim. At least I got something besides some hard lessons!

I've been reading up and bought some equipment to help me take care of these things. But I'm on the fence about my water. My TDS meter, which I have calibrated, tells me my tap water is 250 ppm.

I see some charts here and there that classify that as moderately hard. Is it too hard? Would you experienced growers recommend an RO system in this case? Or would you just adjust the nute soup to work with the existing 250 ppm? Or should I complete this second grow and see how things turn out?

Thanks!

I run tap water. I do a few things like let it sit for 2-3 days before use and I bubble my storage tanks to help purge the chlorine. When I set ppms I include the 220ppm of my tap water so if a 1050ppm is desired I am adding 830 of nuts. RO is probably the best way to go, but you can get around it. You could get a small boy water filter and take the chlorine and some of the sediments out before use, this is my next step before RO
:peace:
 
Thanks! Never heard of that filter. I'll look into it.
 
I run tap water. I do a few things like let it sit for 2-3 days before use and I bubble my storage tanks to help purge the chlorine. When I set ppms I include the 220ppm of my tap water so if a 1050ppm is desired I am adding 830 of nuts. RO is probably the best way to go, but you can get around it. You could get a small boy water filter and take the chlorine and some of the sediments out before use, this is my next step before RO
:peace:

A lot of cities now use chloramine in their water. Leaving water out that is treated with chloramine does nothing as it doesn't off gas.
 
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