Soft water nutes vs hard water nutes question

[SandyRatchet]

Hi all
Growing in a RDWC system.
Plants are 9 weeks old and had to order some more nutes.
I'm using vitalink hydro max bloom A & B.
My 1st bottles I now notice were soft water labeled. My replacements are hard water labeled.
Not really sure of the difference between them. Of course one is for soft the other for hard bit what to use if your water is normal lol.
My EC on my meters for tap waters read EC390 / PPM195.
it's a cheap nasty digital meter off ebay. Odd how the ppm is exactly half of the EC.

 

[Scientific]

Hi Sandy -- Here's what General Hydroponics says about their hard water formulation. I'd be willing to bet it applies to the VitaLink nutes too.

How important is water quality in hydroponics?
Water containing too much calcium and magnesium (called "total Hardness") may create serious problems. Contact your municipal water supplier who can provide you with an analysis of your water supply. If you are using well water, many laboratories can provide you with an analysis if you send them a sample. If the dissolved salts in your water supply measure 200 ppm or more, we strongly recommend that you obtain a water analysis to determine calcium content. Excessive calcium is the main factor in determining if your water is hard. If an analysis of your water supply reveals that the Calcium content of your water supply is greater than 70 ppm (mg/liter) you should use Hardwater FloraMicro. Hardwater FloraMicro provides rapidly growing plants with a combination of chelated micro nutrients uniquely formulated for hardwater conditions. Other options are to collect rainwater, install a reverse osmosis filtration system, or use purified water. Do not use mineral or "spring" water, which can unbalance the nutrient solution, or even be toxic to plants.​

> "Odd how the ppm is exactly half of the EC."

To obtain an approximate sodium chloride TDS value, multiply the EC reading (in milliSiemens/cm) by 1000 and divide by 2. To get an EC value, multiply the ppm reading by 2 and divide by 1000. Thus, if your EC is 1: 1*1000/2= 500 ppm.​

So it looks like your EC is actually 0.390 because 0.390*1000/2=195, but yeah, there is a simple relationship between the two numbers. (The meter actually measures EC and then converts it to PPM.)

It looks from your readings like you might be right on the dividing line between hard and soft water and so could use either formulation? If you're on a city water system, you could check their website to see what your tap water characteristics (like to see if those PPM or Ca or Mg and not sodium or something). (If I remember correctly, the tanks some people have in their homes to soften water replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium, so you might be reading that if you have that setup. If you have that setup you might want to bypass the softening system or go with reverse osmosis system.) Most city water systems report this kind of information, and if you call, you might even be able to get hold of a nice water chemist who could advise you.

At 9 weeks it looks like your plants are doing fine with the normal formulation, so the best bet would seem to be to keep using that, no?

BTW, if you can set the calibration of your meter (and you probably can) you can buy a bottle of 1000 PPM calibration standard solution on Amazon (or wherever). (The cal solution usually costs about as much as a cheap meter, though. )

Good luck!

 

[SandyRatchet]

Hi Sandy -- Here's what General Hydroponics says about their hard water formulation. I'd be willing to bet it applies to the VitaLink nutes too.

How important is water quality in hydroponics?
Water containing too much calcium and magnesium (called "total Hardness") may create serious problems. Contact your municipal water supplier who can provide you with an analysis of your water supply. If you are using well water, many laboratories can provide you with an analysis if you send them a sample. If the dissolved salts in your water supply measure 200 ppm or more, we strongly recommend that you obtain a water analysis to determine calcium content. Excessive calcium is the main factor in determining if your water is hard. If an analysis of your water supply reveals that the Calcium content of your water supply is greater than 70 ppm (mg/liter) you should use Hardwater FloraMicro. Hardwater FloraMicro provides rapidly growing plants with a combination of chelated micro nutrients uniquely formulated for hardwater conditions. Other options are to collect rainwater, install a reverse osmosis filtration system, or use purified water. Do not use mineral or "spring" water, which can unbalance the nutrient solution, or even be toxic to plants.​

> "Odd how the ppm is exactly half of the EC."

To obtain an approximate sodium chloride TDS value, multiply the EC reading (in milliSiemens/cm) by 1000 and divide by 2. To get an EC value, multiply the ppm reading by 2 and divide by 1000. Thus, if your EC is 1: 1*1000/2= 500 ppm.​

So it looks like your EC is actually 0.390 because 0.390*1000/2=195, but yeah, there is a simple relationship between the two numbers. (The meter actually measures EC and then converts it to PPM.)

It looks from your readings like you might be right on the dividing line between hard and soft water and so could use either formulation? If you're on a city water system, you could check their website to see what your tap water characteristics (like to see if those PPM or Ca or Mg and not sodium or something). (If I remember correctly, the tanks some people have in their homes to soften water replace the calcium and magnesium with sodium, so you might be reading that if you have that setup. If you have that setup you might want to bypass the softening system or go with reverse osmosis system.) Most city water systems report this kind of information, and if you call, you might even be able to get hold of a nice water chemist who could advise you.

At 9 weeks it looks like your plants are doing fine with the normal formulation, so the best bet would seem to be to keep using that, no?

BTW, if you can set the calibration of your meter (and you probably can) you can buy a bottle of 1000 PPM calibration standard solution on Amazon (or wherever). (The cal solution usually costs about as much as a cheap meter, though. )

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply. Very helpful