Water "Quality" report on my tap water... Please read and offer your opinion.

[SciFi]

I've had a lot of problems...
PPMS drifting up over the course of a week..
PH drifting up heavily too..

I think it all comes down to my tap water quality.. or lack thereof.


I got a water "quality" report. It doesn't have the same breakdowns as a analysis report, but here it goes:

Hardness: 11 GPG or 181 PPM of Calcium Carbonate

Flouride: 4 PPM

Nickel: 2.5 PPB

Nitrate: 11 PPM

Chlorine: 1 PPM

Sodium: 33 PPM <--- WTF??? THERES SALT?!

Sulfates: 66 PPM <-- SWEET JESUS WHAT AM I DRINKING?


Guess I should have gotten the GH Hardwater micro after all.

So measuring this stuff right out of the tap with my @.5 TDS meter it's 250 and if I did the math right that's 350 at .7... and looking at the list above that's ~296PPM by their measurement standards of just what they discussed above, which is not EC based but
way more accurate.


I'm wondering what this water will do in a recirculating setup, especially with top ups. I've had constant leaves dropping.. always starting at the bottom ones, but way more pronounced in flowering then in veg.. Is that due to the sodium offsetting the K/cal, perhaps?



So... Should I get a RO unit on this crappy water I get? Or should I just start counting on weekly trips for distilled water?

 

[Doc Bud]

If you're hydro....you've got to dilute that water about 3:1 RO/Tap.

The total Alkalinity of 180 means the acid buffering is too high. You'll have to add tons of ph down....and then it will creep right back up.

You need TA below 60. The sodium isn't an issue, not enough of it, and plants need it anyways.

pH is only a small part of the picture. The total Alkalinity (measured in calcium hardness) is the problem with most water, including yours.