Live Stoner Chat best water to use

[fweedom]

Hey guys I've always used distilled water (gallon jugs from Walmart with pink lid) but from my understanding that makes me susceptible to ph swings since it contains no minerals and can't buffer. I know if u use RO or distilled water you should add cal-mag when adding nutes so it is able to buffer.

My question is what type of water can I get that has enough minerals to buffer to where I doubt have to add cal-mag when im adding nutes?

I don't mind buying water water its only $0.65 a gallon and I like having the jugs to mix in so I would like to stick to that instead of having to let my tap sit out for 24 hours plus my tap water ph is extremely high and who knows what's in it.

But at Walmart they have jugs of...

- Distilled water
- Spring water
- Purified water
- "Drinking" water.

do I need to get a ppm meter and test each one? They are all processed differently so I'm not sure if one contains enough minerals or not. .


Thanks for any help

 

[420Jimmy]

What nutrients are you using? I use the green capped wallyworld water. That is the RO water from what I read on some online thing about their water. It almost always reads zero ppm and 7.0 ph.

 

[thetreeman]

What is wrong with tap water?

 

[namvet25]

Most city water contains clorine and floride not good for MJ.You can leave tap water stand out for 24 hrs and this will dissipate the chems.

 

[Trapper]

What is wrong with tap water?

A multitude of things depending on where you are living...

Chlorine, bromate, chlorite, fluoride, chloramine...it can have a heavy mineral content and the pH can be very high.

 

[namvet25]

You will still have to add cal/mag no matter what kind of water you use especially during flowering.

 

[Dazed]

What is wrong with tap water?

Tap water was my biggest learning curve. We have chloramine added-chloramine does not evaporate by letting it stand. It needs to be bubbled out. I had problems to say the least.

My plants love rainwater, perfect pH, oxygenated and contains trace elements including iron as well as a good dose of N.

 

[V10diesel]

I use a DI resin filter, sort of thing window cleaners and car detailers use. These maintain tap pressure unlike ro filters which can take hours just to fill a bucket.

This is the one I have:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300922460...49&var=600129070057&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[calitree2263]

Just get the cal/mag.. 14.95 usd for 946ml - you only need 5ml or less per gallon.

also I'd recommend an getting an RO system. I've been saving 7$ per week since I bought this beauty lol

 

[AndyBotwin]

Check to see if your store has the refillable 5 gallon water machine. You can buy the bottle or get one from an office somewhere, and it only cost $1.50 to refill where I live. I have two that I rotate & one always has the airstone in it ready to be used for watering. The kind I get is carbon-filtered RO water with sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride, and magnesium sulfate added back in. It has a ppm of around 25, and it buffers pH well.

Since I only do 2-3 grows a year and I have a maximum of 12-15g of soil to water, the 5g bottles make sense for me. I ran the numbers and it would take me years to make back the cost of a RO system, plus I have choloramine in my tap water so would need to carbon filter as well. And don't have an easy way to connect it near my grow space so I'd still be carrying water around. Of course as you scale up to more plants, lugging bottles could get old really quick.