New Grower Reverse Osmosis worth the cost?

It kind of depends on what you're starting with. City water? And how you're growing, soil or hydro?
 
Get a PPM/EC or TDS meter. Check your water source before you even consider it - my ppm from my faucet is 7. RO wouldn't do much good for me. I have a private well.

Like Muddy said, there's many factors.. even with city water you may not NEED r/o water.
 
I'm Quite the Newbie but I just Go Filtered. Install an over the sink, under the sink or household one that connects to your line. If there is Bolts (and not Copper Solder) its pretty east to add in once you shut off the water.. and its cheaper than Buying R.O. systems for just plants when you can nourish yourself too. Balance your PH and Check with PPM meter after adding Solutions and your good. I still need a Soil tester :-(
 
If you are in the UK you should be able to get the water report for your area from the local council. The council area i am in has it online.
 
Im growing in soil. I checked my local water board and it suggests my water is "moderately soft"

This is what my water contains:

Water quality report
Substance. Typical value. UK/European limitUnit
Calcium. 14.6500. - mg Ca/l.
Magnesium. 1.7375. - mg Mg/l.
Residual chlorine - free. 0.11. - mg/l Cl2
Residual chlorine - total. 0.15. - mg/l Cl2
Coliforms. 0. 0. No/100ml
E-coli. 0. 0. No/100ml
Aluminium. 21.519. 200. µg Al/l
Colour. 1.43. 20. mg/l Pt/Co Scale
Conductivity. 141.94. 2500. µS/cm
Fluoride. 0.051. 1.5. mg F/l
pH (Hydrogen Ion Conc.). 7.64. 6.5 - 10.0. pH Units
Iron. 28.67. 200. µg Fe/l
Manganese. 3.93. 50. µg Mn/l
Nitrate. 1.9696. 50mg NO3/l
Nitrite. 0.0093. 0.5mg NO2/l
Sodium. 8.57. 200mg Na/l
Turbidity. 0.146. 4. NTU
Copper. 0.0121. 2. mg Cu/l
Lead. 0.398. 25. µg Pb/l


Mg/l= milligrammes per litre
Hope that helps :shrug:
 
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If I understand that correctly your PPM is 142 (they gave it to you in TDS, but TDS = PPM 1:1) ... which by your country's standards is "not hard", but it's borderline hard water by grower's standards.. 150+ PPM from the source is going to be somewhat "hard" water.. with soil RO isn't as important.. especially with such basic water and I believe your water is low enough in PPM to NOT warrant the purchase and installation of RO. Some one may disagree but I've seen people grow cannabis with much much harder water in soil.
 
If I understand that correctly your PPM is 142 (they gave it to you in TDS, but TDS = PPM 1:1) ... which by your country's standards is "not hard", but it's borderline hard water by grower's standards.. 150+ PPM from the source is going to be somewhat "hard" water.. with soil RO isn't as important.. especially with such basic water and I believe your water is low enough in PPM to NOT warrant the purchase and installation of RO. Some one may disagree but I've seen people grow cannabis with much much harder water in soil.


Thanks for the great advice as ever goodie! I dug out my tri meter and took a reading frommy tap water. It came out at 110ppm :thumbs:
 
My current grow is three five week old autos. To date I've used 4 gallons of purified water @$.69/ gal at the grocery store ... if I brought my own jugs it would $.25/gal ... I figure growing 3 healthy plants for 10 weeks should use about 12-15 gal or about $10 worth of water ... if I had spring water I would mix it 1x1 w/ RO water, as it is I add cal/mag which adds only a $1 or two per grow. I considered an RO filter but it wouldn't be cost effective for me.


eta ... source water contains 160-200 parts per million of hardness. This equates to 9-12 grains of hardness
 
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