Grow Mediums Water base ppm?

[Cave Toad]

Hey all, I am hoping some of you can help me figure this out. My tap water is 275 ppm and I have an RO system which is VERY slow but gets it down to 130 ppm, lastly my hyrdo set up capacity is 30 gal. My question is how low do I really need to be on ppm's before I add nutes. Can I use 275 ppm water and just offset my nutrient ppm by that? Do I need to do something like mix 10:20 RO:Tap for a 225 ppm starting point? I have seen a few threads mentioning water ppm but nothing I remembered told me anything more than lower is better.

I haven't had a sample run on the water for make-up but the city water report showed negligable content for heavy metals and other bad stuff so I am guessing most of the ppm count is coming from lime of silica since ph is not bad at 6.8.

Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

 

[woody]

My tap water is about 170ppm and i use it with no additives for the first 5 or 6 days in dwc.
But i know nearly all growers that use ro then suppliment that ro water with some calmag.
@Wile e Peyote do you add calmag to ro water during week 1 of growth

 

[Wile e Peyote]

My tap water is about 170ppm and i use it with no additives for the first 5 or 6 days in dwc.
But i know nearly all growers that use ro then suppliment that ro water with some calmag.
@Wile e Peyote do you add calmag to ro water during week 1 of growth

i add calmag and 1/4 strength nutrients from day 1 dude my tap water was between 50 and 100 ppm now using ro water it doesn't register on my blue lab truncheon I tend to start all my plants on 1/4 strength nutes easiest way to explain is I use canna base nutes full strength is 4 ml per ltr I start off on 1 ml per ltr (1/4 strength) then the second week bump it up to 1.25 per ltr third week 1.5 ml per ltr ive yet to use anything over half strength base nutes on any of my grows these are on 1.25 ml per ltr of water on day 44

 

[woody]

Cheers wile mate

 

[Muddy]

130 ppm is pretty high for RO water. That suggest to me that either your membrane needs back flushing or replacing. I'm using a HydroLogic which gives me 25 ppm. I could replace the flow regulator, which would slow it down, but it would then produce near 0 ppm. Before I add nutes I add cal mag enough to bring the ppm up to between 125 and 150.

 

[namvet25]

Welcome home old man,glad to see you back.Hope your doing ok.

 

[HotBunz]

Hey all, I am hoping some of you can help me figure this out. My tap water is 275 ppm and I have an RO system which is VERY slow but gets it down to 130 ppm, lastly my hyrdo set up capacity is 30 gal. My question is how low do I really need to be on ppm's before I add nutes. Can I use 275 ppm water and just offset my nutrient ppm by that? Do I need to do something like mix 10:20 RO:Tap for a 225 ppm starting point? I have seen a few threads mentioning water ppm but nothing I remembered told me anything more than lower is better.

I haven't had a sample run on the water for make-up but the city water report showed negligable content for heavy metals and other bad stuff so I am guessing most of the ppm count is coming from lime of silica since ph is not bad at 6.8.

Any help I can get would be greatly appreciated.

I know I am late to the party but if your RO is making 130 PPM water then you have major problems with the system. Time to replace the membrane at the very least.

 

[KushNFT]

.....I am guessing most of the ppm count is coming from lime of silica......

Have you seen how many PPMs sodium adds? That's why I prefer EC when discussing the concentration of a solution we do not know the composition of......the PPM number a meter makes up can be tens of thousands off!

 

[Cave Toad]

I know I am late to the party but if your RO is making 130 PPM water then you have major problems with the system. Time to replace the membrane at the very least.

Yeah, I'm a little concerned there because it's a brand new system.

 

[HotBunz]

Yeah, I'm a little concerned there because it's a brand new system.

What brand is it? My cheap and simple Pure Water Club brand RO that only cost me $70 puts out 0PPM water after over a year of use. Granted I only make 7 gallons of RO a week.