Grow Mediums Water: Soft or RO?

[Schlick]

Thanks for all your help sir far. I decided on 15L autopots for my 3x3. My grow medium will be coco and perlite. Nutrients will be general hydroponics flora series.

What should I do about water? Filling the reservoir with RO would take for ever as my RO system only really has one reservoir itself - I have been tempted to add a second. That said, if running water from my water softener is considered okay, that would be a heck of a lot easier.

Does anyone have experience with softened water in the autopot system?

 

[Im-No-Expert-But]

The first thing I would do would be to check the PPMs on the softened water. I run my tap water from a well and it test 120-140 ppm. If it is somewhere under 200ppm I personaly would try it. My H20 has always been pretty good to me in a drain to waste setting.

I am about to do my first autopot run with the same water + the flora series but I'm currently still at the seedling stage

 

[St. Tom]

what ec is your tap water I'm in the UK mine comes out at 0.2 ec so not far from RO water and I grow with autopots

 

[Waira]

Thanks for all your help sir far. I decided on 15L autopots for my 3x3. My grow medium will be coco and perlite. Nutrients will be general hydroponics flora series.

What should I do about water? Filling the reservoir with RO would take for ever as my RO system only really has one reservoir itself - I have been tempted to add a second. That said, if running water from my water softener is considered okay, that would be a heck of a lot easier.

Does anyone have experience with softened water in the autopot system?

:smoking: Mind that soft water man, it's not a smart choice if it's an ion exchange type! It's sole job is to remove CaCO3 hardness, and swap it out with either K+ or much worse Na+ ions (toxic at low levels)... The resin beads inside preferentially bind Ca++ to the surface, but to do that it displaces two K+/ Na+ in kind... The salt solution is used to force strip the beads of their Ca by sheer concentration by either the softener service, or by you if you have the self-fill salt type.... ppm's will not drop! ....Too much K is bad news too, BTW...
You can use a blend of RO and tap to make water that about in the low to mid 100's ppm....

 

[Nosias]

Thanks for all your help sir far. I decided on 15L autopots for my 3x3. My grow medium will be coco and perlite. Nutrients will be general hydroponics flora series.

What should I do about water? Filling the reservoir with RO would take for ever as my RO system only really has one reservoir itself - I have been tempted to add a second. That said, if running water from my water softener is considered okay, that would be a heck of a lot easier.

Does anyone have experience with softened water in the autopot system?

I have a "rain soft" brand a full house water system. This is where the system uses salt to make the water soft. I have used this staright from the tap. There is no PPM in my "soft" water. The PH can run from 8-9 so I have to use PHDown to get it to 5.7 - 5.9 range. I mix all of the nutes in, I am using Mega Crop 2, and then adjust to to the PH I want then let it sit for a day and test it again. I adjust as needed and put the mix into my rez. I have had ZERO issues. Good luck. You will love the AutoPot system.

 

[Martin1982]

Thanks for all your help sir far. I decided on 15L autopots for my 3x3. My grow medium will be coco and perlite. Nutrients will be general hydroponics flora series.

What should I do about water? Filling the reservoir with RO would take for ever as my RO system only really has one reservoir itself - I have been tempted to add a second. That said, if running water from my water softener is considered okay, that would be a heck of a lot easier.

Does anyone have experience with softened water in the autopot system?

My water from tap is 0.8EC. I used just RO water, with ghe flora trio series nutes and was adding calmag. Was getting deficiency problem. The ph was very unstable. Had to add ph down every day. Then I tried 10% tap water and 90% RO water. It was better, but ph wasnt right. The guys in shop said to use 20% tap water. Thats much better, but I'm having problems with EC, because it's 0.3-0.4 before adding calmag and nutes. And if add everything by ghe feed chart it's overkill , even if I use 50% of what they recommende. Do you have any issues with ph and overfeeding?