@Donaldj a ppm of 278 is fairly standard in the country I live in (don’t tell anyone :sushing_face: but it is the UK). Rain water may be an option but not immediately as I would have to fit a water butt. Filtered water would not be a problem as we have one being fitted in about a weeks time. I will move the pipes to create a gap. I will look into the products you have mentioned for the nutes and see what ones I can get here.
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General Organic and Botanicare are widely avail in UK I suspect your tap water once degassed would have enough in it to get plant started. However being in UK they they may use chloramine? sp? which doesn’t gas off and needs additive or filter to remove @Usmcjojo may know more about this than me I live in Canada and my water is 100 ppm out of tap I also have RO filter which I use for starting seeds which gives my water start ppm nearly 0 which I then add LK and Micro setting ppm 250 ish
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@hedge that’s what I deal with I use a chloramine destroyer from micro life. Lol like you my ro system comes in on Saturday but for now just know that you probably have no active microbial life in your soil.
@Donaldj thanks for the support. From what you have said I think it is worth moving to rain water whilst I wait for my RO system. I have got a source of rain water (a friend has a water butt). I am going round today to get some. I will post the TDS reading once I get back. How would you suggest I proceed with the rain water adding (or not) nutes etc?
@Usmcjojo - Thanks for the info. I am learning fast but know I have still so far to go!
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I have 30 litres of rain water now (my res takes 20-25). I have measured the TDS and it is 22. The PH is 5.91. Should I just replace the res water with this or should I add nutrients as well?
That’s a far better start point usually I would suggest not to add much and your limited water supply makes it hard to play with nutrient levels. Your ph is also perfect for hydro you have an extra liter or 2 try adding 1 ml liter of iguana juice to a test liter? check ph and ppm target is around 200ppm ph 5.8 if it comes in close to that range than add same amount to res 
ph can be 5.6-6
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Thanks @Donaldj I will try that this evening and let you know how I get on. I have also been chatting to a mate and he has a 200 litre water butt currently full which he has said I am welcome to use.
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O I thought I had posted this but I was not connected at the time! 
@Donaldj I did as you suggested and used a litre of rain water (22 TDS, Temp 16.3 deg C, PH= 5.91) and added 1ml of the iguana juice and now the PH= 5.83 and the TDS = 86. I have not done anything further as I was expecting the TDS to be higher. Thought I would check back before going further.
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Go ahead and bring it to the tds level @Donaldj suggested then check your ph and adjust as necessary. That should give you the data you need to apply it to the reservoir.
@Myfriendis410 sorry if I am being dense but you you mean to keep adding the iguana juice until the TDS is up to 200?
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Yeah, pay attention to how many ml per liter to get to 200 ppm, ph to your nominal value then use those numbers to adjust your main reservoir. Ppm is not ALL that accurate so I wouldn’t be obsessed over being at 220 or 190 ppm. It’s more of a target value. @Donaldj is one of the best at hydro FYI.
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@hedge in essence @Myfriendis410 has the correct idea though there is more than one thing learned by the test mix we now also know that it only raises tdds by close to 50 per ml/L We talk about note books all the time but info like this is why many of us keep them in hydro unlike soil there are many things we have to add which soil normally has in plenty being that iguana juice is intended more for soil it has some macro and micro nutrients but likely not enough of key things silicate, calcium and magnesium no big deal. These are things suggested to add in hydro anyway and each add their own tds so it is nice to know value of each
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Thank you for clarifying that @Myfriendis410 & @Donaldj. @Donaldj Following on from your earlier helpful comments regarding nutrients, I have been looking at different ones you have suggested and I am considering giving up on the iguana juice. I like the look of the ‘flora trio’ by General Hydroponics which seems to be popular or the ‘biothrive’ product also by GH but I see a lot less info/ comments from growers using it than the trio product. Both of these appear to be much more ‘complete’ nutrient systems than I currently have. What are your thought/comments?
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I like flora series myself as it can be easily tweaked and adjusted also has been on market for decades so lots of people have experience with it. It is important to have both a Cal-mag and Silicate supplement but certainly does the trick and many here can help you with it’s use
I’m one who uses the Flora series. Nice stuff, not particularly stinky and it meters nicely. It’s also economical compared to say Fox Farms.
Harvested 2 weeks ago. Got 10 ounces from this plant grown in coco with GH Flora line.
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That’s a nice pic @Myfriendis410. Yours and @Donaldj comments have helped me make up my mind on the Flora series. I am ordering them today. @Donaldj I also take your point about the need for Cal-mag and Silicate supplements as well, I had them on my list 
.
Going back to the dosing of nutrients and TDS readings relationship. I really want to understand the logic here as I am aware of so many comments from people giving to much nutrients and having loads of problems. If I understand correctly, the dosing recommended of 1ml per L as a max is only relevant if the TDS is high enough to make that dose available to the plant? i.e. if I only used 1ml per L in my reservoir and the resulting TDS was 80 there would not be a high enough concentration (TDS) for the plants to make best use of the nutrients?
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Simplest way to explain it is tds serves 2 functions it feeds plants and helps keep ph stable between res changes too high and may consume nutrients too fast too low and they starve
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OK so I have started keeping careful notes of what I am doing and results.
I drained the res and found there were in fact 30L in it. I therefore made up 30L (in three 10L buckets) and filled the res with the new rain water and nutes. The rain water had a TDS of 22 and PH of 6.18. Adding 40ml per bucket of iguana juice raised the TDS to 203 and dropped the PH to 4.69 (was 4.83 in my test). I then added Orca at 1ml per bucket with no discernible difference to the PH nor the TDS. I then added 0.15ml of PH up to each bucket which raised the PH to 5.68. As you say useful info.
Thanks guys for your help. What will I see to show I am getting it right? Are the leaves likely to remain yellow or will they recover?
Fresh growth perkier leafs more roots