I’m in the Vista Water District and managed to download a water analysis last year since it’s for public safety. As best I recall they do have chloramine in the mix. Need to find that again! Makes total sense that the solids in the PPM will clog emitters.
I tend to overthink things so just used the RO water from my kitchen and hand mixed each gallon with the nutes then PH balanced them (not very smart lol). Used the CalMag. Trying to make it a wee but less labor intensive.
RO + nute solution + cal-mag, then pH adjustment should work fine. Some undersink filters also remove chlorine without doing RO. Then you don’t have to add cal-mag.
The stuff in our very hard water is actually in solution, but the calcium precipitates out very slowly. That’s why old steel pipes get narrower over decades. Emitters clog because the water evaporates out of the tiny opening. leaving behind the calcium-rich minerals.
On my house land scaping I run solenoids and they reduce the pressure so I do not blow off emitters.
I got this motor because it’s only a 1/10 horse power so I figured that would be about right for what I have here and the pressure is low enough not to blow off emitters but enough pressure to feed the system without the need for regulators or anything. So I have it plugged into the timer to kick it on. I am a journeyman plumber so that helps a bit in figuring some of this stuff out.
I wanted to pipe in the pump from the bottom of the tanks and draw from both at the same time but with a set up like this you have to place the pump above the flood rim of the drum to keep it from so even after the pump is kicked off by the timer the hose will still pull water from the tank flooding your grow and that would be bad!!
I fill both tanks with tap water and let em sit a day or two before using it.
I pH both tanks to 6.5 using roughly a cup and a half of white vinegar.
Tap water is gonna be your best bet. As @1BigFella said it’s chock full of minerals and I also see that the chlorine levels are quite low not detectable by smell. I would not use RO water. Unless you have a marine aquarium grade system that is efficient on water use your standard house unit is a joke. For evey gallon of clean water an RO produces it dumps 2 gallon down the drain. Terribly irresponsible gardening in my opinion but eveyone has there way of doing things.
I installed an aquarium grade system with a dionized filter and the waste water from the unit was reclaimed to a drum out back for watering plants.
As long as you pH your tap water your good man and you will likely experience less deficiencies in you plants because of the available minerals in tap water
Hope this helps @DaGoose
@Growit and @1BigFella thank you again! Just ordered the pump kit. Need to find a barrel and put it together and test it. Found the VID water analysis again today and they use chloride, and not chloramine, which does not quickly evaporate (at least that’s what the internet says). I did not know that 66% of RO water is wasted in the filtration process. Was fixated on using RO water because that’s what the guy at the hydro shop in Encinitas said to use. It’s a PITA too! Might have to use the PPM meter and completely fry my old brain trying to digest it all. So much to learn, and I’m so lucky to have great folks on this forum to help with the journey.
Yea man I got my barrels used at a local tractor and feed store ro-is great to use no doubt but you just have to make add your minerals back to it
Interesting fact about water that is stripped of all natural minerals and elements will aggressively look to replace them thats why heat exchangers and water heaters often have a sacrificial anode rod inside them to keep the water from eating the tanks it will instead eat away the anode rod instead.
Make me wonder what that would do in my organic soil.
RO maybe best for indoor hydro and if done properly with the right equipement they can be dialed in to be quite sufficient and waste water can be reclaimed
The unit I did for my brother was super bad all high end aquautic grade. 700 bucks and me and him installed it together pretty slick system
Try and get some pics of it
Found one single white fly on my gold leaf yesterday hopefully the sm-90 will help with that
I also have some exile from general hydro but do not want to use unless absolutely necessary.
I also have some DE to but am concerned about hurting beneficial bugs
Whoohoo
Also got my 707 soil from Roots Organics in pretty excided about that stuff
All of my seedlings are in Roots potting soil now so super exited about the 707 for my topsoil in this super soil grow
Also in a pinch you can fill your watering can with hot water from the tap
100*f will burn off the chlorine.
So fill your watering can with hot water let it sit for an hour and use it for your watering and feeding needs if you forget to let your water sit out for chlorine to dissipate.
