Alright,

the pH balanced water has a ppm of 280.

After adding to the rez the ppm goes to 790. I believe because of the residual solution that was left in the rez and how high it was initially.

Now what? Should I let it run like that for a few days to see if it comes on down? Or should I go ahead and change the water again to try and reduce the total?

If you really want to improve your hydro grow you need RO
Your tapwater sucks and is too high tds
for even hard water micro nutrients to work.

You can get an RO machine for under $100 get the float valve also,
and make a RO rez with a tub from walmart
of twice the volume of your nutrient rez.

The pH of the water straight from the tap is 7.7. I adjust to 5.6.

I use a solution of Sodium Bisulfate, 96%, with 2 tbsp to a gallon of distilled water to lower the pH.

I think I will let the system run for a day or two and monitor the TDS. I haven't added any nutes since the dissolved solids are so high. But will change the rez out again tomorrow and then use TDS measurement to weakly attempt to adjust the nute level.

I am looking into an RO/DI unit, but of course, it won't be here for a little while.

The part of the water report you need is mainly made up with what are typically called the in house tests and are mainly a test of what water treatment officials and the EPA call nuisance concentration tests. You need the concentrations of the following in ppm or mg/L; chlorine*, iron*, alkalinity (as CaCO2), hardness (as CaCO2), manganese*, sulfate*, copper, Boron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium *. The chemicals/minerals with stars they are requaired to take and the others are suggested to be tested. They are alos required to test pH. All required tests have amximum contaminant levels that can not be exceeeded or they n must pay heavy fines. The pH must be within a set range also. Most of these things are either macro nutrients, secondary nutrients or micro nutrients. The list you provided many has relevance for drinking water rather than with plant nutrient water.

For anyone to give any advice or say your water is crappy etc with out having knowlege of the above elements from your water report is merely talking out their butt. Your TDS could actually be a balanced mix of salts or just a high lakalinity from a typical lime based water softening often done by water treatment plants. This would merely man a high level of carbonates which would not make a poor water for nutrients but it would merely cause a higher initial EC/TDS/ppm reading as well as a higher mixed nutrient EC/TDS/ppm reading.
Also do not order one of those crappy RODI filters for which Earl posted a link. In fact never consider buying a system that has any horizontal filters other than an RO membrane. Never buy a filter that has a disposable combination housing and filter like the DI resin filters show. Those filters Earl recommends are only cheap filters because they are made of the cheapest and lowest quality materials available. Compare those filters to these filters from "The Filter Guys."
http://www.thefilterguys.biz/ro_di_systems.htm Although they do offer one RODI system with a cheezy horizontal DI resin filter all the other filters are high quality and the RO membranes are Dow Filmtech which are rated as the best performing small membranes available. You pay a little more for The Filter Guy's filters but the quality is much better. The filter housings themselves are worth two to three times what the cheap housings are worth from the other site.

One has to consider that although city tap water is often full of chemicals from industry it is usually water mainly taken fron surface sources such as rivers, lakes and reservoirs so it usually has low TDS. Whereas well water is usually harder water, meaning it is loaded up with calcium and calcium carbonates as well as salts such as nitrogen based salts, phosphorus and phosphates, manganese and sulfates as well as iron as the water has perculated through both organic and minerals soils before entering the water aquifer. Therefore where as urban surface water sources produce poorer drinking water, well water is usually poorer water for mixing up nutrient water. Most water in rural farming communities is loaded with nutrients due to live stock nutrients from manure and chemical fertilizers from farm fields entering the water supplies. Alaska's ground water really sucks and it is mainly undeveloped land in Alaska.

In regard to a sated opinion on whether your water is good enough for micro mix or hard water micromix. That is another ludicrous remark as the only difference between micro and hard water micro is that micro has less calcium and a little less nitrogen and you posted no data in regard to what your calcium level or nitrogen level might be. As I just wrote your TDS could be any conductive salt. Heck you might even have awter softener you did not mention and then likely the TDS would all be caused by sodium.

Provide more information and you will recieve help of higher quality and of more assistance. The quality of any recommendations can ony be based upon the amount of information provided.

You make some good points.

I don't have any other information about what is in my tapwater other than the report from the city engineering office. So following your and Earls advice I did purchase a RO/DI filter system and it will be delivered tomorrow. I bought a filter from the Filter Guys like you recommended.

Anyway, since I don't really know about my water, the RO/DI system will give me a starting point that I do know. Besides some really good drinking water won't hurt my feelings either.

I have also started using white vinegar to adjust the pH. It is working wonderfully, better than the pool adjuster that I was using. Of course, I am sure some people will tell me to use something else.

I also am expecting delivery of an aerocloner in a few days. My clones are just taking forever and I am starting to get some mold issues etc. I figure with good RO/DI water and an aerocloner I will be a little closer to smoothing out a clone/veg/flower cycle.

Thanks for the help. I will keep everyone posted on the results.

Vinegar is fine for occasinal use but you must realise that the acetic acid leads to the tie up of metals, magnesium and phosphate so it should not realy be used more than once per each reservoir of nutrients. even then it should only be used foor small adjustments to pH. The best options are to use nitric acid during vegetative; phosphoric acid during flowering.

eBay nitric acid: http://cgi.ebay.com/Nitric-acid-133-5ml-...id=p3286.c0.m14

eBay phosphoric acid: http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38&_nkw=phosphoric

To raise ph: use potassium hydroxide or potassium silicate, which also provides silicon but at a higher cost.

Hi folks,

Would anyone care to comment on my water analysis? It is river water, so no chlorine etc.

PH 6.9
Conductivity 102.2 microS/cm
Turbidity 0.27 NTU
TDS 51 mg/L
Nitrate nitrogen <0.05 mg/L
Total hardness as CaCo3 24 mg/L
Alkalinity as CaCo3 22 mg/L
Iron 0.073 mg/L
Manganese <0.003 mg/L
Copper <0.004 mg/L
Total coliforms 13 cfu/100ml

This is raw water analysis. It then goes through a 5 micron filter, then a 1 micron carbon filter, finally a UV light. It provides excellent drinking water.
How do you rate it for growing?

Regards
Suzi

A 3 part nutrient system will work best.

If you use a Hard Water Micro with the river water,
you should be OK.

.

So how much of those should be used? I mean for say 52% how much of a pH change should result for say 1 gallon? Or to put it another way, how dilute should it be in order to adjust pH without making tiny measurements?

Secondly, how much of a difference should that really make? As opposed to using vinegar or even lemon juice?

I have a small (1-2 large plants, or 9 smaller plants, SOG style) setup. A 5% increase in yield over a year will not be worth too much for me, not to mention I'm not selling anything either. I do tend my garden daily but sometimes I just don't have time for any additional complexity.

akfatman,.......... I have a question.

What is the problem with using a DI filter that is horizontal?

Just curious.