What's new
  • As of today ICMag has his own Discord server. In this Discord server you can chat, talk with eachother, listen to music, share stories and pictures...and much more. Join now and let's grow together! Join ICMag Discord here! More details in this thread here: here.

Hard Water-

G

Guest

It was obvious that my well water was hard just from the taste alone and besides it's the norm in these parts. How hard was the question?

I finally after a month got my water test back at my new location. Since I fired up the room I've been using General Hydroponics Flora program with their Hard water Micro just in case the Cal and Mag levels were off the chart so to speak.

Everything is healthy after using this water to soak and spray 1/2 the clones, watering for the 10 day veg and I'm now at 2.5 weeks bloom.

I've been wanting to use Botinacare's Sweet but am avoiding using it because of the additional Mag I'd be adding.

I more worried about my Cal levels I think.

My questions are,

After looking at these levels...

Analyte Units Result Detection
--------------------------------------------------

Calcium Extractable mg/L 59.3 0.1

Magnesium Extractable mg/L 32.0 0.05

Manganese Extractable mg/L 0.218 0.0001

Here's the numbers the GH Flora calculator are giving me,

N=120
P=98
K=221

CA=28
MG=64
MN=1.2

I am on a feeding schedule of 1 water : 1 feed after the transition to bloom phase is over. Am I looking possible trouble later on considering they will always be getting the listed amount of Cal and Mag in my well water?

I use a very large capacity of water and small RO filters can't keep up with the demand and I can't leave hoses out for people possibly to see. Bringing an outside source of water is complicated because I would have to drive to a town with a treatment plant to avoid giving it hard water from another source. I will be able to figure out an alternative of course but only if I have to.

I've grown with way worse smelling water than here. I've grown with water that turns orange from Iron, I've grown with very soft water loaded with sodium and water heavy with Cal. I've always managed although not as well as when I use city water.

Any input would be appreciated.
 
G

Guest

I have pretty hard water as well but don't use it. I get RO water locally.

However, I do have a bottle of the GH hardwater micro and use it from time to time when I run out of RO and don't want to get more. I have never used anything other than the GH nutes though, and have no idea about the "Sweet" product produced by Botanicare. I'm sure it's good stuff, but if you're unsure, don't use it. 60mg/L Ca? That sounds like a boat load to me.

I know I haven't been much help.. Consider this a free bump from a guy who uses the GH nutes w/ great success and sees no point in adding more stuff from other vendors.
 
J

Jetzoid

Member
Are there good, inexpensive diy water testers out there? Not sure about my water. I have heard that municipalities will come test for you, but is there a cost to that, and what do they test for?
 
G

Guest

Thanks FSZ!

Jetzs,

It has to go to a lab for a full make up test. It can cost up to $100 here in BC.

They give you a result for all of the solids in your water. That includes what I've mentioned along with sodium, sulphur, zinc, chloride, iron, and too many other metals and minerals to list. You can also get a bacteria count to see if it is safe to drink.

If you want to know if you should be tested for growing purposes, drop a TDS meter in. If it reads above 200 ppm, you possibly could have too high levels of metals or minerals of one kind or another. You should consider a test then.

I can't believe Blackvelvet hasn't taken a look and broke it all down yet???????????
 
Blackvelvet

Blackvelvet

Member
Your water is not terrible. It is balanced as far as cal mag. Manganese @ .2 ppm is nothing. Your flora ferts are imbalanced. Much more mag than cal. Your aiming for 2 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium. As is, your going to see calcium trouble. 96 ppm mag total is just too much. Too much calcium + magnesium = potassium deficiency.
 
Last edited:
G

Guest

I see.

Using the hard water formula is supposed to be unbalanced to compensate for the high levels of cal/mag.

Here would be the cal/mag if I were to just use the normal Flora Micro,

cal-132 mag-64

With my well water, would I be too high then?

It would pretty much be a 2-1 ratio but then the levels of cal look scary to me? :chin:

Oh, and thanks for your input. :joint:
 
Last edited:
Blackvelvet

Blackvelvet

Member
Normal flora micro cal mag levels are ok. But when you add cal mag in the well water, you just end up with too much. You might (pretty sure) see potassium deficiency like I mentioned before.
 
Last edited:
G

Guest

Do you have any suggestions how to possibly prevent this?

Should I stick with the Hard Water or just go with the Normal Micro for a better balance?

Should I maybe reduce the amount of suggested regular micro to compensate for the well water while keeping that balance??

On the other hand, I have mother plants that are many months old and they are doing fine. No signs of any defs or toxicity that I can detect.

I'm almost at 4 weeks flower and all looks good so far. I'd just like to be armed with a little knowledge and awareness mostly in case something does develop.
 
Blackvelvet

Blackvelvet

Member
You might try using pure blend pro. It needs more cal mag to be complete. I think you will still need 1/2 purified water + 1/2 well water.

Try the normal micro but cut the rate by 1/2. Would that not give you 65 ca and 30 mg? Then if you added 60 ca and 30 mg in the well water would that not total the same as regular strength micro?

I thought micro mainly just has calcium and micros not magnesium?

Roughly speaking, you want 4 parts potassium to 2 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium. 50 mg is plenty.

Too buzzed right now. :joint:
 
Last edited:
G

Guest

Hahaha...me too! I was just given some C99 for a try. :joint:

I think the idea of using the reg micro 1/2 strength is where I'm going. I will enquire more I think.

Thanks BV.
 
Blackvelvet

Blackvelvet

Member
Till you get things figured out, use regular strength micro (not for hard water) but blend your well water. 1/2 well + 1/2 pure.

Back to drinking... :friends:
 
G

Guest

Well, been thinking this over.

Reducing the GH Flora Micro to half strength works to reduce Cal/Mag levels while keeping them balanced, it also reduces my N to half of the required amount also.

I have the option of adding additional N. I have a jug of Grotek InstaGreen (3-0-0). It also has Cal/Mag in it (1%/0.5%) but that is not much.

the easiest solution would be to use an outside water source or filter it but I need a big filter system for the amount of water I need. I'm 5 weeks away from being able to afford that.

Trucking my water in is a heat score. If I go into town for that much water every other day I'm asking to be noticed.

I'll consider making my own nutes I guess but I think I'll add the Instagreen to my reduced Micro for the time being. I just have to figure out how much to add.
 
Last edited:
TrustNoOne

TrustNoOne

Member
have you tried collecting rain water or is there a stealth stream nearby?
a rain barrel or two and gutters on the eaves would be the easiest imo but you only have 5 weeks to go so i wouldn't want to do too much work unless you're planning another grow there.
and i think you said your using 150 gal's a week or so, thats a buttload of water, i don't blame ya for not wanting to truck it in. lol
good luck
 
G

Guest

Rain water would be an option if I were in a wet area. We are now having thunder storms often but it doesn't seem to rain in the Cariboo in July/Aug/early Sept. I'm in a dry belt.

Water from a creek is an option seeing I'm close to several river systems. The smaller creeks will dry up in a month.

Everything still looks healthy and glistening with crystals. I'd like to apply the "no broke no fix" policy but things can change in a hurry and then you have a tough or even early finish.

Funny thing is, I'm taking water from here to my Veg place because my well pump fried and the pressure tank is toast. It's going to cost me a couple of grand to fix it. When I do fix it, I'll prolly truck the water from there to here.

Dammit!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top