my water has a ton of bicarbonate and no ca or mag. help!

[nicko0]

this is my tap water profile:
pH 8.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 196
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.33
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.3 / 3.5
ppm
Sodium, Na 75
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 1
Magnesium, Mg < 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 3
Nitrate, NO3- N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 3
Chloride, Cl 6
Carbonate, CO3 21
Bicarbonate, HCO3 145
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 154

bicarbonate is thru the roof.
virtually no ca or mag
there is na, dunno if thats too much.

ph is super high. it doesnt rise back up much after the water is aerated and ph downed.

how much calmag should i add? and ii dont know how much iron there is but i figure there should be enough in the calmag? id like to use bennie safe calmag.

doesnt bicarbonate bond with ca and mag? do i have to compensate?

i could filter the bicarbonate out with an anion exchanger. but i cant find anyone focusing a unit on removing lots of bicarbonate. i dont think i need to ro my water, just carbon out the chloramine besides the anion exchanger, which should get the na to i think.....

how bad would it be to leave the bicarbonate and just add what is needed? ie ph down and calmag+

 

[PoweredByLove]

I suggest you start with whatever it says on the bottle and adjust up or down depending on what your plants say.

 

[growaway]

this is my tap water profile:
pH 8.8
Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Est 196
Electrical Conductivity, mmho/cm 0.33
Cations / Anions, me/L 3.3 / 3.5
ppm
Sodium, Na 75
Potassium, K < 1
Calcium, Ca 1
Magnesium, Mg < 1
Total Hardness, CaCO3 3
Nitrate, NO3- N 0.1 (SAFE)
Sulfate, SO4-S 3
Chloride, Cl 6
Carbonate, CO3 21
Bicarbonate, HCO3 145
Total Alkalinity, CaCO3 154

bicarbonate is thru the roof.
virtually no ca or mag
there is na, dunno if thats too much.

ph is super high. it doesnt rise back up much after the water is aerated and ph downed.

how much calmag should i add? and ii dont know how much iron there is but i figure there should be enough in the calmag? id like to use bennie safe calmag.

doesnt bicarbonate bond with ca and mag? do i have to compensate?

i could filter the bicarbonate out with an anion exchanger. but i cant find anyone focusing a unit on removing lots of bicarbonate. i dont think i need to ro my water, just carbon out the chloramine besides the anion exchanger, which should get the na to i think.....

how bad would it be to leave the bicarbonate and just add what is needed? ie ph down and calmag+

Hi Bud, if pH down is citric based product it will donate its proton to bicarb to form carbonic acid and hold your pH down ok but also form sodium citrate which can build up if your Na+ levels are high. I agree with your plan of pH down and cal/mag, seems a much more viable option than ion exchanging etc. Change solution frequently or better still DTW and you should be right. I have grown in limestone filtered groundwater before and still had reasonable results if pH is corrected and carbonate salts are not allowed to build up., ie routine pH corrected flushing and not overfeeding. P lockout is likely to be an issue if you dont respond quickly but you sound like you are well onto things. Which for obvious precipitation on solution mixing and build up on media and emitters etc, all signs of the cal/mag precip out with bicarb.
This all based on this being a relatively smallish grow of course, if there is a big financial imperative then purifying is certainly the way to go. Good luck! Cheers.