Never use a Brita filter

[Daddy-O]

.

 

[FlyingLow]

I bought a 50 gallon rain barrel (it's actually square) at Home Depot last year fo $ 55 (tax included). Added some plumbing & a valve to the predrilled 3/4 drain hole in the front, and it's all good.
-
Rainwater, is free and the pH tends to be friendly where I'm at. Almost always 6.0 - 6.2
-
I added a cheap aquarium air pump to keep it oxygenated. It tend to be anywhere from 40 to 50 ppm on the TDS meter.
-
I have it on the backside of my house, where it catches the runoff from the roof. Seems to stay half full, most of the year. In winter, I simply drain it and cover it.
-
Hundreds of gallons later, I feel like it was a pretty good investment.
-

 

[Charybdis]

Neutral pH is 7. Anywhere around that should be fine.

 

[Castelvetro]

brita makes my flush water a nice good ol 6.. just were my coco likes it.

 

[Daddy-O]

.

 

[Rosy Cheeks]

Hello,
Brita Almost Killed My Plants. Returned To RO Everything Was OK.
Brita's Filters Do Not Remove Fluoride, Salts & Other Stuff. Up To 40 Gals. Per Filter.

No man, BRITA didn't almost kill your plants (unless you slapped them real bad with the pitcher).

The BRITA filter does remove most undesired elements in tap and polluted water, although not fluoride, it's not designed to do that.

What you must understand is that BRITA is a filter designed to improve the quality of drinking water, nothing else. Still, it works well for plants. Most tap waters are hard, so the BRITA filter takes the ph down to a near neutral level. It filters out heavy metals, salts, pesticides, etc. It filters out calcium carbonate (which clogs pipes and makes your water a bitch to ph down) but lets through magnesium and calcium which your plants will love. It also lets through nitrates (NO3), which plants can hardly get enough of. It takes out the chlorine, which is hardly detrimental to plants in the doses administered, rather the contrary. All in all, you get a good quality water for both people and plants.

R/o water is easier to work with since it demineralizes the water totally. When you add a fertilizer to it, you therefore get the exact nutrient and mineral ratio the nutrient manufacturer intended for the plants, without leftover minerals. Still, pure r/o water is crap for both humans and plants, because it contains no vital minerals, and will acidify to a higher extent.

 

[GuerrillaRed]

My tap water comes out at around 8-8.5. Running it through a Brita filter drops it down to a 7. When adding my nutes it comes out to a perfect 5.5-6. I personally swear by a Brita filter, especially if you have lousy tap water.

It's a great cheap source for water filtration without having to shell out three figures for r/o.

 

[Chronic777]

I use brita filter & havent noticed any huge problems, but i also use bioterra & biocanna nutes which both adjust the PH by themselves

 

[whodair]

i prefer the taste of tap water over brita. in NY.

 

[mad librettist]

NY tap water rocks. CT as well.

Would a pH in the low 4 range not be detectable by the human tongue? seems to me it would be sour. that leaves the measuring device. are meters as accurate as pH paper?

 

[garce]

Brita

Brita

I have well water and my main house filter needs to be changed so I figured I'd run my tap water thru a brita filter just to take some of the rust out, the damn thing lowered my pH by over 2 points. The water went from a 6.3 to a 4.2.

I did the same , my well water comes in 7.5-8.0 run it through the
Brita and I'm around 5.0 ...
I don't use it ..
NOTE .. i see a lot of posts concerning chloride , by the time you
draw water from your tap and take it to the grow , the chlorine
is gone .. that's why you smell it strong at pools , chlorine only
stays in unsealed water for a few minutes ... garce

 

[RawNature]

people always ask me why i leave my water out i never once checked the ph or anything but figure it will let out some extra stuff i dont need. that los angeles water