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RO? Tallboy? Questions on water filtration...

GET MO

Registered Med User
Veteran
Icfam wut it do?
Heres my situation - I grow using well water. I usually fill my reservoirs with a garden hose cuz the grow is in a shed. Sometimes the water is cloudy/has sediment (especially after a rain), sometimes it comes out smell sulphur smell.
I want to to filter the water, my idea was to get an ro machine, but i think i should use some sort of pre filter before it reaches the machine so i wont be clogging the filters hella fast when sediment may come along.
I went to the hydro store and they had ro machines but also a small boy big boy and tall boy filter thing that isnt ro but supposed to take out chlorine (which isnt an issue) and other sediment. Im wondering if getting both mah be the way to go, or if yall knew of any other pre ro filter products u could recommend to pre clean water before ro. I appreciate any incite! Never looked into water filters before and its a lil confusing.
 

GET MO

Registered Med User
Veteran
what amount of water is used per week?

Between the well and the ro-system, you can install several pre-filters with different mesh sizes in the pipe.
https://www.amazon.de/s?k=brunnenwa...0949&tag=googhydr08-21&ref=pd_sl_8vbur4lexr_e

what speaks against the use of your tap water?

I use about 200g a week. We are on a well so the sediment in the well and sulphur, most times my reservoirs are cool but sometimes i get nutrient fallout or cloudy water and i just wanna give the plants best/ most regulated feeds i can.
 

Growenhaft

Active member
ich möchte den Pflanzen nur die besten / am besten regulierten Futtermittel geben, die ich kann.

then you should rather not use well water.
you have no control over the contamination of germs, bacteria and algae.

you have no control over the contamination of germs, bacteria and algae.

and when i smell sulfur in the well water it is mostly due to the fact that there is a majority of sulfuric acid in your well.

Tap water is also controlled for undesirable organisms in England. but it is possible that there is chlorine in the water, depending on the region.
but the chlorine can be evaporated. why hold on to the well water? what are the values ​​of your tap water?
 

Growenhaft

Active member
the linguistic discrepancies are probably too great.

can you take a picture of the fountain? so I can answer smarter. i have a romantic medieval image in front of my eyes. but the situation will be different.

if i had to work with well water, which is often over there and smells, then i would not use it until it had circulated through a pontec long enough. pontec has a uvc light, kills organisms and many filter mats. crystal clear water comes out. you will find what you are looking for at filters for pond construction.
zuk example something.
MultiClear Set 5000 flow filter from Pontec (Art.No. 50238)
 

unclefishstick

Fancy Janitor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Icfam wut it do?
Heres my situation - I grow using well water. I usually fill my reservoirs with a garden hose cuz the grow is in a shed. Sometimes the water is cloudy/has sediment (especially after a rain), sometimes it comes out smell sulphur smell.
I want to to filter the water, my idea was to get an ro machine, but i think i should use some sort of pre filter before it reaches the machine so i wont be clogging the filters hella fast when sediment may come along.
I went to the hydro store and they had ro machines but also a small boy big boy and tall boy filter thing that isnt ro but supposed to take out chlorine (which isnt an issue) and other sediment. Im wondering if getting both mah be the way to go, or if yall knew of any other pre ro filter products u could recommend to pre clean water before ro. I appreciate any incite! Never looked into water filters before and its a lil confusing.

i use a tall boy as a prefilter before the ro unit...works great,two years + life out of the filters,and the filters in the ro unit are still clean...about to switch to a small boy because i couldn't find the filters for the tallboy available...
 

GET MO

Registered Med User
Veteran
i use a tall boy as a prefilter before the ro unit...works great,two years + life out of the filters,and the filters in the ro unit are still clean...about to switch to a small boy because i couldn't find the filters for the tallboy available...

Nice thats what i was thinkin too. Think ima go that route. Do use the regular or the kdf filter in the tall boy?
 

tobedetermined

Well-known member
Premium user
ICMag Donor
I have used a Small Boy with the KDF filter for over 3 years - although without RO - because I just want to get rid of chloramates in town water. I buy the filters on Amazon but they can take a while to get. Make sure you keep it in a dark place or the white filter can grow green algae . . . as I found out.
 

Crooked8

Well-known member
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Fwiw, i go tap water(dirty af 400+ppm) to a tall boy, then i follow that with a hydrologic uv sterilizer and thats it, no ro. Utilize hygrozyme and hydroguard and you have really safeguarded yourself from most problems. This saves an absolute fortune in water costs as well as no wasting tons of water with ro. I used to only run ro years ago. Ive done it this way for 4 years now and havent looked back.
 

Snook

Still Learning
Fwiw, i go tap water(dirty af 400+ppm) to a tall boy, then i follow that with a hydrologic uv sterilizer and thats it, no ro. Utilize hygrozyme and hydroguard and you have really safeguarded yourself from most problems. This saves an absolute fortune in water costs as well as no wasting tons of water with ro. I used to only run ro years ago. Ive done it this way for 4 years now and havent looked back.

Hi C8 and the rest of you all. Living in a vacuum in Florida... what is a tall boy? Brand names perhaps?
so your starting with 400+ PPM water, run it thru 'tall boy' & UV filter, no RO process ... what are the PPMs after this process?
It's worth my changing from that RO to something somewhat more simple and slow down water consumption of the RO.

EDIT: Last I knew, a tall boy was a 16 ounce beer
 

Crooked8

Well-known member
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Hi C8 and the rest of you all. Living in a vacuum in Florida... what is a tall boy? Brand names perhaps?
so your starting with 400+ PPM water, run it thru 'tall boy' & UV filter, no RO process ... what are the PPMs after this process?
It's worth my changing from that RO to something somewhat more simple and slow down water consumption of the RO.

EDIT: Last I knew, a tall boy was a 16 ounce beer

Hydrologic makes sedi filters, small, tall and big boy sizes. I then go to uv sterilizer. I run dwc for flower and flood and drain for veg, so thats my only experience in doing this setup. Post filtration i believe the ppms came down to about 250. I have implemented this setup so many times now I have a lot of confidence in it. If your water is less shitty than mine, even better.
 

Snook

Still Learning
Hydrologic makes sedi filters, small, tall and big boy sizes. I then go to uv sterilizer. I run dwc for flower and flood and drain for veg, so thats my only experience in doing this setup. Post filtration i believe the ppms came down to about 250. I have implemented this setup so many times now I have a lot of confidence in it. If your water is less shitty than mine, even better.

Thanks C8.. my tap water is 220ppms already.. is your implication that my 220 tap might be reduced by 150ppms to under 100 ppms?
 

Crooked8

Well-known member
Mentor
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Thanks C8.. my tap water is 220ppms already.. is your implication that my 220 tap might be reduced by 150ppms to under 100 ppms?

I cant be sure. I think probably less since your water is already cleaner. Id think closer to 100ppm. Regardless, if your water starts out at 220 i can tell you it will work well. The other beauty to this is you can also remove cal mag from your program since your tap will still have some. Everyones setup is different so i cant guarantee anything. Are you running hydro or soil?
 

Snook

Still Learning
I cant be sure. I think probably less since your water is already cleaner. Id think closer to 100ppm. Regardless, if your water starts out at 220 i can tell you it will work well. The other beauty to this is you can also remove cal mag from your program since your tap will still have some. Everyones setup is different so i cant guarantee anything. Are you running hydro or soil?

Been doing PPKs for years.. not hydro and not soil.. media. PPK 'is' different. Tap having some calcium means to me 'I'm not sure how much calcium'.
I'd have to have my tap analyzed I'd guess. Moving away from the RO scenario would be great but one of the things I like most about PPKs is that PH isnt an issue.
The nutes prescribed for the PPK is 600ppm Jacks Pro + Calcium -period, nothing else. The calcium is part 2 of the nute equation part 1 being RO at 10-20ppms. I dont know if I want to tamper with that balanced regiment. It would be a $300+ experiment.. every time I try to 'adjust' things, something goes wrong, have to drain and redo the whole system. Not that there is that much water in the system (15 gals) but I have to move it manually in and out of the grow room.. wish I could set up a hose/drain set up but not happening. I'll have to go back and re read the PPK threads about using tap water at low PPM levels.
 

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