RO water vs DI water

[Da_AntMan_303]

This is my first attempt at growing, I'm doing a soil grow and I've seen plenty of pplz using RO water instead of tap or distilled water. Does anyone use DI water and why, or why not? I chose DI after reading on the water dispenser that they add minerals to the RO water for flavor. Minerals equal salts from my understanding. I have a 5 gallon reservoir filled with DI water and run an airstone to oxygenate the water. I was told this gets O2 to the roots.
Thanx for any input.

 

[SICE]

It just depends on the condition of your water. Earlier this year I was having issues with my city water and didn't know it until it showed on the plants. High PH is common in city water but it does not pose much of a problem unless the PPM is really high.

Get a PH tester if you use either DI or RO water. You should be ok using either just make sure to adjust PH accordingly if the PH is too high or low.

Im sure it gets more intricate in pure hydro systems but Im currently using soil and hempy so PH just seems to be my main concern. I will be seeing about my PPM in the upcoming week to prep for an increase in plants. Want everything to run smoothly.

another rookie

 

[SeaMaiden]

This is my first attempt at growing, I'm doing a soil grow and I've seen plenty of pplz using RO water instead of tap or distilled water. Does anyone use DI water and why, or why not? I chose DI after reading on the water dispenser that they add minerals to the RO water for flavor. Minerals equal salts from my understanding. I have a 5 gallon reservoir filled with DI water and run an airstone to oxygenate the water. I was told this gets O2 to the roots.
Thanx for any input.

I've done DI only (the Mr. Clean Autowash cartridges), and it was ok, but not that great. I ended up purchasing an RO/DI filter, much better. I did it because my source water is pretty hard in terms of both types of hardness (general and carbonate), who knows what all the minerals are in it. Rain water is the best.

I NEVER use distilled water with, on or for living organisms. Habitual.

Tap water, as mentioned above, can be used depending on quality.

Running the air stone does a couple of things, not the least of which helps get that water column back towards a stable solution ratio of O2/CO2. CO2 lowers pH, O2 raises it. Very clean, low alkalinity (low level of dissolved minerals, i.e. hardness) water has very little buffering capacity. This is also called 'alkalinity' and it is a term for resistance to pH shift.

You don't need, or want, ALL minerals stripped of the water. That can cause problems as well. Fortunately, RO water isn't entirely stripped, and neither is DI, neither is RO/DI. Only distilled is pure water. My advice is to try the DI only and see how well the plants perform. You may end up going the route I did and getting an RO unit.

 

[lost in a sea]

the minerals added to ro water are for human benefit,, before that it was obviously mostly pure water,,

there are minerals in the soil and you add them when you fed the plant so there is no problem with giving plants pure r/o,, unless you never fed your plants,,

deionized isnt filtered, the minerals are removed by binding them to resins or electrically, so it is less ideal for human/animal consumption because viral and bacterial cells arent removed but for plants i wouldn't have thought there is that much of a problem,,

you should first buy an electroconductivity meter to see if your water is bad enough to warrent using r/o, that is why people use it,, also reverse osmosis is quite wasteful unless you have high enough pressure coming out of you tap,, without a step up pump that is,,

 

[paperchaser825]

De-ionized water uses a type of resin filter that removes inorganic mineral ions. Salts and minerals that are dissolved bind to the resin and are removed. The problem with DI water is that it does NOT remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses, or bacteria unless by incidental trapping in the resin filter.

If you want PURE water... You are gonna have to use a combination filter that combines several methods.

Double distilled water was the norm for labratory use where near 100% purity was required, since then though there have been new technologies that combine multiple types of filtering for even more purity.

 

[Da_AntMan_303]

Thank you all very much for sharing your knowledge, IC has been an awesome source of information.

 

[SeaMaiden]

the minerals added to ro water are for human benefit,, before that it was obviously mostly pure water,,

Humans and in many instances aquatic animals. Pure water isn't such a good thing, except perhaps on paper, or for a solvent.

there are minerals in the soil and you add them when you fed the plant so there is no problem with giving plants pure r/o,, unless you never fed your plants,,

deionized isnt filtered, the minerals are removed by binding them to resins or electrically, so it is less ideal for human/animal consumption because viral and bacterial cells arent removed but for plants i wouldn't have thought there is that much of a problem,,

I didn't either, and you're right in all your assertions, although technically DI is a type of filtration (as is foam fractionation, inapplicable here), just a chemical filtration that uses adsorption, IIRC. Either way it's another chemical bonding, resin has sites that lock onto minerals and so they're removed.

Anyway! I didn't think it would make a difference, so I had my husband rig up one of these Mr. Clean Auto-dry carwash dealios (BEST thing, I swear! Especially for our motorcycles) to just make its DI cartridge a filter. It made water low in hardness, but at that time I didn't have an EC meter so can't say where it was, and the plants just didn't seem happy with it. I cannot explain it since I couldn't perform other tests.

I decided to get an RO/DI filter, which worked *much* better, and I also collect rainwater, which performs just as well.

you should first buy an electroconductivity meter to see if your water is bad enough to warrent using r/o, that is why people use it,, also reverse osmosis is quite wasteful unless you have high enough pressure coming out of you tap,, without a step up pump that is,,

Again, correct. There are two types of pumps, one requires additional power to run (booster pump, boosts pressure at the head of the filtration unit, coming in) and a permeate pump, which runs off the 'house' pressure. We're on a well and can set the psi to the house at the well head, it's set at 75psi. I have a permeate pump, and it does help increase efficacy. However, I'm still at around a 2:1 waste:water ratio.

But, here's the thing--test THAT water. It's not waste water, it's cleaner than what goes in, at least it is in my situation. So I save that waste water as well and use it alternating with the RO/DI, on my landscaping plants, and for my organic feeds and teas.

Since I started collecting rainwater and growing only outdoors, though, I've rarely fired up my RO/DI unit. Only when we use the steam cleaner and stuff like that.

De-ionized water uses a type of resin filter that removes inorganic mineral ions. Salts and minerals that are dissolved bind to the resin and are removed. The problem with DI water is that it does NOT remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses, or bacteria unless by incidental trapping in the resin filter.

If you want PURE water... You are gonna have to use a combination filter that combines several methods.

Double distilled water was the norm for labratory use where near 100% purity was required, since then though there have been new technologies that combine multiple types of filtering for even more purity.

As I understand it the only pure water is distilled water. Otherwise it's simply very well-filtered.

How can you get more pure than 100%..? Or are you saying that other technologies besides distillation exist that give you more pure water *than* distillation? Sorry, I'm not getting what exactly you're saying here.

 

[paperchaser825]

As I understand it the only pure water is distilled water. Otherwise it's simply very well-filtered.

How can you get more pure than 100%..? Or are you saying that other technologies besides distillation exist that give you more pure water *than* distillation? Sorry, I'm not getting what exactly you're saying here.

Even distillation won't get 100% of the particles out of water. You can double and triple distill, but methods that involve two different types of purification work better than doing the same thing twice.

There are industrial distillation/de-ionization centers that produce large quantities of lab water using a method like this.