tap water treatment

[-ww-]

how to treat tap water(that is drinkable) and use it for my mj?
my tap water is slightly alkalescent

 

[cooked cook]

You should probably get a PH test kit (if you don't have one already) and test the PH to start. My PH is a bit on the alkaline side, so I end up adjusting the PH before I use the water. Most people use PH up or PH down purchased from a hydro store. I personally often use PH down for aquariums...easy to snag if the hydro store is too far. I personally have used it for many crops without issue, but a lot of folks will tell ya don't use anything that isn't meant for plants, as it'll cause problems further down the road.
Again, other folks say not to use these products, so use at your own discretion.
Also, it's a good idea to dissapate the chlorine/chloramine. Again, I myself use an aquarium product (de-chlor, or chlorine eliminator or something)for this because I'm too damn lazty to drive that hour to the hydro store. Again, it hasn't caused me any problems. I figure if fish can swim in it, and circulate it through their gills, it can't be all that harmful. I also make sure to give all my plants one serious flush before harvest to make sure anything that has built up is gone.
So...in all that running off at the keyboard, the short answer is...adjust PH and dechlor the water.

good luck.
cc

 

[Guest]

chloramine = chlorine and ammonia = two weeks to leave the water...chlorine = 24 hrs to leave the water..if you look at your water in a gallon jug and it has a dingy yellow color than your city is using chloramine...peace...like the other dude stated you can get dechlorinator but if you only have chlorine (not chloramine) it will evaporate in 24 hrs if left open in container

 

[-ww-]

would aquarium shops have ph testers?
becouse no hydro shop where i live

oh i think my water suplier uses chlorine , so i do not need dechlorinator? i just let it sit for 2 days like my grandma does with her petunias

 

[Guest]

yes and any where you buy water filters too...the pet store for sure though along with the dechlorinator...peace

 

[BkBuds420]

hey i let water sit out for 24 hrs and then all the bubbles are in there u just tap it and get rid of some of the top water..

 

[-ww-]

i always thought the bad part of sitting water is on the bottom :O

 

[-ww-]

You should probably get a PH test kit (if you don't have one already) and test the PH to start. My PH is a bit on the alkaline side, so I end up adjusting the PH before I use the water. Most people use PH up or PH down purchased from a hydro store. I personally often use PH down for aquariums...easy to snag if the hydro store is too far. I personally have used it for many crops without issue, but a lot of folks will tell ya don't use anything that isn't meant for plants, as it'll cause problems further down the road.
Again, other folks say not to use these products, so use at your own discretion.
Also, it's a good idea to dissapate the chlorine/chloramine. Again, I myself use an aquarium product (de-chlor, or chlorine eliminator or something)for this because I'm too damn lazty to drive that hour to the hydro store. Again, it hasn't caused me any problems. I figure if fish can swim in it, and circulate it through their gills, it can't be all that harmful. I also make sure to give all my plants one serious flush before harvest to make sure anything that has built up is gone.
So...in all that running off at the keyboard, the short answer is...adjust PH and dechlor the water.

good luck.
cc

most helpful thx

 

[jrw]

Is adjusting the ph possible still upholding the idea of a totally organic grow? I guess not, but I'm ready to get surprised

 

[Guest]

Is adjusting the ph possible still upholding the idea of a totally organic grow? I guess not, but I'm ready to get surprised

If doing a soil grow(organic or not), pH isn't nearly the issue that it is in a hydro grow. If your soil is properly made up and buffered with lime, you don't need to worry about tap water pH....UNLESS

Your water is VERY strange community water, and yours sounds typical. I just let mine sit overniight. Didn't do anything else to it. My water's pH is about 7.5 and ppm is 80-100

Check BurnOne's sticky note for beginners in the "Organic soil" forum. It's good primer on soil making no matter organic or not. If you make up a GOOD soil like those in the aforementioned sticky note, your pH problems and nutrient problems will be nearly, if not....NON EXISTENT!

I'm a newbie, just one grow in the jar. My advice is KISS. Don't make your grow "difficult" because it isn't....or ought not be

Good luck
Obli

 

[Guest]

would aquarium shops have ph testers?
becouse no hydro shop where i live

oh i think my water suplier uses chlorine , so i do not need dechlorinator? i just let it sit for 2 days like my grandma does with her petunias

Plant stores and nurseries have pH test kits. Do NOT use the ceap electronic pH probe typoe testers. They aren't worth shit. Personally I like the one that you put drops in and compare the color to a chart. It'll get you within .5 pH and thats all you need if you want to check pH now and then just to be safe and feel better at night

Obli

 

[BudderFinger]

You could just buy distilled water, Ph should between 6.5 - 7

Although I used to let my water sit for 2 days inorder for it to become distilled, worked fine (never tested ph)

 

[inflorescence]

So does the deChlor remove chloramine. Does it just spilt the chlorine and ammonia and the cholrine off gasses and the ammonia is left or does the ammonia off gas as well or does it work in a completely different manner?

 

[inflorescence]

You could just buy distilled water, Ph should between 6.5 - 7

Although I used to let my water sit for 2 days inorder for it to become distilled, worked fine (never tested ph)

It would become dechlor'ed but not distilled. Those pesky ppms don't off gas.

 

[BudderFinger]

does boiling it and letting it sit make it distilled?

 

[inflorescence]

does boiling it and letting it sit make it distilled?

Only if you capture the condensate. Otherwise all you did was concentrate your ppm by boiling off pure h20.

 

[Guest]

not that it matters nitrogen is not organic its a chemical element...the plant cares not if it is synthetic or from a rotting fish as long as it gets the element...peace

Is adjusting the ph possible still upholding the idea of a totally organic grow? I guess not, but I'm ready to get surprised

 

[Guest]

So does the deChlor remove chloramine. Does it just spilt the chlorine and ammonia and the cholrine off gasses and the ammonia is left or does the ammonia off gas as well or does it work in a completely different manner?

Removing Chloramine From Water: Chemical Reducing Agents

There are two primary ways to remove chloramine from tap water. The first is through the use of inorganic reducing agents such as thiosulfate. Thiosulfate (S2O3- -, which actually looks like -OSO2S-) is an inorganic chemical that is typically dissolved in water, usually as the sodium salt. When added to water containing chloramine, a reaction takes place, destroying the chloramine. The electrochemistry of sulfur compounds can be complicated, and different researchers report different products of this reaction (extrapolated from reactions with chlorine itself, not chloramine). The products have been suggested to include sulfate (SO4- - and HSO4-),10,14 elemental sulfur (S),10 and tetrathionate (S4O6- -),11-13 and may depend to some extent on the conditions, including the pH and the relative amounts of compounds present. John F. Kuhns (inventor of Amquel below) has indicated that he believes that the reaction resulting in sulfate is the most frequently observed. The reaction for this process is shown below:

S2O3-- + 4NH2Cl + 5H2O à 2SO4-- + 2H+ + 4HCl + 4NH3

Thiosulfate is also equally suited to dechlorinating free chlorine in water, and it has gained wide use in marine and freshwater aquaria. Unfortunately, the ammonia that is produced as a result of the reaction is still toxic. Consequently, thiosulfate alone is not always adequate for eliminating toxicity from chloramine.

Other products, such as hydroxymethanesulfonate (HOCH2SO3-; a known ammonia binder15 patented for aquarium uses by John F. Kuhns16 (sold as Amquel by Kordon and ClorAm-X by Reed Mariculture, among others) can be used to treat chloraminated water because they both break down chloramine and bind up the ammonia.

The reaction of ammonia with hydroxymethanesulfonate is mechanistically complicated, possibly involving decomposition to formaldehyde and reformation to the product (aminomethanesulfonate; shown below).15 The simplified overall reaction is believed to be:

NH3 + HOCH2SO3- à H2NCH2SO3- + H2O

Even more complicated is the reaction of hydroxymethanesulfonate with chloramine, or chlorine (as Cl2 or HOCl). In this case, the products that are formed have not been established.

So are these useful products? That is, do they eliminate all toxicity from chloramine and provide none of their own, either by themselves or through their degradation products? I cannot answer that question. Almost certainly, using them is better than not using them if there is chloramine in the water. Is the toxicity eliminated for even the most sensitive larval invertebrates? Again, I don't know. Without knowing what the degradation products are, or without detailed testing on a variety of very sensitive invertebrates, I don't know how one would conclude that they are satisfactory (or not). Maybe such tests exist, and if so, I'd be pleased to hear of them. In the end, my recommendation is to remove chlorine and chloramine in other ways, such as through an RO/DI system as described below.

Removing Chloramine From Water: Activated Carbon

Another method for removing chloramine from water is with activated carbon (as is contained in most RO/DI systems). In a two step process, the carbon catalytically breaks the chloramine down into ammonia, chloride, and nitrogen gas

C + NH2Cl + H2O à C-O + NH3 + Cl- + H+

C-O + 2NH2Cl à C + N2 + 2Cl- + 2H+ + H2O

where C stands for the activated carbon, and C-O stands for oxidized activated carbon. In this case, as was found for thiosulfate, the product includes ammonia, which is not bound significantly by activated carbon. Consequently, treatment of water with activated carbon will need to be followed up by some method of eliminating the ammonia.

In the case of a reverse osmosis/deionizing system (where carbon is usually part of the prefiltration prior to the RO membrane), the ammonia is partially removed by the reverse osmosis system. The extent of removal by the RO membrane depends on pH. At pH 7.5 or lower, reverse osmosis will remove ammonia from 1.4 ppm-Cl monochloramine to less than 0.1 ppm ammonia. The DI resin then removes any residual ammonia to levels unimportant to the grower.

 

[Blunt Trauma]

Wow! So that's where your moniker comes from, BrainThor....scientific answers from hell , good info, thanks.

 

[Guest]

just a simple search read and copy and paste my friend any one can do it..thanks though peace....my city just got chloramine so i had to learn about it...guess what? i quit using tap because of this shit