Well Water and how to work with it

[exploziv]

Now it makes sense. I was thinking pure Ca and pure Mg and that was many times more than needed, even for a gallon. That is why I asked. Better call the chems by their name, to avoid confusion.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Our golden spot is 6.2.

Really? I have been targeting 6.2 by pure luck then. I have the soil well over 7.

Around here all the water is well water, from limestone formations. They add caustic and flouride and chlorine, which I use carbon house filters to clean. Calcium is from lime. Maybe add some cal-mag to the water, because the calcuim is a lot higher than the magnesium in the test. Or Epsom Salts. pH down and cal-mag are all I use in the reservoir.

I need to try the apple cider vinegar, and lemon juice.

 

[CannaRed]

I'm so lucky that my tap water comes out at 49-52 ppm.
I don't have a well, but I have a cistern system that is fed by an underground spring.

 

[Three Berries]

So what I need to know is how much Ca and Mg is in the well waster at the 450 ppm. One gallon with the Master blend added and the pH up with ammonia gives me 6.8 and 1100 ppm with no added Ca or Mg.

From what I can see 450 ppm = 450 mg in in 1 L?

 

[flylowgethigh]

I dunno about PPM, but with my reservoir when the trunion shows EC building up at all, I dump that water. Cal Mag doesn't seem to affect EC, and under my LEDs the plants like a lot of cal-mag. But I am using microbes in living soil. Any feeding (microbes, big 6, fish oil, Leonardite) goes in with top watering, right onto the soil.

 

[Three Berries]

As far as nitrogen and calcium nitrate, is that not actually calcium ammonium nitrate where the calcium is dissolved in nitic and then neutralized with ammonia? Which is how I raise my pH at the end after adding the nutes.

I mixed a gallon of well water with just he MB and pHed to 6.8 with ammonia and the ppm is around 1100. But no additional Ca or Mg.

 

[Three Berries]

Assuming that at 450ppm my well water has at least 400 ppm Ca, that equates to 1.6 grams per 4L of Calcium Carbonate.

I've found going to 100% rain water was a big problem. And I never had a potassium problem before using well water too.

Will use the well and factor in the hardness vs the needed Ca and Mg.

 

[Three Berries]

I mixed up a batch of the Master Blend nute today using well water. Started out with a pH of 7.4 and 450ppm. Added the Master Blend, then some Epsom salt, then some calcium nitrate then some Humic acid. Ph ended up at 6.8 an the ppm was 1090. I cut down on both the Epsom and CaN as it's already in the water. Topped it off with a tablespoon of Mosquito Bits for gnat control.

 

[@peace]

Good morning, everybody,

Just moved into a new place, got my water tested as I wanted to know everything that was in it, and it looked pretty good, but I'm running into issues with my plants not looking the happiest.

I'm positive it's something in the water, but I don't know what it is, so I'm hoping some of you might be able to look at my water test results and give me an idea of what I could do to easily remedy my water. Or if I just need to use an RO system let me know.



I'm already using ph down, but is there something else I could add or do to make the rest of this good for plants?

Thank for the help everyone, and have a good one!

Hey Robney. I had the same problem (high EC) for a few years before I figured it out by buying a blue lab meter (best investment I ever made). Your reading of 157 on hardness shows that you have hard water. The water I have here is hard and the EC of my water is 1.6 by itself, no nutrients added. We have a lot of calcium in our water where I am, so when I would add nutrients it was pushing the EC up into the 2's. Another problem with hard water is that calcium and phosphorous don't play well at higher pH (7.0pH for soil) and will interfere with each other. Calcium will effectively tie up phosphorous and make it unavailable to the plant, even if you keep adding more. I was always seeing phosphorous deficiency issues before.

There is a fix, it isn't super cheap but will safe you money on appliances like washing machines in the long run. You need to install a water softener if you don't have one. Then you need to install an RO system like you mentioned. I just put a new one in my setup. I bought an APEC RO-HI because they have a 3/8" line vs a 1/4" which makes a massive difference in how fast it will fill a bucket. Secondly I bought what is referred to as a 14 gallon RO storage tank. The Apec comes with what is called a 4 gallon tank but it really will only hold about 2.5 galllon. The 14 gallon version holds about 10 gallon at a time. I am not sure why the industry quotes capacity that way, but they do. A bigger tank is helpful because RO systems take a long time to filter the water, so it is better to have a bunch built up ahead of time, although it is not necessary if you just have a few plants. Installing the first RO a few years back fixed my problems completely. The only thing to watch if you do go this route is how much pH down you add, calcium and magnesium are what the acid is trying to neutralize to bring the pH down. The softener and RO will remove almost all of it so the water isn't "buffered" and will respond quickly to pH adjusting products. Good luck with whatever route you choose, if you do go the RO route and have any questions I may be able to help.

 

[@peace]

My well water is about 450ppm with a limestone of around 8% Mg in my area. Use to use well water all the time and then went to rain water the last couple of years. The ran water gives me deficiency problems. I think I'll go 50/50 on rain well and then my usual nutes. The nutes are saying to add 1,5g Mg and 2,5 Ca so I'm hoping that works.

Part of that ppm is iron but I don't think it's too high.

Your water is on the harder side as well, the EC would be roughly 0.9 by itself (sorry I don't know ppm well). Rain water is usually 5.0 -5.5 pH which is why you see issues, its too low for soilless. Pure rain is awesome outside in soil but can cause problems indoors in soilless. I have hard water and have played around with mixing rain water with it, you would want to use roughly two parts rain water to one part well, that should get you a starting EC of 0.3 (150ppm). Not all calcium in water is in a plant useable form, so its hard to say how much you are getting from your water without a lab test showing how much of that calcium would be plant available. That's not really realistic though. Good luck with whatever way you go.

 

[Three Berries]

Your water is on the harder side as well, the EC would be roughly 0.9 by itself (sorry I don't know ppm well). Rain water is usually 5.0 -5.5 pH which is why you see issues, its too low for soilless. Pure rain is awesome outside in soil but can cause problems indoors in soilless. I have hard water and have played around with mixing rain water with it, you would want to use roughly two parts rain water to one part well, that should get you a starting EC of 0.3 (150ppm). Not all calcium in water is in a plant useable form, so its hard to say how much you are getting from your water without a lab test showing how much of that calcium would be plant available. That's not really realistic though. Good luck with whatever way you go.

It's easier to pH out. If I mix the minimum nute mix the pH comes in at 6.5 or so. The water is 7.5 or so. PPM=mg/L Usually 450 or so with the local limestone being only 8% Mg. There was a meteor that hit a couple million years ago and put some iron in the water too. I'm figuring 400ppm Limestone. I cut the calcium nutes by half.

The plants in flower now you can't hardy bend the branches, no way can you crush them with your fingers. I think a sign of good Ca intake?

I don't pay much attention to EC. When the minimum batch is mixed it ends up a little over 1000.

 

[@peace]

Hey Three Berries, understood, collecting rain water is a pain if you don't have to. Glad your plants are healthy.

 

[Three Berries]

Hey Three Berries, understood, collecting rain water is a pain if you don't have to. Glad your plants are healthy.

I have a three barrel setup. Hard to get in the winter though or drought. The last two years I ran almost all rain water. Just seems I had less issues when I was using the well water. This year has been a major change going to two tents vs a converted closet. A lot of different variables Ha I should get a small seedling tent too.