do i need a ppm meter?

hello everyone. i'll just get right to it. i plan on growing in soil and watering with tap water. is it a big deal if i don't know the ppm of my water to begin with? i see all these threads about screwy tap water with high ppm messing up peoples plants. i just moved here and i don't know anything about the water except it smells better than my last place.

you can prevent ppm problems by letting the water sit out overnight, but if you have hard water, like me, just ph the water and based on the ph, that will let you know if you can add nutes. if your tap water has too low a ph, you cant use it....and might wanna call your water company lol.

Government usually has info on the water on the web. You don't need a ppm meter per say, like hughesresearch says just let it sit for 24 hrs.

Just buy distilled water and ph it before watering. Also, you may need a ca-Mg supplement nute for your plants while using distilled water. I have 4 plants and I buy 2 2.5 gallon jugs a week. Theyre real cheap.

Ken3531 said:

Just buy distilled water and ph it before watering. Also, you may need a ca-Mg supplement nute for your plants while using distilled water. I have 4 plants and I buy 2 2.5 gallon jugs a week. Theyre real cheap.

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thatd be nice. i use 3-8 gal per tote i have depending on root growth. im sure they might look at me funny if i had a cart full of distilled water. i personally dont grow soil, simply takes too long for me. i smoke a fuck ton. 1-7g a day depending on whats going on. to help my own problems requires a g a day. if im off work though with friends, i might smoke up to a quarter of dank.

i don't know about hauling jugs of water. there's all these stairs and i just don't feel like it lol. i have the ph dropper thingys and they say the ph is between 6.5 and 7 which i understand is good? does ph affect ppm? i'm not sure if i have hard water. i looked up the latest municipal water report but could not make sense of it. theres 5 wells and they are all broken down by mineral, it's ridiculous. i'm just concerned because the water smells like a swimming pool.

then leave it out in an uncovered container until it doesn't.
try it out and see what happens.

thanks everyone. my last water smelled like rotton eggs so this pool water is a total upgrade. i'll let the water sit out before i use it.

ok, heres what i did before i got a ppm. take the dose level on whatever nutes your using and cut them into a quarter. this will be the nute level to start with once the plants show you they need to feed, until then straight ph balanced water. once you start nutes, you will need to google something like the marijuana saver 2005 or whatever that shows pics of what def looks like. you will notice these problems and adjust the amount of nutes based on what they show. after a bit, i suggest getting a clone from your best plant, then you will always know what nutes to feed the clones from the mom you just made as they will be the same as the clone. idk of any marijuana that uses more than, i think i read 1600ppm which is about 2x the rec dose and thats close to mine with a 6 month mom 3.5' tall in veg with a root mass filling a 5gal bucket at 1400ppm. you will find you want a ppm pen or reader of some sort, but is not required. the ph though is a must.

and the pool smell would be chlorine, let it sit.

i to am interested in this but not with soil im planing on running a aeroponic system and was wondering if ppm was going to be a big deal if i let the tap water age ive been also using some droplets made for fish tank to make my tap water have a better chance

Kingofpoon said:

i to am interested in this but not with soil im planing on running a aeroponic system and was wondering if ppm was going to be a big deal if i let the tap water age ive been also using some droplets made for fish tank to make my tap water have a better chance

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quite honestly, i dont do shit to my water. i fill up my res, my water is always around 7, add nutes, check ph, usually drops way down near 4. i also dont use traditional ph up and ph down. i use pool ph down (big ass totes), and lye. pure lye has a ph of 14, so its super strong and figured out how much does what to each gallon. i adjust ph to around 6. thats it. maybe the lye kills the chlorine, idk but it works and is cheap.

With soil and coco the idea of a PPM meter never once entered my mind, once i moved over to hydro, all anyone told me was that they were vital pieces of equipment. It's been used once.

Well that calms my nerves a little