Light leaks! - How much/big is too much/big?? - Also RO Water pH??

Good day to you, RIU Community!

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TL;DR My Secret Jardin DR90 (3'x3'x6') has a few factory light leaks that are kind of to be expected.. Should I be worried/take precautions? My RO water also comes out of the filter at 9.0 (which I determined to be the correct pH/reading after measuring the pH of several different liquids, including pH calibration solution).
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I am just days away from popping my beans, and I'm doing some trials with my setup.

I am working with a 3'x3'x6' Secret Jardin DR90, going to run a 250W MH light for veg and then switch to 400W or 600W HPS for flower (it's currently summer where I am, and I thought 400W for veg might get too hot during our hotter summer days).

Down to business: there are small light leaks on my tent, more specifically between a few zipper teeth, another leak along a 1" or 1.5" length of seam near the zipper (around the same spot), and teeny tiny pinhead sized light leaks (plural) on some of the seams around the diameter of the ducting sleeves (not through the sleeve itself, however).
The passive intake window velcro covers are also allowing light to slip through in one direction or another, depending on how meticulous I am when putting the covers on.

The way I have set up my ducts allows no light to get in through them, but the leaks I'm dealing with are factory light leaks, if you will.

>> Am I going to have problems if I let these leaks continue? If so, how can I patch them up? Electrical tape will only work on so many of these leaks...

The room my tent is in is not going to be basking in basking in artificial or daylight all day by any means, but I'm worried about when light inevitably hits the area around the tent (it won't be intense, but it'll be a tiny little sliver, and I've heard any amount of light is a no-no for plants in flower during bedtime...).


As for my RO water pH, (not technically RO, but almost) my pH meter is reading a whopping 9.0 for RO water straight from the filter. Could that be right?? Several tests I conducted with pH calibration solution, tap water, and aquarium pH checkers pretty much confirmed that my rinky dink pH meter was right on the money the whole time... But is 9.0 for RO water normal? I thought it'd be coming out closer to 7!

Thanks in advance!

The light leaks will be fine. All zippers leak light. You can slap some black tape on seams here and there if you want. Maybe just try to keep tent out of direct light. Pull the shades in the room etc..

Wow! that's really high for RO. I'm not even sure I'd drink it What is the PH of the water before the filter?

Yeah, my bat and bird sheet tea's are around that pH...

There is no "almost" reverse osmosis water and 9.0 ph indicates a problem. Do you know the ec of the water. Or better the hardness?

And I use Gorilla tape to cover light leaks or make flaps over zippers on my secret Jardin tents.

And I think your best option is a whole house or at least whole room humidifier and recirculate the hopefully room temp and 50% humidity air through your tent with the hot exhaust out the top and preferably out of the room the tent is in.

Best results will be keeping the canopy temp under 78 degrees in my opinion.

And low humidity is bad for people too.

sunny747 said:

The light leaks will be fine. All zippers leak light. You can slap some black tape on seams here and there if you want. Maybe just try to keep tent out of direct light. Pull the shades in the room etc..

Wow! that's really high for RO. I'm not even sure I'd drink it What is the PH of the water before the filter?

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Hello sunny,

Okay, I'll see which light leaks are the most bothersome and easiest to fix and get on that. Might put up some panda film on the window to keep the early morning sunlight from hitting my tent (although, tbh, my plants will still be awake in the early morning).

The thing about my "RO water" is that it's not technically an RO filter because those are prohibitively expensive. I bought a 2-phase filter off Ebay; it uses activated carbon in the first phase, then this orange sandy stuff in the 2nd phase. The guy who designed it made it with aquariums in mind.
That being said, my TDS meter tells me the water that comes out of this particular filter is actually 0 ppm, whereas my filtered tap water (goes through common potable water filter that does not effectively remove Chlorine) comes out at ~ pH 6.7 and ~90 ppm.

Idk what the pH of the water is before it hits either filter. I suppose I could just test some regular old tap water, which actually is something I have yet to do.

However, this super high pH isn't necessarily a problem if I have pH Down drops for hydroponics, is it? I used 1 droplet in 50mL of this "RO water" and it knocked it down to 3.8 pH.

Also, I would definitely not drink 9.0 pH water, that shit ain't natural AND the manufacturer explicitly says to not drink the water.

MichiganMedGrower said:

There is no "almost" reverse osmosis water and 9.0 ph indicates a problem. Do you know the ec of the water. Or better the hardness?

And I use Gorilla tape to cover light leaks or make flaps over zippers on my secret Jardin tents.

And I think your best option is a whole house or at least whole room humidifier and recirculate the hopefully room temp and 50% humidity air through your tent with the hot exhaust out the top and preferably out of the room the tent is in.

Best results will be keeping the canopy temp under 78 degrees in my opinion.

And low humidity is bad for people too.

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Hiya MichiganMed,

I'm aware there's no such thing as "almost" RO because I know precisely how RO works, but as you may have read above, the true RO filters are prohibitively expensive and the manufacturer of my filter says that it can substitute RO filters for domestic use (wouldn't use this filter to get distilled water for, like, actual scientific lab work like what I do at university).

I'm not sure why you mentioned humidity (perhaps because of my hot summer temps?), but both a house and room dehumidifier are kind of out of the question... They, too, are prohibitively expensive and would be ineffective for 2 reasons:
a) no central A/C where I live (an apartment), so I have to keep at least 2 windows open almost 24/7 for there to be air flow cutting through my apt (that's pretty much everybody's situation around these parts)
b) Humidity around here is generally not a problem. Our summers are very rainy (like, pretty much err'day) and our winters are fairly dry, so unless it's excess humidity, I don't anticipate humidity problems.

My intake duct is positioned next to a window where there is pretty good airflow just from the outside, so it pulls fresh air from outside (just about) and then spits used air back outside through a different window about 9 feet away.

Thank you for your temperature tip!

Cx2H said:

Yeah, my bat and bird sheet tea's are around that pH...

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Makes sense, I suppose, since you're running organics and the microbial life in the soil should be enough to balance out that pH.
I have pH Down solution available and I will be using GH Flora Trio in 50-50 Promix for my first grow. Hopefully I will have the patience and know-how to run organics further down the line.

the real use for RO water is to make sure you aren't getting any pathogens. people go on and on about chlorine in their city water, but the reality is that chlorine is bad for fish, in the amounts they use it in water, its actually good for your plants. fluoride and chloramine are used in such small amounts they'll never hurt your plants. our city water comes out of the tap at 50 ppm and 7.1 ph, but its full of pythium, if i use it i have to add 10 ml of h2o2 to each gallon or i get root rot sure as shit.
if your filter is removing pathogens, then i guess its working, but 9 ph is crazy high, you must have to be using a ton of ph down. i think i'd find out what the "orange stuff" is and see if theres any reason not to use it

and i use gorilla tape as well, opaque and sticks to damn near anything

Hey sorry @Nic Barlor It was late and I must have mixed someone's humidity question in with yours.

MichiganMedGrower said:

Hey sorry @Nic Barlor It was late and I must have mixed someone's humidity question in with yours.

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No problem, yo.

Roger A. Shrubber said:

the real use for RO water is to make sure you aren't getting any pathogens. people go on and on about chlorine in their city water, but the reality is that chlorine is bad for fish, in the amounts they use it in water, its actually good for your plants. fluoride and chloramine are used in such small amounts they'll never hurt your plants. our city water comes out of the tap at 50 ppm and 7.1 ph, but its full of pythium, if i use it i have to add 10 ml of h2o2 to each gallon or i get root rot sure as shit.
if your filter is removing pathogens, then i guess its working, but 9 ph is crazy high, you must have to be using a ton of ph down. i think i'd find out what the "orange stuff" is and see if theres any reason not to use it

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Heya Roger,

Okay, so my tap water from potable water filter is consistent at 6.8 pH and 88 ppm. I know for a fact that my city uses chlorine to treat the water, and not chloramine.
My "RO water" is still 0 ppm, and the pH was 8.5 today (it was sitting in a plastic water jug that I use to collect/store the water).

While I have you all here, should I use my "RO water" to pop my beans (be it paper towel, shot glass method, or jiffy plugs)?
If I do use the "RO water", should I add pH Down??

Or should I just use the filtered tap water for germinating and the first week or two (seedling stage)?

Really eager to get started, don't see any reason to put it off anymore!

Tap water works great for popping seeds and getting them established. No need to use RO or even ph the tap water as it's not really using the water for sustenance at that point.

Hermi'ing due to light leaks will vary greatly from strain to strain.

I got some Chocolot Mint OG(HSO) that's proven to be very resilient against light leaks...I know I have(or have had) a few small ones, either from my veg tent that's in the same room, or from LED power lights that I forgot to tape over.

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'll see what I can do about these light leaks within the next 2 weeks..
I understand that little sprouts need 24h light until week 2 or 3, no?

Yesterday both my Honey Cream (Fast Flowering) from RQS cracked open and I put them in jiffy pellets that I had infused with root stimulator water (1 mL/L water).
I have since been keeping them in a semi-open humidity dome (last known RH was ~75%, but my thermohygrometer is on the fritz and I'm gonna have to get a better one since it's not displaying anything anymore ), under a 34W and 46W CFL about a foot away. Temperature in dome is around 30 Celsius/86 Fahrenheit, and even with two fans blowing around the lights I can't really get it any lower without making the RH suffer.

Both seem to be doing fine, though. I keep checking on them, and both are just starting to peek through the soil so they can unfurl.

Hard to think of anything else when these little girls need so much care!