Ppm

Just got my ppm meter and tested my water, it’s 450 ppm. What ppm should I be aiming for when adding nutrients.

What is the water source? City, well, ect. 450 is pretty hard. If you have a water quality report I can direct you a bit better.

PrometheanLeaf said:

What is the water source? City, well, ect. 450 is pretty hard. If you have a water quality report I can direct you a bit better.

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Think the meter is junk

if you are new to hydro, using RO water is your best option. you'll have plenty of troubles at the beginning but at least you'll know your water is not the problem when using 0 ppm water.

diablo42 said:

Just got my ppm meter and tested my water, it’s 450 ppm. What ppm should I be aiming for when adding nutrients.

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Question is vague but.....
If you in soil then add about 350ppms to the water for small plants and go up from there as you enter different stages of growth. You need microbes to buffer all of it though / in soil. and you would do more watering then feeding as you dont want your soil to get too hot as well. Feed water water feed. You can do it but the microbes is the key to doing it right.

If your in hydro then you should look at an R/O system or you will need to learn it or deal with it and I mean the results you get from it being too hot , you will probably get a ton of deficiencies trying to keep the ppms low.

If your water is that rich you should either get an RO filter or have the water analyzed to see whats in it. Likely a lot of calcium and possibly magnesium. Then feed can be adjusted accordingly. For example if lots of calcium you simply add epsom salt for magnesium instead of using calmag.

My meter is reading 200 ppm on bottled water, Do that sound right or no?

diablo42 said:

200 ppm on bottled water

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is it distilled or RO water? or spring water? distilled/RO should be 0 or very close.

Bottled spring water like Arrowhead is up around 200 PPM.

If needed - here's a popular econo RO unit for reference.

TintEastwood said:

If needed - here's a popular econo RO unit for reference.

https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Reverse-Osmosis-100-Gallon/dp/B00204CQF6?th=1

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Randon Thanks dude. Im using grodan right now and was contemplating getting the rest if my nutrient line and grabbing a good enough RO machine, to utilize their Pro Cal