Got R/O , Now What?

Finally got an R/O system, had the ph checked, came in at 6.7.

Now what?

Seriously, what can I expect from the plants, or the water, and what if anything will I need to do to deal with this change. I heard you need calmag with R/O. How much, and how often?

I had been getting water from a friends house, because mine was 8.3, but sometimes I still had to use it. I had treated the soil with dolomite to help buffer the water. As soon as I started R/O, the plants started having issues, looked like P and K.

I had added some calmag to be safe. I think there was too much lime added, trying to compensate for shitty water, giving an excess of calcium causing a lockout of NP and K, and the new R/O water brought out the new issues. What I did, a day and a half ago, was cut the old soil 50/50 with some new, then transplanted the 4-6 week old plants from their 1 gallon pots to the 7.5 gallon pots that I finish them in. Added R/O water and so far they seem to be improving.

I had an unexpected move, and am currently building a new room. 1,000w HPS for flowering, 400 for veg, and the new R/O.

Bump. Went back 3 pages today, it's been busy in here.

Have heard ro water and distilled water is no good unless ur supplementing all the stuff that its missing
ur better off just using tap water and ph down my friend
this is all I know of this subject

I supplement my hydro tables in a traditional way. Most of the time I bring it down to 5.5 with dolomite lime. If I get a point or so below it I'll recalibrate it with some plant ash. This combination with NPK seems to do good with most water. After I get it figured for the water that is being used I write the info on the wall, in grams per gallon and for the budders res. So I don't gotta do it again. In your case I'd bring it down to six then back up again. Old fashioned micros.

ProdigalSun said:

Finally got an R/O system, had the ph checked, came in at 6.7.

Now what?

Seriously, what can I expect from the plants, or the water, and what if anything will I need to do to deal with this change. I heard you need calmag with R/O. How much, and how often?

I had been getting water from a friends house, because mine was 8.3, but sometimes I still had to use it. I had treated the soil with dolomite to help buffer the water. As soon as I started R/O, the plants started having issues, looked like P and K.

I had added some calmag to be safe. I think there was too much lime added, trying to compensate for shitty water, giving an excess of calcium causing a lockout of NP and K, and the new R/O water brought out the new issues. What I did, a day and a half ago, was cut the old soil 50/50 with some new, then transplanted the 4-6 week old plants from their 1 gallon pots to the 7.5 gallon pots that I finish them in. Added R/O water and so far they seem to be improving.

I had an unexpected move, and am currently building a new room. 1,000w HPS for flowering, 400 for veg, and the new R/O.

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I've always used my tap water but, my friend uses reverse osmosis and has to add a multi chelated minerals to his water...he gets them at Suzannes Heath here in MO...it has all the copper, zinc, calcium, and iron as well as some other much needed good stuff...peace and I hope you get it under control bro...

Thanks.

I don't know a thing about hydro. I like dealing with my plants individually instead of putting all of my eggs in one basket like that.

You'll probably need a trace mix and a calmag supplement added up to around 0.2-0.3EC then add your nutes.


You could always cut your tap water with RO though to about 0.2EC then you should have everything you need without any extra supplements.




J

jondamon said:

You'll probably need a trace mix and a calmag supplement added up to around 0.2-0.3EC then add your nutes.
J

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You could always cut your tap water with RO though to about 0.2EC then you should have everything you need without any extra supplements.

My tap water is EC0.5 so I mix 60% rain with 40% tap
Nice EC 0.2 as a base for adding Nutes.

(It was entirely my own idea....

I didn't know that rainwater had enough in it to work. ???

ProdigalSun said:

I didn't know that rainwater had enough in it to work. ???

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It generally doesn't.

Rainwater depending upon how heavily polluted your area is will generally be 0.0EC water. If your tap water has a high EC you could cut it with rainwater to drop its EC to a more manageable level for example.

NoE's tap water is EC0.5. So he cuts it with 60% of 0.0EC rainwater.

You could use some tap and some RO to do the same. Not RO with rainwater.

RO with tap water.



J

I run RO in everything.
For me, I add 5ml of G&H CALiMAGic per gallon of water used. I like the CALiMAGic because it contains the proper trace amount of iron that a lot of other cal/mag's don't.
In side by side testing, both in hydro and soil. I find that RO water adds to the end yield and I seem to get better nutrient uptake or "use" by the plant. So, you may have to decrease the amount of nutrient used, and maybe reduce the CALiMAGic down to 3ml per. (in soil)....In hydro I supplement with a silica (but watch the brand for increased K (G&H Armorsi is 0-0-4, Dyna-Gro Protekt is 0-0-3 and Botanicare Silicablast is 0-0-.5). I run the Botanicare for the low K as I like to adjust that in flower and don't care for the increased K so early. In soil I do some limited or reduced supplementing with silica at approx. 40-50% of what I do for hydro, strain dependent. You may consider adding a Kelp or Sea weed supplement to further amend the micro nutes that you may feel are lacking in the RO IF NEED BE.

As always your going to have to find what works the best for YOU. As I just gave you a simple guideline or starting point.
RO does make a difference! Once you have it dialed in, you'll like it!

Good Luck!

PetFlora said:

LMFAO

Wow, somehow you understood that you want to start with RO water, but you don't know why? That sir, is a recipe for disaster. It can be avoided, but I recommend buying some some good MJ books, and NOT relying on the 411 you get here. As a long time hydro grower (and RO user), I can tell you there is a lot of disinfo here

This is not a time for well so and so said i should do it this way, while your plants or harvest suffers

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No need to lol. I have read a couple of the bibles, papers, editorials, forums, you name it. I like to measure twice and cut once, being aware of the disinformation old wives tales myths and lies taht are out there.

I know why I want R/O water, for fucks sake, water has been by biggest pain in the ass since I started growing. I decided to do something about it, but I want to ask people who have done it before and I have gotten good results from many people on this forum.

Well, you asking "Now What?" confused me.

I use Hydroponic-Research Veg+Bloom, RO formula, as do quite a few growers. It's a complete one part DRY formula.

Here it is in action at ~ 700ppms under both 432w hot5 and 210w leds

You don't have to use "cal-mag" just because you're using RO water. If you're growing in soil, the lime you fortify the soil with will take care of all calcium needs and help buffer pH.

And yes, too much calcium could result in a blockout of Mg and K and affect the availability of P.

If you were growing in hydro, you'd simply use more of the bottle that includes the calcium nitrate. (micro in the case of GH 3 part)

ProdigalSun said:

Finally got an R/O system, had the ph checked, came in at 6.7.

Now what?

Seriously, what can I expect from the plants, or the water, and what if anything will I need to do to deal with this change. I heard you need calmag with R/O. How much, and how often?

I had been getting water from a friends house, because mine was 8.3, but sometimes I still had to use it. I had treated the soil with dolomite to help buffer the water. As soon as I started R/O, the plants started having issues, looked like P and K.

I had added some calmag to be safe. I think there was too much lime added, trying to compensate for shitty water, giving an excess of calcium causing a lockout of NP and K, and the new R/O water brought out the new issues. What I did, a day and a half ago, was cut the old soil 50/50 with some new, then transplanted the 4-6 week old plants from their 1 gallon pots to the 7.5 gallon pots that I finish them in. Added R/O water and so far they seem to be improving.

I had an unexpected move, and am currently building a new room. 1,000w HPS for flowering, 400 for veg, and the new R/O.

Click to expand...

Rainwater usually has a low pH, but that's only because it lacks any buffering capacity. It has a tiny bit of nitrates and sulfates which lowers the pH a lot, but once it goes into the soil, it won't be able to break the buffering capacity of the limestone.

In general, when ppm of water is low, pH means very little.

ProdigalSun said:

I didn't know that rainwater had enough in it to work. ???

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This reasoning doesn't really make sense. Botanicare silica blast only has a lower potassium level because it's significantly weaker. It's made with potassium silicate and sodium silicate, so really you're just replacing some potassium with sodium. Makes no sense at all to me.

The dyna-gro protekt, for example has a higher potassium concentration simply because it has a higher concentration of potassium silicate, and thus a higher concentration of silicates.

Dr. Who said:

(G&H Armorsi is 0-0-4, Dyna-Gro Protekt is 0-0-3 and Botanicare Silicablast is 0-0-.5). I run the Botanicare for the low K as I like to adjust that in flower and don't care for the increased K so early

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