Reverse Osmosis Alternatives ... ?

i read somewhere on here that someone was using a "car filter"? to filter their city tap water down to about 8ppm...

anyone know of Reverse Osmosis alternatives? maybe i'll just go for the real deal after the first crop... but until then, i got bigger fish to fry on equipment purchases.

but if there were a semi-functional and CHEAP alternative ...

I think ur talking about that mister clean car washing thing. never used it but I read about it as well and it looks loke it works awesome. I used a 3 stage britta filter for a while, but it raised my ppm and ph so i stopped using it.

i'm not googling anything relevant... do you have any other information or a link on this filtration product?

heres a link Mr. Clean AutoDry Carwash System

there isnt a store near you where you can get 25cent gallons my water is perfect from the h20store

Speaking of bigger fish to fry? I use tap water but I add Pond Water Clarifier to remove the chlorine and all the bad stuff! That way the water is safe for the plants and you still get the minerals and elememts that are removed with R/O.

i checked out the link... so.. it looks like the filtering aspect is from PUR water purification... so basically its just a regular water filter canister.

purchasing 5gal. water refills may be the route i'll end up going.

i'll check into the pond clarifier's claims next time i see it at a TSC or somewhere.

If this is your first grow and you're not using more than 10gal/week, you might just want to finish it up using the filtered water available at Home Depot. You can get 5gal jugs of RO water at the Depot for $5.99(+$4.00 bottle deposit). I tested it and it measured 16ppm with a pH of 7.1. It's obviously not an ideal scenario that you'd want to carry on if you're using more than 10gal/week, but it might be a feasible solution in your unique situation.

not my first, and hopefully not my last.

but i am lazy and would prolly get tired of hauling water, i'll likely be looking for a way to make my city tap water closer to 'ideal'

wish the darn ph meter would come through the mail already. ppm sounds like a very usefull meter as well. its now on my wish list

DaGambler said:

not my first, and hopefully not my last. but i am lazy and would prolly get tired of hauling water, i'll likely be looking for a way to make my city tap water closer to 'ideal'

wish the darn ph meter would come through the mail already. ppm sounds like a very usefull meter as well. its now on my wish list

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You should check out this product I found at WalMart called "Zero Water". It's water filtration system, similar in appearance to Brita, that removes all chlorine and leaves you with water that has essentially no dissolved solids. It even comes with a digital TDS meter that measures PPM. All for $100! Here's a link to the Zero Water website. And like I said, you can get it at any WalMart.

looks simple. simple is good. and the replacement filters look cheap enough.

i've got no real hydro experience... so it looks like TDS and PPM meters are one in the same? with ppm being the standard unit of measure used by the 'Total Disolved Solids' meter...

further down the road i'll deffinitely consider this product if i am having any trouble with my water, thanks (right now i'm just using store-bought 'cuz i've only 2 plants and some seeds en route)

Yes that's correct. Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) is measured in terms of Parts Per Million, or PPM. Absolutely pure water with no contaminants or other dissolved matter has a TDS measurement of 0ppm. Depending on the area you live in, tap water has a TDS measurement of between 50ppm-200ppm. My tap water measures 126ppm. Quality filtered water available at most grocery stores has a measurement of 15ppm-20ppm. When you have a TDS meter, you can use it to calculate your nutrients with more accuracy than just measuring out teasspoons or tablespoons. When I first introduce nutes to my plants, I start them out with a concentration of 600ppm. On their next feeding, the concentration goes up to 800ppm. Finally on their third feeding, I increase the concentration to 1000ppm and maintain that level until the week before flowering when I flush with plain water and Clearex. When I move onto the flowering stage, I use the TDS meter to gradually bring up my nute level the same way I did for the veg. stage (but using bloom nutes of course). Hope this helps ya.

switch10 said:

heres a link Mr. Clean AutoDry Carwash System

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This is what I've been using for the last few months. At first, not so thrilled (the color indicator seemed to turn brown instantly), but now, after having filtered what is likely to add up to hundreds of gallons of water, on demand, with zero waste, I dig it. We were using it already for washing the cars and bikes, and love that ionizing rinse feature because our water is so hard, no spots. It's a Good Thing.

at a cost of around 20 bucks... plus 20 bucks for a 3 refill pack... looks very affordable.

how often (gallons) do you seem to have to replace the filter?

is it true that this seems to filter the (city) tap water down to about 8 ppm? i'm guessing a person would still need to let the water stand to dissolve chlorine?

DaGambler said:

at a cost of around 20 bucks... plus 20 bucks for a 3 refill pack... looks very affordable.

how often (gallons) do you seem to have to replace the filter?

is it true that this seems to filter the (city) tap water down to about 8 ppm? i'm guessing a person would still need to let the water stand to dissolve chlorine?

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We no longer have a TDS meter (got rid of all the old aquarium stuff), but we're on well water. And that water is so hard and full of "shit" that we have a layer of mud or... I don't know what it is, it's precipitated out of the water I think, in the bottoms of all the toilet tanks. Clogged up shower heads, within months, it's just HARD and full of crap.

Anyway... Gosh, I think I got the first filter set-up around August, I'm sorry I can't remember, but I JUST replaced the filter. I'm sure I've gotten a hell of a lot more than 100 gallons out of it, but then I haven't been measuring TDS at all, so I may have needed to replace it sooner. You can tell with the cars because they don't dry as well and they dry with spots.