Hard water and ina humidifier

[Willyd]

So I have a question and maybe it’s a stupid one. I live in a very dry climate with hard water and have to use a humidifier. Will the vapour from the hard water affect my plants at all?

[SirSmksAlot]

No it shouldn't. However you will have to chisel out the mineral deposits for your humidifier quite often. I also have very hard tap water and I'm cleaning the thing every couple of days. If you use a cold must humidifier you won't have to clean it nearly as often.

[Willyd]

Awesome thank you. I just cleaned the heating element in my humidifier and oh my it was disgusting so I will definitely keep a closer eye on that. Thanks again!

[SirSmksAlot]

Mine will actually shut down if it gets too gunked up.

[FunkyButtLovin]

Between my hard water and the salt I add, it ends up looking like a dry salt lake in front of my unit. I keep it on a tote lid to catch the splatter.

[Willyd]

just curious are you using epson salt? and if so how much?

[FunkyButtLovin]

No I just grab the table salt and add a pinch or two at a time until it makes plenty of steam.

[NickyChicks]

If you don't use distilled water you will get deposits from the water vapor. You can end up with white dust all over especially with fans circulating air, I learned from experience in my bedroom humidifier years ago.

[PaganRich]

I have had problems with calcium from the hard water in my area which I have finally figured out...took a bit of time but calcium excess can look like a variety of other probs to me...but what I now do is add I part chlorinated tap water to 4 parts dehum water to allow chlorine to take out any residue bad bacteria that could prove harmful and leave to stand overnight to let chlorine evaporat then use it in my compost teas to bring it in line with what I need. It`s a bit of a process but I`ve noticed a massive improvement in my girls. I have a dehumidifier in my tent which I run overnight and collect the water that way as well as units around my house. I live in the UK and for the last 6 months it has been overcast most of that time with either rain, snow, sleet or hail but mainly just rain-couple of days ago I had the lot in a space of half an hour...it`s been a long slog...anyway, good luck mate

[hollywood420]

What cause the white dust to from a cool mist humidifier? What do you do to stop it?

[Willyd]

it's caused by hard water calcium. To get rid of it the water will need to be softened with salt or you will need to use distilled water which will get expensive. the dust it leaves can look like mold.

[SoOrbudgal]

Willyd this is a good point you bring up. Those of us with hard water, well water in my case does show white stain when dried. I see it on my leaf if I leave a droplet and it dries. Hubby takes good car to car wash cause of this. Unless you wipe it off real quick leave water stain.

[Jordann]

Here's a daily look into my humidifier. Weekly I have to poke at the uptake. To the point I said fuck humidity

[Willyd]

wow i thought mine was bad. How have you been making out without humidity control? I flowered a plant at 30% didn't turn out to bad did't get nearly the yield I was hoping for

[Jordann]

I'm at 50 give or take rh I can get it down lower with the exhaust system cranked. But they're happy at 50 sometimes 60. But thats depending on everyone's heating system, and it's winter here so it's supposed to be low. I'm sure I'll need a dehumidifier in the summer. Just wasn't worth the work to keep the humidifier going. And when it was it got me around 65 the but the windows in the house would fog up.. humidifier for sale cheap cheap lmao

[Jordann]

8 plants put off enough humidity in a 4 by 4. I know there getting really dry at the roots when the humidity goes below 40rh

[Willyd]

Without a humidifier my rh drops to 30. If I have it crancked I can get it up to 70 for clones. Right now im sitting at about 50 and thats with my humidifier running full time. Stupid cold dry Canada

[Jordann]

Could go get cullagen jugs of water for the water cooler and use that in the humidifier if you're stuck

[Willyd]

its funny you say that I have some that im going to use to make the reservoir bigger im sick of filling it every day

[Jordann]

They have good water, I fill mine at the home hardware store here in town. The water is usually between 0 to 20 ppm. It's perfect for humidifiers but for plants gotta fix er up with some calmag and what ever nutrients you use, usually the pH is spot on, here Anyways. It's not special water or anything it just comes from the town water and run through their brand filter. Our tap water is between 8 or 9 pH. I've thought about using straight water from them but it's a pain to go get jugs filled and shit when I can fix the water that comes out my tap, for watering anyways.

[Willyd]

0-20ppm of what? I've only ever tested the ph of my tap water and I thought it was bad coming in between 6-7 ph.

[Jordann]

Parts per million. Get an ec meter they're cheap on Amazon or hardware store. Probably just abit or residual stuff that made it through the filter. An ec meter really helps to see what you have in your water before you put in your nutrients in and afterwards just to have a good idea of what you're actually putting in. Some feeding schedules say how much you should put in and it's measured in ppm as well as tea spoons or millimeters. I have 2 EC meters. One for usual use then one to make sure it's still working properly, same with my ph meter I still use the strips from time to time to check if my meter is reading properly.

[Willyd]

Good to know thank you so much. I'm going to amazon right now to grab an EC meter.

[Jordann]

From what I've noticed ordering different brands. It's the same meter with a different name on it or different colors lol. But they all seem to do the job. Read the same.