Horrible water/ may I pick your brain please

[MeEasy]

Hello everyone, I just moved into a house with horrible water and I've been trying to get to a happy place or at least a better one. (if you don't care about the journey or my bs skip to last paragraph) I'll tell you where I am and if you guys have any suggestions I'll be listening 4sure. No one has been living here for a while so the water was sitting in the pipes for some time and has definitely changed in the short time I've been here, but seems to have leveled out.

First the water numbers straight from the tap TDS= 570ppm with a pH of 7.78
I tried my inline hose filter and there was little change but I'm sure it took out most the chlorine/chloramine whichever is in it. I bought a larger filter setup with two 10x2.5 and filters with coco charcoal to clean it up enough to use and got TDS down to 420ppm but the ph jumped up ? to 8.1..... next I got some vitamin C figured it would help me with the ph and neutralize any chlorine the filters left it got the ph down to 7.1 but the ppm went up 480 this is what I've been using but it was bothering me using it. I only have two plants growing and one looks to be having a problem with it already

Now I've installed an ro system and my idea is to use a mix of tap water treated with vitamin C and ro water to get the TDS level down to an acceptable level. Yesterday I was still flushing the ro system (so I'll need to get better numbers) but took some of the water from it just to (play with) see where it was at that point and mix in some tap to see what would happen but I would love to get some thoughts from you guys on how you might do it so I have more than just my opinion and ideas so I can get to the best place possible.

I know I don't want to use the tap water straight and I don't want to use the ro water straight I think one is to clean and will end up causing a mineral deficiency and the other would cause a build-up of minerals. Here's the readings from yesterday like I said I was still flushing the ro system but wanted to play with the numbers to give me an idea of where I am.... first pic straight tap next is straight ro then mixed about 1/3 tap . I will of course treat the tap water, I'm thinking just a little vitamin C will neutralize the chlorine/chloramine and bring the ph down in the mid 6 range where it needs to be

Sorry the pics didn't load in the order I said but it shouldn't be hard to tell which is which

[crucialbunny]

Here's a very interesting and informative short video about using tap water on our grows. I used to jump through fiery hoops to avoid getting chlorine in my living soil and now I just don't worry about it. Why make things more difficult than they need to be? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMWpFDEf5j8

[MeEasy]

Yeah crucial I can't tell you the amount of reading and watching videos on water I've done in the month since I first tested the water here at the new house 😅 I can't find anything that says it's absolutely necessary to get rid of the chlorine, and actually I'm really starting to think store bought micro is a scheme too the micro in the world, soil, water, air reproduces at such a rate that if the soil itself can support the life it's already in there and adding more has no benefit. Unless you have sterilized your soil it's not necessary to add anything more than some poop and good compost to get the life going. Even doing teas is less effective than top dressing the stuff as a solid and watering it in.

Now I've been doing things a certain way for a very long time (filtering chlorine is just one lol) and it will be hard to change me but what I've been reading is pretty interesting 4sure

[MeEasy]

I reread what I wrote and it kinda sounded like I was saying that I already know everything, that's not at all what I wanted to say I am agreeing with you and added some more stuff that they're finding out about that we/I have been buying and or doing for years that's probably unnecessary

[crucialbunny]

It sounds to me like you're dealing with very hard water and that can cause mineral build up in your soil. I'm very lucky where i am because my water is almost always exactly 7. It's interesting that my water goes in 7 and runoff is at 7 as well. Living soil has the remarkable ability to balance PH rapidly. One of the perks of having worm bins is I get castings that are unbelievably full of beneficials. i will fill a 5 gallon bucket with some tap water, let it air for a couple hours, stir in a couple tablespoons of molasses, a fistful of castings, sometimes kelp powder, and water as usual. Later in the season i like to bump it up with some Epsom. I've been going since early March and still haven't had to use any fertilizers. Once the buds are really popping I like to add a banana and avocado tea to my feeding schedule as well for the P&K it provides.

[Rik]

Could you just buy store brand purified drinking water by the gallon? That’s what I do.

[MeEasy]

I go through alot of water, it's just the initial setup then it's the same routine from then on, beats carrying water. I've just never had to deal with water this poor. I had to put in the ro system in order to make coffee and cook anyways so it's no additional cost. I have it figured out I just thought maybe someone else has dealt with the same thing and might have a different idea

[Rwise]

All I can get from the store is RO water.

[Floopydoop]

Vitamin C chewable tabs crushed up will kill both chlorine and chloramine. Chlorine I believe is instantaneous, chloramine has a half life of about 4 minutes. So 20 minutes or so to clear that one.

Citric acid powder also works....that's what the US city water districts use to flush their lines of chlorine products.

[MeEasy]

I use vitamin C powder now mainly for a ph down but it also clears up any chlorine the filters left behind

[Poppa]

For the last 4 or 5 grows I have used RO water only. I can't tell you the PH of it but it takes approximately .33 ml of PH down to get 4 gallons of just water for doing flushes to 6.0. For mixing nuts I don't adjust the PH the PPM is 0 then I use GH Flora Trio and CalMag and their buffers bring nuts to 6.0 so far unless I fuck up the plants seem happy.

[SoOrbudgal]

LOL@Poppa that's when i mix up a batch of epsome salts get back to regular after a F-up LOL