RO Systems - Recommendations?

[J.C]

Hi all,

 

I've been fine tuning my environment and still running into small issues. Latest one which has ocured on the last three runs is lots of yellowing on the leaves from about week 2-3 of flower. I'm guessing it's a nutrient issue but need to try and pin it down. A while ago I got a proper water report done, rpeort as below:

 

Hi xxx,

we have tested your water, results and comments below. Values are in parts per million (ppm) except pH.

Calcium           79.2

Magnesium     1

Sulphate          57

Alkalinity          219

pH                    7.35

 

This is a hard water with moderate to high levels of Calcium and Alkalinity but very low Magnesium values, the sulphate level is good.

The imbalance between the Calcium and Magnesium means that even when Hard water food is used the Ca:Mg ratio is outside the good range. For best results you will need to either add some extra magnesium or order a custom nutrient. the amount of Mg needed will depend on the growing media used, let us know what you are growing in and we can calculate it for you.

 

Other half wants a whole house water filter put in so seems like a good time to put in an RO system, had a search on the forum and it looks like a few members have had success. Anyone got any recommendations on systems? Was looking at a GrowMax system but looks expensive for what it is?

 

Cheers

[latigid aikon]

Have you tried just adding a little Epsom salts?

Just now, J.C said:

Other half wants a whole house water filter put in

It's not a good idea to only drink RO water, it can leech minerals from your body and also from food you cook in it.

[J.C]

@latigid aikon - Yes although used Canna Mono Mag instead and I'm still seeing issues. I'm fairly sure I've got everything else right but the water is the one factor I don't have control over.

 

Regarding RO water for drinking, I don't think we would use an RO filter for that, maybe just a system to take out some of the salt.

[latigid aikon]

If you do go down the RO route you'll need to add calmag to every watering. I was doing that for years because my water was very similar to yours but I recently moved to somewhere with even harder water (still with nearly no mag) and I haven't actually plumbed my RO in yet. I've just used Epsoms and it's so much less hassle.

 

How much mono mag were you using?

[J.C]

I'm ok with adding calmag, at least I would have control over what minerals were in the water! Think I was doing about 3.7ml per 10L, as advised by a user on here

[badbillybob]

canna mono, do a litre bottle of trace mix irc.

this is an option and may be beneficial.

 

failing that add cal mag till you get a reading of 0.2, and then aadd your normal grow/ bloom

or add some  trace mix as well as cal mag

[latigid aikon]

25 minutes ago, J.C said:

Think I was doing about 3.7ml per 10L,

I haven't done the maths but that doesn't seem like very much. Canna say the dosage is between 10-20ml per 10 litre so you're well under their range and you're starting with nearly no mag in your water out of the tap.

[Jon Smith]

For reference; "FilterMaster OSMOPOWER 2.0 190 l" seems to work and the price is more affordable compared to growmax. Not sure how well the osmopower price compares to growmax in the long run, that is, how long the filter lasts before needing a replacement and so forth.