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-   -   Water PPM ? (http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2418)

T'Mater 05-16-2012 06:09 PM

Water PPM ?
 
Ok so i was going to repeat the filter set up GPS has, then the wife said she really liked the portable RO set up i found online. We plan on doing a lot of traveling.

So before i order'd anything, just for the hell of it i checked the PPM of my tap water here in the new house and it's 150PPM. Is that really to high to start off with? Ya i understand the lower it is the better, but if that works it just means i'm in no big hurry for the portable RO setup yet.

And also i've read some ppl are taking whatever PPM the water is and adding that to the nute PPM. Sooo say i started out with a 150, they are taking the 150 and adding it to say 1100 give you a total PPM of 1250. That's not right is it?

I've alway's just added my nutes to the existing water till i got to my needed PPM. If it was 1100, i added nutes till the meter say's 1100.

T'Mater 05-18-2012 12:38 PM

So no one check's there PPM of there water before they add nutes? Or is everyone just using RO water and that's that?

GpsFrontier 05-18-2012 08:44 PM

As for me, I can't say I do check EC/PPM/TDS before adding the nutrients, or even after for that mater. I don't even own a EC/PPM/TDS meter.

Quote:

So before i order'd anything, just for the hell of it i checked the PPM of my tap water here in the new house and it's 150PPM. Is that really to high to start off with?
PPM is just a number. What does that 150 PPM consist of?

Quote:

And also i've read some ppl are taking whatever PPM the water is and adding that to the nute PPM. Sooo say i started out with a 150, they are taking the 150 and adding it to say 1100 give you a total PPM of 1250. That's not right is it?
What does that original 150 PPM consist of?

Quote:

I've alway's just added my nutes to the existing water till i got to my needed PPM. If it was 1100, i added nutes till the meter say's 1100.
What does that original 150 PPM consist of? PPM is just a number. If your water supply read 1100 PPM before adding the nutrients, then your water supply would already contain the right nutrients the plants need right? That would be like saying as long as your gallon container of paint has a full gallon in it, it will always be the right color no mater what color paint you poured into it to fill it.

No, that's just saying you have 1100 PPM of something in the water supply, not that it's the right mineral salts, as well as in the right proportions. Just that there is 1100 PPM of some unknown elements in it. If the meter reads 150 PPM before adding the nutrients, that's just saying there's 150 PPM of some unknown elements in it. So if you add 950 PPM of a balanced nutrient solution, to 150 PPM of unknown elements you will get 1100 PPM on the meter. But you still only have 950 PPM of a balanced nutrient, the rest of the mineral content is still unknown. The higher the PPM of your water supply, the higher the unknown mineral elements your dealing with. That's all your pre-nutrient PPM test is telling you.

There's no right or wrong way. It just maters what that original 150 PPM (or any amount) consist of, weather it will be an issue in your final nutrient solution or not.

T'Mater 05-21-2012 10:51 AM

So before you built your filter setup, was you just using tap water or buying RO water?

GpsFrontier 05-21-2012 07:36 PM

We have a RO system here at the house, so I get RO for free. However the drawback is I can only get about 2 gallons of water out of it at a time. If I need more than 10-15 gallons to do a nutrient change, I need to start collecting water a day or more before I need it. Sometimes I forgot, and needed to use some tap water as well to fill up the reservoir enough to get by for a day.

I originally planed to buy a large volume RO system (700 gallons a day) instead of building the filter system for the greenhouse. But after thinking over the fact that a RO system uses 2-3 times more water than you get from it, and the fact I now have three 275 gallon reservoirs to fill. I just couldn't justify dumping 1,800 2,700 gallons of water down the drain each time I need to get the 900 gallons of RO water to fill my 3 reservoirs. So I made a system that wont dump water down the drain out of necessity.

Stan 05-22-2012 07:11 PM

I check the PPM in the reservoir every week. Mine is around 125 PPM from the tap. If the plants I'm growing calls for say 1000 PPM I just add enough nutes until I hit that mark. I'll check 7 days later and will add more nutes to hit that mark again. Every 2 weeks I empty out reservoir fill it with tap water and add the nutes again.

quapon 06-05-2012 09:58 PM

As for my situation, we already have a RO system on our aquaponic garden set-up so I don't usually check the PPM. I think you'll need to have a system like that so you won't need to check you PPM time by time.

Pineywoods 06-27-2012 03:07 PM

I would suggest sending the water into a lab to have it tested to see what that 150 ppm is. I have my well water tested about once a year and it costs me less than 50 bucks and they tell me what's in the water I start with. As GPS said more than likely it's not 150 ppm of a balanced formula. It may be 150 ppm of one element

tandt 07-07-2012 10:05 AM

WHAT is PPM
 
when you speak of PPM... PPM of what?:rolleyes:

tandt 07-07-2012 10:12 AM

When you are talking about PPM. PPM of WHAT..... PPM of chlorine , sufer, ect...... I AM NOT UNDERSTANDING> HELP HELP HELP

T'Mater 07-07-2012 09:52 PM

We were talking about the PPM of the water. How much nutes are in the water prior to adding my own nutes.

fintuckyfarms 07-14-2012 06:19 PM

I have never checked mine and don't even own a meter. I have had good success without one. If I ever went commercial I would probably have an automatic system that checks and adjusts but so far I don't.

T'Mater 07-21-2012 05:56 PM

So those of you with out a meter, you just use RO water and hope it's working right? I ask that cause one time i bought some water from Walmart, through there machine that was RO. And it wasn't any better then my tap water. I had used it prior and checked it and it was good. There machine wasn't working right and i caught it. LOL


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