Ro water filtration

[me545]

Hearing Zandor talk about water and the kinda shit that's in it made me get a water filter installed.

Mostly for my health but since i just got a aeroponics system i guess it's a good thing i got it anyways.

My filter has a setting for TDS.
Right now the Installation guy said it's at 90. But it can be lowered to about 15.

He says keeping at a little less than 100 helps to preserve essential minerals while filtering out most shit.

What is the optimum level i should keep it at?
Is there any real benifit from keeping the TDS at 90 that i wouldn't get from a centrum or any benifet to the plants?

[Pursewarden]

Ummm...what's Ro water? I remember hearing that on one of the grow reports, around six or seven. And I've got no idea what any of it means.

I wasn't even sure how to spell it, like if it was "Ro" water or R. O. water or Are Oh water, well, you get the point.

I find that the fact that I am not currently growing and I've never tried it in the past play a large part in my ignorance, so I apologize if this is just one of those things that everyone else seems to be up on, but I plan to start once I find that I've got enough basic information to not be perplexed by water. Dare to dream.

[sttony]

RO (reverse osmosis) water is water that's filtered through a membrane Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_osmosis).

I've never used it myself, would love to try it though. :)

[me545]

I don't know about the plants since it is my first grow and i just started feeding them the RO water, but it sure does taste better.

[Cyclonite]

R.O water should have a PPM of <5, you want it to be 0. Make sure to use cal mag with it though. Some people mix it with tap....personally I start with tap then use RO for all my add backs.

I have never heard of an adjustable membrane on an RO unit....are you sure you have one?

Brita water filters will put out around 80ppm.


RO water is pretty awesome to use...I always get better results with it.

[me545]

http://www.kent.co.in/mineral.htm

It's got a little screw on it that you can use to adjust it.

[Cyclonite]

Interesting, doesn't say how they add back minerals to the RO though. I wouldn't be surprised if they ran a certain ratio of RO water to tap purified with just the pre and carbon filters....this would raise the mineral content of the water.

You can pick up a nice R.O unit from ebay for like 120 to your door.....I didn't price this one but im sure its >200.

Many companies put a little twist on a preexisting technology and patent it calling it new.