Reverse Osmosis

[drumin]

Who is using R/O filter in their home and what brand are you using? I'm thinking about getting one and am looking for tips.
What do you think about this one http://cgi.ebay.com/100-GPD-Reverse-Osmosis-complete-sys-D1006CT_W0QQitemZ160058577568QQihZ006QQcategoryZ20 684QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[rolanterroy]

I'm no expert on these machines, but this one here..

http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/69/68926/d1006t.jpg

Looks and sounds killer 6-stage (yes!) and if you can bag this puppy for under $120.00 I would consider that a pretty good dealio! I have shopped around a little bit and helped different peeps get these and soon hope to be able to afford one myself. Just make sure and get the holding tank size ya will need, cuz you will dig on your coffee and everything else so much more using this water amigo I shit you negative! Heh heh.

I would get that myself for $120.00 or less in a heartbeat; just make sure:

Stages - 6 stage is awesome from my understanding.

Capacity - Lots of these fill their tanks pretty slowly so make extra sure ya gots a big enough tank size to cover you and your fam and the garden.

Filter Replacements - Check to see how easy these are to get and how much they cost!

Great move there bro, your growing (salty) troubles will be over mang! :D

- REv :smoke1:

[SpanglyBoovus]

This is actually the next thing on my list of things to get. :D

[Gr8Hit]

Uses only RO wanter for ALL my grow needs. EXCEPT flushing.
It was here when I aquired this place. seems that there were MANY signs
that a grow may have happened here in the late 80's or even the 70's.
There was one finished room in the basement. and it looks like there is about
10 sets of shelving used for cloning. Lines in the ceiling for drying and a built in humidifier that is actually has bolted in PVC tubing leading to the drain in the basement. Funny stuff IF you know what to look for!

[Elephunt man]

I got mine at home depot for $150 I think, don't bother with the $250 'premium' one, only difference is push-loc fittings:rolleyes: .

I did a real ghetto temporary install in the bathroom for now, but eventually I will move it to the garage and connect it to a res with a float.

Here's a pic, hanging from the towel rack no less, lol:rolleyes: :D

[rolanterroy]

Uses only RO wanter for ALL my grow needs. EXCEPT flushing.
It was here when I aquired this place. seems that there were MANY signs
that a grow may have happened here in the late 80's or even the 70's.
There was one finished room in the basement. and it looks like there is about
10 sets of shelving used for cloning. Lines in the ceiling for drying and a built in humidifier that is actually has bolted in PVC tubing leading to the drain in the basement. Funny stuff IF you know what to look for!

Heh heh moved into a few places like that in my day LoL! STuff all looks a little too "right" for there not to have been a grow there before ;)

- REvster

[Elephunt man]

Forgot to mention...If you plan on using a reservoir and float valve, you won't necessarily need the storage tank. I have seen them sold without the tank, and seen the tanks sold seperately.

Somethin' to think about...

[rolanterroy]

What do you mean exactly amigo.... You mean you just get the best price on one without a tank then you just hook up the system to your own reservoir?

'splian please heh heh ;)

- REvonator :smoke1:

[Elephunt man]

The storage tank is for 'water on demand', you will get about 2 gallons 'pretty quickly' like maybe in 3 minutes. Once the storage tank's 'built up water pressure' is depleted, it will just dribble until you turn it off and let the tank fill again. Basically, without the tank, it will just dribble when on, BUT if you have a res and float valve controlling the 'faucet' then the dribbling won't matter, the res will stay full, and you will always have surplus.

Did that make sense? Terrible at explaining stuff sometimes with text, need to wave my hands around and stuff:p .

The 'storage tank' is just an 'air pressured bladder', just absorbs your water pressure until you need it.

[rolanterroy]

No, heh heh, but in my defense I am really crispy right now hahaha..

I will know what ya mean as soon as I go shop for one I'm sure I am just not really up close and personal familliar with one of my own yet so I am just not getting how the float valve gives you constant pressure (water pressure) in the tank. One of my friends has one with a pretty big tank, and it powers out the R/O water from the tank with killer pressure until it's empty. But I mean the R/O filtering system(s) are slow by default (as far as I know) so how are you getting around that by loosing a tank and having a float valve...

- REv :smoke1:

[Elephunt man]

Yeah, I thought that was a crappy description. What I plan to do is this:

When I move the setup to the garage, I will delete the 'faucet' and attach a float valve to a 55 gallon drum, not the hydro res, just a RO water res. I will mount a drain in the bottom for filling buckets for plants, or gallon containers for drinking water.

Whether I use all the water in the drum, or just a gallon, it will still refill and shut off by itself. You see, it will fill anyway, regardless if I have a 'tank' or not. And, if I take alot out of the res (like half or more) the tank only going to refill 2 gallons quickly, after that, it will dribble till full, as though I had no tank.

Any better?:o

ps: you can 'tee' together as many 'tanks' as you want, you don't really need a big one;).

[4 Dragons]

That looks like a really nice one. 6 Stage is the way to go, it even get's out Fluoride. 100 gallons per day is also excellent and if you can nab it for $120 it will be an excellent bargain. I have seen units like this go for well over $400.
Good luck, 4D

[rolanterroy]

Yeah OK believe it or not that was exactly what I thought you meant at first it was the "no tank" thing that had me all fugged up (that and a Cherry Thunderfuck doobie) ... heh heh yeah I see now. FLoat valve to fill whatever to level. Thanks mang.

My friend went from sad to SUPER GLAD growing organics with this one single addition changing over from tap water left out overnight. He has a 6 stage too I am pretty sure, his feeds into a 65gal HEAVY DUTY plastic trashcan modified like EMan is saying. He just draws off the 65gal for whatever he needs too like coffee etc...

Does floride mess with cannabis or is it known to have some effect, cuz I never heard of anything regarding florines and cannabis....anyone...anyone.....Bueller? Heh heh

- REvsterooney :smoke1:

[drumin]

Hey Rev, I think EM's talking about a "toilet" type set up. The only water pressure comes from gravity. The water flows into the tank until the floater shuts it off at a certain level; put a spigot in the bottom of the tank... VIOLA!! toilet water! :courtjester:

Thanks for all the input so far.

[Elephunt man]

You got it Rev:cool:

Another thing, in the photo above, that kit has a 'self tapping' tap for your water line. I think that is why it is cheaper, those things suck. In fact, in some states they are 'illegal' meaning install will void homeowner's insurance, etc.

Go ahead and get the right adapter from 'the depot' or hardware store or somewhere. The adapter goes between your sink faucet and your water valve under the sink.

I can take a picture of mine if you like.

I have seen those 'clear' setups like the one in the pic before. Mine is opaque, for obvious reasons, we all know what happens to water exposed to light;) . Most of us have ppm meters anyway, that will tell you when to change the filters.

Happy to help:)

[4 Dragons]

Fluoride can be nasty toxic to humans causing headaches and other problems. The fluoride that is in our water and toothpaste comes from a byproduct of aluminum which to me sounds like it would not be the greatist thing for plants either but I don't know for sure.
4D

[rolanterroy]

we all know what happens to water exposed to light

What happens to water exposed to light? I mean I know about what happens to water with nutrient elements in it but what's up with R/O water exposed to light?

- REvster :smoke1:

[Gr8Hit]

With RO... the filters NEED to be changed at least once a YEAR when using it for a grow... kinda like a britta filter that only has to be changed once every 3 months... if you are not using it for drinking you are shoving alot more water through the system than you would normally so changing. This means that your ladies will want fresh RO water after they get spoiled on it.

They are a little pricey--- but definately worth it in the long run if you are doing a "larger" (more than 10 plants a year) grow.

Remember flushing before you go into flower state and again before harvest and you will be just dandy!

Best of luck to you!

[rolanterroy]

Drumin, when Gr8hit mentioned the Brita it reminded me how well they do filtering really shitty hard water. Now lots of peeps will tell ya that they don't do hardly anything, and this is always based on pH or TDS readings, and I'll agree, it "seems" to do very little by those standards. But, on several ocassions I have seen a simple Brita Pitcher Filter turn a grow around bro. I have used them myself many times when up against hard water stuff with great success.

It's no R/O water or nothin' amigo but way way way better than hard tap or well water in my experience. It must do something like balance out the salts, I really don't know *why* but I can tell ya first hand whatever they do remove makes for way happier plants than those grown using hard water. Mebbe just get one while you decide on your R/O machine or whatever.

I dunno if they work well with organics first hand, but I would bet it always works (noticably) better with any indoor cannabis growing over hard water.

Anyways just a random thought my friend.

- REv

[Gr8Hit]

I actually think that a britta water filter would be absolutely fantastic!!! This is a wonderful idea rolanterroy! Having this RO system it takes me about a good day to "gather the water"---
What I mean is that the 1st time I use it it will fill about a 2 gallon container.
If you don't leave enough time to recharge you may be lucky to pull another 3 gallons from it in a 6 hour period. As it has to RECHARGE.

Whereas a britta would be ideal to use as a back up or an every other watering schedual to keep all the plants getting an even amount of what they are in need of. I guess one could test it using a grow comparing the taste and grow characteristics of a Britta VS RO system. I personally don't have the time for it as I have about 8 different strains in my grow now. But I imagine there is info out there if we look.

Damn this makes me want to go out and get that back up Brita now!!!
LOL:p

[Elephunt man]

What happens to water exposed to light? I mean I know about what happens to water with nutrient elements in it but what's up with R/O water exposed to light?

- REvster :smoke1:

I think you got me there REV, I was thinking that RO under direct light could promote pathogens/algae but maybe I'm wrong. Perhaps this is only a concern with nute solutions or tap? At any rate, I think I will keep my containers and filters light tight.

As far as refill times, this is completely dependant on your supply water pressure. Someone said something about '6 hour storage container refill times', I think this is setup specific. My RO system refills my 2 gallon storage tank in about 15 minutes. Right now I keep about 15 gallon containers under the sink (in the dark) and just by refilling a couple every time I enter the bathroom, I always have 10 gallons or so on hand. I'm sure I could come up with 50 gallons pretty fast if necesssary.

[rolanterroy]

Good cuz I store my R/O water in translucent plastic 5gal jugs; so if you were gonna be backin' that up I was gonna be listening heh heh. :D

- REv :smoke1:

[drumin]

I'm only using about 3 gallons every 3 days with 5 plants in late flower, 2 mothers and 6 in veg. so I doubt I'll run into issues with a 4 gallon tank... especially if I keep (like I do now) 3, 1 gallon jugs filled all the time.

[CB]

does the Ph drift at all when ya store RO water for long periods ?

only tried it once in hydro with GH nutes and didn't have much luck at all....
I was get'n it from the local store 20 gallon at a time and it would last a couple weeks...

[rolanterroy]

With any nutes in it you will get changes *especially* in the light along with a bunch of various fungi/algea etc heh heh.

Straight up R/O water I never had drift with before. But remember if your meter does not compensate for temperature differences and you check it once at 78 deg. and next time at 64 degrees, there's gonna be a difference in the pH reading to some degree but not in the actual pH.

- REvster

[Gr8Hit]

Have let it sit for as long as about a week in preperation of feeding ----

Mostly without nutes added, but there have been times it HAS been added.

To me there is no real shift in PH, though I am only using it for soil and hydro would be much more exact IMO.

I have not had a problem as the water does not get to sit long.

[peakguy]

so, what did you do here bro? I am thinking that I have to get this done because my well water is kinda hard and I can't keep hauling home case units of RO h20.
I am thinking that the best thing would be to install something under my kitchen tap. I don't know much about the filter idea, but it might be less cumbersome. do tell.

[CB]

my well sucks to :mad:

I use rain water, and river when no rain :D

[reubeni]

Been using RO for the last couple of years a word of caution for you! keep an eye on your soil PH as the RO comes out pretty low PH; your soil will turn out acidic overnight:eek: I now mix with the tap poison now