Nanasi 0_o Ask a Water Guy (Well and R.O. specialist)

Everyone has God given talents (art, music etc that I missed out on) Mine happens to be chemistry which for some odd reason, I tend to soak up like a sponge. The more I got the more I wanted…sick I know but after spending a lifetime in production agriculture… the years of biochem and plant physiology/pathology has served me well!!

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Greetings!
I’ve found water quality to be an extremely important aspect of my growing operation ( obviously).
My problem is I live in MT and the watershed my well pulls from consists mainly of limestone and the irrigation water I get has high alkalinity and severe levels of bicarbonates. I’ve been using various combinations of RO water and tap, along with citric acid to drop my pH down to usable levels. It’s been working well enough, but it’s a pain in the butt.
I look forward to seeing what this thread does!

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beartooth I have a suggestion for you! I am assuming your water does not contain any organic solvents (usually found in urban area with lots of manufacturing) Here in northern Cali, I am using good well water but like anyone tapping calcarious aquifers my bicarbs were also quite high at around 300 ppm.
Send a water sample with all inorganics listed to Pure Aqua in Santa Ana, Calif. These people are worldwide experts in desalination/purification. Tell them your inlet water pipe size, pressure, and r/o water requirements and they will design and price a system for you at no charge!

my system

first goes through a anthracite/sand media filter and is injected with a small amount of descaler before being pumped at 125 psi through the membrane filters. The cost was about $7000 but remember it’s 3500 gal/day…@ 2 to 2.5 ppm. If you can filter, descale and run through the membrane filters your contaminants will be gone and you pH should be pretty darn close to neutral…anyway check out pureaqua.com and you see the wide capacity choices they offer! Good luck and let me know if I can answer any questions you might have. Search RO-200 and you will see they offer systems down to 600 gal/day…if you had a 1000 gal poly water tank you would only have to run it occasionally!!

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Hey @TheMadFlascher whats up? Good evening.

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Hi preybird…Sorry I was logged off the site most of this evening, distracted with another project. Just came back in and here it is 10 min till midnight!! Gonna get some sleep and catch up in the morning!! Get some rest!!

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Feels wrong using anything that says Dupont on it for cannabis lol

Useful info though :+1:

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I would be inclined to agree… but where did you see it?

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First post, the filter housing.

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ah… yea there are many manufacturers…that’s just a random pic for reference… ill swap it later if i remember

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Thanks for the reply, I am expanding my operation quite a bit this year so a system like that may become a reality soon.
So far I have been getting by with this

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I like the manifolded membranes.
How is the tds coming out of the 150 GPD membranes?

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Bear, I am guessing that without a descaler your high bicarbs are probably going to plug your osmotic membrane, and that may be having a negative impact on your clean water yields. Actually a water softener ahead of your r/o unit may be the trick for you if another r/o system isn’t in the cards for you…
FWIW and good luck to you!!

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Is your sand filter filled with green sand? The stuff is super handy with toxin removal.i had every issue in the book with some well water we used for a grow.cost a few grand but we got it figured out in time for flower.my partner was a class1 pump repair and water treatment guy luckily enough. I also use mineralization carts after ro to replace the cal/mag. Great info tks for the refresh :facepunch:

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Hey Hoppie! My unit is a anthracite/sand media filter…plus 5 micron cartridge filter just before the osmotic membranes. Pure Aqua does of course offer the green sand media for special circumstances!
Just so you know, they also sell it for filter recharge so if you ever need some, you know where you can purchase it in bulk…

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I plan to use some in my living soil as well actually

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Well I actually have the 300, and I don’t really test the TDS. I’m in living soil raised beds so for me the pH is much more important [quote=“Nanashi0_o, post:31, topic:43827, full:true”]
I like the manifolded membranes.
How is the tds coming out of the 150 GPD membranes?
[/quote]

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Interesting idea on the greensand as a filter medium. The extra K and micros could be good and I’ll bet it would break down pretty slowly as it does in soil.
I’ve added it to the last three batches of soil I’ve made. It should be great for long term beds!
My well water has indeed been giving me issues. I have alkalinity around 180 and bicarbonate levels around 225. Ph fluctuates a bit but hangs above 7.5.
Without going deep on a larger RO system I’ve relied on that 300 gpd unit and just used citric acid to drop the pH down to around 6.3 which drops both levels down into the acceptable range for irrigation water. It seems to be working well so far, but as I expand I’ll definitely be looking to upgrade to an online system.

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endure, i am guessing that without a descaler your high bicarbs are probable going to plug your osmotic membrane, and that can be having a terrible effect on your smooth water yields. Water softeners can last 10 to 20 years, depending on the sort and great you buy. On average, a single tank electric powered water softener ought to last you as much as 12 years, at the same time as a Kinetico device can remaining as many as 20 years. but, no equipment lasts forever.