water Tap water conditioner?

rebelgrower3

rebelgrower3

I read somewhere I can use this stuff to remove chlorine from my tap water. The bottle says it removes chlorine, chloramines and heavy metals. I'm wandering if it will affect the nutrients in any way?
 
Why not just aerate the water. It will dissolve the chlorine. Not sure how an additive claims to get rid of heavy metals... where do they go?
 
I was wondering the same thing a few years ago and never got a definitive answer. My concerns would be stripping essential minerals and such, but I'm not sure. I've never used it for plants just to be safe.
 
I wouldn't bother. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Unless you're in an area where there's a lot of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, your tap water is more than acceptable for growing edible chilis. If you are in an area like that, no amount of treatment to your water with a storebought chem set is going to help you. Haha
 
I just wish there was a system to lower the PH of my tap water. As is I have to fill a 55 gallon drum and treat it. How nice it would be if I could just run it through some sort of system to bring the PH down.
 
go to the pool supply and buy some muriatic acid and add till desired ph.
Or u can run your tap with a 4-5 stage reverse osmosis unit, to get around 6 Ph or there abouts.
 
Muriatic acid is HCl. Not good for plants because you'll be adding lots of chlorine which is dangerous for plants to absorb in high quantities. White vinegar is less potent but is also much less toxic.
 
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compmodder26 said:
I read that humic acid will neutralize chloramine. It's a win-win situation. You get rid of chloramine and you also give your plants something HIGHLY beneficial. I get my humic acid from kelp4less.
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Nice to know I will order some was getting ready to place an order with them anyway so thank you for the info.
 
SL3 said:
I just wish there was a system to lower the PH of my tap water. As is I have to fill a 55 gallon drum and treat it. How nice it would be if I could just run it through some sort of system to bring the PH down.
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There is.  Put more acid producing brown material in the soil.  Moss, leaves, (untreated wood) sawdust, grass, coffee grounds, spent tea leaves, etc.
 
Dave2000 said:
 
There is.  Put more acid producing brown material in the soil.  Moss, leaves, (untreated wood) sawdust, grass, coffee grounds, spent tea leaves, etc.
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So with a PH close to 8 this would work?
 
SL3 said:
I just wish there was a system to lower the PH of my tap water. As is I have to fill a 55 gallon drum and treat it. How nice it would be if I could just run it through some sort of system to bring the PH down.
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Ph down or similar products (see pot growers forums). Lime or vinegar if you want to go cheap.
For chlorine i just areate water for 24-48 hrs before using, a bubbler will probably speed up the process.

Cya

Datil
 
Yep, chloramines are trickier to deal with than chlorine.
 
Ascorbic/Citric acid is a cheap easy way to neutralize chloramines (those .99c lemon juice concentrate bottles from the supermarket). It supposedly doesn't take a lot for it to work.
 
Scroll halfway down this page for more ideas, look for the category "Removing chloramines from water" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
 
Edit Correction: Sorry, i read the article wrong, boiling water for 26 hours will remove chloramines (aging alone won't do it quickly enough). 
 
Datil said:
Ph down or similar products (see pot growers forums). Lime or vinegar if you want to go cheap.
For chlorine i just areate water for 24-48 hrs before using, a bubbler will probably speed up the process.

Cya

Datil
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That's what I do when I say "treat" my water. I use  PH down, just a pain in the but to have to walk back and forth with water cans for 50 + plants.
 
Jetchuka said:
Yep, chloramines are trickier to deal with than chlorine.
 
Ascorbic acid is one way to neutralize chloramines (those .99c lemon juice concentrate bottles from the supermarket). It supposedly doesn't take a lot for it to work.
 
Scroll halfway down this page for more ideas, look for the category "Removing chloramines from water" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
 
Edit: apparently letting the water age for 26 hours works for chloramines also, not instant gratification, but good to know that aging works.
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Glad to here that,  because I was under the impression chloramines were much harder to remove than chlorine and only the chlorine would dissipate over night. 
 
You should be able to buy lactic acid 88% in bulk used in the food industry, citric acid as well, all food grade and strong.
 
Not sure why you would want to buy citric or lactic acid when humic acid will do the trick plus provide something beneficial to your plants?  Humic is pretty cheap to buy as well, and you don't need to use much to neutralize the chloramine.  This site says you only need 1 tsp of humic acid to treat 100 gallons of water:
 
http://www.natureswayresources.com/resource/infosheets/chloramine.html
 
Edit: Unless you are referring to trying to drop the PH of the water, then yeah I can see going with citric acid.
 
Edit2:  Well I just learned something new about citric acid today.  It apparently can chelate minerals bound in the soil to make them available to the plant, so it too can prove to be very beneficial to the plants.
http://www.growthproducts.com/pdfs/NAIH_Why_Citric_Acid.pdf

Jetchuka said:
Yep, chloramines are trickier to deal with than chlorine.
 
Ascorbic acid is one way to neutralize chloramines (those .99c lemon juice concentrate bottles from the supermarket). It supposedly doesn't take a lot for it to work.
 
Scroll halfway down this page for more ideas, look for the category "Removing chloramines from water" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chloramine
 
Edit: apparently letting the water age for 26 hours works for chloramines also, not instant gratification, but good to know that aging works.
Click to expand...
 
Isn't that number the amount of time it takes to remove half of the chloramine by boiling, or did I read the wiki article wrong?
 
How does the humic acid work? I'm guessing it would make HCl or HClO (muriatic/hydrochloric acid and bleach respectively) and an ammonium-humate salt? After adding humic acid, I'd test for chlorine and boil it good just to be safe.
 
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