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thinking of a new water softener. what do you all think would be best.

Neueregel

Neueregel

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I do not think you want to use water from a water softener for growing Cannabis. Your best bet would be to go with a reverse osmosis RO filter if your water is problematic.

Can I ask what you are wanting to achieve with this filtration?
 
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Ro removes everything from the water.

You'll want to plumb the ro before the softener not after. If plumbed after the softener you just wasting salt
 
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SweetLeafGrow said:
I do not think you want to use water from a water softener for growing Cannabis. Your best bet would be to go with a reverse osmosis RO filter if your water is problematic.

Can I ask what you are wanting to achieve with this filtration?
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actually i was hoping for drinking and to use for plants. i didn't know you couldn't use water from a water softener.
 
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Neueregel said:
actually i was hoping for drinking and to use for plants. i didn't know you couldn't use water from a water softener.
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You can actually use potassium chloride instead of salt & then from what I've heard it's ok for plants, but the potassium chloride is much more expensive than salt. Also you can just mount a faucet somewhere before the inlet of the water softener & use that to water plants.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=potassiu...r+softener,aps,114&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_33
 
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Scotty 420 said:
You can actually use potassium chloride instead of salt & then from what I've heard it's ok for plants, but the potassium chloride is much more expensive than salt. Also you can just mount a faucet somewhere before the inlet of the water softener & use that to water plants.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=potassium+chloride+water+softener+pellets&crid=3FFPR8OEEI6XR&sprefix=potassium+chloride+water+softener,aps,114&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_33
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Im a little skeptical if claims made about that but ill do some research on that later. The devil is in the dose so knowing the concentration of potassium chloride would help me give a more definitive answer… as of what i know at this time i still would not recommend it.

Some reading on the drinking part of it though. Not ao cut and dried

 
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Aqua Man said:
Im a little skeptical if claims made about that but ill do some research on that later. The devil is in the dose so knowing the concentration of potassium chloride would help me give a more definitive answer… as of what i know at this time i still would not recommend it.

Some reading on the drinking part of it though. Not ao cut and dried

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Honestly the most common reasons for people getting softeners that I've ever seen is due to high calcium, which most people are supplementing in the form of calmag, so better off just using tap for plants IMO. Again I don't know of a real benefit to the softener outside of calcium deposits. I've never heard of it making a difference as far as taste/water quality.
 
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IMO, a whole house water softener is good if you or members of your family have skin issues or the source water is heavy with chlorine or calcium.

If you just want clean drinking water for you and your plants an RO system is more than enough.

At one of my rentals I bought a system from a company called Aquasana and installed a simple 2 stage filtration system under the sink. Came with a separate faucet dispener. No RO just pure filtration. One of the things I liked was that they asked me what area I was in so that they could tailor the filter to the areas water quality. IIRC, the system was around $120 and the filter set was $50. They had a program where they would send you filters every 6 months and would sell you the filters at a discount.

Aquasana Water Filters | Whole House Water Filtration Systems

Enjoy clean and great-tasting water straight from your faucet! Aquasana offers drinking water filters, shower filters & whole house systems at an amazing price.
www.aquasana.com www.aquasana.com
 
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Hey, I've had water softners for years going through salt to clean the water and a uv light to purify it....every year paying for maintenance new lamps in the uv ect ect...pain in the ass.....it broke down and I said fk it...that was 3 years ago...our water is good to drink but a bit hard so we have a Britta / Costco $50 water filter we use for drinking and I use the well water right out of the tap....after settling for my plants....I'ts hundreds of dollars a year cheaper and no more salt. I change the $4 filters about once a month
 
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Rootsruler said:
IMO, a whole house water softener is good if you or members of your family have skin issues or the source water is heavy with chlorine or calcium.

If you just want clean drinking water for you and your plants an RO system is more than enough.

At one of my rentals I bought a system from a company called Aquasana and installed a simple 2 stage filtration system under the sink. Came with a separate faucet dispener. No RO just pure filtration. One of the things I liked was that they asked me what area I was in so that they could tailor the filter to the areas water quality. IIRC, the system was around $120 and the filter set was $50. They had a program where they would send you filters every 6 months and would sell you the filters at a discount.

Aquasana Water Filters | Whole House Water Filtration Systems

Enjoy clean and great-tasting water straight from your faucet! Aquasana offers drinking water filters, shower filters & whole house systems at an amazing price.
www.aquasana.com www.aquasana.com
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I have RO as well. but that water has a sulphur smell to it and it has been that way since i got it. I notified the guy who installed it and something happened to him and couldn't come out to look. that was 8 years ago. i just haven't messed with the RO all that much.
 
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Neueregel said:
I have RO as well. but that water has a sulphur smell to it and it has been that way since i got it. I notified the guy who installed it and something happened to him and couldn't come out to look. that was 8 years ago. i just haven't messed with the RO all that much.
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The sulphur smell means your anode in your heater has probably seen better days. One of my rentals is near the Salton Sea in California. Whenever I visit it when its vacant I have to run the water for a little while to purge the rotten egg smelling water out of the system. As long as I pull water like normal I don't have to contend with the smell but others in the area have told me that sometimes it just happens and there's not much you can do other than deal with it.

Culligan makes a filtration system that will remove the sulphur smell but it's pricey.

Most of the LGO's I worked with used a filtration system from a company called HydroLogic. It was a 1000 gallon a day RO filter with UV disinfection. Worked great but it used a shit ton of water. The system is a 2 to 1 system so for every gallon of RO you were dumping 2 gallons of brine.

 
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We installed one and I grew one crop with it. I didn't have any issues. But I adjusted PH every time. I ended up stopping using it and by-passed it. The salt run off was attracting porcupines that were chewing all the bark off my pines.
 
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Rootsruler said:
The sulphur smell means your anode in your heater has probably seen better days. One of my rentals is near the Salton Sea in California. Whenever I visit it when its vacant I have to run the water for a little while to purge the rotten egg smelling water out of the system. As long as I pull water like normal I don't have to contend with the smell but others in the area have told me that sometimes it just happens and there's not much you can do other than deal with it.

Culligan makes a filtration system that will remove the sulphur smell but it's pricey.

Most of the LGO's I worked with used a filtration system from a company called HydroLogic. It was a 1000 gallon a day RO filter with UV disinfection. Worked great but it used a shit ton of water. The system is a 2 to 1 system so for every gallon of RO you were dumping 2 gallons of brine.

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Thanks. I'll check on that. I have a new water heater, and RO unit was new supposedly.
 
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Garbage_bear said:
We installed one and I grew one crop with it. I didn't have any issues. But I adjusted PH every time. I ended up stopping using it and by-passed it. The salt run off was attracting porcupines that were chewing all the bark off my pines.
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my first grow i used the same water but i used synthetics nutes. i did pretty good, not great as it grew too tall. 2nd grow using gaia green nutes it didn't do too well.
 
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I have a water softener for the whole house. It changes the taste slightly but most won't notice. When it comes to using my tap water for plants though I usually go outside to the hose spicket and get it from there since it comes straight from my pump and doesn't go thru the softener that way.

I also get distilled water delivered...you wanna talk about pure water. 0 ppms...my buddy's RO system still has about 20-30 ppms. I actually been using the distilled water for plants since I don't pay for it (part of a contamination settlement from a pipeline leak) but I may switch to just using hard water. Feel bad for the kid that delivers and carrys about 16 5 gallon jugs to my porch bi-weekly....idk maybe he'd just like a bag of weed?
 
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MDK said:
I have a water softener for the whole house. It changes the taste slightly but most won't notice. When it comes to using my tap water for plants though I usually go outside to the hose spicket and get it from there since it comes straight from my pump and doesn't go thru the softener that way.

I also get distilled water delivered...you wanna talk about pure water. 0 ppms...my buddy's RO system still has about 20-30 ppms. I actually been using the distilled water for plants since I don't pay for it (part of a contamination settlement from a pipeline leak) but I may switch to just using hard water. Feel bad for the kid that delivers and carrys about 16 5 gallon jugs to my porch bi-weekly....idk maybe he'd just like a bag of weed?
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Yeah I can do that too. I maintained proper ph but probably not so much ppms. Thanks
 
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So a 3 stage RO will gove you about 20-40ppm depending on the condition of the filter. Beyond that you want to change filters.

A 4 stage RODI will give you 0-5 ppm. You can replace once it gets up there like 40+ or even higher if you like.

I use an RODI when i make RO water which is pretty much for humidifiers only now as my tap is well suited for my needs.

The problem with RO is the waste ratio. The cheaper units produce 5 times the waste water as usable but that’s absolutely fine for small amounts. For large amounts you want to invest more into a unit wil closer to 2 times the waste water and usable for obvious reasons.

If on a well not that big of a deal but if on a metered water connection the more efficient unit will save you money for larger volumes.

I suggest getting a free water test or local water report to see what kind of filtration need you would benefit from. If you post them i can try to help
 
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smoke said:
Ro removes everything from the water.

You'll want to plumb the ro before the softener not after. If plumbed after the softener you just wasting salt
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yes it is seperated. i have outside spicket and RO before the water softener line.
 
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Rootsruler said:
The sulphur smell means your anode in your heater has probably seen better days. One of my rentals is near the Salton Sea in California. Whenever I visit it when its vacant I have to run the water for a little while to purge the rotten egg smelling water out of the system. As long as I pull water like normal I don't have to contend with the smell but others in the area have told me that sometimes it just happens and there's not much you can do other than deal with it.

Culligan makes a filtration system that will remove the sulphur smell but it's pricey.

Most of the LGO's I worked with used a filtration system from a company called HydroLogic. It was a 1000 gallon a day RO filter with UV disinfection. Worked great but it used a shit ton of water. The system is a 2 to 1 system so for every gallon of RO you were dumping 2 gallons of brine.

Click to expand...
We went overkill with our ro system, but i wont be buying another. 2000 gpd with waste water at 1 to 1.

20230610_095154.jpg
 
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Booster pumps are about $1000 now, that's what I was quoted recently. I have a salt water softener from Sears, and a Chlorinator from a local water company. The sulfer smell is bacteria from the well and the chlorinator kills that off. I use a table top ro device, run cold water thru it from the sink and it does an admirable job. I have to replace the ro filters, 4 stages, every 4-6 months. They claim chlorine destroys the expensive film filter in the ro, which is supposed to last 2 years but the way i'm doing it, it probably lasts 1 year or less.
 
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