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Easy low cost pure water,

adnedarn

I'm growing CPs in the Desert of Tucson, Az
Admin
While looking for a solution to solve a problem I am having with my fresh water fish tank, I came across a tap water filter.
A deionizer to be exact. From my understanding, deionized water is ever better than RO water. Anyone that is a expert in water (Jimscott?) please comment on this as I would be very curious. It says in the FAQ that some people run RO water through this thing to make the RO water super pure, but doing so also saves the Deionized cartridge... But I don't think you can beat it for 29.69 for the device, and refill cartridges for 16.19 for one 43.19 for 3 and 80.99 for 6.
deionized tap water filter
Andrew

EDIT: (added just for you Cassie) The prices given here are LIMITED TIME ONLY!! SO GET YOURS NOW! 10% OFF NORMAL PRICING FROM THE SITE GIVEN!
 
i had a tap water filter under my nose the whole time and I always thought it wasn't safe enough to use for my cps, well I still use water from a lake, but I will try my water :p.
 
Keep in mind there are MANY low cost tap water purifiers that are NOT good enough for cps... Like Brita... But this one appears to be perfect. As long as you keep your eye on that filter thingie and replace it when nessasary.
 
Oh, well mine's probably only safe for drinking. I will just stick with my lake water, only disadvantage is that it's hard to do water cuttings, since algae forms faster since it's lake water :p.
 
If this will work, you are a saint adnedarn, and I forever pledge allegiance to you
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! I have been suffering with the issue of pure water. It gets expensive and tedious going out to buy water regularly, with my plants suffering when I don't have enough money. I was about to invest in an RO unit, but maybe now I wont have to.
 
adnedarn: enter code :adnedarntheseller: and you'll get another 73% off at checkout!
 
what?
 
I don't know anything about RO water, other than CP growers use it. I use the Deionized water at the lab and asked one of my co-workers about the difference between Deionized & distilled. Bottom line is that distilled is exposed to the air and can pick up metals that might be exisient. In contrast, deionized isn't exposed to the air, so it is purer than distilled.
 
A deionizing filter simply exchanges the charged ions in the source water (like calcium and magnesium which are positively charged, or chloride and fluoride which are negatively charged) for hydronium and hydroxide ions (H+ and HO-, which are in natural equilibrium with H2O). In our biochemistry lab, we use a deionizer for ultrapure water, because we need very pure water for our experiments which depend greatly on ion concentrations. However, the water which runs into this filter is distilled water. I actually use the distilled water for my CPs and they are doing fine. Besides, how do you know if this system works...when your plants die? There's a reason those RO units cost $200+.

Metals in the air? Typically one only worries about bacteria, spores and CO2 entering from the air and ruining the water purity.
 
  • #10
[b said:
Quote[/b] (tink @ Aug. 30 2005,12:51)]adnedarn: enter code :adnedarntheseller: and you'll get another 73% off at checkout!
She was giving me crap about this post and me sounding like a salesman.... So I messaged that to her just to be a goof. There is no extra 73% for entering that code. hahaha

Wow, thanks guys! I guess it sounds like this thing is a pretty good deal then, and will work for our plants.

lol- I will now stand pround like a flag.... So you maye pledge
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  • #11
Now ain't that just Dandy!

You be da man.
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I think I'll wait until there is more hard evidence in favor of the unit. I'll wait until you use it for a while and see if your plants are still living.
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Blue light special...aisle 9!!
 
  • #12
I've been using the water that drips from my whole house A.C. unit, it's the condensation from the humidity in the air. When the unit is run often enough there is no big bacteria pool festering, and the water although not pure is indicitive of what the plant would receive as rainwater. I grow mostly Drosera and purple pitchers which are native to NJ, and I grow flytraps. All seem to grow and thrive using this readily available soursce of water. Plus you can't beat the price!
I admit I don't know how the water would work with Neps and some of the more sensitive CPs.
 
  • #13
hmmmm..sorry guys, but im a little suspicious of this thing.
it says "Features super activated carbon and color-changing ion-exchange resin."

the key word there is ion-exchange

thats simply a normal ion exchange filter..its doesent REMOVE the mineral hardness, it just exchanges some ions for other ones..
the water wont end up being literally 100% "deionized"..
not ALL minerals will be removed..

maybe im wrong, but I dont think this is the miracle cure you think it is..the water out of this thing might still be hard!
needs more research..
Scot
 
  • #14
Using RO is cheaper than using ion changers. You do not have to fresh up or buy new catridges. As said before ion changers exchange the ions with H+ for cations and OH- for anions. The H+ and OH- recombine to H2O (most of them, there are always some of those ions...read about pH!). So you have to remove the cations and anions sometime or buy a new resin. In RO you have less concentrated and more concentrated water as result. The less concentrated is pure and good for your plants, the more concentrated can be used for "normal" plants which like some nutrients.

Jimscott: Destilled water is definitely purer than water from RO units or ion changers! RO or ion changers are the cheap substitution because destillation is VERY energy consuming. For laboratory purpose many things which need relative clean water can be run with those cheaper tech, the same thing is the "destilled" water you can buy for your flat iron or to fill up you car battery. Its the less pure but acceptable cheap deionised water. In industry standards its the cheapest method, for non chemists RO is cheapest (depending on your water prices...just kidding
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)

Jan

P.S. The cheapest water is still rain water. Not as pure as destilled but about the purity that is good for your plants.
 
  • #15
Mixed bed DI cartridges work fine and will produce excellent water. I have reservations though on how much water it will purify before the cartridge is exhausted. If you have very hard water it will get used up FAST, so you may still be talking .40-.50 for a gallon. If you can't get enough water from Rain or AC run of or something like that, RO would be much cheaper in the long run. The membrane lasts for years and you can make 1000s of gallons of water with just a few inexpensive particle and carbon filters a year.

It might be worth having one around for an emergency though.

Tony
 
  • #16
We use DI water for all that we do. Our blanks, which our calibration curves are dependent upon, come from the DI water. There are naturally occuring metals in the air, as picked up by our ICP & ICP MS. I just asked two of my co-workers about what may be found in the air and they came up with Arsenic, Calcium, Sodium, Zinc, Aluminum, and Thallium. I can't tell you how significant that is, but I've been told that DI is purer than distilled. Rain may be the cheapest, but not always the most available. DI costs me nothing, so I use it at work. For the plants at home, I use whatever rain collects in conrainers I have set out and when desparate I'll fill a jug up with the running streamwater.
 
  • #17
I use a 75 gallong per day 5 stage RO system. But there seems to be people who would rather pay little ammounts of money over a long period than just tossing down a few hundred for a RO system.
And actually, there are things that need to be changed in a RO system too. Costs me about 35 bucks every 8 months or so. then a 120 dollar membrane every 3-5 years. But i'm talking i make/use ALOT of water around here! I tried using the water from my AC unit for my fogger... But the water would get all nasty in the resiviour in less than a week. Filling it with RO water i only must empty and clean it about once every 8 weeks. And according to my TDS tester, the water from the AC unit is about 140 ppms when my ro puts out 6ppm tds. So i'll stick with RO for my plants.
Andrew
 
  • #18
If my plants die, I'll hunt you DOWN.
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  • #19
Ozzy, WHEN your plants die, rest assured it is of your own fault.
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  • #20
SO, I'll still blame you.
 
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