NEW Meter - Hanna Grochek pH EC TDS Conductivity Tester Meter

[Pepper]

This is from Wikipedia

Thanks for the info. I dont understand how boiling tap water will increase tds, boiling water kills anything in the water and allowing all the vapor to excape wile the water cools will also allow all the nasty stuff to evaporate, keeping an air stone in the container after the water cools will not only give oxigen but it will also keep the water moving so there are no sedlements. Anyone else also boil their water?

 

[JBonez]

Thanks for the info. I dont understand how boiling tap water will increase tds, boiling water kills anything in the water and allowing all the vapor to excape wile the water cools will also allow all the nasty stuff to evaporate, keeping an air stone in the container after the water cools will not only give oxigen but it will also keep the water moving so there are no sedlements. Anyone else also boil their water?

let me put this in terms you can understand, no insult to your intelligence but this will help.

Draw a circle, put a bunch of dots in it.

The circle is the water.
The dots are minerals and/or organic material.

Now, picture the circle shrinking, yet the dots (tds) remain.

Since there is less water yet the tds remains, the ppm increases due to a smaller water/tds ratio.

Distilling, is merely boiling water, and collecting the residual condensate from the steam, Thus creating distilled pure water, understand?

So you know, if thinking that tds can be boiled away, then the dissolved solids would be in the condensate which is how distilled water is made, and that just doesnt make sense.

Trust me, im right, and i want you to understand.

 

[Pepper]

let me put this in terms you can understand, no insult to your intelligence but this will help.

Draw a circle, put a bunch of dots in it.

The circle is the water.
The dots are minerals and/or organic material.

Now, picture the circle shrinking, yet the dots (tds) remain.

Since there is less water yet the tds remains, the ppm increases due to a smaller water/tds ratio.

Distilling, is merely boiling water, and collecting the residual condensate from the steam, Thus creating distilled pure water, understand?

So you know, if thinking that tds can be boiled away, then the dissolved solids would be in the condensate which is how distilled water is made, and that just doesnt make sense.

Trust me, im right, and i want you to understand.

Ok I understand now, and no offense taken, science was never a good topic for me. So do you think Im better off not boiling the tap water, and just let it sit with the air stone for like 48hr then add the nutes allow to sit for another 48 hr then add the plants?

 

[JBonez]

Ok I understand now, and no offense taken, science was never a good topic for me.

ha ha, i didnt even know what ppm meant until i started growing pot.

in fact, growing pot has proven to be a valuable skillset in my book.

 

[Pepper]

ha ha, i didnt even know what ppm meant until i started growing pot.

in fact, growing pot has proven to be a valuable skillset in my book.

Would you boil tap water or just use it as is?

 

[smokeytimes]

I don't think boiling the water would do anything more than sterilize the water. Now if you were to distile the water then yes that is something I would do but it would be cheaper to just buy the distiled water at the store.

I would not boil the water unless I knew there were harmful orginisms in the water.

 

[Super Silver Haze]

IMO you are better off with spending less on a meter and more on lighting. This is a top notch unit, but is probably overkill if your grows are for personal use. I'm not saying to buy a cheap metering equipment, but don't use a sledge hammer to drive a finishing nail....

not to refute your advice but just setting up my room i opted for 400w hps instead of flouro's. my plant loves the 400 hps but their not healthy b/c i cant accurately measure the ec/tds/ppm of my nutes. im using dwc so imo if your on a budget and doing some type of hydro go with a good meter and then get your lights.

plants can be healthy and grow under flouros but this isnt true if the ec/tds/ppm/ph are off.

being on a budget and getting started is a major pain. take my post for what it is, a noobs first dwc.

if you are going hydro and your res is in the grow room then you my encounter H2o temp problems.

with a hid light you need good ventelation. basically it is personal prefrence as to where you are going to sacrifice when you set up your grow.

btw, are you doing hydro?

SSH

 

[Pepper]

not to refute your advice but just setting up my room i opted for 400w hps instead of flouro's. my plant loves the 400 hps but their not healthy b/c i cant accurately measure the ec/tds/ppm of my nutes. im using dwc so imo if your on a budget and doing some type of hydro go with a good meter and then get your lights.

plants can be healthy and grow under flouros but this isnt true if the ec/tds/ppm/ph are off.

being on a budget and getting started is a major pain. take my post for what it is, a noobs first dwc.

if you are going hydro and your res is in the grow room then you my encounter H2o temp problems.

with a hid light you need good ventelation. basically it is personal prefrence as to where you are going to sacrifice when you set up your grow.

btw, are you doing hydro?

SSH

Thanks. Doing dwc as far as the ph meter goes did not buy one and dont think will ever buy one not worth it, they only last 6 months or so then need to buy a new one + need to buy calibration solutions, recalibrate every time, and there is no guarante that it will be acurate. So I bought this very simple system that is very acurate, cheap and can last up to 2 years came to me highly recomended by an old timer its called Flairform ph kit 1 drop in a small test tube filled 3/4 with reservour water shake and bingo acurate ph reading I love this stuff, simple, cheap, and does the job. Has far as ppm meters, etc, they are also a waist of money I have been growing veggies, and fruit in a farm for over 20 years I know how to read plants, etc, but that was all in soil outdoors. Hydro to me is new but I find that it is much easier than growing in soil.


All you need to do is learn how to read the plants, follow directions on the nutes down to the T, and dont use cheap nutes that is one reason guys have so many problems in hydro. If you feed yourself cheap junk food your own health will suffer right? So the same will happen to your plants.
A good set of nutes for hydro will cost 150 to 200 bucks, but for personal use it will last 1 + years so its well worth it. You need good ventilation with any type of light you use, healthy plants only grow with a good ligh, air, water, food, its that simple.