Chloramine in my water?

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hero4u2b

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Hi everyone.. before starting my next grow.. I am trying to understand something.. I recently read in this months " Skunk" magazine.. an artical regarding TLO true living organic grows.. It goes on to say all tap water has something called Chloramine in the water.. Something the city adds.. a mix of Chlorine and ammonia that doesnt easily dissapate or evaporate.. It goes on to say if your using a living soil, the chloramine kills any microlife in the soil instantly. Number one.. IS say FFOF mix a living soil? I know it has bat guano.. sea kelp ect ect in it. Before starting my next grow. not that I am wanting to be a true organic grower right now.. I would like to either install some kind of a filter on my tap.. either carbon under the sink.. where one replaces the filters ocassionaly or reverse osmosis.. Now I am thinking if FFOF is Organic or living so to speak.. what would be synthetic? The coconut stuff ? Trying to understand some of this stuff. any help would be appreciated.. Thanks Hero
 
hero4u2b said:
Hi everyone.. before starting my next grow.. I am trying to understand something.. I recently read in this months " Skunk" magazine.. an artical regarding TLO true living organic grows.. It goes on to say all tap water has something called Chloramine in the water.. Something the city adds.. a mix of Chlorine and ammonia that doesnt easily dissapate or evaporate.. It goes on to say if your using a living soil, the chloramine kills any microlife in the soil instantly. Number one.. IS say FFOF mix a living soil? I know it has bat guano.. sea kelp ect ect in it. Before starting my next grow. not that I am wanting to be a true organic grower right now.. I would like to either install some kind of a filter on my tap.. either carbon under the sink.. where one replaces the filters ocassionaly or reverse osmosis.. Now I am thinking if FFOF is Organic or living so to speak.. what would be synthetic? The coconut stuff ? Trying to understand some of this stuff. any help would be appreciated.. Thanks Hero

No, not 'all' tap water has chloramine in it. Get a water report to see what your system uses. Google *your city*+ water system.

RO will not remove chloramine, or even chlorine without a special filter that you have to add on.

AFA 'killing the microlife instantly', that depends on just how much is added. My water system uses chloramine, but only 2-3PPM of it. It has not affected the microlife to any appreciable degree. I use tap water for almost everything and am running a TLO. You really need to see what your system is using and how much.

The drops used for aquariums/tropical fish work very well. This is what I use when I need De-chlorinated water. Make sure it will remove chloramines and not just chlorine. I use AZOO and it removes both. 1 drop/gallon of water. It will last for years.

The TLO is not so much what you buy, but rather what you add to it. Coco is also used in organics, but I have no experience with it, nor with any bagged mixes for that matter. I make my own from scratch.

HTH

Wet
 
Many municipal water systems use chloramines because it does not dissipate quickly. Using chlorine only, they have to rechlorinate at various places along the pipeline. Obviously, they are trying to keep bacteria out of the water at the lowest cost.

From a logical standpoint, there is a lot more bacteria in dirt than there is in treated water. I'm sure that the chloramine kills some of the bacteria in soil but I've never been convinced that it's enough to matter. I can sure tell you that the chloramine in my tap water does little to keep my swimming pool clean. If I test my pool water after a week with no added chlorine, there's nothing there, except algae, of course.
 
So what you guys are saying is basiclly the chloramine in city water generally isnt enough to kill all live organics instantly and I should have my water checked.. Got it.. Now then, if Fox farms ocean forest mix or something similar , is a living soil.. what the heck would be synthetic ? the guy who wrote this artical says in synthetic mediums, the chloramine can be actually bennifical.. Thanks Hero
 
hero4u2b said:
So what you guys are saying is basiclly the chloramine in city water generally isnt enough to kill all live organics instantly and I should have my water checked.. Got it.. Now then, if Fox farms ocean forest mix or something similar , is a living soil.. what the heck would be synthetic ? the guy who wrote this artical says in synthetic mediums, the chloramine can be actually bennifical.. Thanks Hero

Hi Hero- not sure I understand your question. Are you asking what to use with a regimen of "non-organic" fertilizers? You can use any medium- organic or not. You just feed the plant, not the soil. There are many different mediums and grow styles so your question covers a pretty broad spectrum.
 
way I read that last question is, Is fox farm OF or similar brands soils living soils? If yes, then what type of medium would be synthetic?

This is my first grow, and I'm still learning, and don't know the answer to that. Interested in the answer though. My thought would be all "soil" would be a living soil once life starts to happen. Hydro? Or those pellets? Just my guesses. Not sure at all. Anyone?
 
I've followed along -REv for years. He is absolutely correct that Chloramine cannot evap off it must be filtered out through a carbon filtration type process, reverse osmosis, or distillation.
but you can make an "active soil" and turn it into just a "medium" for chem ferts. where TLO comes in is microbiology and how the roots act and react with it's enviro and how the grower nutures that enviro. in sythentic ferts the rhizosphere is not an issue, but in TLO it is everything without knowing that area TLO is out the window and best to stick with chems or mix n pour ferts.
hXXp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizosphere
I'm drunk stoned and its late, will post more if the other guys around here don't post first...if they do i'll agree with em...you know who you are ;)
 
ston-loc said:
way I read that last question is, Is fox farm OF or similar brands soils living soils? If yes, then what type of medium would be synthetic?

ston-loc- I guess the point is that you can really use any soil or soil-less medium. I wouldn't spend the extra money on a fancy soil if you are using a "chem" based nutrient program. Miracle-Gro seedling starter would be a great inexpensive choice. Some of the Pro-Mix blends are pretty inexpensive also.

What most consider to be "chem" based nutrients are those that are chelated- that is they are ready to be taken up by the plant- it does not require microbial soil activity to break the nutrients down into a form the plant can use.

"Organic" fertilizers need to be broken down before the plant can use the nutrients in them. If your soil isn't healthy, feeding organic nutes is a waste of money because the nutrients won't get broken down to a form the plant can benefit from, at least not to an effective degree that would warrant the cost.

But then, any soil can be made a "living" soil by adding the right ingredients to sustain microbial life and then "innoculating" the soil with beneficial bacteria and fungi and maintaining an environment for them to grow and flourish. Compost teas are a great way to add life to your soil, but there are also many additives that are available to buy. I use Bio-Tone from Espoma. Inexpensive, available at most garden centers and big box stores, and contains an assortment of beneficial bacteria and both endo- and ecto- mychorrizae.
 
Thanks for the input.. my first grow I grew in FFOF... I used the FF line.I added cal/mag and AN carboload torword the end of flowering. My plants did gr8 until about the second week of flower and I noticed the fan leaves becoming discolored ect. The plants ( 2 ) yielded 3 ounces of awsome bud but I can tell the plants were getting sick torword the end of floweing. either lacking or having too much of something.. I would guess.. After reading the Revs artical in Skunk I thought.. oo ****.. that must have been it.. I am not trying to be a TLO grower right now. still learning and trying to understand all this stuff regarding plant life. ect.. I guess Pro mix would be a syntetic soiless mix then.. I hate spending $22.00 on a bag of FFOF soil only to find out the water coming out of my sink.. even thou I let it sit for a few days and PH it after adding FF nutes, would be killing bennifical life in my soil.. Anyways.. Thanks everyone for your input.. Hero
 
with BBFan. bio-tone starter plus, garden-tone, and holly-tone I use em all. Excellent "base" but like everything I add to it. Nothing wrong with adding guano and manure :cool:
 
Synthetic would be something like hydrotron, or straight perlite or similar. Neutral and inert.

Promix is a good base for TLO. The peat from that company (Premier), is more than excellent.

Wet
 
Mutt said:
with BBFan. bio-tone starter plus, garden-tone, and holly-tone I use em all. Excellent "base" but like everything I add to it. Nothing wrong with adding guano and manure :cool:

^^^^^^WORD^^^^^^

Hard to go wrong with any of the 'tone's'. Good stuff and cheap!

The *liming agent* in FFOF seems to last for ~6 weeks and is depleted. I'd bet dollars to donuts that's what you ran out of in the middle of flower.

If you're using any peat based mix, you need to add lime. Just that simple.

Wet
 
Hmm I think you are right.. Most ppl as I read are adding lime to their soil.. I did not, wasn't aware.. Thanks.. I learn more everyday here.. My light/fan/filter will be here ,supposadly by the end of the day Friday.. After this hurricane season winds down.. I look forword to starting up again without the risk of loosing power for days on end.. Thanks everyone.. Hero
 
cool thing with lime (true die hard organic peeps won't use it as it is a mined substance...not eco cool) it balances PH AND gives extra calcium which is never a bad thing when growing weed ;)

I ditched peat moss long ago and went with cocoa coir. Peat moss bogs takes centuries to form...cocoa takes a season. microbes in both but cocoa happens to be pretty dang neutral in the PH scale unlike peat which is acidic. ;) why go with peat when there is a handy easier to use amendment right at the pet store ;)
 
Chloramines are disinfectants used to treat drinking water. Chloramines are most commonly formed when ammonia is added to chlorine to treat drinking water. The typical purpose of chloramines is to provide longer-lasting water treatment as the water moves through pipes to consumers. This type of disinfection is known as secondary disinfection. Chloramines have been used by water utilities for almost 90 years, and their use is closely regulated. More than one in five Americans uses drinking water treated with chloramines. Water that contains chloramines and meets EPA regulatory standards is safe to use for drinking, cooking, bathing and other household uses.
 
Freebird11 said:
Water that contains chloramines and meets EPA regulatory standards is safe to use for drinking, cooking, bathing and other household uses.

yes but does not work with microbial activity within a "true living organic" medium style of growing. Why most organic peeps have so much trouble getting water. Luckily I use well water and don't have to deal with municipal treated water. but Chloramine=microbial death.
 

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