Another water thing.

[locko]

I have this high quality carbon water filter it cost a fair bit and is just sitting in the garage. From looking at this website
www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/water-purification.php It gives a comparison and carbon looks to be near enough to a RO machine they have there pros and cons. It dosent say anything about sodium but on wiki it says (. They are not generally effective at removing minerals, salts, and dissolved inorganic compounds.) So I'm assuming it leaves salts in. Can somebody tell me if water from a activated carbon filter would be okay on my CP's in the long run. The tapwater probably isn't hard but I haven't tested it. If it's going to kill them from the salt build up or the nitrates I will have to go and buy a RO machine because at the moment im paying $1.80 AU for 4 litres of distilled water.

[Aidan]

Better than straight tapwater for short-term emergency use, but over the long haul you (and more importantly your plants) will be better off investing in a RO unit.

[kby]

locko said:

I have this high quality carbon water filter it cost a fair bit and is just sitting in the garage. From looking at this website
www.home-water-purifiers-and-filters.com/water-purification.php It gives a comparison and carbon looks to be near enough to a RO machine they have there pros and cons. It dosent say anything about sodium but on wiki it says (. They are not generally effective at removing minerals, salts, and dissolved inorganic compounds.) So I'm assuming it leaves salts in. Can somebody tell me if water from a activated carbon filter would be okay on my CP's in the long run. The tapwater probably isn't hard but I haven't tested it. If it's going to kill them from the salt build up or the nitrates I will have to go and buy a RO machine because at the moment im paying $1.80 AU for 4 litres of distilled water.

i would interpret Barry's answer on the FAQ to mean no, and I would agree with it (and the doc you quoted as not removing salts). "Hardness" isn't really the right question. "Hardness" (at least in the US) usually refers to Ca and Mg salts. "Soft" water means low levels of these where as "Hard" water means high levels. Trouble is, water softening just replaces Ca or Mg with Na. Since Na (and other members of the "alkali metals" as opposed the "alkaline earth metals" which is the categor Ca and Mg belong in) are more soluble in water they interfere less with detergents, hence they are desirable for laundry and other washing-related chores. But they aren't any better for the plants and some would argue it's less healthy even for human consumption as Ca and Mg normally need to be supplemented in the diet but Na doesn't (due to a number of factors) and excess Na consumption is usually considered a major culprit in high blod pressure (due to its retention leading to excess fluid retention in the body)--but that is a digression.

Carbon filters generally adsorb some chlorine (but most places use chloramines to do "chlorination" these days and those are harder to get out) and some organic
things; mostly things that affect flavour. But they don't usually help with the things that kill CP.

Softness, does, or so it is stated in some documentation with RO units, affect the lifetime of the RO membrane and also the effectiveness of the RO process (soft tends to be better in both cases)--but "softening" the water in and of itself may not be of any use, depending on how it is done (technically it is the absence of Ca/Mg salts that means soft, so, e.g., distilled water is "soft"--but is a lot different than water sent through a "water softener."

This is not a bad article in explaining what activated charcoal (this sort of also applies to charcoal in media, although since I'd guess the sites are quickly used up it probably becomes just a rock in fairly short order) does. It is medium technical level:
www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/h2oqual/watsys/ae1029w.htm
-kby

[locko]

Wow thanks guys. The link was great kby I think I might buy a bench top distiller seems like it would be great for me I will have to look into it further.

[Aidan]

Distillation plants are expensive to operate. Imagine boiling a kettle for hour after hour. If your collection and need for water is growing, RO will be a better solution.

[locko]

That is definitely true Aidan. I could accept the power costs but I suppose in the future I may need more water in a day than it could produce so should prepare for the future. But then again I will probably go for whatever machine is cheaper at the moment. I only really need mabey 5 litres of water a day or every 2 days at the moment depends on how hot it is .

[kby]

In terms of water quality, distilled is better than RO.
In terms of at least obvious energy costs, distilled is more expensive.
In terms of water costs, RO is more expensive (at least in theory) as you generally reject 25-33% of the incoming water stream (depends on its quality), whereas at least theoretically you lose no water on distillation.
I haven't seen an "easy" distillation setup, but RO probably requires less maintenance; distillation unless it is done
at low pressure will tend to over time accumulate a lot of crud (especially if the incoming water source is bad) that I would guess is very hard to clean out as it will tend to get dried out and baked onto things. RO will require the somewhat messy filter changes (although GE makes one now they claim is just twist on and off cartridges).-kby