I’ll check out the book but while I wait for shipping, could you share what you do with the RO water? Do you put your own mineral and salt profile into it, or just use it as pure H2O? I have an RO filter and build my own water profile for my homebrew beer, hadn’t started down that road for coffee yet.
You can purchase elemental mineral drops and add that back in to RO water. Given the importance of water and minerals, I find it to be worth it but that's definitely an individual choice, as well as a privileged one (meaning I can afford RO water and minerals to add).
Thanks. Reverse osmosis removes minerals, which isn't something I want. Personally (this is just my perspective) I operate under the theory we don't fully understand the human body, so don't mess with things too much, removing minerals and then selectively adding some back in is not something I think we are well informed enough to do without possible negative consequences.
I looked for Chromium 6 Water Filter and found plenty of good options. Truly thank you for the recommendation.
We have an reverse osmosis unit that has a "remineralizer," which adds back in minerals. It's basically a filter canister with minerals in it, which mineral-free RO water dissolves.
you can use home RO if you boil it but distilled is best. I used to work in industrial water purification and I would never use water that hasn't been boiled first.
edit: and yes... look at the news every now and again where you hear of some kids swimming in a lake and dying from an amoeba or something else that jumped the brain barrier.
Yes, but my current understanding is that these minerals are in very miniscule amount, like 1% RDA a cup. You are able to remineralize after RO, automatically as part of the system, if you would like. I don’t, because I already supplement magnesium and calcium levels aren’t a typical concern.
I think the trade off is well worth it to ensure there’s no lead, plastic, hormones, or hexavalent chromium at all.
Cost is around ~$300 initial, $50/yr filters, and maybe $5/yr increased water usage.
I would be wary of using a stainless steel RO system. Extremely pure water tends to leach more. You may avoid a bit of plastic in exchange for heavy metals. Stainless steel tends to be 10% Nickel, 10% Chromium, which are bad and worse for you. If you do so, I would recommend getting the water tested.
Otherwise I would recommend a good plastic RO system. One where the plastic doesn't leach loads of harmful plasticizers.
Reverse osmosis water solves a lot of problems. Household RO systems are pretty wasteful, though; the pressure across the membrane is just the household water pressure, so the ratio of waste:purified is around 3:1. Fancier RO systems with pumps achieve higher pressure, and thus more favorable waste ratio. Those professional systems are way too big for me, but perhaps I could build something.
I believe that professionally, RO isn't used to solve excess calcium, carbonate, sulfate, etc., since it's cheaper just to neutralize the carbonate with acid and adjust the fertilizer salts appropriately. RO is used to solve excess sodium, chloride, etc., since the source water is already above the final desired concentrations.
I'm running a single nutrient profile for all my plants, regardless of life stage--I can scale all the element concentrations together, but I can't adjust the ratios. My yields would be better if I adjusted as you say, though. At some point I should add a third fertilizer part and dosing pump.
Yes, and as another poster pointed out my thinking that the importance of those minerals might be incorrect. I always thought you needed to supplement on top of distilled water.
For RO, a lot of the systems include a mineral cartridge.
all RO systems I've found have a carbon filters, sediment (paper) filters and perhaps a VOC (carbon) filter. I've never seen a salt-based water softener stage for a home RO system.
The only problem I’ve heard about reverse osmosis is you end up lacking in trace minerals. It sounds like straight filtration is the way to go and you can also buy special filters to greatly reduce other industrial waste such as fluoride.
I have a RO system at home, and it has a remineralizing cartridge attached to it. It's pretty cheap and seems to do its job well, the water contains healthy levels of minerals (I tested it in a lab).
Why isn't Israel doing it at a large scale? It should be pretty straightforward.
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