Ro water

[uglypho]

I was wondering how safe is Reversed Osmosis water for my venus flytrap. My other method of getting water is getting to be costly.

 

[vft guy in SJ]

Hey Uglypho,
I just posted this here this afternoon. I get R/O water from a machine at my local grocery store. My plants seem to be fine with it. Costs me $0.25/ gal. Check out the thread "where do I get distilled water" for more details

Steve

 

[jacko]

Hi,

I get my RO water from a friend at Uni(it's free this way) . . . been using it for a year half to two years. He tests the Electro-Conductivity (measurement of how much is dissolved) and PH with each batch. The EC is always zero, and the PH hovers around 6.5 to 7 (Slightly Acidic to Neutral).

The plants love it.

We guess the reason the PH varies is due to the RO-filter. PH is a measure of the relative Hydrogen Ion concentration (log 10 i think). And Hydrogen is the first, or smallest element on the periodic table, with the Atomic weight (1.00794 (7) g m r). So Hydrogen ion's would be the smallest? thing being filtered, so the most difficult and this would explain the variable H+ concentration (and so PH) in the filtered water.

(However, this is just a guess we made, it sounds right, but we didn't check any books / higher authority about this)

Does it sound like it's in the realms of possibility?

A few times when I've been unable to get RO water, I've used battery top up water (de-ionized), brought at any Hardware Store / Garage etc. I had my friend at Uni test a sample of the water, and it had a EC level of Zero (ie nothing dissolved), but a PH that varied between 7.5 to 8.5 (Slightly alkaline and upwards) Depending on the brand.

I've never seen this as a problem, but I prefer the RO, as it's slightly more acidic (and Free&#33

Hope this helps,
Jacko

 

[buckeye]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">We guess the reason the PH varies is due to the RO-filter.  PH is a measure of the relative Hydrogen Ion concentration (log 10 i think).  And Hydrogen is the first, or smallest element on the periodic table, with the Atomic weight  (1.00794 (7) g m r).  So Hydrogen ion's would be the smallest? thing being filtered, so the most difficult and this would explain the variable H+ concentration (and so PH) in the filtered water.

(However, this is just a guess we made, it sounds right, but we didn't check any books / higher authority about this)

Does it sound like it's in the realms of possibility?[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>

Wow that's a lot of thinking!!  So you're saying you think the ph varies because some of the tiny H ions are getting through the RO membrane, because they're so small, and this makes the ph variable?? So then, the more acidic the water coming in to be filtered is, the more acidic the RO water is, right? I don't know very much about chemistry but it makes sense to me.  

         -buckeye