Here in my area the water PH is 8+. My question is if I run it through a carbon filter, Just like the bottled water companies do. Will that lower the PH or will I still have to adjust? The filter will get out all unwanted chemicals and inpuritys But does that change PH.
I've heard people say that using a carbon filter to filter the water somehow jacks the plants up. I can't vouch for that, but I know I've heard it's a no no. In any case I doubt it changes the PH. Filters simply filter out the disolved solids. The best thing you can do is add some dolomite lime to the soil itself...this acts as a PH buffer and does a very good job of keeping the PH neutral. If you still wish to adjust the water's PH then I suggest using 'PH Down' or look into natural ways to lower PH. The search feature here may land ya some valuable info that's already in the data banks.
There ya have it....I stand corrected. Dursky...have you noticed any adverse effects on the plants using filtered water?
I also use a carbon filter on my water. It lowers my PH from around 8.0 to 6.5. Add the nutes and my PH is a perfect 5.5 (for hydro). To answer Herb's question: My plants have had no negative affects from using water filtered through a carbon filter.
Thanks Alien. My water's PH is so low already that I would be a fool to filter it with my carbon filter....on the other hand...sounds like it's a great thing for those with high PH water in that it lowers PH.