For organic grow tap water should be dechlorinated strictly, you do not mention sitting it or filter it.
Gonzo…you have a valid point!
Since 2005 it is not allowed anymore in my country to use chlorine as a primary way for disinfecting drinking water. UV light is used to disinfect drinking water. Why did I say primary? After reading your post I decided to research this subject again. But this time a bit more in detail.
It turns out that chlorine may still be temporarily used when there is a form of contamination. For example a broken pipeline or construction activities related to pipelines.
BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!! (I hope you read that line with the voice and enthusiasm of a salesperson on tv trying to promote their product that half the time wouldn’t work anyways, cause I sure did write it with that expression)
When using UV-light to disinfect drinking water, they may combine that with peroxide to break down organic waste materials. Peroxide compounds can be roughly classified into organic and inorganic. I couldn’t find if organic or inorganic peroxide is used for this matter. But then I found this:
“After hydrogen peroxide treatment, a filter is necessary to remove the precipitated elements. Carbon is almost always the filter medium of choice after hydrogen peroxide treatment. Catalytic carbon works wonderfully. Carbon also breaks down the residual peroxide, so there is usually no peroxide left in the service water. Mixed media filters and redox filters have also been used successfully.”
Now it does state “almost” and “usually”, so say I don’t how in-depth we should go into this. I also couldn’t find a legitimate website on how to easily remove peroxide from drinking water just in case there were indeed traces of it. Maybe let my water stand overnight with a carbon filter in it??
BUT WAIT! THERE’S EVEN MORE!!!!!
Besides UV-light (in combination with peroxide treatment) they may also use ozone to disinfect drinking water. Ozone is an inorganic molecule.
“Ozone can be used as an ingredient in organic foods. However these foods will not be able to maintain a 100% organic rating. They will only be allowed an Organic-label, or a Made with organic ingredients-label.”
As I strive to grow my plant as organic as can be, I’m not willing to settle for a “allowed to be organic” label as long as I can help it. (Don’t get me wrong, I’m not growing commercially trying to be Walter White aka Heisenberg or something. This is just my personal preference, and when I do something, I like to do it the best I can and not cut corners.)
So to (easily) remove ozone from water:
- “Subject ozonated water to ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Ozone is most sensitive to light with a wavelength of 254 nanometers (nm). The energy from this light breaks one of the oxygen-oxygen bonds in each ozone molecule. The resulting free oxygen atom combines with another oxygen atom to form diatomic oxygen. Ensure the UV lamps have a quartz shield that blocks light with a wavelength of 185 nm as this radiation has the potential for creating ozone.” (Some people use uv-sterilizers for their aquarium or pond, so I don’t know if that qualifies with the wavelength parameters required).
- Add hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to the water. A municipal water supply may use hydrogen peroxide to remove residual ozone from drinking water. This procedure is known as ozone quenching and is commonly performed during plant start-up or performance testing. (Now this defeats the purpose to be most organic possible doesn’t it?)
- “Aeration by cascade, packed column or air diffusion. This method strips off the ozone to the atmosphere, so proper controls and monitoring must be employed for safety and environmental reasons.” (We’re talking about a bucket of water here, so I guess we can overlook the control and monitoring part).
- “Filtering to water through activated carbon adsorbs the dissolved ozone on the carbon and adds the removal benefit of carbon in general. This may be done on drinking water, as activated charcoal removes other contaminants as well, but cannot be done for applications requiring ultra-pure water, since the charcoal will contaminate the water.”
So my conclusion is their either using UV-light (in combination with peroxide treatment) OR Ozone to disinfect my tap water (and of course chlorine temporarily during probable contamination). They can’t be using both as UV and carbon cancels out Ozone.
So this means from now on I’ll be sitting my water with an old aquarium air pump I have laying around. I do also have some aquarium carbon filters, so I’ll be throwing that in my bucket also during the sitting period.
If there are any (bio)chemists amongst us, I would definitely like to hear your opinion on this whole matter.
Also for the fellow organic growers, feel free to drop your 2 cents on the steps you take to be more organic possible with your grow. Or maybe I should check if there is an organic growers section on this forum.
This turned out to be a long post again. I blame you Gonzo!!!...:Aw shucks:....
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But in all seriousness, thanks Gonzo for your post, as this led me to do a more in-depth research about my water supply which in turn led me to correct myself to be grow more organic possible.
Looking forward for more of your 2 cents…much obliged compadre….
As you were.
RYGB…