Go to the RV store and get a filter that fits right on your hose...its about 25 bucks

Hd, tell me more.

Oh Gonz what are we going to talk about? LOL

;-)

Seriously (I think), what kind of gizmo are you talking about for a hose-end attachment? RV store? Recreational Vehicles? I'm truly interested! No kidding!

Yes Rec vehicle...its a filter about 10 inches long and it cleans up the minerals and salts from the water. you can hook it up to the hose bib and run the water hose out the other end to water the plants with.

Here is a link that might be useful: linky do

I have the same problem here. The water is so bad it looks like the toilet never gets flushed!

Since I have such a small space and not as many plants as others, I just use the RO/DI machine at the local supermarket. It's something like $1.75 USD for 5 gallons. I have often thought about buying a small unit myself though since it would also be useful for fish tanks or terrariums.

What about installing a water tank? Rainwater is all I use on my broms. As we have water restrictions the big plus with a tank is I can water at anytime.

My city went mostly reverse osmosis in 2003. We have pretty nice water now.

BTW, I have had luck with a weak solution of vinegar sprayed onto the leaves to remove calcium deposits. You just have to make sure that you got calcium deposits and not dried up algae because vinegar has no effect on dried up algae.

Anyone used that culligan filter? How well does it work? The two reviews on the link are inconclusive.

I was going to put a reverse osmosis tank under my kitchen sink, but it won't fit. I capture some rainwater, but it doesn't rain much here.

Kim,
Do "they" make small RO units for outside? I'd love to use RO'd water when misting the tills too.

I have the same problem, I collect rainwatere, but during the dry summer I always run out of it so I add oxalic acid to the tap water during summer, it will precipitate a lot of calcium but not the other salts, still better than nothing.

I do not think there is any filter that will eliminate all the soluble salts from water, the seller of the above filter actualy only states that it "Reduces 99 percent of chlorine while also reducing sulfur odors and scale", nothing about soluble salts. Some filters are also very noxious to plants, they release elements like sodium or too much phosphorus.

Tomas

I use the Culligan filters and have been for 4 years

Howzit for eliminating calcium deposits?

How do you keep old rain water sweet? That seems like just one more PITA.

Ca;cium deposits was the reason I got the filters....and no its not for washing autos spot free but it works great on my plants...ever seen calcium on my photo's?

Gonzer, I was looking at a RO setup at Costco with a tank and a set of 5 or 6 separate filters intended to be hooked up to a sink faucet. It could work under a shed or other cover, but I don't think it's truly built to be durable out in the weather, although I didn't examine it from that perspective. If I can't put it in my kitchen I may go for the laundry room or garage (where the sinks aren't hooked up yet...) : / The culligan filter looks like a cheap alternative for the interim.

Hdd,
can you tell us what is the filter made with? In the ebay page it only states it contains activated carbon, but this is not useful for eliminating calcium or any other salt.

Sweet water - what do you mean? Just the water has to be kept in the dark otherwise you will get algae growth. Collecting water in tanks is one of the first ways of providing water for the humans.

Tomas

Invest in a small reverse osmosis unit, it's worth it. No salt no calcium just pure H2o.

Sander

Here is a link that might be useful: Dutch website with prices in Euro's

Hi Sander,
thank you for your link. I have found even lower prices on the German ebay, what makes the decision difficult for me is not the price, but the care and the instalation such unit would need.

Tomas

I have installed an extra water connection in my garage, that's not that hard to to. I don't know what you mean by care.
I just turn on the tap and it starts slowly dropping water in a plastic barrel, it does about 10 litres in three hours, if it overflows when I forget its filling it overflows in the sink so no problem.

As long as you don't disconnect it you dont' need to flush the system.

We have very hard water here (Dh10, Kh5 Ph8.5) that I can't use for my terrarium, so my broms are lucky.

Sander

My biggest problem is that R/O water wastes so much water. Not such a good idea here in southern California. We need it at work for our laboratory and it wastes about 9x as much water as you get out as 'good' water.

I use these filters on my overhead misting systems

Here is a link that might be useful: mist filter