Hey all, We have found a new house and will be moving in within a month or so. Due to the water conditions The house will need a water softener. I know this is a no no for orchids so if I use a RO system will it remove the sodium from the water? Will this be adequate for the orchids?

Thanks,
Darin

Yes, an R/O system will remove the salts of a water softener. I was told by the person who sold me my unit that it was easier on the R/O unit, in fact, to run the softened water through it than to use the untreated hard water.

Congratulations on your new house! Are you moving far?

I had not yet started thinking about my new water concerns. :shock: Yipes! Thanks for the heads up, and any info on this (thanks Ross) will be noted and appreciated.

The RO unit will do the trick, just keep up with periodic changing of the filters...you should be able to go a little longer on you filters with softer water.

Thanks for the info everyone.

We are actually moving into a house very close to the townhome we have been living in since moving up here from Houston. The townhouse was great while we learned the area and found where we would like to live, but my plants have not been too happy about it. Now they will have outdoors and a big empty basement in which I can set up a growing space.

I guess the next question is... for those of you growing in basements, how did you set up your grow area?

Thanks,
Darin

I have a small room in my basement 9x9 where I have about 50 fish tanks and 2 - 55 gallon drums along the walls. The orchids are in the middle under 1 - 1000w HPS and 1 - 1000w MH with 2 double fans blowing all the time. Right now I don't have all of my tanks going, the fish take too much time and I only have a few species right now that I am breeding/maintaining. The orchids take a lot less care than the fish.