ppm and carbo loading during flowering stage

[901am]

hey all, can anyone explain to me the difference in some of the ppm charts i've been seeing on the web? i'm about 5 weeks into a 12 wk flowering stage (sativa) and my ppm is reading about 550. some charts say this is way too low, and others say it's the low end of normal. (i just got a ppm meter and will be monitoring the solution over the next few weeks) the tap water is at 250 ppm.

also, i've heard of carbo loading during this stage for bigger buds. adding molasses to the nute solution was supposed to do this. i've never heard this before, does anyone know about this?????? if so, how much is added?

[murphyslaw]

if you are running over 200pm out of the faucet for hydro, STOP USING TAP WATER.

I'm on a well and my water runs 400ppm out of the tap. I either buy 5gal jugs or distill my tap water.

right now I'm on my 2nd day of flower and I have my girls in 5.8ph water at 1800ppm. They had 2000ppm threw the last several weeks of veg and exploded. No signs of nute burn or toxicity.

nute charts are a guideline, but you have to give the plant what it wants, and can take.

[901am]

why? whats wrong with my tap water? i've been doing this for years and have always had decent results. i checked it again and it was around 260. the plant drinks way too much water for me to bring it in externally. is there any way i can treat it out of the tap? i usually let it sit out for the night to get the chlorine out of it, but other than that i've never had a problem. tap ph is usually around 6.4, but my nutes has a ph stabilizer of 6.0.

i'm not sure if it's connected, but i've NEVER had a male plant. ever. one time i had a slightly hermaphroditic plant (maybe 25-30 seeds) but that was most likely from over cloning.

[murphyslaw]

I have always been told and hear, that if the tap waters ppm is over 200 to not use if for hydro applications unless its filtered down.

Something about the minerals already in the water messing with the nutes and throwing everything off. IDK, i used it at first and it was not working. Switched to RO water and everything has been perfect since.

[SirStynkalot]

aaw shit... i don't wanna have to go buy filtered water... you've gotta be kidding me. I haven't had too many problems if I just changed the water out once i'd refilled the equivalent to the full system...

[ofo]

Buying distilled is a pain in the ass , makes me nervous , and costs too much. I did buy a cheap Reverse osmosis system , like 100$ . Before the RO my tap was 250ish , now I read 20ish ppm.

The RO system I bought was cheap , it does the job but leaks everywhere . Cheap parts and fittings. Now that I see what its all about I'm sure you could build one pretty cheap.