Reverse Osmosis...

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By Ryan Waters (Zerogravity) on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 04:00 am:

I am using a tek for growing liquid mycelium innoculant in a distilled water/malt extract medium. The tek I am using From Mush Mush notes to use distilled water (also to boil it before use) and my dilemma is this, I have relatively inexpensive access to a product called Reverse Osmosis which is supposed to be THE purest Form of H2O possible at the consumer level. The problem is, I have also heard that for some applications (eg. expresso etc.) it is not a feasable substance due to it's total freedom from all minerals and bacterias.

Does anyone have any experience with this product in this application, or any solid information related to the needs of the mycelium at this stage that would help me make this decision?

By Nan (Nanook) on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 05:08 am:

Yeah it's all I use: RO Water and I recommend it highly for all your mycology water needs.

By A Drunk Bastard (Adb) on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 07:54 am:

the only tidbits i can add about reverse osmosis water is:

it is PURE... pure pure pure pure pure.... yes i'm also a nerd(possibly paranoid bout contams) who would boil it b4 use as a precausion(overkill), but it 'should' be pure pure pure pure pure.

i've also read an article, it was not in a peer reviewed journal n i'm blankin on the reference right now(big deal in scientific community, peer reviewed articles) that said that reverse osmosis water, as a sole water source, leached minerals out of the human body... calcium, magnesium n stuff.... makes "some" sense as it's pure as it gets, no minerals or nothing n therfore not a good water source for us, but for our applications when combine with other things, brf n such... should be just fine if not excellent as i'm under the belief we're addin enough nutrients to the system(though i'm not a mush guru only amateur mush man).

never done malt extract deal but the post in the archives by AFG dealing with the Honey Tek liquid mycelieum using tap water is very similar to what i've seen done successfully :)

By nuecrew (Nue) on Tuesday, December 11, 2001 - 10:42 am:

I bought some reverse osmosis filters 20 years ago trying to get around tedious and costly column chromatography. NOT. They came in 12" lengths packaged serpentine and when opened up look like a condom with the end cut off. They were preserved in Sodium Azide solution, about as friendly as Sodium Cyanide. I remember I could buy them in porousities starting at molecular wieghts of around 700 down to table salt. It's funny you mentioned using one of those filter units as I thought that was going to be my next investment around here!




Posted by: lil'MushMan Jul 27 03, 08:57 PM GMT
i was wondering just how important it is to use purified/bottled water when dunking or misting or anything? i know that it, theoretically, reduces ...... but is it really THAT important? i figure that tap water would work fine... i could be wrong ofcourse...


Posted by: psilli me Jul 27 03, 09:05 PM GMT
I think for dunking and misting it is somewhat required but when it comes to preping grains it isn't much of an issue. I found that buying a water purifier for the faucet saved a bunch of money in the long run.


Posted by: tralfaz Jul 27 03, 09:09 PM GMT
Depends on your water source.

For the most part it doesn't matter. wink.gif


Posted by: rooster Jul 27 03, 09:10 PM GMT
my friend boils tap water then as soon as its cool enough, he dumps it into a mister bottle, leaves it in the fridge overnight. no problems so far but hes gonna stock up on distilled h20 next time he goes to walmart


Posted by: MickyWilliams Jul 27 03, 09:37 PM GMT
There may be advantages to having distilled water without minerals in your mist bottles for extended periods of time. You wouldn't want anything growing in the mist bottle or the nozzle. I just boil water from the tap and it seems to do the trick though. I clean my mister and boil more water between each batch.
Its a good idea to clean you mister with bleach water and squirt some through the nozzle to kill anything that may be living in there.

For syringes that you don't plan to use soon you need to use store bought distilled water.


Posted by: lil'MushMan Jul 27 03, 09:58 PM GMT
but for dunking and rehydrating ones cakes... is it that important? by that point they are pretty resiliant to the contams... right?


Posted by: Malformed Jul 27 03, 10:14 PM GMT
is it important

NO, tap water works fine for everything. just sterilize it first. (duh)
some people have used rain water, river water, nasty green fish tank water.
so why wouldnt tap water work?

is it worth buying bottled water?

YES, why not spend a bit on a few gallons of water.
i think its stupid not to have a atleast 1 gallon of distilled water on hand. tongue.gif
its cheap, why not?

if you just need enough to do a few jars, tap water will work fine.
but i recomend getting some distilled. biggrin.gif


Posted by: mushy man Jul 27 03, 10:43 PM GMT
hey, you never know if one day good, clean water might be as precious as gold, man laugh.gif
HAVENT YOU EVER SEEN WATERWORLD???!?


Posted by: MickyWilliams Jul 28 03, 12:11 AM GMT
My gills would finally come in handy.
My urine purifier to.


Posted by: dustyclc Jul 31 03, 03:45 PM GMT
Hey Guys,

If I am not mistaken a person is not supposed to drink distilled water due to the fact that it pulls minerials and stuff from your body trying to reach equilirium. So would dunking ones cakes in distilled water do the samething to the mycilium. Just a though.
-dustyclc


Posted by: Eyebooger Jul 31 03, 03:58 PM GMT
QUOTE (tralfaz @ Jul 27 03, 07:09 PM GMT)
Depends on your water source.

For the most part it doesn't matter. wink.gif


Agreed, I've never had a problem using it straight out of the tap smile.gif


Posted by: Keebler Jul 31 03, 05:23 PM GMT
same here. i use it straight outta the tap for everything. but my city has good water.

also, i think the small amount of chlorine in tap water keeps most things from growing in it for short periods of time (week or two, after that, i wash and refill my spray bottle for misting). i use it for dunking, making cakes, misting, etc.

but, everyones tap water is different...

-keebler


Posted by: Nanook Jul 31 03, 05:41 PM GMT
There is no harm in drinking pure water. And it does not hurt cakes at all, and the "equalibrium" theory is in practice largely myth unless you are interested in certain types of special cases. It does not fly in practice with shroom culture and let me explain why.

Shrooms absorb the water... Their nutes and mineral needs are met by the substrate, not the water supply. But what actually happens is the reverse if minerals are in the water. Minerals accumulate, build up. They can change the chemistry of the substrate or a casing, and some water is very high in magnesium (it's common)... Enough that evaporating a glass leaves visible white magnesium salt crystals behind.

Now for most people in most applications... I do not think it's going to make much difference. But up at the corner store they have a machine that makes Perfect Water... And it's cheap if you bring your own container.

I use that wink.gif


Posted by: cerberus Jul 31 03, 06:32 PM GMT
QUOTE (Nanook @ Jul 31 03, 10:41 PM GMT)
Now for most people in most applications... I do not think it's going to make much difference. But up at the corner store they have a machine that makes Perfect Water... And it's cheap if you bring your own container.


Never heard of being able to get RO water from my local corner store. Any other suggestions of where I might find it, aside from building my own RO filtration system?

Cerberus


Posted by: Fungusmaximus Jul 31 03, 07:05 PM GMT
Contams also germinate in tap water from the avaialble nutrients/minerals they consume. Thus tap watering your casing layer provides a small amount of nutrients for contams to eat.


Distilled water is pure, nothing but h20, so it cant support growth of anything by itself. DID you mention that magnesium is bad for fungi, Nan?
And how it inhibits fruiting.... wub.gif


Posted by: Nanook Jul 31 03, 10:17 PM GMT
I see the machines at wally mart... The big chain groceries, and at some larger drug stores now.

Magnesium is a shroom growth and fruiting inhibitor.

See the equilibrium theory depends on the water leaving the system, or staying out of the system, and taking leachate out with it... Shrooms do not produce liquid, they consume it. They transpire water vapor... so any salts in the water, concentrate someplace in the culture. You put liquid water in... you take shrooms and gasses out. Minerals not necessarily wanted, get left behind.


Posted by: spawnbag Aug 01 03, 01:44 AM GMT
I have a flowing artesian well and i use the water for everything. The water's a little hard (no softener), but i figure a little lime won't hurt anything. I've never had a problem getting fruits, and lots of em. Only had 1 PF jar ever contaminate on me out of more than 100 or so. which surprises me considering i don't live in the cleanest house on the block, but PF's tek seems to work foolproof for me with regular tap water. Same for misting terrariums and the few casing i've done. My question would be that considering contamination isn't really an issue, would bottled water make any diff. or might it even be worse?


Posted by: Nanook Aug 01 03, 01:55 AM GMT
I am not saying natural water cannot or does not work wink.gif

But you can never go wrong with good processed water smile.gif

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