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Ask questions about how to grow and care for Venus Flytraps

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By johnny1203
Posts:  4
Joined:  Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:45 pm
#193650
Hello. I have had a venus fly trap for a couple months, and I'm not sure if it's a good idea to water my traps with boiled tap water. Some people says that it's no good because the dissolved solids in the water will remain, but some other people told me to "boil water and allowing it to cool naturally before watering, as this will rid it of chlorine and a small amount of the dissolved minerals". So I'm not entirely sure of that.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
By stubbingsj
Posts:  322
Joined:  Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:09 pm
#193652
When you boil water, the water escapes as steam leaving minerals and salts behind. So just boiling water does nothing. If while boiling some water you position a steam collector (a broad dish or bowl) above the pot, the water will collect, condense, and drip off of the collector. THIS water is pure. (No dissolved solids) I do not recommend this method of water collection, however, because changing a substance's state (water to steam) takes VAST amounts of energy, making this method extremely inefficient. Passive snow or rain water collection (rain catchers) are more efficient, are less expensive, and you can easily make your own.
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By cjpflaumer
Posts:  682
Joined:  Sat Aug 17, 2013 5:55 pm
#193654
Stubbingsj got it. Boiling water will actually increase the TDS because pure water leaves and the dissolved solids stay. Eventually you would have no water in the pot and just the minerals.
By jwbates26
Posts:  1431
Joined:  Fri Sep 30, 2011 5:18 pm
#193655
As mentioned boiling water makes it worse for carnivorous since it reduces the water and leaves all the hard minerals. This is essentially the same reason why people do water changes in aquariums. One more thing, I've actually collect steam and tested it with a TDS meter and it still had a high level of desolved minerals. I've only done that once so its not really conclusive but its a very inefficient way of getting water so I didn't waist my time. Stick with collected rain, distilled or RO water.
By stubbingsj
Posts:  322
Joined:  Sat Aug 31, 2013 1:09 pm
#193656
jwbates26 wrote:but its a very inefficient way of getting water so I didn't waist my time.
Like I said, anytime you change the state of matter, a huge amount of energy is needed, making boiling water very inefficient.
By johnny1203
Posts:  4
Joined:  Thu Jan 09, 2014 10:45 pm
#193657
Hey, thanks for the quick and helpful replies. Unfortunately, it rarely rains where I am and I cannot collect enough water. I looked at ways to make distilled water,(http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Distilled-Water), but that takes quite a while to do. Also, I used to water my other plants with tap water left outside for two days, does that work?
Thanks.
Last edited by johnny1203 on Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By cjpflaumer
Posts:  682
Joined:  Sat Aug 17, 2013 5:55 pm
#193658
johnny1203 wrote:Hey, thanks for the quick and helpful replies. Unfortunately, it rarely rains where I and I cannot collect enough water. I looked at ways to make distilled water,(http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Distilled-Water), but that takes quite a while to do. I used to water my other plants with tap water left outside for two days, does that work?
Thanks.
Thats not going to help either. Not sure where you live, but if you have Walmart, distilled water is $1 or less for a gallon. If you have a small collection of plants that is your best bet.
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By xr280xr
Posts:  2807
Joined:  Wed Jun 22, 2011 3:29 pm
#193675
Your best bet is to buy or make a big rain barrel or some way of storing larger amounts of water when it does rain. I have about 12 one gallon jugs and a few other containers that I fill up with roof runoff when it rains (after the roof has rinsed clean) that gets me by pretty well. You can get big 50 or 100 gal rain barrels that would last you quite a while. Another alternative is to get a reverse osmosis filtration system. Some are pretty expensive, but I got mine for $100. A less practical alternative is to buy some distillation equipment. That will probably cost as much, or more to buy as the other two options and be expensive to use. If you can't do any of that, you can always water your plant with tap water and enjoy it while it lasts. Check your tap with a TDS meter. It's possible it's clean enough to use.
By fattytuna
Posts:  749
Joined:  Sun Jan 22, 2012 4:00 am
#193678
johnny1203 wrote:I live in Australia, and we don't have Walmart. The large supermarkets and grocery stores here doesn;t sell distilled water.
Some woolworths/safeway stores do stock distilled water in the drinking water section. They come in either a 5 liter plastic bottle or in that cardboard box container, however, since its intended for drinking, it can get rather expensive ($4 for 5L in my memory). I prefer to collect rainwater in a plastic bin under a broken gutter and only buy the water when absolutely necessary. You'll find that the occasional storms/really wet days we get will last you for several months if you collect the water.
By parker679
Posts:  1642
Joined:  Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:34 pm
#193694
As others have said boiling really won't work. But what you heard is technically correct, boiling water will reduce the TDS some by reducing temporary hardness, but not enough to be beneficial to your plants. And boiling does remove chlorine but chlorine evaporates on it's own anyway(which is why many places use chloramine as well).

I would invest in a TDS meter, they can be found pretty cheap on amazon.com or ebay. Test your tap water to see what the current TDS levels are, if they're less than 150 ppm you should be fine using the tap water. Just make sure to flush the soil with rain/RO/DI water every several weeks and discard that run-off. Higher then that and I wouldn't risk it, lower than 150 and you don't have to flush the soil as often.

Look for any water that is advertised as Reverse Osmosis, or De-ionized, or Distilled and you should be fine. Just check the label and make sure they aren't adding additional minerals "for flavor".
By parker679
Posts:  1642
Joined:  Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:34 pm
#193755
cjpflaumer wrote:Since you're in Australia it may be the exact same thing as distilled but a different name. I would venture to say that is perfect.
I would guess it's more likely de-ionized but I'm splitting hairs. ;)

I think cj is right and you should be fine.
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By cjpflaumer
Posts:  682
Joined:  Sat Aug 17, 2013 5:55 pm
#193759
parker679 wrote:I would guess it's more likely de-ionized but I'm splitting hairs. ;)

I think cj is right and you should be fine.
Haha you're probably right. It more likely went through filtration and a deionizing rather than a distiller. But same end result more or less at least.
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