FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Apollyon wrote:On a side note, I have some seeds for different capensis I can send your way if it does not work out and you'd like to try again though I'm hoping things work out for you. I wouldn't pack it in yet. Every so often you hear stories about how plants have come back from total death from the roots, like Regia and Capensis.

Yoo, I'd totally appreciate that! I still have hope for my current capensis, but I'd be more than grateful to have some seeds too! Hopefully washing the growth medium out with distilled water would get enough of the minerals out to save it, but in a worst case scenario I may just get new medium.

Wow, I think the substrate is beyond all hope at this point. Poured some distilled water to flush it out and immediately noticed that the waste water was a very dark shade of brown. Again, the rotten egg smell was back and worse than ever, and probably the most disturbing was the soap scum-like bubbles that seemed to linger on top of the substrate. Should I just give it up at this point and try again with new substrate?

I'm wondering what would cause that. At this point I would change it though. Put it in a smaller pot, get the media pretty moist and then bag it under high light conditions. It may or may not work. But if your smell is coming back and there is some kind of chemical reaction going on, that soil needs to go. The way I see it, there'd be a possible chance of improvement or death if I repot the plant, and almost certain death if I don't. It makes the choice easy. I'd keep high humidity conditions on it though, especially after the repot. With any luck it may surprise you.

uxleumas wrote:Oh, that is most defiantly the problem. See, the most effective way to change a ph is to add an hydroxide ion(is water is too low in ph) or add an hydrogen ion(if water is too high in ph. Those alone don’t cause any problems, however, you can’t just add hydrogen ions or hydroxide ions, there needs to be another thing that’s with the ions, such as sodium to make sodium hydroxide or chlorine to make hydrochloride acid. The chemicals may be different but most still increase ppm. Unless the R.O system is after the ph. Ballencing step, it will have a unusually high ppm.

Shouldn't an RO system use deionizing resin? I can't imagine it would achieve pH balancing by adding acids and bases without constantly metering the pH and adding a buffer. DI resin shouldn't add any solids to the water, but rather sequester the remaining ions in solution. DI water is pretty common in ameature chem labs, as well as professional labs that can deal with a slight margin of error. I'd be willing to wager a bag of DI resin beads on them not causing the problem. If you want a more in depth explanation check out nurdrage's video on the topic https://youtu.be/Nb1w15DHO4g

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murrkywaters wrote: ↑Tue Sep 08, 2020 4:37 am

uxleumas wrote:Oh, that is most defiantly the problem. See, the most effective way to change a ph is to add an hydroxide ion(is water is too low in ph) or add an hydrogen ion(if water is too high in ph. Those alone don’t cause any problems, however, you can’t just add hydrogen ions or hydroxide ions, there needs to be another thing that’s with the ions, such as sodium to make sodium hydroxide or chlorine to make hydrochloride acid. The chemicals may be different but most still increase ppm. Unless the R.O system is after the ph. Ballencing step, it will have a unusually high ppm.

Shouldn't an RO system use deionizing resin? I can't imagine it would achieve pH balancing by adding acids and bases without constantly metering the pH and adding a buffer. DI resin shouldn't add any solids to the water, but rather sequester the remaining ions in solution. DI water is pretty common in ameature chem labs, as well as professional labs that can deal with a slight margin of error. I'd be willing to wager a bag of DI resin beads on them not causing the problem. If you want a more in depth explanation check out nurdrage's video on the topic https://youtu.be/Nb1w15DHO4g

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you watch Nurdrage too?????!!!!

I may have left the sciences professionally, but I still enjoy the odd bit of home chemistry.

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Haha, I remember watching that nurdrage video. But our RO system is one of those multi-stage systems, and one of the post-stages is a "PH enhancer" that adds calcium carbonate back to the water. Seems kinda counterintuitive, but I'm just the daughter of the one who owns it not much I can do about it lol. Now I have a few gallons of distilled water, which is a straight zero in a TDS meter. For comparison, I checked our "pure" RO water and it fluctuates between 50 and 80 ppm.

As for the capensis, I've repotted it and this time put it in a peat moss substrate. Hoping it will recover eventually but now it's brown all over and the roots are nothing but black. It looks pretty lifeless, which makes me fear the only option is to grow a new plant from seeds.

That's Wild. I guess if it's for drinking water it makes sense. You dont want do dissolve your enamel. At that point RO seems like overkill. A lot of RO systems are modular, if you shoot a link to the unit in question I should be able to tell if you can temporarily bypass it.

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@churipputori, I just harvested some seeds recently from my "Big Pink." I'm planning on going to the post office on Monday. If you'd like, shoot me a PM with your address and I'll send you some seeds when I go.