FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey guys, I did something on a whim after reading a little bit about them and purchased some aquatic ferns (salvinia minima) with some frog-somethingorother as a bonus and dumped them in the open part of my cp trays. One of my trays began to grow algae in the tray which surprisingly was never a problem before. Shifting the pots around, it ended up spreading so I was thinking about how to treat the algae in the trays and landed on a natural idea. The train of thought was ironically similar to how my CP fascination began.

I read from some people who swear that the plants will actually filter and "purify" their water by absorbing all of the excess minerals and nutrients that decompose from the pots, effectively choking out the algae, giving the plants cleaner water, and giving the trays an interesting presentation.

Theoretically it made sense and they're in a controlled space, I was just wondering if anyone else has tried to something like this and what their thoughts were. I will test my ppm tomorrow in the trays and again in about a week. It says they reproduce rapidly.

Yes it probably would work because the fern will block ligth to water so algae growth will reduce and will take nutrients out. In my experience a hornwort is the best algae killer because it takes away a lot of nutrients amd its easy to keep

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Apprz wrote:In my experience a hornwort is the best algae killer because it takes away a lot of nutrients amd its easy to keep

Interesting insight! Thanks for posting!!

Apollyon wrote: ↑Tue Dec 22, 2020 3:21 am Hey guys, I did something on a whim after reading a little bit about them and purchased some aquatic ferns (salvinia minima) with some frog-somethingorother as a bonus and dumped them in the open part of my cp trays. One of my trays began to grow algae in the tray which surprisingly was never a problem before. Shifting the pots around, it ended up spreading so I was thinking about how to treat the algae in the trays and landed on a natural idea. The train of thought was ironically similar to how my CP fascination began.

I read from some people who swear that the plants will actually filter and "purify" their water by absorbing all of the excess minerals and nutrients that decompose from the pots, effectively choking out the algae, giving the plants cleaner water, and giving the trays an interesting presentation.

Theoretically it made sense and they're in a controlled space, I was just wondering if anyone else has tried to something like this and what their thoughts were. I will test my ppm tomorrow in the trays and again in about a week. It says they reproduce rapidly.

Frogbit! It's invasive and on many states' "Noxious Weed Lists", so be especially careful to avoid legal trouble or contaminating environments. Indoors, and in my walled fish pond, amazing, however.

Yes, quickly proliferating plants are amazing since they detoxify water for both CP and animals. Aldrovanda should always be grown with quickly growing utrics or other pond plants for this reason; It is quite sensitive to mineral burn. Awesome idea!

This seems similar to a Refugium, google it. Saltwater keepers use them all the time, but for nitrates, not minerals. I wonder if you could 'distill' water in a bucket by putting some plants inside?

That's where I was with it. The way my trays are oriented, they hang off the shelf slightly so I put them in that space that doesn't get the intense light the plants get. I imagine they may halt the growth a bit but I think they will do well there and give me something to do with that space. I'd be happy to give some out when they get going if they show promise since I'll probably have tons to spare. Frogbit! I actually like the look of that one, I made sure to separate it and grow it in its own tray (the supplier mixed them up).

They have less light but don't appear to mind where they are. Heard they don't care about toxicity and some poorer countries actually use ferns to treat their water. I like that idea, I'm going to throw a plant in a container with some tap water (450 ppm) and cover it to block most of the evaporation and see what it does. I'm going to be careful with it, I don't plan to thrash any ecosystems lol. I plan on just keeping them in the trays. In hindsight I probably would've gotten the larger species but I thought this would be more efficient since there are numerous plants at work. One species is apparently harvested and used for fertilizer. If this works, I may go back and look into it and use the plants until they get out of control and recycle them as fertilizer for my trees or something. That'd be pretty awesome.

In the end, what I'm hoping for is the plants will kill off the algae and keep the water around 30ish. When it evaporates it seems to be running at 50+ and it really doesn't take long to get there. It evaporates surprisingly fast in the open which in turn gradually increases the toxicity every time I water them. Drawbacks of RO I suppose.

Does live sphagnum have any filtering benefits? It does absorb some nutrients, right?

elaineo wrote:Does live sphagnum have any filtering benefits? It does absorb some nutrients, right?

I'm honestly not sure. I mean it probably does to a degree but it won't absorb and offset high mineral water. Before I put the plants in my tap water experiment, it was initially an aquatic utric container I was using for a cutting. After its use, I dumped tap water in with the sphagnum already in there when it was beginning to dry. The moss didn't look too good. Still kinda green though. I use RO water for my sphagnum trays.

On the other hand though, it does provide extra humidity and antibiotic properties which is why people like to use it as a top layer. I find it kinda useful when it comes to fertilizer spraying as live moss absorbs and utilizes it to grow so your moss will actually improve (I still try to avoid spraying it though). In that sense I'd say yeah.