FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

For those of you who grow in large outdoor bogs or kiddie pools, how do you keep the water from getting filthy? I grow in small water trays right now, but have to scrub them out weekly due to accumulation of dead insects, bird poop, tadpoles (?!), wind-blown debris, and general muck.

Thinking about switching to a larger tub and installing an aquarium pump/filter... any ideas?

optique wrote:I have just always over flowed the water every so often, but my tap is safe so i have water to spare. this year i put water spangles in the shallow water, they really seem to help.

Cool idea! I remember in a previous thread you were adding various aquatic plants... are water spangles the best? Gonna order some now

I like the looks of that. I may have to look into doing that.

Water spangles = Salvinia species, which are classified as floating ferns. It's nice in aquariums, makes the surface-dwelling fish very happy. It also makes a good breeding ground for mosquitoes, so be sure to sprinkle some mosquito bits in the water trays every month during the warmer parts of the year.

Don't let any of these plants get into your local waterways; they can become an invasive pest with little effort.

Salvinia is working surprisingly well. I thought the TDS would be higher because many of my spangles rotted, but I just measured 30 TDS in the tray with spangles, and 54 TDS in the tray without spangles. Water has been topped up multiple times with ~15 TDS RO water. Thanks @optique, you have the best ideas