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Post by Matt BS on Mar 17, 2008 2:39:26 GMT
I was getting ready to buy a R/O unit, when I decided to look into the quality of my city water. Here is the report. From my readings of this forum, I got excited to see that using my city water may be A-OKAY! So I may just change out my soil every so often and flush the pots with rain water. Anyone care to comment on the data below? Am I in the clear? Thanks! Matt BS
Calcium 7.79 ppm Chloride 5.0 ppm Corrosivity -2.49 SI Hardness 31 ppm pH 7.0 - 7.2 pH units Total Dissolved Solids 50.0 ppm Sulfate 13 ppm
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Post by Aidan on Mar 17, 2008 3:21:46 GMT
Sounds fine.
It's worth investing in a TDS meter and testing water that actually comes out of your taps. The figure may vary considerably from those quoted by the provider and indeed vary from day to day.
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Post by Michael Catalani on Mar 17, 2008 13:44:08 GMT
Everything in that report looks similar to my water, except that the chlorine level is slightly higher and the sulfates are higher by about 3 fold.
I doubt you will have to change the medium very often with those numbers. As long as the plants arent sensitive to your chlorine or sulfate levels, you should be good to go with your tap water. Plants like Nepenthes would do just fine with that water. I would watch the really sensitive plants like some pings and drosera to make sure they arent showing any adverse reactions to the sulfates or chlorine.
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Post by kchace1 on Mar 18, 2008 0:27:40 GMT
Is there such a thing as a cheap ($20) TDS meter that is reliable? If so, any suggestions on where I could buy one. The ones I've seen are almost $100. Have put to many $'s in the new bog already. Am planning on collecting rain water, but would love to test our well water. Thanks
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Post by Matt BS on Mar 18, 2008 2:49:02 GMT
well this is very encouraging, thanks! I have about 500 Sar. now and am still nervous about killing everything with tap water. But if I can save the money and apparent hassle of an R/O system that would be great! I found plenty of TDS meters on ebay for $20, just by searghing "TDS meters". Matt BS
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Post by ICPS-bob on Mar 18, 2008 5:08:09 GMT
MattBS, with those numbers, I would not worry about using your tap water. Your numbers are lower than my tap water and I have been using it for decades. If you are worried about chlorine, let it sit in an open bucket for a day before using. I usually repot most of my plants and replace the soil every spring. I do this for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that I can divide my plants to reduce crowding and check for any incipient problems. Also, during the year, my pots become invaded with earthworms that eat and digest the peat making it progressively nutrient rich. Any buildup of nutrients from the earthworms and tap water is controlled with annual repotting. However, my annual repotting is probably unnecessary, because I have an outdoor artificial bog that has been in place for 6 years without the soil being replaced and the plants are doing just fine.
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Post by kchace1 on Mar 18, 2008 22:25:16 GMT
Thanks Matt. I'll look around there.
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Post by snowflakeobsidian on Mar 30, 2008 1:48:09 GMT
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Post by ICPS-bob on Mar 30, 2008 4:09:17 GMT
One ppm (part per million) is equivalent to 1 milligram of something per liter of water (mg/l) or 1 milligram of something per kilogram soil (mg/kg). So for your purposes, 1 ppm = 1 mg/l
+/-3% accuracy means the reading is within +/-3% of the "true" value -- usually at some statistical confidence level (which may or not be stated in the brochure).
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Post by snowflakeobsidian on Apr 1, 2008 21:39:03 GMT
Hmmm, based on that conversion I've fried my Drosera Spatulata and Ping Primulflora. Will flushing the pots with pure water help or do I need to outright repot?
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Post by ICPS-bob on Apr 1, 2008 22:44:14 GMT
Before you panic, what readings did you get?
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Post by rsivertsen on Apr 2, 2008 0:02:18 GMT
Your water may be within acceptable limits for most plants, Nepenthes are especially tolerant for the most part, Pings and Dros less so.
The water tests usually only test for certain things, and not for others, also, your own plumbing may contribute to the chemistry of the water.
Here, my tap water runs through a series of copper tubing, brass and various other pipes. If I let the shower nozzle, or sink faucet drip even only one drop per 15 seconds, it will leave a blue-green streak in my shower, sink and bath porcelain fixtures in a single day. Copper is extremely toxic to plants, and is usually NOT tested for in ordinary water tests.
During the winter, I set out old glass and other trays of tap water to help humidify the air in the rooms, and within a few weeks, they become frosted with calcareous mineral deposits that are nearly impossible to scrub out; just think what these things can do for your plants! - Rich
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Post by snowflakeobsidian on Apr 2, 2008 1:20:51 GMT
The county water readings were <=0.76 mg/L last quarter. The county gets the water from the Chicago filtration system. The Chicago 2007 water reading was 500 TDS in mg/L. We were passing all our tap water thru a Britta brand filter and using that filtered water on the CPs. The Sarracenias, Nepenthes and tropical Pings did fine all these years so I thought it was safe. Now I know that the plants we’ve had up until recently are more tolerant of impure water. Hmmm wonder if the water is a factor in why we have not been able to keep a Dionaea alive. Anyhow, the Drosera Spatulata and Ping Primulflora were recently split. The main Drosera Spatulata pot went to work…sort of a tongue in cheek thing to take care of the bugs on my I/T application. The plants in that pot have not been looking well. At first I thought it was the adjustment to the new environment. Today at work, I was looking at one of the plants which put up 2 flower stalks. The stalks were probably 3 inches tall and not yet in bloom though the plant looked really bad. The other plants in the pot are degrading, even though they are producing dew. I checked the other plants at home. Those have been watered several times but not as much as the Drosera at work which sits 3-4 inches below a small desk plant lamp and is wicked using nylon string. The Drosera Spatulata and Ping Primulflora plants at home still look reasonably decent. Most of the other new plants we have, which are not Nepenthes, have not been watered yet as they’re living off the humidity of being in enclosed plastic bags (I do that for isolation reasons).
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Post by snowflakeobsidian on Apr 2, 2008 2:12:26 GMT
I should convert that.... The county water readings were <=0.76 ppm last quarter. The Chicago 2007 water reading was 500 ppm. If my math is off, please correct me. We have family arriving tommorrow for a visit, leaving Sunday....eg Sunday may be the earliest chance I get to repot. The best I can do for now is flush out the pots with deionized water, bought from the local aquarium place. They said the ppm is less than 50. Hmmm, wonder if taking the plants out of the soil and resting them on a wet paper towel, enclosed in plastic, will help.
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timv
Full Member
Posts: 23
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Post by timv on Apr 2, 2008 23:44:04 GMT
At 50 ppm you can water all you want without worries for most CPs, as long as you repot every year. Some of the harder Drosera etc.. won't look that good, but for everything else I wouldn't worry. VFTs won't fail because of those levels. I went several years with 150-190ppm and except for the harder Drosera I kept most of my plants alive, although there's no comparison to how they look now with a large RO system.
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