Singaporeans: tap or ro/rain water

[wezx]

Hey s'porers,

I wanna ask, do u guys use pure water or tap water. I've been usuing tap water from the farrer road area for awhile now, and i suspect that it might be the problem for some plant failures.

What are your experiences with tap water? Is there a way to obtain pure water cheaply?

about 25% of my new plants gotten from elsewhere (Trifid park, etc) have perished under my setup, and i dunno why...

Also, anyone know how ta prevent slime and algae?

Thanks
Justin

 

[eBeyonder]

Hello Justin, I use mainly tapwater as well. In fact, I've been using tapwater for over two years now and my plants are still doing very well. As Clayton mentioned in the other post, having the plants exposed to rain could be a reason - the accumulated minerals may be washed away more effectively. In any case, my plants are grown outdoors, so they get a good mixture of rainwater and tapwater!

 

[Cindy]

I use tap water and distilled water. My neps are fine with tap water, no problem. For the past six months, I have been watering my sundews with tap water too. But those are the toughies like D.spatulata and D.intermedia. The only drawback is a layer of green algae on the bottom of the tray. Occassionally, when the water dries up, I just peel the layer off.

Distilled water for pings and baby/delicate sundews.

I tried rain water before but I don't like it personally. It's full of algae and fungi spores. I got mushrooms growing on my media after using it. lol

 

[Jason Wong]

Tap water. For everything and anything. RO is too ex in singapore, plus a distiller just for that purpose is over doing it. I heard that distilled water tastes like you're drinking air.

I collected rain water before but had the same problems as Cindy. Too much algae!

 

[Jason Wong]

I think there is a slime/algae killer in FEF, but dunno if harmful to cps? Anyone used it?

 

[clayton]

I think slime and algae thrives on media that i reasonably high in Nitrogen. Nitrogen allows them to photosynthesize... so if u ever want to fertilise your CPs with light fertilser, think twice... LFS is prone to get slime mould, coz they get disintegrated in our hot humid condition... so i suggest don't use them for "topping".

Algae in my case are transient... when i just repot them, they seem to grow, as i water from the top, i will dislodge the soil and thus breaking them up and "mixing" them. this will not give them chance to settle down... PLUS when your soil is age enough and under the peltering rain outside like now.... the rainwater will drain away excess NPK (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) your soil has... Thus making conditions more harsh for algae to thrive... So far i haven't had any problem, coz i allow nature to wash the nutrients away...

Our tap water consist of small amounts of Chlorine and Carbonates, this will encourage them to fluorish, coz these are minerals... however, rain water will help a lot after a long spell of heavy showers.. it will wash them away...

I never try chemical means to rid of algae... but for slime mould, to prevent it, is to trim off or remove any form of decomposing materials such as old leaves from sundews or VFTs... and also not using LFS... mixing it with peat and perlite if fine... coz they are "buried" and not exposed to air and sun where they can grow...if u notice any slime mould, maybe the next best thing is to repot... or spray fungicide, but i wouldn't recommend... coz they may "evolutionalise' and adapt to your fungicide... plus too much chemical is not gonna be good for your plants... hope my 2 cents worth of opinion is helpful