mexican ping experts come (water question)

[Ras]

this is my water report, i don't think it has* changed much or my fish would show it (they are very sensitive and their colors usually change when there is a difference in the water quality ..or temperature)
would this water be safe for mexican pings, or would it be better if it were diluted by half
I have an aquarium that is made up of half tap water and half pure h20, with some nutrients added in every week for the plants. I take 15 gallons of this water out a week and throw it away, by this time the fertilizers I added earlier in the week are almost all gone because of the aquarium plants.
it is dechlorinated and runs through a canister filter, and it is safe enough for my german blue rams to hatch eggs in(extremely sensitive fish).


SO the point of this is after hearing of so many people using hard alkaline water for their mexican butterworts it makes me wonder if I could do the same with my tap, or even the diluted tank water that I throw away seeing as I don't have an RO. so every wasted drop of distilled water is like hell to watch, let alone 15 gallons of potentially useful water a week.

anyways here is my latest report, its a little old but again I dont think much has changed. and I feel like they might of came out with a new report if there was a big difference but who knows

 

[ignis]

hello..

hard for answer for me, because i dont know what contains my tap water... i just know mine is very calcerous and i always use my tap water without any problems ....
if you're not sure, perhaps try with only one or two species to look for results with your water...
in my opinion, i think everthing would be all right.

 

[BobZ]

My answer is always the same. EXPERIMENT. If you have some extra plants, take a few and pot them exactly as you do the ones that you are successfully growing. The only variable then is water. Try your untreated tap water and, if you have enough spare plants, try your diluted tank water you throw away. That is the only way your knowledge will advance and you might find out your plants actually do better (or as well) with tap water. This might take a while, perhaps a year or so, to test. If they die, you have an answer. If they grow well, keep the experiment going until you are convinced that over the long term, your hypotheses seen to be confirmed.

 

[ignis]

I can't say better than BobZ...
every man who makes ping grow, has probably a different kind of water, kind of mix substrat, kind of sun-exposition etc.... and if we all try to make the best for our plants, we often read and looking for growing tips etc...
But the best thing is the experimentation (when its possible ), because something good for me could be wrong for somebody else...
I think there's no problem with your water, because there's no reasons to say it isn't..... but in all cases, when you're not sure , try with just one plant before to do with all your ping together...

 

[jeff 2]

I use for all my plants rain water stored in drums with not any problem.

jeff

 

[jimscott]

Just don't emulate my experiments! Mine fail more than they succeed. I'm using snow melt, right now. Media is a mix of Perlite, sand, and egg shells.

 

[SubRosa]

I don't know about using it for Pings, but you couldn't pay me to put water with an average of 10 ppm NO3 into my aquariums. 10 ppm NO3 is water you take out, not put in! Might be nice for a really heavily planted tank as fertilizer though. My tap water runs about 5 ppm in the winter and less the rest of the year, so I do use it for some fish such as Rift Lake and Central American Cichlids and most Livebearers, but with around 50% weekly changes to keep NO3 down. The rest of my fish and all my potted and in ground bog plants get rainwater or RO.

 

[Ras]

well I wouldnt worry so much. most if not all fish can handle anything 30 or under, sometimes higher depending the species. nitrate is naturally occurring in water that has any decaying of organic material so most wildlife have a pretty good tolerance to it. where as ammonia is infinitely more harmful because most (if not all) places will have nitro bacter turning ammonia into nitrite-nitrate-nitrogen or whatever, so plants and animals shouldnt have to come into contact with ammonia as much I assume. but when nitrate does starts to get in the 60s and higher is when it becomes a potentially lethal problem if it stays that high for a number of days, luckily plants happily suck up nitrates and nitrogen, some even use ammonia. And I believe plants are the last key in the cycle of denitrification, then comes decaying of old leaves or animals who eat the plants and restart the process . this is why some people setup no maintenance tanks that get no water changes. with an under stocked and over planted tank you can get away with never changing the water because of the plants eating the waste and other harmfuls , with the exception of maybe vacuuming the gravel every month. the whole idea comes from the ecosystem of a pond or swamp. its this denitrification proccess that keeps alot of sundews alive in the swamps, otherwise they would be getting blasted with nitrogen the key is having different fast growing species of plants as they often will each absorb different chemicals faster than others. they use this technique in asia by running waste water through pools of different types of duckweed to cleanse it before dumping it back into the creek, and the best thing about it is that it really does help alot. whereas here in america most gutters lead straight to the creeks rather than stopping at a cleansing facility.


wow sorry anyways back on topic the water coming out of my tank is maybe 5ppm nitrate if that. my plants absorb just about everything they can get. considering the use of APS for mexican pings I assume and hope 5 ppm nitrate wont do any harm.

 

[ignis]

I got water tanks outisde, with rain's water inside... In the beginning, i use this water for all of my carnivorous plants...
one day i had just a little bit water in tanks, so i keep the water for plants like VFT , sundews etc.... and so i try the tap water with pings... i never see any problems, so now i only use tap water for pings..
I dont know how many ppm NO3 is inside, but i just make the experience, and when it works...it works !
don't forget that pings are growing in wild in very bad conditions, so i think they have adaptation skills... pings are kind of warrior plants

 

[jeff 2]

on't forget that pings are growing in wild in very bad conditions, so i think they have adaptation skills... pings are kind of warrior plants

' in situ'

the water is essential for them (and other plants from their environments) if the water is polluted, must sooner or later there will be case sensitive

the ping for me do not adapt to new climatic conditions and environments that are not theirs.

in cultivate

often in non hydroponics we have problems on some species

for hydroponics I think the problem that's life of duration of the plant, but maybe some people can speak ?

jeff

 

[ignis]

thats good question

how long is the normal life of a pinguicula ?
can someone tell me ?
i'm not sure but i think some of mine have few years... perhaps 3 or 4....really dont know

 

[BobZ]

how long is the normal life of a pinguicula ?

It depends on the species. P. lusitanica is said to be an annual, although I think I have had a plant live at least 2 years. There are so many seedlings produced each year that it is difficult to keep track of a single plant.

For others, I don't think there is an age limit. I have had the same P. 'Titan', P. 'John Rizzi', P. macroceras nortensis, P. grandiflora, and others for over 10 years. I have no reason to think they may eventually die other than by gross neglect or some disaster.

 

[kulamauiman]

Concur. In my conditions P. lusitanica lasts more than one year. Might be more if I were to remove flowers.

It depends on the species. P. lusitanica is said to be an annual, although I think I have had a plant live at least 2 years. There are so many seedlings produced each year that it is difficult to keep track of a single plant.

For others, I don't think there is an age limit. I have had the same P. 'Titan', P. 'John Rizzi', P. macroceras nortensis, P. grandiflora, and others for over 10 years. I have no reason to think they may eventually die other than by gross neglect or some disaster.