How bad is freshwater for cps?

[Outsiders71]

Freshwater as in lake or pond water. I was wondering if anyone has tested lake/pond water to see how bad it is? Thanks.

 

[Ozzy]

It depends on the water. what is bad for cp's is mineral content. You also have to consider the ph of the water. If you send me a sample I can test it for you.

 

[jimscott]

I have tested my infamous stream before. it isn't perefctly devoid of metallic salts, but my Neps don't seem to mind. I have tried it on my mini-bog plants and the first time I did it, the D. binata leaves went limp. but it was suggested that it could have been temperature shock. I let it warm up and then the plants didn't react.

As Ozzy suggests, all water courses are different, so it just needs to be tested for metallic salts, pH, and dissolved solids.

 

[Outsiders71]

Cool. I use distilled water like most people do and know to avoid minerals. Was just wondering if there are possibly natural water sources such as lakes/ponds that people are getting there water from.

 

[jimscott]

Yeah, it really depends upon what each individual watercourse contains. It's better than nothing if you are in a drought, though.

 

[Alvin Meister]

I use my local stream in emergencies ie. now, since we haven't had any rain for about 3 weeks. I've researched my particular stream though to check it's ok - bedrock, nitrates etc.

 

[sarracenia]

i used tap water for the first time this weekend, out of the hose. i work 12 hour shifts on the weekend, so i don't have a whole lot of free time. we've had temps in the 90's with no rain for about 10 days. i got home from work on Sat. and just hosed everything down. i called the water plant a while ago to see what the TDS average is for the tap water. they said 120 ppm. i read somewhere that tap water should be no more than 100 ppm for CPs. i'm not worried about it, but we'll see.