FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Hey guys!

It all started when i saw an article in my country's site, and it says that you can use ice cooled tap water (after that, thawed ) as distilled or rain water! . Few photos of it
Fill a bottle with tap water and put it in the cooler.



I think this second photo shows that all the "bad" minerals and salts have went to the bottom of the bottle.


So you all probably know my question: is it safe to use water made by this method?

Thanks to all of You.
Best regards,
Donatas.

It's an interesting concept. I wouldn't risk it if it was me, but if you can find a TDS meter there's no harm in testing the defrosted water.

Boiling water removes the chlorine, which is one of the very few number of chemicals and minerals that can cause problems for carnivorous plants. If the water is boiled in a kettle the minerals and such will be evaporated, condensed and then concentrated (meaning the water is more deadly if boiled in a kettle).

It would make sense that freezing (the opposite of boiling) would have the opposite affect but I can't really say much without trying this method and testing the water; I'm also not sure about the science behind it. Hopefully someone else will have more of an idea of the potential benefits of freezing the water but I don't think it'll have the desired effect.

Well, one guy, probably the author of that article, but I'm not sure, is using this type of water for about half a year and says that his plants (VFTs etc.) "like" the water.

It does sound very interesting! I'll let someone with more experience than myself respond and see what they think =].

Thank You very much Grey! Cant wait for more replies! :}

I don't think it will work, but the only way to be sure is to get a TDS meter and test your water

Different salts have different solubilities, and solubility generally decreases with colder temperatures, so some of the salts precipitate out of the water as it gets colder. First, I guarantee that won't get all the salts out of the water, just some of certain kinds of salts. I'm not sure how much of the total salt content it removes, but if I had to guess, I'd say not very much. Also, as soon as the water melts and warms up most or all of those salts will dissolve back into the solution, unless you chip off the chunk of ice containing the precipitate.

If i had to guess, I would bet that the guy using that method had tap water that wasn't too bad to start with, and maybe this technique helped a little bit. Some places have much better or much worse tap water than others, and some places have tap water that is a low enough TDS to use on carnivorous plants directly. If you're actually getting precipitated salt just by freezing water, I'd guess your tap water is pretty high in TDS. As Dan said the only way to actually know is to buy a TDS meter

This works-sort of.
When anything crystallizes, it forces out any foreign molecules because crystals do not let foreign molecules interrupt their structure.
If you try to grow alum crystals in a red solution, the crystals will be clear, because while the alum crystallizes, it will force out the red food coloring molecules.
Ice is just crystalline water, so freezing is just crystallization of water, and therefore it forces out minerals.
Just what I know from my own experiences...........

So bananaman, you think that this could actually work and be safe to use?

As with any watering solution that's not distilled, demineralized or RO: the only way to know for sure is to test it with a TDS meter.

yea i would test it first, and if it was within the safe range, i would use it!