Although I put a ultrasonic mister in the tank - I have a feeling I'm still going to do spray bottle misting. With my bug tanks I found that the misting ended up leaving crusty spots on the glass, which I do not want in my new PDF tank.
How do you prevent this? I'm going to mist with bottled spring water, and I believe I used standard tap water for the bug tank.
Any suggestions? TIA!
Tap water contain minerals which leave deposits on the glass, I'm not sure if spring has the same effect. the way around this is to use R/O reversed osmosi water. you can buy this at most good aqurium stores.
you can also use distilled H2O. It's a litlle cheaper and doesn't leave the spots like tap water. RO is best though but $$$.
It's what I use in the water fall area and in my misters most of the time.
I still like to use aged tap every now and again. Personally, I feel like I'm depriving my plants of something if i use it exsclusivley. That's just me. I have no facts to back it up.
Peace.
E
No, tap water (once you remove the chlorine) has lots of trace minerals that are good for plants. Distilled water (as far as I know) doesn't have these minerals, so its not as beneficial to plants. Spring water, I believe, is chlorine free, but still has the trace minerals. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong!)
i'm not sure about the minerals being good for plants. but your question was about staining the glass which is why we both suggested either R/O or distilled I prefer R/O but I still use agaed tap water.
you can only get 'pure' water under labratory conditions. RO and distilled will 'pick up' whatever they need from dead bugs, poop, decayong plants, and traces of vitamin powder. in fact keeping the vitamin powder away from the plants' water is a bigger concern for me, lest the calcium buildup render the water too hard and basic. rain water has relatively very little dissolved content, but plants and frogs love it (in an unpolluted state). and RO units can be purchased cheaply and pay for themselves in no time.
I'm constructing a Frog room and will be installing an RO system. I can set the RO supply from my softened water source - easiest install since the source is in the same location - OR - I can run unsoftened (before the softener) but that will take a little maneuvering to get that source to the RO system. Painful fishing through wall.
Does anyone have any worries about softened water for the frogs and plants?
Also, I know there is a debate re: RO water with the frogs...I've seen setups that use RO and there are no issues.