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KyuZo · Joined: 26 Jun 2009 Posts: 8 Location: San Diego, CA

my white springtails culture just crashed and I have no idea why.
The only reason that i can think is maybe it's the water that i used.
Before i was using drinking water or distilled water, but last week I used tap water like once and when i check on them about 2 days ago, there's no one in there, not even one.

any other guess to why they all died on me?

crap, now i have to go find another culture, I was planning on spreading them throughout my tanks for maintenance purpose.

the good news is that I have another species that i am also keeping and I have them in 2 different containers. They seem to be doing pretty well.

Celeste · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 6:15 pm Post subject:

I don't know about that particular species (springtails), but yeah -- tap water is deadly...

There's always the possibility someone nearby sprayed bug spray or something, too. Or if your pets have flea drops on them and you pet them and accidentally touch your bug enclosures. There are so many possibilities it's hard to be sure.

But I don't recommend tap water for anything.
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Krawll · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:31 pm Post subject:

a1_collection · Joined: 08 Jul 2008 Posts: 294 Location: Walnut California

I use the tap all the time. Safe for my bugs.
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My karma ran over your dogma...

cacoseraph · Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 9:48 pm Post subject:

well, i am kind of split on it

i know i have lived in areas with horrid tap water (i say tap too, apparently =P) but it didn't kill of stuff. however, i can easily see things from it accumulating affects over the years that some bugs can live... so sometimes i give bottled water and sometimes tap

stuff i have read about tap water that could be a problem is that some has er, what would you call it.. like purifying agents like chlorine or bromine. the ground water that supplied the taps in my old city was contaminated by a lot of industrial waste in the 1950's and what not... it was famously bad water. gave me asthma attacks from breathing steam in shower sometimes, even! that could have all kinds of crazy stuff in it

but like i said, i didn't have any mysterious die offs and actually was pretty successful with getting ch/cb stuff... but some of the toxins could have wacky effects like screwing up molts or lowering fecundity or vitality without actually killing off stuff
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ftorres · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 1:01 am Post subject:

Hello All,
I use tap water, I let it sit for a couple days before I use it.

I also add a water conditioner.

francisco
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Pulk · Posted: Mon Jun 29, 2009 2:01 am Post subject:

I've used tap water and distilled water each for long periods of time and they've both been fine.