Tap water sensitivity
Brown leaf tips and small spots on a prayer plant watered with the tap usually mean it's reacting to fluoride, chlorine, or hard-water minerals.
Diagnosis
Tap water sensitivity
What's happening
Maranta is unusually sensitive to the fluoride, chlorine, and dissolved salts in many municipal tap waters. Those compounds accumulate in the thin leaf tissue and scorch it from the edges inward, leaving brown tips and small dead spots that no amount of humidity will reverse on the affected leaves.
How to fix it
Switch to filtered, distilled, or rainwater, or let tap water sit out uncovered overnight so the chlorine can off-gas before you use it. Flush the pot occasionally by running plenty of clean water through the soil to wash out built-up salts, and water with the gentler source from now on. The damaged leaves won't recover, so trim badly browned tips for a tidier look while healthy new growth comes in.
What fixes it
- A long-spout watering can — Keep a dedicated can of filtered or sat-out water ready so the plant never gets a fresh dose of fluoride or chlorine.
If that doesn't fix it
This is general guidance based on common symptoms; individual plants vary.
Read the full Red Prayer Plant care guide →
Reviewed June 2026 · how we check this