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Hard water plants

wolfewill

Member
Joined
19 Nov 2012
Messages
77
Location
Kanata, Ontario, Canada
I live in a city that has extremely soft tap water (total hardness is usually about 6 dH), but a friend in the country wants to set up a fully planted tank with tap water that has a total hardness of over 40 and a TDS of 440 ppm. I get the impression that the water in the UK is generally hard, and so I ask if there are any plants that he should do well with? And are there any plants he should stay away from? He wants to dose CO2 so I presume the pH can be brought down, but what should he expect? Cheers.
 
I ask if there are any plants that he should do well with?
I suggest that you inform your friend that the hardness of the water has no relevance to 99.9% of the plants available in the hobby.

And are there any plants he should stay away from?
If your friend is a beginner then advise him to stay away from plants that require high CO2, such as HC. Beginners typically struggle with correct CO2 application and that is what determines success, not how hard the water is.

Cheers,
 
Hence the seductive power of The Matrix...

I can only show you the Door Neo. You must walk through it.

Cheers,
Thanks for that, and I did 'walk through the door'...... and I'm glad I did. Thanks, ceg4048, my experience with ADA aquasoil Africana has convinced me to use it again in a 335 usg tank build I'm under taking at the moment.

But as for the hard water issue: I am going to see my buddy tonight to try to convince him to leave CO2 alone for the time being. He's a beginner and won't pay the required attention to use macros and CO2. I'm going to set him up with Fluval Stratum on an inch of Flourite red, 2 x Grobeam 600 Ultimas, micros and Metricide only. I've done a tank exactly like that and he really likes it and originally wanted to duplicate it in his home. Problem is the water hardness. It's so completely different than my experience here with very soft water that I'm concerned I won't get the right plants. So, I'll go with brown Crypts, Cryptochoryne parvula, C. retrospiralis and needle Java fern on a log. And I thought I'd try Eleocharis parvula which seems to do ok without CO2 and 2x the recommended Exel dose with Metricide.
 
Well, Excel or Metracide = CO2 essentially, so he will not really be leaving CO2 alone. The only tanks that can be left alone as far as nutrient dosing are those tanks where the tap water has a high Macro content.

So I see no guarantee that just because your friend has the same tank as you do that this will guarantee that his experience will be the same as yours or that his success will be the same. I mean, the fact that he has hard water has no bearing whatsoever on his chances of success. It's the least important factor. More important, by far, is his attention to dosing, water changes, control of the lighting and other mundane things like maintenance.

Cheers,
 
So I see no guarantee that just because your friend has the same tank as you do that this will guarantee that his experience will be the same as yours or that his success will be the same. I mean, the fact that he has hard water has no bearing whatsoever on his chances of success. It's the least important factor. More important, by far, is his attention to dosing, water changes, control of the lighting and other mundane things like maintenance.
You're right, of course. But one can only take so much responsibility for another's tank. 'You can lead a horse to water, ....' and all, but he's game, so he'll try. I'll check his water for macros - he lives near farm land and is on a well so, we'll see. Thanks C, much respect from here. Cheers.
 
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