Is it safe to add plants?

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blankenship

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Sep 27, 2004
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I've been cycling my tank for almost 5 weeks. Everything was going fine, and then I had a problem. KH and PH dropped drastically. I think I stabalized KH and PH with some baking soda. There readings are 3.9 for KH and 7.5 for PH. Its a fishless cycle, but I would like to start adding some live plants to the tank.

So my questions is, if KH/PH crash were to happen again would the plants be killed or hurt? I don't want to spend the money on plants, put all the effort in to planting them, and then have everything die because my tank is unstable.

Thanks.
 
in my experience, plants are very hardy in differing KH/PH and all the other water parameters.

Give them plenty of light and co2 and they'll survive.
Even without any light or co2 i've seen plants live for months just off the ambient light in a room.
 
I have the light, and I've made some DIY CO2 (hopefully it works). So I guess I'll go ahead and get my plants. Thanks.
 
Agree with the above. Just don't add any fish until you've got a good handle on kH.
After a couple of weeks of a min. of 3.5°hardness, fish will be OK if added.
You don't want to go above 30ppm/CO2 with fish in the tank. For plants CO2ppm is immaterial. They can handle as much as you can throw at them.

Len
 
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