Plants for higher PH?

[dirtydawg10]

I was thinking of getting my first live plant for my 10gal. tank and was wondering if you had any suggestions for a good hardy plant that is not too hard to maintain. I understand about the lighting and fertilizing, but my LFS (who has tons of plants) says certain plants do not do well in hard water. I think she suggested an anubius? I'm not quite sure if that is the name or not. My PH is about 7.5-7.6. Any advice would be great.

[plantbrain]

Most lakes and ponds that have high % area cover from plants go through 2-3 full pH units every day...............
It has nothing to do with pH and everything to do with CO2.
Plants are found in pH's from 5 to 10, and that is in the same pond even(depending on time of day).
So the pH is relevant only terms of when you are discussing the measurement is taken.

Most fully planted ponds go from about 6 to 8 pH daily.
pH is merely part of the mesurement to determine CO2 (along with KH) at a given time of day, not a goal an aquarist should shoot for in and of itself.

So you might ask this question: Do I want a fully planted tank and do I want fast growth and use CO2 or not, most really like the CO2. See DIY CO2 since you have a 10 gal.






Regards,
Tom Barr

[dirtydawg10]

The DIY C02 doesn't sound very difficult to make, so I would probably go that route. What is fully planted for a 10Gal. tank? 2-3 plants? Is an anubius a good starter? I also see a lot of talk about java moss. Just trying to get some ideas.

[LimnoMan]

Some plants do seem to do better in hard alkaline water. Since most of the CO2 in harder water shifts towards bicarbonate it is good to get plants that can use bicarbonate in place of CO2, a great hardwater plant to use is Valisneria. It is a common plant, can use bicarbonate, is hardy, and will propagate fairly quickly. But you will find that a lot of plants will do just fine in hard water even if the literature says it needs a certain range like PH6.2-.6.8 etc... Your Ph though doesn't look that high, my water comes out of the tap a t between 8.4-8.8 and very alkaline and most plants will do just fine(my aquariums PH tend to be around 8.0).

[plantbrain]

The DIY C02 doesn't sound very difficult to make, so I would probably go that route. What is fully planted for a 10Gal. tank? 2-3 plants? Is an anubius a good starter? I also see a lot of talk about java moss. Just trying to get some ideas.

Generally I call a tank planted when 50% or more of the substrate is planted, covered.

Small tanks like a 10 gal are great to experiment with and try things out on.
DIY would definitely be appropreiate.

I would suggest looking up various DIY CO2 sites and reviewing the ins and outs.

I designed the best internal CO2 reactor for the DIY method and it cost roughly 2-3$ to make and takes 15 minutes once you have the supplies to make. A small powerhead, say a Rio 90 works nicely to run it and cost about 10$ on the mail order sites.

Simply make the device, plug in the CO2 into the input, and plug the powerhead into the timer.

You will need only a relatively small amount of CO2 production to run the tank.

I'd suggest adding as many plants as possible right from the start.
Use cheapy plants till the others you want fill in.

Moss stones are easy to make and work well.

The other option, is to use SeaChem's Excel, some folks fine this easier than DIY CO2.

It cost $ and is less effective than CO2 but also is good for retarding algae a bit more than DIY CO2.

It has no significant impact on pH.

You might consider lots of Java fern and moss and tie this to branchy pieces of driftwood and place the Anubias down low on the braches to hide where they come together with the gravel.

This looks good, is easy to care for and only needs a 15 w to 2x 15w lights + Excel or CO2 to grow very nicely.

Regards,
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com