Planning a planted tank - will my fish be ok?

momar

momar

Born too late
Jan 6, 2006
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I am planning to make my 96l and 60l tanks into full-blown 'planted tanks'. ATM they're lightly to medium planted due to the fact that the only plants left are ones that haven't died. I think this is due to water hardness and pH - the hardness is 20dh and pH = 8+, and as I understand most plants like soft water.

So, my question is how can I soften the water without harming the fish and without spending loads of cash on an RO system? All the fish in the tanks will cope with soft water (neons, harlequins, kribs etc) but have been doing well at 20dh for prob about 3 months (before it was 10dh because I used boiled water, but the pH was still high), but I'm nervous about changing the water chemistry - I posted a while back about whether I should soften the water anyway, and was given the advice that if it ain't broke, don't fix it, which made good sense. As such I've kept stuff as it is, but having done some research the whole planted tank thing seems really cool.

I've read about adding peat to the filter, but then that causes changes in water chemistry at each water change, which was what happened when I used a 'softening pillow', which ended up killing my blue rams. So I don't want to repeat that again.

If I go back to using boiled water gradually, will this help? Presumably the CO2 will make the water more acidic when I install it?

Also the 60l has a UGF and I'm about to add a power filter. Should I take out the UGF if I want the tank to be well planted?

Thanks for any help you can give me,
momar
 
See the nicest thing about the full blown planted tank is that the use of CO2 lowers your ph, while also helping your plants to flourish. You have to use ferts and good lights along with the co2, but my hard water here has worked very well with plants along with my co2, ferts, and light.
 
Hmmmm....how can you be sure that it's the water hardness/PH that is killing your plants? I've never had problems growing aquarium plants in my water, which is around PH 8.

Can you post how many watts of light you've got over your tank, and what species of plants you've got (or had) going in the tanks?
 
also what kind of substrate are you using and are there any kinds of fertilizers that you use?
 
I have 2 amazon swords which are doing ok (I had one before which died), some cabomba which grew really well at first but is now rather straggly, a dwarf crypt which has stayed the same size for about 6months, a larger crypt which seems fine, hornwort which is fine, and loads of what I think is hygrophila. This seems to be the most successful plant I have - I originally got it about 3 years ago for my old goldfish tank; it now forms the majority of the plantlife in all 4 of my tanks because most other things seem to die. previously i have had all sorts of plants, although some of them I later discovered were houseplants sold as aquatic plants, which explains why they disintegrated. I had some red rotala which did well for 2 months or so then died.

I have tried adding Tetra Crypto fertiliser tabs but this doesn't seem to have done much. i don't know what the wattage is for my lamps, but I'll be replacing them very soon. the substrate is plain 3mm gravel. Could it be lack of nitrates? My 96l is a Juwel tank with a nitrate removal sponge.

Thanks for the help,
momar
 
T8 as far as I know. I think the one on the 96l is 18w, with a reflector.
 
I set up a peat barrel for that purpose. I got a 37-gallon food-safe barrel (trash-can like) with a lid, and put about 8 inches of peat on the bottom, and filled it with water to soak. After the peat sinks ( it can take a while ) it wil soften and acidify the water.

You can use this water to do changes, and/or mix it with your regular water. This gives you a lot more control over what goes on, without the PH spikes when you do a water change.
 
momar, I think your problem is a lack of light. 18 watts over a 96L/25g tank is only about .75 watts per gallon--that's barely enough to grow java moss, let alone Cabomba!!! (which, by the way, needs over 4 watts per gallon of lighting).
 
Uhhh ....
Yeah you know a lack of nitrates is an awful thing for plants!
Get rid of that nitrate remover because you are starving the greenery!

Plants LOVE nitrate and its one of the three essentials to plant life. You should be adding it not removing it.

I keep reading that the soft waters and ph are more a myth than anything when regards to most (not all but most) plants. I don't know weither it's true or not though.

If you are adding co2 you'd better be prepared to start dosing macros and micros regularly because co2 will suck your nutrients dry and you'll run into all kinds of problems

Plants provide all the chemical filtration you'll ever need so don't worry about carbon or things like that. They only hinder a plants growth.

Those tabs are not going to help. It's my opinion that most plants get nutrients from the water medium so if you dose right you don't need the hassle of tabs. Mix an absorbant (flouramax, ecocomplete, terralit, laterite, etc etc etc) into your gravel if its inert.
 
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