RO compatiable plants

[cootwarm]

Hi,

I keep seeing mentions that plants don't do well in RO water. Too soft or something like that. Are there some plants that are more tolerable than others.

Some of the plants I currently have are; java moss, java fern, amazon sword, corkscrew val., foxtail, and anacharis. Will I have trouble with any of these when I start using RO water?

I read in Romers Atlas that some apistos that like very soft acidy water also live in dense vegetation. What kinds of plants are part of these natural habitats?

Thanks,
Michael

 

[tjudy]

My anubias and bolbitus love RO water. So did the last tiger lotus plants I had. My watersprite did very well too, and zosterfolia. So did the aponogetons I had.

Not pure RO, but that is rarely what we use anyway. I was maintaining 6.0 pH and less than 50 mS.

If you are keeping crypts, drop the hardness and pH very slowly. They are susceptible to 'shock', but most should like the softer water is the long run.

 

[aspen]

i don't know of any amazonian plants which won't actually do better in softer water of lower ph than in harder water. most aquarium plants uptake minerals around ph 6.5 as an ultimate target, but will grow in parms all over the map. apistos come from most of the amazonian habitats and are found all over south america, but if you want to do some reading, here's a good link about the amazon habitats:

http://www.amazonian-fish.co.uk/indexbuy.html

to research the hardness etc of the plants you already have, try the tropica database:

http://www.tropica.com

try and match as many of the suggested water parms that you can when selecting and matching plants for a tank esp light requirements, degree of difficulty and whether or not co2 is a necessity.

hth, rick

 

[cootwarm]

Thanks guys. Great site, that tropica.com. Just the kind of info I needed.

Michael

 

[ddaquaria]

With RO water, one of the primary details is to watch your KH. If the KH (carbonate hardness) goes below 2 or 3 then you may be in for some trouble. (ie Ph crashing)

There are several ways to increase the KH:
1. Get RO right from the LFS and dose as needed
2. Using baking soda and dose as needed (be careful with this stuff though)
3. Put crushed gravel, dolomite, or some type of lime stone in a filter bag and place it in your filter
4. etc...

Personally I do step 3 in a hang on the back filter for a few days. This is a filter that is only used for water throughput through the coral (and not for actual filtering). You can also place the coral in a filter bag and put it in a cannister filter.

Sometimes you can tell before testing that the KH is low by the slowdown of growth in the tank (i've noticed this especially in swords).

 

[2la]

There are several ways to increase the KH:
1. Get RO right from the LFS and dose as needed

I think perhaps you meant Kent pH Stable. R/O Right adds only to general hardness, not carbonate hardness.

 

[ddaquaria]

Thanks 2la