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Soft water plants

The Pack

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
22
Location
Welland Ont. Canada
I am trying to find some plants that will grow well, (or at least satisfactorily), in soft, slightly acidic conditions. I have a 32 gal. tank, lighted by two 30 watt Aqua-glo tubes. The GH is <20 mg/L , the KH is <10 mg/L and the pH is about 6.6.
The plants that I have in the tank at this time are Crypt. willisii , Crypt. wendtii, Hygrophila corymbosa, and some pygmy chain swords. I have fertilized the substrate, (small gravel ), by burrying small pieces of tablet of SERA florennette A, iron and mineral fertilizer near the plant root area and I do a weekly 50% water change. After 3 weeks these plants, even the Hygro, are just sitting there looking back and showing no real growth.
The non plant population is 7 juvenile Apistos., 4 small Nannostomus harrisoni, and 3 small Ancistrus sp.
Can anyone suggest something I might attempt to get the above mentioned plants to perform, or suggest some other plants that might be better suited to my conditions ?
BTW. I don't really want to be bothered with CO2 injection.
 

fishgeek

New Member
Messages
980
Location
london uk
CO2 or if not supplementing then perhaps less water changes for plants or less turbulence so not dribving any CO2 off
 

apistobob

Active Member
5 Year Member
Messages
162
Location
N.W. USA
I have great success without using co2 with:

Watersprite
Java moss
Java Fern
Anubias (several species)
several different crypts

I have had good luck in the past with wisteria.

I use fairly low light levels and only fertilize on rare occaison.

Bob
 

farm41

New Member
5 Year Member
Messages
1,191
Location
monroe, or
How long have the plants been in the tank? How long has the tank beem setup? All plants may need some acclimation time, if just added to the tank.

Crypts are slow growers no matter what you do, so just sit back and wait they will grow.
 
C

Clone

Guest
I would stay away from stem plants. I recommend cryps, java fern and moss. There are a number of variations of java fern and there is at least a half dozen moss species available (x-mass and willow moss are my favorites).

From the plant health point of view there is no need to perform 50% water changes.
 

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