Re: [RML] Rainbows and plants in hard water

chris drew (drews at webgate.net)
Mon, 05 May 97 11:38:11 PDT

Hi Stephen - I'm no plant expert but I keep werneri in water of similar hardness but my ph is considerably lower at 7.4 ish. However if you are going to add a co2 injector this will necessarily lower that high ph of yours. some of the more plant wise peop

le can confirm this but with your co2 system you should be able to closely regulate your ph.Remember though that with the addition of co2 you are going to have to provide enough light for the plants to be able to utilize all that fertilizer.

Bows are pretty adaptable but I think you'd be better off bringing the ph down to at least the mid 7 range. I think the plants would benefit more than even the fish. Nearly all the varieties of rainbows I've kept have done well in my water.

As for plants I manage to grow the following species with relative ease: Valisneria - just about any variety; Java fern; amazon swords; anubias; rotala indica; hygrophila polysperma and even some varieties of crypts. But since fish still remain the prior

ity in all my tanks I'm sure the plants do not do nearly as well as they could.

Chris

drews at webgate.net