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Re: Hard water plant



> All this hoopla about hard water...
> 
> Can someone name a plant that won't grow well in hard
> water?
> 
> All my plants are in moderately hard water.
> 
> Arthur

Define moderately hard............
Also, prove it is due to the hard water.........
I can prove it's **not** due to the hard water but the reverse is much more
difficult.
Also, how many species have you kept over the years long term?

I have Rotala wallichii and it has done well in what would be called
moderately hard water(KH 5+ GH 9). P stellata so so. Bacopa myriophylloides
did well till the fish found out it taste good. SAE's attacked the Rotala.
These are the only plants that do not absolutely thrive in my tanks that
even harder waters (KH 8 GH 24). Some spring water I tested nearby recently
came out above 600ppm of total hardness as CaCO3.
These plants do grow, but they have not thrived. I want plants to thrive
otherwise it's unacceptable. But some plants such as rare crypts thrive
better in harder water and other plants too.

The thing is that these problems I have may very well be due to something
other than the GH/KH. They may be due to the gobs of PO4 I add. Rotala has
done extremely well in softer waters and P stellata in the tanks where the
water is soft. I do not enrich the tanks with traces and PO4. These tanks
tend to run "leaner". There may interaction between harder waters, leaner
nutrient levels etc. The best Rotala wallichii I ever grew, and it grew
fast, had lean levels. A similar thing for the P stellata which came from G
Booth and I farmed out to folks all over(most of the PS in the USA is from
him) but they are now importing it regularly. The PS grows great until I do
a water change, then stunts. I have a full range of test kits but just have
not gotten around to it yet.
Lately I suspect it's something other than GH/KH.
  
Regards, 
Tom Barr