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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #167

I wrote sent this a few days back, but didn't see it. If
this is a double post, I apologize.

Finally, today, after much efforts, I started to cut off
*GREEN* leaves! All I can say is sincerest thanks to all of
you, especially Steve Pushak, who devoted hours of his time
to privately correspond with me and who made sure I did it
right. All of you who were ever so kind to help out the
newbie... I can't say enough of how great a list this is, or
of how much collective knowledge is found on here.
        I see a few little baby plants popping up from
nowhere-
isn't it so cool? Already, I'm imagining my future 300
gal planted tank... awwwiiiieeeee! Hope I win the lottery
soon.
        I've been wondering if freezing PMDD (the stuff that
has
already been mixed) would help. would it help preserve it?
or would that be counter productive?
        I recently found out that I have too much Mg in my
pmdd;
about twice as much as recommended in the formula. Is this
bad?
        As of now, my tank (50 gal hexagon) is vacant,
except for a
few ghost shrimps.  thinking of adding a pair of discus. My
water, however, is very unfavorable for keeping soft, acidic
water fishes. pH is around 8.3 and I'm guessing that the
hardness is around 22 KH. Now, if I want to lower the pH, I
can do one of the following or a combination: 1) increase
CO2 (unlikely to be very effective because I dont want CO2
poisoning), I figured that i can get the pH to 7.34 if I
increase CO2 to 30 ppm. 2) add peat. Probably won't need to
do that because my substrate is already partly made of peat.
pH would lower over time. Only, this would mean that I can't
change the water that often. Thinking of making an automatic
water changer... so you can see my conflict. 3) use RO
water. seems to be the best choice, but a real hassle
though. changing water with a 5 gallon bottle doesn't sound
very fun. 4) not changing water at all. Please advice me
here, I have no clue as to what will result form this. 
        Hooking the RO up as the automatic water changer is
not a
option. Can't afford it, need the RO for drinking water,
parents wont let, yada, yada, yada... Any expensive options
are out of the question; my budget is in my wallet, and my
wallet is rather thin and sickly looking. :-| I've been
doing pretty good on my spending so far, (substrate <-- most
expensive!, CO2, aquarium stand, reactor, lights, gravel,
plants, heater, power head, fertilizer, etc..), ran a total
of about $100 (got tank for free). pretty good huh? Anyway,
if you can think of anyway to get a low pH at a low cost,
please let me know.
And once again, thanks to all of you- amazing I got this
far.
-RiceGuy