[APD] pH: what will plants tolerate? Do other conditions count?

[Damian Barton <daemondamian at ozemail_com.au>]

Hello APDers and happy new years to you all, hope you and your critters 
and plants
are well :O)

I just took down my 2ft planted tank. Created a styrofoam background, 
siliconed it to the inside
of the tanks. Painted a layer of mix with watercrete (a cement that can 
actually be used,
and will cure better, underwater!, supposedly can be used for repairing 
holes in ponds without
taking out the fish and sets in 5 minutes) coarse propagating sand and 
black oxide colouring
on first and then a thicker layer with a thicker mix, followed last by a 
watery mix layer.

Looks excellent particular because I have above it on the left side a 
treenfern 'slab and bits' mounted
directly sitting over the tank so the background is partially shaped 
like it and it sort of seems
like an extension of the background below. The other half has a whisper 
filter with a spathyphillum and
pothos growing out of it and there is a pump in the tank to pump water 
up to the top of
the mounted treefern to pump water to airtubing which is piped through 
the back to several
places to create weeping and tiny waterfalls (orchids, bromeliads, ferns 
and whatever else
will grow is intended for there later).


Anyway so some people might be asking what about the pH?

Well supposedly the watercrete doesn't have calcium chloride in but I 
read up about people
making live reef rock and how they have to allow the rocks to cure over 
at least 5 weeks.

I'd chucked some duckweed, rotala indica and bacopa (not sure which 
monneria or
carolinia- bad spell I know) in there freefloating.

Today a few days later most of the leaves of the bacopa had turned 
translucent brown
but more recent new off shoots were ok.

The rotala hadn't lost any thing and actually had some emergent growth.

Duckweed- well it's duckweed so you know how that was!

I checked the ph 3 days ago; pH of 10 (and that's using the Tetra pH 
test kit- the one that
gives you cancer).

Yesterday it was 9.

I've changed the water only twice and stuck in an airstone.  Apparently 
the aeration affects the
pH reading due to Co2.

Today I planted the floating bacopa and rotala.

Quite a few days ago before I had checked the pH I stupidly dunked an 
about to flower tilandsia
in there as a quick watering- that killed the flower but I realized and 
gave it several more
dunks in tapwater- it's liquid nails/ed to a tree branch sticking up 
next the whisper filter
and will survive I think.

So what else will survive?

What plants won't handle the 9 pH? I wanted to put in some hygro (rose 
variant), anubias
nana and coffefolia, java moss, java fern, crypts (wendti brown very 
hardy) and some sword plants and sagitaria.

Should I wait out the 5 weeks till the cement finishes curing and drops 
to 8 and use
diy yeast Co2 to drop it further?

The tank is located outside under the back porch. It is getting indirect 
sunlight all day and
half of it gets direct sunlight for a couple hours a day in the morning. 
Opposite it in another
tank are a whole heap of anubias coffefolia each bit with its roots in 
pots with lava rock gravel
and the corms(?) above the gravel and water up a bit higher than the corms.

I'm using orchid fertilizer- just dumping it in there and the anubias 
love it- great growth
(also have powerheads with spraybars splashing around water making it 
very humid)

There is also a sock filled with peat upon which I placed a tiny little 
crypt piece with tiny leaves
and it looks like it will continue growing emerse without losing any of 
it's submerse leaves.

So will the fact that this open top tank has direct and indirect 
sunlight help plants overcome a high pH?

Damian.

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